God Pursues the Prodigals
2 Peter 3:9 (MSG)
9 God isn't late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn't want anyone lost. He's giving everyone space and time to change.
The predicament of the prodigals is that they don't realize that the problem is always on the inside. In other words, their problem is at the heart level which is hard to detect because it is at our deepest most being. As a father and a caring friend I have many people in my life that would be considered a prodigal; meaning that they have drifted far from home as a Christian. The enormous desire to see our loved one's return home creates many time in us the need to rescue them out of their woes. However, it's possible that we can help a prodigal too soon. We must recognize that first of all, repentance is a work of God in the human heart which you and I cannot do for someone else.
As long as the prodigal continues to practice scheming, lying and deceiving; the best thing that we can do is pray for them. We must as believers in waiting for our loved ones to return home, remember that God knows them better than we know them. And God knows how to reach them at the right moment of their life. You can bank on it, that when God calls, we will not be able to put Him on call waiting! He has all of our numbers written on His heart. Let's explore what I hope can encourage us that have loved ones out there who are blowing up their lives; and know that He is in hot pursuit of them and He knows how to deliver His own out of every destruction.
I want us to look at the familiar story of Jonah; but perhaps we might see something different in it than usual that will hopefully fuel our hearts with comfort as we discover how God is working a great plan in our lives, even when we are veering off course. If you will let me paraphrase a bit of this along the way it will help to cut down on being too lengthy on the lesson at hand. Remember God told Jonah to go east to Nineveh and call them to repentance...but Jonah decided west was the place to be. So, he heads for Joppa the modern day city of Tel Aviv to catch a Mediterranean cruise for Spain. Isn't it ironic when we are running from God, that Satan always has a cruise ship waiting specifically for us to sail away from our calling in God? The most profound part of it all is that no one gets a free ride on a fool's ship! Now we will look at how God begins the process of bringing Jonah back and from this we might also see how He works regarding our prodigals too.
In Jonah 1:4-5 we learn that God sends storms to get our attention. On this point, let me qualify something lest it become misconstrued in the thoughts of those reading this to say something that I don't believe. God does not create things such as cancer and other such horrific things, but rather Satan does these types of things as being the destroyer who hates us; it is here that God uses what was meant to harm us and turns it into a mercy that leads us out of the intended destruction.
Jonah 1:4-5 (MSG)
4 But God sent a huge storm at sea, the waves towering. The ship was about to break into pieces.
5 The sailors were terrified. They called out in desperation to their gods. They threw everything they were carrying overboard to lighten the ship.
Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship to take a nap. He was sound asleep.
I hope you realize that these were seasoned sailors who have seen a variety of storms at sea but this one was like no other they had ever witnessed. It equates to the kind of storms in our lives that we have never seen the likes of before. This is the kind that becomes the overwhelming and difficult storms of life that produce paralyzing fear in us. That was what we had happening to these sailors here. So much so, that each one of them cried out to his own god.
This is the kind of fear that what was once deemed as a valuable thing to you...you were now ready to toss overboard and count it as worthless junk. All the while this is going on; down below, Jonah is in a deep sleep clueless of the predicament he had put all these sailors in. I might make mention here at this juncture, that we never sin alone...though we may be alone when do the sinful act; others suffer because of our personal sins. In other words, the prodigal's sin affects every person connected to them relationally.
Another observation is that God always sends someone to challenge us to which ends up bringing out into the open the real truth when we are running from God.
Jonah 1:6 (MSG)
6 The captain came to him and said, "What's this? Sleeping! Get up! Pray to your god! Maybe your god will see we're in trouble and rescue us."
Notice that the ship is in great peril and Jonah is sleeping without a care in the world. This probably explains a person's reckless behavior, yet without the slightest clue that they have caused their own problems for themselves and for others around them. Another thing that we see in this account is that the pagan captain demonstrated more faith than Jonah. He shouted to Jonah to awaken out of his sleep and cry out to his God that perhaps He might save them. I have learned a few things over the years as a minister and one of those things is the world cares little for our sermons; but they do want our prayers. Take any major city in America, including throughout the so called Bible belt and you will see for yourself that on any given Sunday they are not in our churches; they are out boating, golfing, fishing, watching a movie, etc. The thing is they will not change no matter how much we preach in our churches against what they are doing. They care nothing for religion, but they do want our prayers when life events comes crashing in. "Get up Jonah! Call on your God. Maybe He will save us from this certain death."
