“The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD. Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.”
Sin is bad news. That’s one of the main messages from the book of Jonah. Most people remember this book because of the story about how Jonah got himself stuck inside the belly of the whale. But most don’t remember why he was there – it was because he disobeyed God. Dr. David Jeremiah writes the following about sin (disobedience to God) and its consequences:
“When we walk away from the revealed will of God, there’s always a price to pay, “for the wages of sin is death …” (Romans 6:23). Wages aren’t paid in one lump sum; they are paid in little increments throughout our lives and then we get the final payment at death. Sin pays, all right, and its wages are not what the sinner would want.”
There are consequences for disobeying God and Jonah suffered those consequences. But for whatever reason, we often think that those consequences don’t apply to us - we deceive ourselves into believing that we can do whatever we want and it will be okay. We tell ourselves that nothing will happen. The story of Jonah reminds us that sin always has consequences and ultimately we will experience them.
On Sunday, we will talk more about the consequences of sin as we begin a new sermon series entitled, “Returning to God: Lessons From Jonah.” What a better way to start the new year than in church? Hope to see you there!
