What Have You Done?

​Jonah 1 :8 - "What have you done to bring this awful storm down upon us?" they demanded. "Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?"  New Living Translation

• Some Seriously Probing Questions 

These seasoned veterans of the sea have most likely seen storms before but they have never seen a storm like this one which has been sent by God.  When we ask ourselves why was this storm sent we receive the same answer the sailors received?

This storm was happening because Jonah was rebelling against God's command.
 
Does it make you wonder like it does me? Why would Jonah disobey? Why wouldn't he just go to Nineveh and preach like he was asked? Seriously, he is a prophet of God. He knows running away is not going to end well for him.
 
Well, no one ever said, "Being a prophet makes you incredibly smart". 

• What About Us? 

Are there any serious storms in our lives? