{"id":14259,"date":"2013-09-27T14:31:27","date_gmt":"2013-09-27T03:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?page_id=14259"},"modified":"2013-09-27T14:35:10","modified_gmt":"2013-09-27T03:35:10","slug":"sixteen-days-with-jonah-day-8","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/studies\/jonah\/sixteen-days-with-jonah-day-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Sixteen Days with Jonah – Day 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonah 2:10<\/b><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a010<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/sup> And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. <\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

2 Corinthians 12:9<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n


\nBut (God) said to me, \u201cMy <\/i><\/span><\/span>grace<\/i><\/span><\/span>is<\/i><\/span><\/span>sufficient<\/i><\/span><\/span>for<\/i><\/span><\/span>you<\/i><\/span><\/span>, <\/i><\/span><\/span>for<\/i><\/span><\/span> my power <\/i><\/span><\/span>is<\/i><\/span><\/span> made perfect in weakness.\u201d Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ\u2019s power may rest on me<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

God is the sovereign Lord of all. While Jonah had been at prayer, the fish had been swimming! At the Lord\u2019s instruction, the fish vomited out the reluctant prophet. Jonah had been rescued when he deserved nothing but the death he had brought on his own head! Despite all his efforts Jonah had not escaped God\u2019s call on him to be a missionary to Nineveh. <\/span><\/p>\n

I am reminded here of Jesus\u2019 raising of Lazarus from the dead. Following his return to life, I wonder: What would life be now for Lazarus? Was life ever the same for him? How would it be different? <\/span><\/p>\n

It seems to me that these questions also apply to Jonah. In being rescued from death, Jonah has learnt more of God\u2019s sovereignty and grace. His prayer rejoiced in God\u2019s mercy (2:2-9). Yet, what would Jonah\u2019s attitude be now? Will he be concerned for Nineveh\u2019s rescue? Sadly, Jonah\u2019s answer is <\/span>No!<\/i><\/span> Jonah does not want God\u2019s mercy: he wants God\u2019s punishment on the Ninevites. <\/span><\/p>\n

Like Jonah, I too can struggle with God’s ‘grace scales’ in balancing mercy and justice. God’s grace in Christ is infinite. Having experienced God\u2019s grace in my own life may I rejoice when God grants grace to others. God\u2019s sovereign grace is to be my place of rest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gracious God, thank you for the grace with which you have blessed my life. Keep me ever grateful towards you, and joyful in seeing your grace bless the lives of other people. In Christ\u2019s name. Amen.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonah 2:10 \u00a010 And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. 2 Corinthians 12:9 But (God) said to me, \u201cMy graceissufficientforyou, for my power is made perfect in weakness.\u201d Therefore I will boast all the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":14238,"menu_order":8,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14259"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14259"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14281,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14259\/revisions\/14281"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}