The God Who Calls - Jonah 1:1-3a

You're listening to the Christ Our Cornerstone

podcast, a ministry of Christ Our Cornerstone

Church in O 'Neill, Nebraska. I'm Pastor Logan

Merrick, and it's our prayer that this message

strengthens your faith and draws you closer to

Christ. Let's dive in. All right. With that being

said, let's dive into Jonah. Jonah is a short

book. Even those who aren't familiar with the

scriptures would say, Know what Jonah's about.

It's the impossible tale of a whale eating a

man You know all that good stuff was it a whale?

Don't know maybe Could have been I actually think

if with God making everything and everything

obeying him He can make a sea monster For the

moment for Jonah does that make sense so? Gosh

darn it, I said does that make sense? My family

has been making fun of me all week about that.

I figure out something else now. But I truly

think that if it wasn't a whale, there's no impossibility

to it. But what you need to know is that Jesus

quotes Jonah because his life foreshadows Jonah.

But he's a better Jonah. Because Jonah looks

a lot like me and you. And we're going to get

into that in just a second, but what is Jonah

about tell me? Don't get quiet you guys know

you know what Jonah's about yes, sir He lied

Yeah, good job you got Eden by a whale because

he didn't go where he was supposed to go. What

else do we know about it? That's exactly right.

Who is the central character of the book of Jonah?

Right. So who's the central character? Who's

it about? God. Here's why I say that. Some people

would say it's about a fish. Well fish, the word

fish only is four times and used only four times

in the short book. The Ninevites are that great

city or Nineveh only nine times. Jonah the prophet

is only mentioned 18 times, but God is mentioned

38 times. If you eliminate God from the story,

you have a story that makes no sense. You just

have some weird dude that goes and gets on a

boat, right, and swallowed up, and then he goes

and he's pouting, right? So it makes no sense

if you take God out of the central story. But

what Jonah is ultimately about is it talks about

the will of God and His love for the nations.

But let's start from the beginning as we set

this up. So who is Jonah? In 2 Kings 14 .25,

it tells us that Jonah ministered during the

reign of King Jeroboam II. Why is that important?

Because here's what you need to know. Jonah tells

us nothing about himself. Why? Because he was

actually really well known already. He didn't

have to explain who he was, because everyone

already knew who he was, and here's why. If you

read in 2 Kings about Jonah, it talks about him

and he ministered to the royal administration.

Now here's why that's important. Because Amos

and Hosea, other prophets, other minor prophets,

were actually very critical of the administration

of Jeroboam because they were not godly. But

not Jonah. Jonah was not that way. He would puff

up Jeroboam. Was he a prophet? Absolutely. But

here's what you need to know and here's why I

say he looks a lot like you and I. Jonah not

only supported the royal administration, But

Jonah loved the fact of how their military might

was so strong He loved their policy and Jonah

was intensely patriotic Now let me just stop

for a second before anyone would get upset or

offended Myself and others in this room have

served in the military here. I know all of us

in this room love our country There is nothing

wrong. I believe it is an absolute blessing to

live in the United States of America Okay the

problem becomes when we get we we begin to blur

the lines between Our nation is our God and our

president is our God That's called idolatry that's

not Christianity That's called nationalism not

Christianity. You follow me? So, we can very

easily, and I'm talking about myself, listen,

we know where we are going in the book of Jonah,

okay? So I'm just, I'm skipping ahead, but we're

only gonna do three verses. But I'm gonna say

this, when I see videos on Facebook of people

that are like Antifa, and a patriot punches them

in the face, I'm like, oh yeah daddy got what

he deserved I like that and when I read through

Jonah preparing for this the Lord goes tell me

about Antifa again that stings so when we walk

through Jonah you have to understand Jonah looks

so much like us because he believes he is a Jew,

he loves God, he loves the law, he loves all

things that are right, but he believes that they

are special and everyone else around them, including

their enemies, do not deserve grace. And so as

we dive into this, we've got to know that the

Lord, though Jonah is about God, It's God's heart

for the nations and those who don't look like

us. Those that don't believe like us, those that

are in the darkness and desperately need light,

God is saying, go be light, don't just hate the

darkness. So why does all this matter? Because

this is who God chooses to call to speak repentance

and grace to his biggest enemy. That's why it's

so ironic. God could have called Hosea, he could

have called Amos, he could have called anybody

else, but he calls Jonah to go and preach repentance

to his biggest enemy. People who he legitimately

hates. Does God not have a sense of humor? Pretty

funny, eh? So who is his enemy? The Ninevites.

