WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR A GREAT AWAKENING TO OCCUR IN “CHRISTIAN” AMERICA?
Perhaps you recall a former presidential candidate who went around the country talking about “Two Americas” . . . and in that speech he chanted a litany of contrasts between “these and those”, “us and them”, “ours and theirs” etcetera, seeking to do what politicians seem to do best – divide, then multiply for the sake of winning. In his case, he lost; he did himself in via his sin of contradiction between the morality he preached and the immorality he practiced.
From a biblical perspective, the entire human race can be divided into two broad categories: those who worship the LORD God and those who worship the gods of this world . . . believers and unbelievers . . . saints and sinners.
Relative to you and me, as Christians we would have to say that, yes, there are, broadly speaking, two types of responders to the claims of Christ on the lives of those for whom Christ died, responses spoken of generally in much the same way as they were in the Old Testament, but, in view of the redemptive work of Christ, expanded to include contrasts, i.e., saved vs lost, sheep vs goats, doers of good vs doers of evil.
Any way you look at it, the Bible plainly teaches that people of all nations, races, cultures, genders, families of origin, religious persuasions, personalities, economic or social standings will, in the end, give an account of themselves to the One and Only LORD God - Maker, Father and Redeemer of all mankind.
Thereto we who profess the name of Jesus have been set aside to proclaim the Gospel in word and in deed. Why? Simply because:
There always has been, is now, and forever shall be the dire need for those who “know” the LORD to go to those who “know not” the LORD to tell them the Good News of salvation which God thru Christ offers to sinful humanity. Yet,
Not all who are called really want to go where He sends or do what He says – be it here or there or anywhere – due to the seemingly endless litany many of us tend to come up with – whether it be a litany of “ifs, ands, buts” . . . circumstances . . . excuses – often employed by “otherwise well-meaning persons” to disguise the real reason for disobeying God’s directives, such as a personal bias . . . hang-up . . . prejudice . . . dislike . . . God forbid, deep-seeded feelings of hatred.
To those who hesitate . . . procrastinate . . . insinuate that “it’s not my task to emulate our LORD” . . . unconditional love . . . unmerited favor . . . invitation to “come unto me, all ye”, God gives a second chance – Jonah 1:1-3 . . . 3:1-2 . . .
Now, whereas most of us would be inclined to give Jonah the benefit of the doubt, we would best tell it like it is. Jonah was a man filled with contradictions which surfaced at a time when God’s directive was not to his liking! He did not want to go to Ninevah; if he did not hate the Ninevites, he despised them. After all, they were Assyrians who would destroy his people!
So, Jonah was a man filled with ambiguities . . . torn between loving yet not liking people who needed the LORD . . . commissioned by the LORD to do His will, yet despising God’s directives!
Why should he go tell of God’s grace to the Assyrians who had shown no mercy to Israel time and time again?
Why would God love them and desire that they repent and be saved from the wrath to come?
Wouldn’t it be that Jonah wanted no part of this mission because, as he himself told God, “I knew that thou art a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity”?
Jonah did not want the enemies of God and of Israel to be given a chance to repent and receive mercy. He wanted them to be punished for their sins with no chance for survival. He prayed not for their salvation but for their annihilation.
Has there ever been a time when you might have identified with Jonah or sympathized with him? Have you ever fled from God? If so, how long did it take you to realize that no one can hide – not even “in the belly of a whale”!
Might as well face the reality of God’s presence - here, there, everywhere . . . brace for the inevitability of giving an account to God for ourselves, leaving to God the ultimate outcome of those who mock, ridicule, callously and uncaringly do harm to His people – all of whom God declared to be objects of His love and therefore the focus of Christian mission endeavors – wherever they may lead.
Suppose a conference of Christian Ministers had spent the past six years in unfiltered dialogue with Islamic Mullahs on the topic, “The LORD God and His Love for All People Everywhere” . . . concluded their dialogue by issuing this statement:
“The LORD our God is One God. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself, for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
Don’t you suppose God is willing to give world leaders a second chance to get it right if they were of a mind to do so? We do not know because we do know that our leaders, and theirs, demonstrate that they are not of a “mind” to do so.
Even so, in a situation not all that different from confrontations we face in our world today, inevitable calamity was averted back then due to Jonah’s change of “mind” if not his “heart” – Jonah 3:3-5 . . . 3:10 . . .
What happens when a person runs from the Lord is quite descriptive in this story: Jonah went down to Joppa . . . down into the ship . . . down into deep sleep . . . down in the estimation of the sailors on that ship . . . down into the sea . . . down into the belly of a whale.
When we run from the LORD we wind up in a downward spiral until we hit rock bottom with no place to go but to the LORD, with no place to look except up. Only a miracle of God rescues us from our brush with spiritual death and sets us in the right direction. This was true of the prodigal prophet Jonah . . . the prodigal son . . . a prodigal nation. When God our Father sees prodigals turn from their evil ways and return to the One and Only
LORD God, genuine compassion is stirred and set in motion, and destruction is forfeited.
But “the prodigal” must turn and return!
When any great event of “turning from evil and returning to the LORD God occurs, shouldn’t there be an attitude of gratitude and a display of rejoicing – just as there is in heaven over one sinner who repents?
Jonah’s opposition to God’s merciful response to a repentant enemy meant that, although he obeyed God’s orders albeit grudgingly and skeptically, in no way did he, nor could he, share in the joy of the triumph of good over evil.
Instead, Jonah most likely lived out his days a bitter old man. Folks, I do not want to live out my days that way, do you?
The Book of Jonah ends with a question asked by the real hero of the story. Whereas Jonah had cried, “I am angry enough to die”, the LORD replied, “Should I not be concerned about that great city?” Indeed, should God not be concerned about the great cities of this world? Should God not be concerned about America? Shouldn’t we all?
What will it take for a great awakening to occur in “Christian” America? It took a great “swallowing up” of Jonah for God to get his attention. In fact, Jonah the book was written right after Israel had been “swallowed up” by Babylon and then, when God at last saw that His people had turned and become truly repentant, God acted in a forceful manner that caused Nebuchadnezzar to “spew out what he had swallowed up”!
Has America pushed the envelope so far that a “swallowing up” must occur before God gets our attention so that we see the error of our ways, turn from our wicked ways, and return unto the LORD God our Maker?
“For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also is the Son of God to this generation.” To Jesus, Jonah’s agony of being “swallowed up” then his ecstasy of being “spewed out” was a sign of His impending agony of being “swallowed up” by death, followed by the ecstasy via Resurrection that would bring true Isaiah’s prophecy, “Death has been swallowed up in Victory!” Thanks be to God! Amen.
