Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
As a boy, whenever my mother yelled at me to take a bath, I was nowhere to be found by the time she finished her sentence. I simply went back outside to get even dirtier. No matter that it was for my own good. Sometimes we just don’t want good but want our own way. Jonah went his own way and it did not end well. He took a bath when he was thrown overboard and it was the good of the Lord that saved him at all in the belly of the fish. The moral of the story is, when God says take a bath, take a bath.
The word of the Lord has come to us in the form of the Bible but most Christians run in the opposite direction. The word says repent which means think again, but many think their own way. The word says love your neighbor but many Christians love themselves more. The word says believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved but most people think otherwise, that being spiritual will do the trick. They will only get dirtier. Only by the cleansing blood of the Lamb will we be clean.
The word of the Lord will not be denied. Jonah learned it the hard way, as did I. When the Lord pursues us, resistance is futile. Surrender your will to the Lord. Don’t run when he opens his arms for you. Believe in the Lord and be baptized.
Take a bath!