Go!

Jonah 3:1-2

“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Go to Nineveh the great city and declare to it the message which I am going to tell you.”

Before cell phones and the internet, people used to give out directions. Take Highway 88 for 15 miles and turn left at the old church kind of directions. Most of us had a paper map of the state you lived in and if you were visiting a new place you could pick up a new paper map or a book of detailed maps at any convivence store. I love my sisters but both of them could not give good directions. “Go till’ you see a big oak tree and turn left at the little boutique that sells those precious ear rings I love.” I would look back and laugh. The bottom line is that you had to trust the person giving the directions because there was no google maps to make sure he or she was making any sense.

Jonah was washed up on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean sea after being swallowed by a huge fish. Coarse corrected and ready to do the work of the Lord, he heard a word from the Lord a second time, go to Nineveh and declare the message which I will give you. Wait! Jonah only got the order to go and when he gets there he will get the message? It sounds like an escape room kind of thing were you have to find the clue that leads to the other clue and so on. After being swallowed by a huge fish, I bet Jonah was all in with only the word “Go”. Verse 3 says that Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Jonah got the message and began to preach and the whole city turned to follow God. I love what the king said in his proclamation, “Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

We all would like to have the plans drawn out for us. The steps of the journey are ordered so that we are not caught off guard. Jonah only heard the word go, and he went. It took him a second time but he obeyed the Lord. You don’t have to dive into the Bible every day to understand that the Lord is calling you. If you have been exposed to the Bible and go to church then the Spirit of the Lord is calling you. God spoke to Jonah in the belly of fish so we can say that it does not matter where you are, the Lord can still speak to you. And the word you will hear might not be a 20 minute set of laid out plans but a still small voice with a short word like “go”. Pastor Joes tells his story that he was sitting in a deer blind and he heard the Lord tell him that today would be greatest day of your life. That day his father passed away and it was the launching pad for his time in ministry. Whether you are in a deer blind or fishing, the Lord can speak to you and when He does it may not be the detailed set of plans you want, but rather a word or marching orders like go to Nineveh and when you get there I will download the plans. How many times has the Lord called us and we just ignored Him or ran away? Today, pray and ask the Lord to open your heart and mind to the plans that He has for you and for Him to give you the courage to follow the Lord. I had to trust the person giving me directions and the next step was to get in my truck and start following them. God does not use google maps to plan your journey. We walk by faith and not by sight.