Nineveh. Let's talk about Nineveh for a moment,

because if there was a reason to hate somebody,

it's this. So who are they? Well, they are technically

in history. This isn't Pastor Logan calling them

this. This is what historians call them. They

were one of the original terrorist states founded

by Nimrod. You guys recognize that name? Old

Testament. Did you know if you read about Nimrod,

which I've done a lot of reading about, A lot

of those who are mentioned early in Genesis,

Nimrod was considered, not just in scripture,

but we're talking about throughout all Mediterranean

history, Nimrod is known. He's considered a titan.

You guys know what a titan is? One of the great

warriors of the day. He is a half blood, meaning

he comes from a line where fallen angels procreated

with human women and created things called Nephilim.

Nephilim being giants. You can be like, alright,

Pastor Logan, you're getting into crazy stuff.

I'm just telling you the Bible covers a lot of

crazy stuff and a lot of supernatural things

that are just insane. Actually, I spoke at the

little Christian school on Wednesday and they

asked me to speak on the two bears that Elisha

tells to come out and eat the children. They're

like, well, you preach on that. And I was like,

can honestly say no one has ever asked me to

preach on that text. And so I was like, well,

it's the week of Halloween. Why not? But what

I told them was, if you think that this story

is scary, there's a lot of scary stories. And

that made me go, back when I was in elementary

school, my third grade teacher after lunch time

would always read us this book called Scary Stories

to Read in the Dark. It's a pretty famous book.

And I was like, you know what? There's a lot

of scary stories in the Bible. I'm going to write

something called Scary Stories to Read at Sunday

School, because the Bible's got some creepy,

scary stuff. But some of that, when it comes

to Nimrod, Nimrod is strong. He's known as a

hunter before God, but that is not meant to be

like he is godly. That's meant to be actually

a slam. Because who is Nimrod? Nimrod would kill

those who would think about even trying to have

other ladies in their life because Nimrod wanted

to claim all women for himself. Nimrod was a

cannibal. Nimrod did a lot of bad things, and

so therefore when he built Babylon and he built

Nineveh, Nineveh came before Babylon. So the

Ninevites, what are some of the things that they

would do? Well, they were cannibals too. But

they're also known as the Assyrians, by the way,

in this time period. This is the Assyrians. But

the Assyrians were known as the cruelest, most

violent empire of ancient times. They would burn

children alive. They would pull out the tongues

of their enemies. They forced families to hold

poles of their family members who had been decapitated

and parade them through the city. And then they

would kill them. They would cut off the legs

and one arm of their enemies and then as the

army marched by, they would high -five them.

That's kind of funny and also really sick. I

mean think about that. That takes a lot of thought.

Like their mockery was so deep. And so who were

they? They were pagan worshiping cannibals and

they hated everyone that was not them. And so

the book of Jonah shows us that God views the

Jews, he begins to judge them, and he goes, you

know what, Jonah, you so don't understand me,

and the rest of the Jews in the nation of Israel

so don't understand me, I'm actually gonna have

you go and preach repentance, and I'm going to

save the nation that you hate the most. So this

is an indictment on the Jews. But this is also

our origin story, brothers and sisters. Why do

I say that? Are we not Gentiles? This is our

origin story, the foreshadowing of Christ going

to come and preach that Gentiles are going to

be grafted in. By the way, what did God say?

What did Jesus say? What did Paul say about the

Gentiles? We would be a stumbling block, right?

You're an Assyrian. not from the demographic

standpoint, but just from a sinful standpoint.

You are a nation, and God loved you enough to

graft you in. So, let's read the text. After

all of that, Pastor Logan's finally into the

text, and we're only gonna go three verses. Actually,

we're not even gonna go all the way through verse

three. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah,

son of Amittai. Get up. Go to the great city

of Nineveh and preach against it because their

evil has come before me So Jonah got up But he

flee to Tarshish From the Lord's presence now

if you remember the verse of the week. What did

the verse of the week say you guys remember?

Can you can you pull that up for me real fast?

Yeah, where shall I go not even to she'll if

I go there where she'll the place of the dead

I can go there and you and you're there I Shared

that because Jonah knows that God is everywhere.

