Thursday, April 28, 2011
OUT OF THE SAME MOUTH ... BLESSING AND CURSING!?!
In a recent study of James this phrase came up and I wondered if I fell into the same category. What I know for sure is that I am right on board with my destructive tongue, which just as James chapter three pictures is like a small rudder that steers a huge ship or also like a small fire that burns a whole forest! Yes, the venom of sin found in my tongue is quite destructive. Oh! Maybe the "blessing and cursing" from my month isn't really a question then, now that I think of it.
Jonah 4:1, 5 (4:1-11) But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city.
Why was Jonah so angry, I wonder? Was it because the LORD had caught him fleeing from His command to go to Nineveh in the first place? Was it because the LORD had brought that great storm which caused his fellow travelers to through him overboard? Or maybe it was the big fish that God had brought to swallow him for three days and nights? No, it seems clear that Jonah was angry because God had used Jonah just as He had planned -- to bring repentance to Nineveh! So again, what was it that made Jonah so angry that he even went to sit to watch and wait for God's judgment on the city?
Unlike his God, Jonah was partial. Or in other words, Jonah was discriminatory and prejudiced. In fact, in the last verse of the book of Jonah God begs this very question of Jonah about his showing mercy and pity to all. Jonah got a good seat to see the condemnation of God fall on the people of Nineveh -- the very same city to which God had just sent him to proclaim His judgment and mercy! Out of the same heart, Jonah showed by his actions both a blessing and cursing of souls that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would come to die for! God the Holy Spirit, through the Apostle James, speaks pointedly to all of us, "My brethren, these things ought not to be so" (James 3:10; 2:1ff). May I show the same impartial love -- as my LORD does to me and to all!
Jesus lives! I know full well Naught from me His love shall sever;
Life nor death nor powers of hell Part me now from Christ forever.
God will be a sure Defense; This shall be my confidence.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 201:4 -- Sing it!)
