God who prepares the unprepared servant of the Lord (Jonah 4:10-11)

 God who prepares 

the unprepared servant of the Lord

 

 

“Then the LORD said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight” (Jonah 4:10-11).

 

               One of the steps that must be taken in preparing to become a minister by God's calling is to go to the seminary and study theology.  And the seminary students have to study Biblical theology, systematic theology, historical theology, practical theology, and so on.  But the problem is that pastors who studied very hard can graduate from the seminary like laity.  Although compare to entering into the seminary, they have the increased biblical and theological knowledge, but they can become not only more arrogant, but also more stubborn people.  When I think about what the cause is, I think it may be because their head is ready at the seminary, but not their hearts.  Although they learned who God is in their head, but they didn’t learn God’s heart.  There was change in their knowledge, but not in their hearts.  Then what will happen to the church in which those who graduated from the seminary and received ordination from the presbytery to serve the body of the Lord?  But what we believe is that the faithful Lord prepares a pastor who is not ready for His church because He loves His Church.  How does God prepare him?

 

                Prophet Jonah, the servant of God, was not prepared.  Although he knew in his head that the Lord is gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity (Jonah 4:2), he didn’t had the heart of God.  He wasn’t gracious and compassionate to the people of Nineveh.  He was quick to anger.  He was lack in lovingkindness.  He didn’t turn his will toward Nineveh.  What was Jonah's will toward Nineveh?  His was for Nineveh to be overthrown (3:4).  That was why when the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time (v. 1), Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, went through the city one day’s walk and cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown” (v. 4).  But the people of Nineveh believed in God, called a fast, put on sackcloth (v. 5) and cried out to God (v. 8).  And they turned from their wicked way and from their violence which was in their hands.  When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked ways, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon the Ninevites (v. 10).  But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry (4:1).  What was the reason?  It was because God has turned His will.  In other words, Jonah was greatly displease and angry because God didn’t bring the calamity on the city of Nineveh.  So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, where he built the shelter for himself, and sat down in the shade to see what would happen to the city (v. 5).  This I don’t understand because God already relent His will but not Jonah.  Jonah didn’t turn his will toward Nineveh.  He was stubborn.  Since he is the servant of the Lord, shouldn’t he submit to His will?  But Jonah prayed to God in anger (v. 2) saying “Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life” (v. 3).  Indeed, Jonah was very unprepared servant of the Lord.  To this Jonah who was angry and stubbornly insisted on his will in prayer, God provided three things for Jonah: the plant (v. 6), the worm (v. 7) and east scorching wind (v. 8).  Why did God prepare these three things for the unready prophet Jonah?  It was because God wanted to teach His servant Jonah the heart of God.  What was the heart of God?  It was the compassionate heart to save the people of Nineveh who didn’t know the difference between their right and left hand (v. 11).  What a contrast.  Jonah had compassion on the plant for which he didn’t work and which he didn’t cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight (v. 10).  But God had compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals (v. 11).  How couldn’t Jonah have compassion on Nineveh on which God had compassion?  How could he have compassion on the plant that eased his discomfort?  How could he be extremely happy about the plant (v. 6) but was greatly displeased and angry because God didn’t bring the calamity upon the Ninevites (3:10)?  God who had compassion on this unprepared Jonah was preparing Jonah’s heart to become like God’s heart.

 

God prepares the servant of God.  God prepares the servant of God, whom God has chosen, even though he is not prepared in many ways.  What God prepares is the Lord’s servant’s heart.  In other words, God teaches him the heart of Heavenly Father.  And God sends him to those whom God wants him to go so that he may serve them.  Like God who forgives and accepts them when they repent and return to God, God prepares His servant to forgive and accept them as well.  In other words, God prepares His servant, not only to make him to have the heart of God, but also to make him to obey God's will with the heart of God.  Therefore, God fulfill His will in this earth through His servant that was already fulfilled in Heaven.  May God's will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

 

” Have Thine own way, Lord, Have Thine own way; Thou art the Potter, 

I am the clay. Mold me and make me After Thy will, While I am waiting, 

Yielded and still.

Have Thine own way, Lord, Have Thine own way; Search me and try me, 

Master, today. Whiter than snow, Lord, Wash me just now, As in Thy 

presence Humbly I bow.

Have Thine own way, Lord, Have Thine own way; Wounded and weary, 

Help me, I pray.  Power, all power, Surely is Thine, Touch me and heal me, 

Savior divine

Have Thine own way, Lord, Have Thine own way; Hold o’er my being 

Absolute sway.  Fill with Thy Spirit Till all shall see Christ only, always, 

Living in me.”

 

                                [Hymn: “Have Thine own way, Lord”]