He's all present and yet he still in his complete

fear and his just unwillingness runs Trying to

get away from God Now real quick if you'll pull

up the map for me Dustin, please Want to show

you where Nineveh is see where Babylon is no

now Jonah is from right here where it says Gath

heifer That's where Jonah is currently and that's

where he is from So Nineveh is up here and He

gets on a boat in Joppa down here and he flees

to Tarshish The Tarshish isn't even on the map

right To him this is this is this is what's funny

about it He's going to try to flee to essentially

what we know as modern -day Spain to the Jews

at that time That was the end of the world So

he was literally willing to go Anywhere but over

there now how far is Gath heifer to Nineveh?

500 miles 500 miles imagine walking that's like

starting in Lincoln and then going to Rapid City,

walking. So when God said go, it wasn't probably

just the people, it was probably even thinking,

man, that is a trek by myself through the desert,

me and a camel. But God calls him and he goes

the opposite direction. I want you to think about

this for a second. I also, it says that great

city, Nineveh. I wanted to know how big Nineveh

was, so I went and started doing some research,

and it lays out exactly how big Nineveh was.

And I was like, because it's talking about it

in biblical terminology, so I'm like, I don't

know what that means. So I went and asked the

wonderful chat GPT, what is the equivalent, if

this is how big this is, what is the equivalent

of a US city? And it said, it came back and it

said, The equivalent of this city, because Nineveh

is in one big circle, it's a circumference, it

would be as if New York, the entire state of

New York, half of Connecticut and half of New

Jersey were one city. That's how big Nineveh

was. Now, think about this. Jonah is going to

not only go there and we know how wicked they

were, How welcome do you think it would be for

a rabbi in 1941 to go preaching to the Nazis

to repent on the streets of Germany? Think that's

welcomed? That's the equivalent of what he's

going through. So now you kind of see when God

spoke, he's like, no, no, you obviously missed

that. So. With all of the context that we have

that's all been set up now. Let's get to the

first point The first point is this God's call

transcends our boundaries and biases God's call

transcends our boundaries and biases God's mission

doesn't stop where our comfort does So many times,

I've heard people say, I would never do that.

And I always go, especially now, I always go,

brother, sister, that's hilarious. Because I

would have said, and my wife would have said,

we were just talking about this the other day,

when we first got married, and I was talking

about ministry and everything, my wife, I brought

up the idea of moving out of state and she's

like, no, we will never live anywhere but Florida.

Do you realize how cold it is in other places?

If someone would have said to us, God is going

to call you to the state of Nebraska, we would

have been like, not so fast, nope, never. And

God always laughs at that. And so what my spiritual

mentor used to always say, never say that because

God will send you there. Now I'm not going to

go that far. But I've said this before and I'm

going to say it again. There are many times where

God will call you to go somewhere and you will

refuse. Because you're like, God do you not even

know me? I'm not going to do that. That sounds

awful. And the funny thing is, is God does know

you and He knows you so well that He's like,

you have no idea how much you're going to like

it. You have no idea how much you're going to

enjoy it. And then other times, there's going

to be things just like Jonah where you still

should go. You're going to hate every second

of it, but it's for your own good. When I decided

to go into the military to be a chaplain, I remember

after the third night, I called my wife in boot

camp and I said, I've made the biggest mistake

of my life. This is awful. Do you realize how

early they make me get up and move my body around?

I'm like, and why does every meal come with gravy?

I'm Southern and every meal should have some

gravy, but not breakfast, not brown gravy, white

sausage gravy maybe, but not brown gravy. Can

somebody tell me, by the way, why does every

meal come with gravy in the military? It's ridiculous.

Yeah, yeah, to hide the fact that everything

else tastes terrible. But I'm like, this is terrible.

And my wife goes, calm down. You sound, you sound

crazy. Calm down. You need to go to sleep, and

you need to realize, and this was so crucial

to me, she goes, this isn't forever. It's just

a season and God obviously has something for

you So stick it out be a man and go to bed And

that's what I did and I and and I made it through

ended up having a fantastic time After that when

I stopped having a bad attitude and decided you

know what there's a whole lot of stuff going

on around me I need to just accept this experience

and just go do it and end up having a great time.

But in the moment, I was like, no sir, no sir.

