I have changed today’s sub-topic to “found out!” Indulge your imagination with me a little bit. Jonah had thought he could hide from God. He even went and lay down in deep sleep while everyone else watched the gathering storm. Was he trying to shut out the small still voice in his conscience? Did he think no one would know what he had just done? Deuteronomy 32: 23 says, “Be sure that your sins will find you out”.
Not only did God prod his conscience, the sailors also found him out when they cast lots. And in typical human fashion they laid the blame squarely on him. I can imagine the captain squarely delivering a kick at his shin, “You fool, what have you done!” Smarting with pain, he confessed in full detail why he was running away from God. As they listened to the account of the threatened destruction of Nineveh and looked at the frothing sea, their emotions must have shifted from anger at Jonah to wide-eyed dread of this all powerful God. And there in lay their dilemma as well: if they threw Jonah into the sea as he advised, what guarantee did they have that his God would not destroy them? So they tried to row the ship back to the shore, but it wouldn’t do. The only option left to them was to toss him into the sea.
Are there some people you are afraid to witness to because they look and talk tough? Note how in the face of death each of the hardened sailors (and sailors have the reputation of the coarsest language and worst mannerisms too) called onto his god. When trouble happens, it’s interesting to note the haste, the penitence and raw faith with which unbelievers turn to God expecting immediate relief from their crisis. If we are sensitive enough when the Holy Spirit guides us to such people, he can use us to bring them to salvation.
Some of the people that you think are too tough to reach with the gospel have a very soft heart. As I write this I’m reminded of a man that was in our lives as we were growing up. He was this rough, tough talking mean cowboy type of a guy. He intimidated everyone around him. One night he had a terrible physical fight with his older brother who was visiting from the city. He had never fought with his brother before and never fought with him like that again, not to our knowledge anyway. But in my mind, that night created a most irreconcilable image of the man. I saw the big village bully completely humiliated, reduced to bawling out loud like a child. Somewhere in there was a helpless heart that could be hurt after all.
Everybody has a soft spot that brings them within reach of the gospel of Christ. A crisis of life reveals this soft spot, what St. Augustine called the ‘God-shaped vacuum’ that keeps us restless until we find our rest in God. Some people’s soft spot is revealed when something happens to their means of making a living. Some people’s vulnerability becomes obvious when they experience rejection from someone they deeply care about. Such are opportune moments to preach the gospel to them. Usually if there is no one to reach out with love they sink into a deeper vacuum, engaging in escapist behavior such as alcohol or illicit relationships. This is why if you know someone who is in some sort of crisis, you should lovingly reach out to them and lead them to the rock that is higher than them, certainly higher than you—to Christ.
Do you know someone that is currently in a storm? Take them to Jesus. If you cannot share the gospel with them, pray for them and try to take them to church.
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