You might mark this down in your memory. God will expose our disobedience.
Jonah 1:7 (MSG)
7 Then the sailors said to one another, "Let's get to the bottom of this. Let's draw straws to identify the culprit on this ship who's responsible for this disaster."
So they drew straws. Jonah got the short straw.
I realize this passage may seem a bit like they were just rolling the dice and as luck would have it, it revealed the culprit who was at fault and causing this hellish storm by chance. But was it luck?
Proverbs 16:33 (NLT)
33 We may throw the dice, but the Lord determines how they fall.
I believe there is no such thing as luck in life, nor random events that have no meaning. God is in control even when we are using our own free-will to disobey Him. Albeit, God does not infringe upon our free-will He will use what we have caused and use it to reach us for our own good. You can be a pagan or you can be a Christian, but you can't be both at the same time. Who you are is going to get revealed sooner or later.
Jonah 1:8-9 (MSG)
8 Then they grilled him: "Confess. Why this disaster? What is your work? Where do you come from? What country? What family?"
9 He told them, "I'm a Hebrew. I worship God, the God of heaven who made sea and land."
Isn't it amazing how God works? We run and run, and then God brings us to a place where we have to tell the truth to ourselves and to others. That's not torture, that's mercy! However, when we are running, God will make us face the consequences of our own foolish choices.
Jonah 1:11-12 (MSG)
11 They said to him, "What are we going to do with you-to get rid of this storm?" By this time the sea was wild, totally out of control.
12 Jonah said, "Throw me overboard, into the sea. Then the storm will stop. It's all my fault. I'm the cause of the storm. Get rid of me and you'll get rid of the storm."
Jonah knew it was all his fault and finally came to grips that for this to end he would have to be accountable. However, instead of throwing Jonah overboard as he suggested these pagan sailors tried to paddle the ship back to land for fear of taking an innocent life. These sailors showed more compassion for Jonah then he had for them. That's what running does; it makes us think only of ourselves.
Jonah 1:14-15 (MSG)
14 Then they prayed to God, "O God, Don't let us drown because of this man's life, and don't blame us for his death. You are God. Do what you think is best."
15 They took Jonah and threw him overboard. Immediately the sea was quieted down.
So, here we find a prodigal running from God and the calling on his life...and somehow in all of this mishap on his part, God uses it to reach these pagan sailors. Where they at the beginning of our story were crying out to each his own god...they are now praying to the true God. I love this! The Lord often uses desperate times to wake men up so that they will cry out to Him as the one and only true living God.
Jonah 1:16 (MSG)
16 The sailors were impressed, no longer terrified by the sea, but in awe of God. They worshiped God, offered a sacrifice, and made vows.
Do you see this? God had revealed in the wake of Jonah's running that He loved the people of Tarshish too! And now He was sending a boatload of baby missionaries that were headed that way because of this seemingly wrong path that this prodigal was on. It is here that we witness the grace of God in the midst of deserving judgment.
Jonah 1:17 (MSG)
17 Then God assigned a huge fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah was in the fish's belly three days and nights.
Think about it! Jonah had taken off running from God and all the while he is making his break in disobedience...God is giving a great fish the logistics where it was to meet Jonah on the day he would be thrown overboard. Friend, if you have been overly concerned about your prodigal loved one's as though they would be permanently lost; God has a plan and He is qualified to implement it precisely to the tee though things may look hopeless to us. Therefore, encourage yourself: God knows where we are...
God knows what we are doing...
God knows how to reach us...
and God knows how to bring us back!
Never give up on you're love ones as a hopeless cause. Keep believing and keep on praying! As a matter of fact, instead of worrying over them make sure you are spending the energy of your faith on fating up the calf through thankfulness...because there is a homecoming party about to begin at the return of your loved one who was thought to be dead, but praise God; they are alive for evermore!