And so, again, his mission does not stop where

our comfort does. So if God calls you, let's

just say right now, like we were just in a meeting

with the missions committee, and they were talking

about doing an international missions trip at

some point. God's gonna tell some of you to go

and your initial reaction is gonna be, I didn't

hear that right. I'm not doing a squatty potty.

If we're gonna go to Aruba and stay in a really

nice hotel and then I get to maybe do some stuff

in an orphanage for a day, that might be nice.

Nah. Go get uncomfortable for Jesus. Because

it's in that uncomfortableness that God does

his greatest work in you. You'll see miracles

let me just this isn't in my notes, but I want

to share this because Because my next note is

Jonah felt that this was a suicide mission with

zero chance of success One of my friends who

was my manager when I worked at a grocery store

years and years ago He was a devout Southern

Baptist man devout Southern Baptist And he's

about six foot three tall and he had the tightest

flat top in the world. You can land a helicopter

on that thing. And he had these big glasses and

he still looks that way today. And he says to

me, I show up for work one day and he's tossing

cans on a shelf and he says, you'll never guess

what I'm about to go do. And I said, what's that?

He said, I signed up, our church is doing a missions

trip to Mexico. And I said, cool, you going?

He said, yeah, but I don't want to. And I said,

why? He said, because. That just sounds terrible.

And he goes, I said, well, then why are you going?

He goes, because my daughter wants to. And he

goes, I've seen the movie Taken. Ain't nobody

taking my daughter. You guys know what Taken's

about, right? Girl gets kidnapped. And he goes,

no. He said, I'm going and protecting my daughter.

I said, how about you go and just serve people

for the Lord? And he goes, meh. I'm just making

sure my daughter is going to be safe." I said,

okay. He comes back from this trip, and he goes,

I said, how was it? He had the biggest smile

on his face, and he goes, I saw miracles. Now,

when I say he was deeply Southern Baptist, I

mean he did not believe in miracles. And I said,

what do you mean you saw miracles? He said, oh,

I'll tell you what. He said, we went into this

gymnasium with all these kids. And he said, we

were there to do some sort of thing. And he said,

you know how you can buy Starburst in the bag

and they're individually wrapped? He said he

had a fanny pack just full of Starburst for himself,

not to share. And he said that as one little

boy comes up, I hear you over there. You're like,

that's a mistake, buddy. He said that he's in

this gymnasium and he goes to pull one out and

eat it. And he said the next thing he knows,

he's like, all these kids just like are around

him. And they were just like, he goes, I don't

even know what they were saying, but he's like,

they just had their hands up. And I go, so what'd

you do? He said, man, he's like, I'm sitting

there going, I don't have enough for all these

kids. He said, because they were literally, it

was all the kids that filled up this entire gymnasium.

He said, I don't have enough. And he's like,

I'm going to feel terrible. If I don't have enough

for all these kids, and I said, and you're gonna

feel terrible because they're yours. And he was

like, that's somewhat true. But he's like, and

I said, so what'd you do? He said, I just went,

Lord, I don't know what to do, but all I'm gonna

do is just reach in and I'm gonna give one. I'm

gonna reach in and I'm gonna give one. And I

said, okay, and he goes, and I decided I'm not

gonna look in my fanny pack. I'm just gonna keep

reaching in. I said, so what happened? He said,

I kid you not. He goes, I got to the last kid

and there was one left. And I said, you were

like the whole two lobes, all that jazz, right?

And he's like, exactly. And he goes, and then

there was another time where we're on the street

and he said, I got really caught up in watching

the street performer. And he goes, and I had

no idea that the entire group had already left.

and we're in this very big city, and he says,

and I can't speak any Spanish. I had no intention

to share the gospel with anybody, so I didn't

bother trying to learn Spanish. He said, so when

I turn around, everyone's gone, and I have no

idea where anyone is. And I go, so what did you

do? He said, I went to ask this guy, like, I

was trying to explain, because I didn't know

the address, I was trying to explain where my

hotel was. And he said, and as I opened my mouth,

I began to speak in Spanish. And then he goes,

and then the guy talking back to me, speaking

in Spanish, and I understand everything he's

trying to say. He goes, I was able to get directions,

get back to our hotel, and then I could not do

any sort of Spanish and speak anymore ever again.

