Objection: Jonah Was Brought to the Point of Death So That He Would Learn Obedience

You cannot use the story of a disobedient man’s punishment to justify the idea that a righteous Christian should have to be brought to the point of death to learn obedience.  It proves nothing.  The Christian is to learn from the Scriptures, not from hard knocks in life.

Granted, you can learn some things the hard way or the easy way.  You can learn not to use a lawn mower sideways to trim your hedge by chopping yourself up, or you can learn from the don’t-sue-us-because-we-warned-you statement that comes with the lawn mower that you should not tip it sideways to trim your hedge.  (If the warning weren’t there, you could probably sue them, collect bazillions, and go start your own hedge fund.)  Do you intend to be such a knucklehead that you have to almost die to learn obedience?  Why not just obey in the first place and skip the trouble?

Jonah was called to the ministry and he ran from his calling.  He almost died as a result, but God in His mercy spared his life.  Jonah did apparently learn something from the experience.  It changed his attitude toward preaching at Nineveh at least somewhat!

One key lesson from the book of Jonah is that you cannot run anywhere on earth to escape the call of God on your life.  You could pay for it with your life!  The gifts and callings of God are without repentance.  If you know that you are called to the ministry, “woe” is unto if you do not preach the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:16)!  You are entrusted with something sacred and you are accountable for that.  If you walk in disobedience to that call, you have no right to claim divine healing, divine protection, or anything else.  You will probably not be able to receive from God in one area while turning your back on Him in other areas.  Once you repent and consecrate yourself to God, you are immediately a candidate for healing.

So, don’t be in the position of having to learn obedience the hard way!  It was not the will of God for Jonah to refuse God’s calling any more than it was His will for Judas to betray Jesus.  God foreknew the choices of both men, but they were still the wrong choices.  When you take your life into your own hands, you take it out of God’s hands.  You then become responsible for your security and success.  God’s protection does not apply to you because you are not dwelling in the secret place of the Almighty.  See Psalm 91, which has wonderful but conditional promises for protection.  Learn the conditions and don’t claim the protection if you aren’t meeting the conditions.