A responsible Christian
"And they said one to another," Let us draw lots and let them know that this evil has come upon us because of them. Then they chose lots, and the lot fell on Jonah" (Jonah 1:7).
Are we Christians who are responsible?
One day, I thought about three questions as I was studying Jonah 1:7-17 in the Bible study with my Church leaders. And I tried to apply the three lessons that I learned to our lives. The three lessons are: (1) First, when God exposes our sins, we must sincerely confess those sins to God. (2) Second, we should not blame others. (3) Third, we must strive to be a responsible Christian by saying, "It is my fault." The reason why I applied these three lessons in our lives was because I thought that there was and still is a sinful tendency in us that had been tried to lie even before God, to blame others and to avoid each of our own responsibilities. What do you think? Do you think there is such a sinful tendency in you?
We Christians must face our sinful tendency that wants to avoid our responsibility. We must be more honest with ourselves before God. We should no longer avoid taking our own responsibilities and blaming others for bad situations that we are in. If you are still blaming others and rationalizing your own sinful choices without acknowledging your responsibility before God, then you will surely be in self-pity and self-defeating and have victim mentality. And you will still be making irresponsible remarks and actions in church without any hesitation as you disobey God’s command in an irresponsible manner. What do you think Heavenly Father will do these irresponsible children of God?
I came to realize more about the answer of that question by studying Jonah 1:7-17. God made the storm of discipline against Jonah, who was disobeying God’s command and running away to the opposite direction of Nineveh, Tarshish (vv. 2-4). As a result, the ship that Jonah was aboard was about to break up (v. 4). But Jonah. who had gone below deck, fell into a deep sleep (v. 5). To this Jonah, God asked for responsibility and eventually Jonah confessed his sins in front of the Gentile sailors and captains, and made a decision of repentance. Here I have come to realize a little bit of God's faithful love and God's responsible actions. In his faithful love, how did God act responsibly to unfaithful Jonah who was in deep sleep irresponsibly?
God made Jonah to acknowledge his irresponsible action through the Gentile sailors’ responsible actions.
When the sailors cast lots to find our who was responsible for the calamity that they were going through, God made the lot to be fall on Jonah so that Jonah had to confess his irresponsible action of disobeying God’s command and running away from God (v. 7). God also exposed Jonah’s irresponsible actions through the four questions of the Gentile sailors. These four questions are:
(1) First question was “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us?” (v. 8).
This first question of the sailors was a question that probably made Jonah to recognize that the calamity came upon them because he disobeyed God's command, which is his irresponsible act. So Jonah had to acknowledge that “I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you” (v. 12). He could not blame anyone anymore. Also he could not blame the environment he was in. He couldn’t but admitted and acknowledged that it was his fault (v. 12).
(2) Second question was “What do you do?” (v. 8).
God enabled the Gentile sailors to ask Jonah “What do you do?” so that Jonah realized his irresponsible act of running away from God instead of fulfilling his prophetic responsibility and mission. To Jonah who had lost his sense of mission and calling, God approached him responsibly.
(3) Third question was “Where do you come from” (v. 8).
This question would have caused Jonah to remember Nineveh, which God had commanded him to go. Because Jonah had fled in the opposite direction, even though he had to go to Nineveh as God had commanded, the sailors’ question “Where do you come from?” made Jonah to face himself with his disobedience to God's command.
(4) Fourth question was “What is your country? From what people are you?” (v. 8).
Through this question God made Jonah to remember the responsibility of obeying God's commandments as God's chosen anointed prophet.
Isn’t it amazing? Isn’t it really surprising that God even uses the non-believers’ questions to expose our sins of disobeying God’s commands, to make us realize and to acknowledge our sins? In the end, Jonah confessed who he is and who God is before the Gentile sailors. In other words, Jonah confessed in front of the sailors “I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land” (v. 9). Also, he confessed that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord (v. 10). The sailors who heard this confession from Jonah, they became extremely frightened and said to Jonah, ‘How could you do this?” (v. 10) I am sure this rebuke from the sailors struck Jonah’s conscience. When the sea was becoming increasingly stormy, the sailors asked Jonah, “What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?” (v. 11) Then listen to Jonah's reply: “Pick me up and throw me into the sea” (v. 12). Not only Jonah knew that because of his disobedience, the Gentiles had encountered the great storm, but also he knew that the only way to calm the stormy sea was to throw himself into the sea. So Jonah told the sailors to “Pick me up and throw me into the sea” (v. 12). He knew that this responsible action was the only way to save the sailors.
God even used the Gentile sailors not only to expose Jonah’s sin of irresponsible disobedience but also eventually to acknowledge his sin of disobedience. This same God is making us to acknowledge our sins of irresponsible disobedience through non-believers around us. We must no longer be our irresponsible Christians. This is because our irresponsible acts not only cover the glory of God, but also damage non-believers. Because of the irresponsible disobedient act of Jonah, the ship on which Jonah was aboard was almost destroyed. Likewise, because of our irresponsible disobedient act, we can damage the non-believers around us. Therefore, we must be Christians who are responsible. How should we take responsibility? First, we must confess to God our sins of disobedience with assurance of forgiveness. Then we must confess our sins to even the non-believers who are victimized by our irresponsible acts of disobedience. We must ask for forgiveness for the storms of their lives through our irresponsible acts of disobedience. As we do so, we must make a decision of repentance like Jonah. Just as Jonah told the sailors to throw himself into the sea, we must throw ourselves to the blood of Jesus that he shed on the cross. We must never end with just confessing our sins with our lips. If we are Christians who are truly responsible, we must show our actions that we have repented our sins. This will stop "this great storm" (v. 12), which has come unto the unbelievers through us. Then the stormy sea will become calm (v. 15). Then, like Gentile sailors, non-believers will fear God greatly and worship God (v. 16). And then we will also experience the grace of God's salvation by entering into the "big fish" God has prepared (v. 17) and we will look again toward God (2:4) and cried out to him in prayer. Then will experience the grace of God’s salvation (deliverance). I hope and pray that all of us may become responsible Christians who experience God’s salvation.