Today's Readings and Stuff -- Saturday, 14 December 2019

Happy Saturday to all.  Nearly halfway through the month.  Most of the way through the year

Wife is napping, another bad night for her.  And in a few hours, we have to make our way through the snow that is falling right now, and probably some awful roads, to be present for the birthday party of the next-door Great Niece, her 7th.  A great time for all has been ordered.
But it meant that I had to "make a run".  Got a call from our across-the-Line pharmacy that I had three prescriptions ready.  They're for me, and while I'm not out of any of them, in a few weeks our insurance is changing and getting refills might be complicated as a result.  So I braved the falling mix of snow and rain, and endured PENNDOT's massive incompetence, and went.  And, being there, was under orders to get a bow for the birthday gift.  So I did.  Retirement stuff hits Tuesday (Lord willing of course)  so the wallet was thin, but I got  the necessary and still have enough to pick up a jug of milk tomorrow.  So we're good.

I've been dwelling on some of the matters in the so-called "minor prophets' that have constituted much of the recent readings and most of the rest of the year's passages as the end of the Old Testament passages approach.  Lots of condemnation and judgment and warning of the elements of those condemnations.  What things are common in those details include some pretty spectacular things.  Invading armies, for one, with mass death and slaughter, including death of babies and preganant women, persons who probably weren't guilty of anything but certainly part of the "collateral damage".  And then there are warnings of no rain, always a concern in that region, so little or no food to be grown, and no grass for the sheep.  Locusts in vast armies devouring what little grass and plant life was left.  No food, no water, disease.  Oh, and earthquakes and the like.  So those "elements of 'ordinary' life" that people, us included, come to regard as just the natural order of things, all taken away.  We forget that such things are, in truth, a gift of God.  When we stop regarding them in that status, He's capable of taking them back.
Some of us, me included, know all too well the feeling of having those things we regarded as fixed in place and expected as foundational, gone.  Illness, job loss, personal disagreements, all of it and more.  Like it or not, and I don't, it sometimes takes such shocks to draw our attention back to the only real and reliable Source. 

Song of the day has been with me all morning.  My Name Is Lazarus. 
Now, all who claim the name of Christians have a similar story, a testimony.  "When I in chains of death was bound, this Man named Jesus called me out".  For our natural state is as dead in our sin nature as the names we see on tombstones.  Being one of the "called out" is as much a miracle as the parting of the Red Sea or any other.  It's an act of God, not of ourselves.  He gets the praise.  Not us, certainly not me.

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Today, chapters 1 and 2 of Jonah. 
Do you know anyone whose given name is Jonah?  I don't.  Many people in our world have given names of Biblical origin:  I know an Abel, many Davids, a Timothy or two, several Pauls.  Both of my grandfathers were named Steven.  My own dad had a rather obscure name, Eber (see Genesis 10).  Not many Jezebels.  And very few named Jonah.
There's probably some reason for that.  One of the toughest things in the world to tell the Lord is "here am I.  Send me."  That's handing over a signed blank check (though that is really part of the equation of Salvation).  But here, the Lord called Jonah.  And, in response, he ran the other direction.  He didn't like the assignment.  Sadly, that didn't end with him.  Most of us are, or think we are, willing to go where we would feel comfortable.  Not necessarily where the need is.  Need examples? 
Yet the Lord's purposes were accomplished, in spite of Jonah. 

Jonah 1

1Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

2Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

3But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

4But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.

5Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.

6So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.

7And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.

8Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?

9And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.

10Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

11Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.

12And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.

13Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.

14Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee.

15So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.

16Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows.

17Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah 2

1Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly,

2And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

3For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

4Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.

5The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.

6I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.

7When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

8They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

9But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.

10And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.