God’s Mercy in Rebellion

By Dean Collins

I have written many times about how suffering and trials come to everyone. Jesus told us that in this world we would have trouble. It was likely on the walk between the upper room and the garden of Gethsemane that Jesus told his closest followers that hard times were ahead. Suffering and trials would come, not because they were bad people but because the world is broken and in need of redemption and renewal. 

In the Psalms and many other places in scripture, we find prayers and words of comfort for when we are battling sickness, relational challenges, and heartache because of things outside of our control. We know that in those moments, God responds when we call out to him. God is faithful in every moment and wants to run to his beloved sons and daughters in their times of despair.

But what about those times where it is us who caused the difficulty and the suffering? Will God hear our prayers and help us when we have deliberately chosen to rebel and disobey when he has told us what he wants us to do? The little book of Jonah reminds us that even then, God will hear our prayers and rescue us!

After Jonah turned and ran from the assignment God had given him, he bought a ticket to a city over 2,000 miles away from where God told him to go. Even when the storm and sea was raging, and the sailors were trying to understand what to do, Jonah simply said to pick him up and hurl him into the sea. Jonah’s rebellion would be complete. He was even willing to die rather than obey God.

But in chapter 2 we read: “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.“ At Jonah’s lowest moment, the one he created by his own actions and refusal to obey God, he called out to God.

We don’t like to admit it, but every person, including me and you, has those moments when we deliberately chose to say with our words or our actions, “No God, I will not obey.” Like stubborn children, we sometimes just say no even when we know there are consequences to our actions. 

The apostle Peter knew first-hand what it was like to turn away, even denying that he ever knew Jesus. After he was restored, Peter years later wrote these words: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” In his moment of desperation, knowing that his death would come quickly in the raging sea, Jonah chose to call out to God because he knew that God was merciful. He prayed: 

“I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head. To the roots of the mountains I went down, to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” 

God’s rescue plans will often surprise us! Jonah was rescued by a large fish. Jonah found out that God can hear our prayers of repentance no matter where we are located. And when Jonah turned to God in repentance, God responded by having the fish spit Jonah out onto dry land.

Those who work with people struggling with various addictions say that recovery doesn’t begin until you reach rock bottom and realize that you are powerless to help yourself. The good news is that God is ready, willing, and able to meet us when we are at the bottom. All we have to do is cry out to him.

Father, today I pray that if someone reads this and is out of hope and sees no way out, that you would show them how much you love them. Lord, we all have been there, and you have rescued us from our sin. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, we know you love us and went to the cross to save us. Fill us with your love, that we might be conduits of your love and mercy to someone who is at the bottom today. In Jesus’ name, amen. 

Your Time with God’s Word
John 16:33; Jonah 1:12, 2:1-10; 2 Peter 3:9 ESV

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