Many cultures thrive on foods that ferment for months or sometimes years. For foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir, even a great wine or fine cheese, time is a critical factor. The tastiest, and many times most beneficial for our health take TIME. And those who have learned to appreciate it are blessed.
These days it has become conventional wisdom to comment on (or complain about) our culture of instant gratification. Yet in this deteriorating world situation the question, "How long O Lord?" is becoming more understandable each passing day. The biblical prophet Habakkuk issued a deeply resonant heart-cry:
“O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you 'Violence!' and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted. ” [Hab.1:2-4]
God's timing was the prophet's complaint...."Too long, LORD!" In his day, the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel had already taken place. And in just a few short years the Babylonian invasion and the destruction of the Temple would follow. Yet witnessing the wickedness of his own people in their generation Habbakuk agonizes, “How long O Lord? Evil abounds! Where is your righteous judgment?"
Here is God’s response to Habbakuk... and I love this: “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” [Hab. 1:5]
"Joseph was sold as a slave. They afflicted his feet with fetters, he himself was laid in irons, until the time of his word came to pass"; [Ps. 105:18-19]. And, "The end of a matter is better than its beginning. Patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit; [Ecclesiastes 7:8]. He has made everything beautiful in its time"; [Ecclesiastes 3:11].
Yes, things look bleak. Yes, evil is rampant. But God is doing a work. He is not surprised by what is happening. He is not panicking or trying to figure out what to do next. He has had a purpose and plan and has been preparing it from the beginning of time. And in the end, it will be perfection.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Jonah now acknowledges that God put him where he is, and he accepts His discipline. “Sheol” is the “grave”, the “pit” or the “abode of the dead”. Did Jonah die, or was he only nearly dead from three days of fish stomach acid, and little or no air? The text doesn’t say; only that if he didn’t actually leave his body, he came as close as a man can get to it; three days worth. In this nebulous and miserable place Jonah cried out, probably from the deepest depths of his agonized soul…he cried out to the Lord.
While most read the story of Jonah focusing on Jonah’s journey, I want to pause and examine the lives of the pagan sailors. What a journey they were on! We see the hand of God touching them providentially through Jonah’s disobedience. Talk about God bringing good from evil.
So the captain came to Jonah, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.” At this point the captain (who probably worshiped Baal and Yamm, god of the sea) has more faith than Jonah.
It must have been a bad storm. These men were experienced, hardened sailors who had seen it all at sea. If they were scared, this could have been the first “perfect storm” since Noah’s flood. So they started the first interfaith prayer meeting in the Bible, each man crying out to his own god. As the ship groaned and creaked in howling wind and massive waves, and the men threw cargo overboard in a desperate attempt to save it, where was Jonah? On deck helping them? Confidently praying to His own God? Shaking with fear and paralyzed with deep conviction? No, he’s taking a nap down below…
For the next week or so we’ll be looking closely at the life of Jonah the prophet. Jonah was told to “preach against the city of Nineveh”, that was in the ancient kingdom of Assyria. Nineveh was a major city on the banks of the Tigris River about 500 miles north and east of where Jonah was; located on a contemporary map in modern Iraq, about 300 miles north of Baghdad. Archaeologists have found the ruins of ancient Nineveh right outside the Iraqi city of Mosul. Yes, the same Mosul that was taken last week by jihadists!
So Jonah goes and begins to preach in this pagan city. His message is very simple. “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown”(v. 4). That’s it. That was his whole message. It’s eight words in English; only 4 words in Hebrew.
Abraham was sitting in front of his tent on the plains of Mamre, when the LORD (Yehovah — Yud Hay Vav Hay) came to him and declared the fulfillment of a promise He had made to him many years before, saying that through Abraham’s seed the world would be blessed! (Genesis 12:7; 13:15-16, 15:18, 17:7-9)