When God Interrupts Your Life
For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.
Matthew 12:40 CSB
Did you know there are documented cases of men being swallowed by sharks or whales and living to tell about it? More importantly, Jesus’ words in Matthew 12:40 affirm that Jonah’s story is more than a fairy tale.
Jonah’s life was interrupted by God’s assignment to call Nineveh to repentance. How do you respond to interruptions? I don’t always like them. Yet sometimes what we call an interruption is actually divine intervention. We learn three key lessons from this.
1. God doesn’t need us, but He graciously chooses to use us.
God reveals Himself as sovereign, merciful, righteous, and faithful. He could accomplish His purposes without Jonah—and without us. Yet He invites us to participate in His work. Serving God is a privilege.
2. Delayed obedience is still disobedience.
When God’s assignment pushes us beyond our comfort zone, we may hesitate, stall, or wait for more instructions. But obedience is not contingent upon understanding. As one author said, “One of the marks of spiritual maturity is the quiet confidence that God is in control—without the need to understand why He does what He does.” We do not need to understand in order to obey.
3. We can obey the hard way or the better way.
Jonah’s assignment did not change because he ran from it. After the fish spit him onto dry land, God gave him the same assignment. Thankfully, God is a God of second chances. Jonah repented, accepted God’s discipline, and obeyed. The Ninevites also received a second chance and responded in repentance.
If God is our priority, our response should reflect the wisdom of Oswald Chambers: “When God commands us to do something, we do not need to understand His directive; we need to understand His authority.”
Have you ever missed a divine appointment because you ran from God?
Chris Adams
