Rise

I think often about the prophets of the Lord and how they must have felt to have a message no one else had and then share that message with the people. That message, good or bad, was a message from the Lord, according to them.  Jeremiah, the prophet,was hated, and it was because of his message from God that condemned the people and told them to change their ways.  Jeremiah was known as the ‘weeping prophet' because of the message he was to preach, but he remained faithful, even though he was hated. Side note. The people really never changed and mainly rejected his prophecies.

Prophet (def) - an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine or supernatural source, serving as a spokesperson or intermediary to deliver messages, teachings, or revelations to humanity.

Every morning, Jonah woke up to find that God was speaking a word to him to share with the people, but this one particular morning he heard a very disturbing message from God.  Jonah 1:The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ² “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”  Nineveh was a leading Assyrian city, and Jonah hated the Assyrians. A Hebrew prophet wouldn't be accepted, and he didn’t want to go preach to them anyway, notwithstanding the danger of them knowing Jonah was a Hebrew.

On this one particular morning, Jonah woke to a message from God, and as he heard from the Lord, here is what Jonah did next.  Jonah 1: ³ But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

Jonah went in the opposite direction from Nineveh, intending not to preach this important message of destruction to them.  He thought that changing locations could get him out of the call God had placed on his life.  Tomorrow I will share the next steps God took and how it affected this prophet of God.

When you rise to start the day, God shows you your steps and what to do.  This is why we begin the day in prayer, and it is to hear from God and follow the path He is setting before us.  So rise, and seek God, then obey!  God loves obedience!

The Pilgrimage Continues,

David Warren