Inside Out Living

We are all very familiar with the story of Jonah; it is after all a whale of a tale. Sorry, I know – bad joke. But seriously, I encourage you to look at the story with a fresh perspective and consider for me, if you will, the use of irony in this historical story.

Jonah, a prophet of God should model a proper fear of God. And yet, as you may have noticed, the sailors and the wicked Ninevites demonstrated more fear of God than Jonah. How can this be? How can people who do not know God as well as Jonah does, demonstrate more fear than Jonah would?

One possible explanation that I would have for this is familiarity. Jonah was far more familiar with the Lord than was anyone else in the story. I think this curse of familiarity can happen to anyone who has known the Lord for a long time. We can grow so accustomed to His grace and forgiveness that we forget about His wrath and justice in dealing with sin.

May you fear God like someone who is encountering Him for the first time.