And I'm like, that's a miracle, buddy. Those

are miracles. He went away. going, that's not

the last trip I'll ever do. He's like, it changed

my life. And so that's what I'm saying. We can

be like Jonah and have the wrong heart and the

wrong mindset about reaching other people. And

God goes, you have no idea. This isn't just about

them. This is about you too. And I'm going to

show you some really neat things along the way.

And so why doesn't God ask Jonah if he's comfortable

with his plan? Why doesn't he ask him? Because

I've heard this before, God's a gentleman. He'll

never ask you to do something you don't want

to. Why doesn't God ask him? If that's true,

why doesn't God ask him? Jonah, are you comfortable

with going to Nineveh? I mean, I can ask somebody

else. It's totally cool if you don't want to.

Why doesn't he? Come on Yeah, and also it's right

in front of you. He doesn't care Jesus doesn't

care about your feelings. He only wants you to

be obedient Because again as is already stated.

He knows what's best Because And he doesn't care

because he wants not only to show mercy to the

Ninevites, but also he's pronouncing judgment

upon Jonah and the Jews. Point number two. God's

call doesn't need explanations. It comes with

expectations. God's call doesn't need explanations.

It comes with expectations. What do I mean by

that? God doesn't have to explain Himself or

give you all the answers. You're expected to

just trust and go. How many of you guys has God

called you to do something? And it doesn't have

to be some going on an international mission

trip. It doesn't have to be anything big and

grand. But how many times has God called you

to do something and you say, well Lord, is this

all going to work out? Have you ever done that?

Yeah, and does God say yes? No, he doesn't say

anything Because he's like it's all about trust

It's all about trust and when what did I tell

you guys a couple of weeks ago to trust? The

only way you can trust is by knowing you got

to know him to trust him He's never going to

give you the answer or the end he's only going

to tell you We're going to take small steps of

trust towards me. If you're in this room and

you don't believe in God, and you say, well,

I don't believe in God because it's just blind

leaps of faith. No, it's not. It's daily small

steps towards Jesus of just trust. It doesn't

matter how small the steps are. You just keep

gaining and looking at Him. And by the time you

turn around, you'll go, oh, my Lord, look how

far God has brought me. It's small steps of trust,

but you have to understand when you say yes to

the Lord and you say yes to his will You better

put on a seat belt Because it gets crazy I mean

I Know I joke about it, and I say this stuff

all the time But I would have never ever thought

that I would be here right now I would have never

thought that my daughter would get in the car

one day and go, Dad, look at all the cow goo

from the calf I just birthed. And I'm just like,

that's disgusting, baby, but I'm glad you enjoyed

it. He didn't ask me, he just said, trust me.

God doesn't have to explain himself or give you

all the answers you just expected to trust and

go as I said There are times when God will call

us to something that makes no logical sense,

but if he calls us we go So my question is this

There will be times when God calls you to something

Henry Blackaby talks about this in in knowing

God Have any of you guys ever read that book,

Knowing God, by Henry Blackaby? One person? Okay,

cool. We're gonna actually, I think we should

do that on a Wednesday night together. We'll

read through the book together. It is a fantastic

book on knowing the will of God for your life.

But Henry Blackaby, he passed away in the last

five years. I actually had the awesome opportunity

to meet him towards the end of his life. Just

the most amazing godly man. But he tells this

story in Knowing God where, He was pastoring

a church in California that was a pretty large

church and he's originally from Canada and one

day the Lord begins to speak to him that he's

going to call him to Canada and he was like okay

you know he's not opposed to it but they were

really happy in California and his family and

he has young kids at this time and this church

calls a mission church. What is a mission church?

It's essentially a small gathering group of people

who have no money at all, may not even have a

building, but I believe this church did have

a building. But it was less than 10 people, elderly

people, and they said, Henry, we feel like God

is calling you to come here and be our pastor.

And he's like, OK. And they said, here's the

thing, though. We have no money. We can't pay

you. We can't even pay to get you here. But we

believe God is calling us here. logically anyone

would go that's dumb that's not God you've got

little kids to think about what are you going

to do about insurance how are you going to support

yourself right all natural things those are good

questions but God had already spoke to Henry

and then he gets a call so he just says okay

Lord he said they pull in to the church He said,

we don't even have any idea where we're going

to sleep that night. We don't have any idea of

anything. And he said, I don't even know how

this association even knows I'm in town because

nobody knew. He said, but I get a call from an

association that said, at the church, right as

they're pulling up, and they say, Henry, we have

a church in Texas that wants to give to our association.

