Jonah 2:8 “Those that cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”
Have you ever looked back over your life and thought about situations where you potentially held onto something that was important and now realize that had you let it go an entirely different outcome may have happened in your life? If you had the chance to call a “Do Over” in life would you take it? I know I have a few in mind.
I spent almost 15 years in the ministry prior to my moving on to the job I’m in now. During that time I had the opportunity of talking with people that were struggling with things in their lives. As I think back to most of those cases, it usually came down to a struggle of letting go of something. It came down to them wanting to hold onto something so much that they could not find the courage to let go and really experience Gods grace or something better for their lives. There were always excuses as to why things would not work out. The things they held on to were usually things they idolized in their minds to the point of letting it be their god in their life at that time and it had the potential to paralyze them into the same unhappy existence day in day out.
- A bad relationship.
- A job that they didn’t enjoy but still provided them a means of financial security.
- An addiction to some substance.
- The need to be popular.
- Attachment to some form of material possession (like money)
- The need to always be right or get your way
- Anger and unforgiveness
I could go on, but in every case an idol of some kind either held them back, created the anger, or created the pain they were feeling within. An idol that when set up against reality and the knowledge of God, didn’t seem all that important in the grander scheme of things. But still even armed with this knowledge it was hard for them to let go. And the question was why?
These idols seemed to provide a sense of false security. A sense of at least knowing what to expect by keeping things status quo verses letting go and moving into the unknown. Fear of letting go paralyzed them.
Jonah struggled with these same types of idols in his life.
I’ve always felt that for every book of the Bible, both Old and New Testament, there is a central scripture or passage that summarizes that book. In the Old Testament book of Jonah, I think the central scripture lies in Jonah 2:8. “Those that cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”
Though this is a short book, it is like a roller coaster of ups and downs for Jonah. God calls him for a specific task (UP). He becomes afraid and tries to run. The result brings suffering to both himself and those around him (DOWN). He repents and experiences a huge miracle of survival at sea (UP). He obeys and carries out Gods direction and calling by proclaiming Gods potential wrath on a city (UP). The city repents (UP but Jonah doesn’t see it) and Gods wrath doesn’t come and Jonah gets ticked off (DOWN). The story goes on.
In each down situation there is a form of idol Jonah held on to that lead to his problems with God. We are not told exactly what they were. They could have been his fears of having to go face a city of wickedness (fear for his life). Could have been his lack of confidence. We don’t know but find in verse 8 he was holding onto something that kept him from following Gods calling and he realized the roadblock it had put into his life.
There are a couple of lessons we can take away from Jonah’s life experience.
First, when we make something out in our lives to be so important that it gets in the way of our decision making, our lives, our ability to take risk, then it is also affecting our ability to follow God and be open to His direction in our lives.
The second lesson is about Jonah’s focus. Once Jonah got his act together and followed through with Gods need for him to send His message to Nineveh, he got angry because God did not carry out wrath that Jonah had warned them was coming. Jonah was so focused on delivering the message that he lost sight of the actual purpose of why God asked him to go in the first place. For God it was about reconciliation. For Jonah is was about carrying out a task. It is easy to get wrapped up in the tasks of what we think God is calling us to do and the material benefits we expect as a result that we loose site of Gods ultimate purpose.
I’ve found much of the lessons of my life have all come down to what I’m holding on to verses what is it I’m letting go of. I think holding onto things isn’t a bad thing. It only becomes bad when it becomes our god. When it starts getting in our way of being obedient to Gods direction. And then is it not so much about the miracles we would expect as it is to just be free to be able to do what ever it is God has in mind.