Bitesize Jonah (1)

At Grace CC we are looking at Jonah in the mornings and Ephesians in the evenings at the mo. And so I've been thinking...about storms and fish and God's sovereignty. Today I came across this:

It is a wonderful thing that the whole machinery of nature should be made subservient to the divine purpose of the salvation of the redeemed....Here is this common looking Jew - Jonah .... and for this one man - this altogether unamiable prophet - the sea must be tossed in tempest and a whole ship full of people must have their lives put in jeopardy. This truth is a very far reaching one. You cannot well exaggerate it. The vast universe is but a platform for the display of God's grace...(Spurgeon in Men and Women of the Old Testament, p179)

Of course we know that God is not only concerned with Jonah, but also with the 120 000 Ninevites who are ignorant and condemned (Jonah 4:11) and to who he is sending this disobedient 'dove of faithfulness'.


But the point stands and it is stated with mind-blowing Christ centred clarity in Ephesians:

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will
(Eph 1:11)

That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills everything in every way. (Eph 1:19-23)

Spurgeon's application of this truth is lovely:

It is a strange sight, O Christian, that you should be an important item in the universe, and yet that you should not know it, or care about it; that for you all things are keeping their proper place and time, and yet that you are the only one who does not seem to perceive it; and, therefore, you fall into a dull, lethargic, sleepy state. Everything around you is awake for your good, yet you yourself are slumbering even as the fugitive prophet was while the storm was raging. (p180)