We Are All Responsible for Our Health and Choices

Jonah was instructed by the Lord to set out for the great city of Nineveh, present-day Mosul in Iraq. He was to preach against their wickedness. Jonah had other plans. He did not feel the need to save a people that he had no interest in. So he set out for Tarshish away from the Lord. The Lord, however, hurled a violent wind upon the sea and the captain woke him up in the hold of the ship to call upon his God so that they would not perish.

This is where Jonah, owned his decision of disobedience. “I am a Hebrew, I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. Pick me up and throw me into the sea, that it may quiet down for you; since I know it is because of me that this violent storm has come upon you” (vv. 9, 12).

Jonah spent three days in the belly of the large fish. Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, and the Lord commanded the fish to spew Jonah upon the shore. Jonah repented, the Lord forgave, and Jonah was now off to Nineveh. We serve a powerful, loving, and forgiving God.