{"id":4334,"date":"2009-05-25T16:04:53","date_gmt":"2009-05-25T20:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/200\/?p=11"},"modified":"2009-05-25T16:04:53","modified_gmt":"2009-05-25T20:04:53","slug":"jonah-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/2009\/05\/25\/jonah-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonah 1:3"},"content":{"rendered":"

“But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of
\n the Lord, and went down to Joppa.”
\n — Jonah 1:3<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Instead of going to Nineveh to preach the Word, as God bade him, Jonah
\ndisliked the work, and went down to Joppa to escape from it. There are
\noccasions when God’s servants shrink from duty. But what is the
\nconsequence? What did Jonah lose by his conduct? He lost the presence
\nand comfortable enjoyment of God’s love. When we serve our Lord Jesus
\nas believers should do, our God is with us; and though we have the
\nwhole world against us, if we have God with us, what does it matter?
\nBut the moment we start back, and seek our own inventions, we are at
\nsea without a pilot. Then may we bitterly lament and groan out, “O my
\nGod, where hast thou gone? How could I have been so foolish as to shun
\nthy service, and in this way to lose all the bright shinings of thy
\nface? This is a price too high. Let me return to my allegiance, that I
\nmay rejoice in thy presence.” In the next place, Jonah lost all peace
\nof mind. Sin soon destroys a believer’s comfort. It is the poisonous
\nupas tree, from whose leaves distil deadly drops which destroy the life
\nof joy and peace. Jonah lost everything upon which he might have drawn
\nfor comfort in any other case. He could not plead the promise of divine
\nprotection, for he was not in God’s ways; he could not say, “Lord, I
\nmeet with these difficulties in the discharge of my duty, therefore
\nhelp me through them.” He was reaping his own deeds; he was filled with
\nhis own ways. Christian, do not play the Jonah, unless you wish to have
\nall the waves and the billows rolling over your head. You will find in
\nthe long run that it is far harder to shun the work and will of God
\nthan to at once yield yourself to it. Jonah lost his time, for he had
\nto go to Nineveh after all. It is hard to contend with God; let us
\nyield ourselves at once.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa.” — Jonah 1:3 Instead of going to Nineveh to preach the Word, as God bade him, Jonah disliked the work, and went down to Joppa to escape from it. There are occasions when God’s servants shrink…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}