We just heard that you're in town, that you're

going to pastor this church. They want to pay

your salary for the next five years. And just

crazy things like that continue to just like

happen to Henry all the way through. And now

it's not when you read Knowing God, there's other

things that come up that don't exactly work out.

But Henry's whole thing is he's never going to

give you the end. He's only going to just say,

be present with me and trust. So my my question

to you is this if God calls and when he calls

because he will Are you gonna say yes? No matter

what it looks like point number three This is

where I'm gonna kind of camp out for just a moment

Point number three is this God God's call exposes

our rebellion and our religious hypocrisy God's

call exposes our rebellion and our religious

hypocrisy now. What do I mean by that? So if

we go back to our text that says that Jonah heard

him and went the opposite direction When you

know the story of Jonah, we're getting a little

ahead of ourselves. We see Jonah be both ways

He full -on rejects God in rebellion just says

nope. I want nothing to do with it and then later

on in the story We see his religious hypocrisy

play out And so like Jonah We can run from God

And so as I said, the first way we run from God

is simply by rejecting God completely. I want

nothing to do with you. You can be in this room

and be somebody who just has completely rejected

God fully, and God still is calling out to you

to come home. But that's completely rejecting

and living in rebellion. But then, there's many

of us in this room that are the other way. We

use works and religion to keep God at a distance

and ultimately be like, oh no God, you owe me,

I don't owe you anything. Does that sound like

a classic story that plays out in the New Testament?

Where do we see two people, two brothers to be

exact, where one completely rejects and the other

one gets angry? The prodigal son. So in Luke

15, we see the two sons, the younger brother

tries to escape his father's control by getting

his inheritance and leaving and rejecting his

father and living however he wants, right? And

then we have the older brother who stays and

he works for his father and he does all the things

that his father asked of him. And then when his

brother comes back and what does the dad do,

right? He meets him out. Gives him a ring, puts

a coat on him, does all the things and brings

him back into the fold and he weeps and he's

like, you're back, I'm so happy, right? We're

gonna kill a fattened calf, we're gonna have

a party, let's do this. What does the older son

do? He gets angry. He's like, what are you doing?

He stole from you, he left, he lived however

he wanted. And you're going to welcome him back

into this family, not only welcome him back in,

but you're going to give him more inheritance?

That inheritance is mine. What are you doing?

I've stayed here. I've done everything you asked

of me. And you're going to give him what's mine?

What does that sound like? That sounds like my

prayer time. What do you mean? You're just gonna

allow this murderer to come into the kingdom

on his deathbed. I've served you my entire life.

My family has done ministry for 20 years. Financially,

we've been in poverty. I've done everything for

you. I've always said yes. You owe me. I don't

owe you. Yeah, I've said that. Both ways are

rebellious. Both ways are sinful. Flannery O

'Connor, she's a Catholic woman who wrote some

incredible thriller books, but they have like

Christian themes to them. But Flannery O 'Connor

says this, the way we avoid Jesus is to avoid

sin. Catch that? The way we avoid Jesus is to

avoid sin. What is she saying? What do you think

she's trying to say? Yeah. You want to be able

to control. If you didn't hear what my wife said,

if you don't have to repent, you don't need Jesus.

And she's meaning that in a negative way. Right?

We know we can't get to heaven through works.

So what but what we do is we lie to ourselves

and go I'm gonna live this moral life I'm gonna

be very works based I'm gonna do all the things

correctly and I'm gonna believe that God ultimately

should be the one blessing me and I I am not

beholden to him at all and he will never ask

me to do anything that's Uncomfortable because

I've done all the things and checked all the

boxes Yeah, we don't want to feel convicted we

also don't want God to ask us to do anything

It's ultimately, if you're a football fan, it's

the ultimate stiff arm to God. You stay over

there, and when I need something, I'll let you

know. And so what I put in here meaning, we truly

believe that if we are good, religiously observant,

and virtuous, then we have paid our dues. Now

God can't ask anything. Matter of fact, He owes

us. He's obligated to do our bidding. not the

other way around. And so again, both are rebellious.

Just one is more allowed in the church than the

other. So we, like Jonah, want a God of our own

making. We want Him to smite people we don't

like, bless us continually, and require nothing

of us. But this is not the God of the Bible.

He is just, and He is merciful. And when He calls,

we should answer, because He's worth it.