SOUL SNACK 17 ... The Sacrifice for Peace

‘…then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.' Jonah 1:15

‘How long can I tread water for in a raging storm?'

Some such thought surely permeated Jonah's mind, as he became immersed in a very angry Mediterranean sea.

Since then Jonah has always been a metaphor for ill fortune. His disobedience to God's call (vs 1&2) brought enormous distress to his travelling companions and himself. This is the true end result of disobedience to God.

Despite our contemporary plea for the very private nature of personal behaviour, Jonah shows most vividly that SIN IS NEVER CONDUCTED IN A VACUUM. There are always implications for others. Even, people we do not know.

As with Jonah my sin can bring storms into my own life and the lives of many. We and others then must tread water.

Yet now the seas grow calm. Jonah is literally sacrificed to the waves. Jonah's obstinate self-indulgence had brought a tremendous storm to others.

Now his correct self-sacrifice brings peace. For where there is sacrifice, order is restored. SACRIFICE REMOVES PENALTY. This Jesus does! Self-sacrifice is the real answer to the storms that arrive from self-indulgence. This Jesus shows!

I wonder if the biggest problem in life is not seeing the storms, but seeing the self indulgence/ disobedience that brought them?

Read another Soul Snack:

Victory Without Effort