I Am Jonah
The directive was simple. “Go into the land and preach repentance.” Simple right? Go where you’re told to go and tell the people to stop their foolish ways and follow God. You’ve probably guessed by now that I’m talking about our good friend, Jonah, from the Bible and BEFORE you stop reading and dismiss the rest of this text, BEFORE you say, “I’ve heard this story a million times from vacation Bible school,” I entreat you to keep reading. Here’s why: We tend to oversimplify Jonah and his journey. Many of us look at his story and roll our eyes with indignation that God gave Jonah such a simple task and Jonah chose not to obey. Surely he deserved that punishment of enduring the belly of a fish, we think to ourselves. We look at Jonah and think, how dare he NOT go preach and do what God asked of him. We say to ourselves, I would have done what God said in a heartbeat. But would you? Jonah’s command from God was to go and preach repentance. What was the last thi