Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Jonah 1:1-2 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."
PRAY FOR YOUR ENEMIES
A short message from a short book ... the prophet Jonah.
It would be easy for us to look down on the prophet Jonah. After all, Jonah was called by the LORD God and sent to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, a growing world power. He was sent to warn the city and the nation of the seriousness of their sins, to call upon them to sorrow over their sins and look to Jehovah for mercy. It was a last ditch effort to turn God's judgment away.
Jonah boarded a boat headed in the opposite direction. He blatantly disobeyed the LORD, refusing even to go to Nineveh. Then when Jonah finally did what the LORD asked and in a miracle of divine grace Nineveh repented, Jonah was angry.
Well, not exactly prophet material in my book.
It would be an easy thing to look down our noses at Jonah, but before we do so perhaps we should put on his sandals for a moment, eh?
God sent his prophet to speak in the capital city of the enemy and to preach repentance and faith to a godless foreign nation! How would we feel about being sent to preach peace in Christ to Al Qaeda or ISIS? We would never think of it, but our LORD earnestly desires that everyone be saved through faith in Christ and come to know the truth of God's love.
Now we may never have opportunity to proclaim Law (to convict of sin) and Gospel (peace and forgiveness through Christ) to all our enemies, but there is something we can and should do for them: pray for them. After all, this Scripture plainly teaches us to pray for all men and why we ought to do so. We are reminded that God seeks salvation for each and every human being, not only for those we know and love. As it is written:
"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:1-4).
