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 Jonah
sought vainly to flee from the presence of the Lord, apparently
to avoid his assigned obligation to preach to the wicked people
of Nineveh. When finally he began his work, he warned, "Yet
forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown" (Jonah 3:4).
He was a prophet of doom — and must have been very convincing
— for they "believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and
put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of
them." There is a valid place for warnings, severe and to
the point.
But
Jonah seemed more concerned about his status as a prophet of
doom, than he did about the welfare of those he warned. When
"God saw their works, that they turned from their evil
way" he "repented of the evil which he said he would
do unto them; and he did it not" (3:5, 10). And this
displeased Jonah! (4:1-f) He seemed to have lost sight of the
purpose in warnings — to save rather than to revel in human
misery; to pull from the fire rather than to warm his hands with
the heat.
We
have bigger and better tornadoes in TEXAS; albeit some otherwise
brave Texans cringe at the thought. One muscled hulk of a man
(with a beard so thick his wife has to kiss him through a straw)
cries like a baby
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when it thunders — (well, that's the way
"they" tell it on him). And one good story leads to
another.
"They
say" he built himself a concrete and steel cellar; and
practically lived in it. Every time a little cloud blew in he
would run to his underground shelter, sit in the dark, fearfully
contemplating the supposed destruction above, then finally
emerge to find all safe and sound, refreshed by the lovely rain
shower.
Until
that day when he pushed back his cellar door and stepped out
into a changed world. His house was nowhere to be seen; his
barns and sheds were but scattered wreckage; trees were
splintered and pulled from the ground; his cattle were all dead.
He looked long and hard, he sighed heavily, and then he said,
"Now, that's more like it!!"
Lord,
if we must hear the crackle of Hell's fire in order to see and
correct our waywardness and escape its heat, so be it. But
deliver us from the doomsday "prophets" who use our
fears to sell their wares. Help us to "cast out fear"
and anchor our soul in the Haven of Rest.
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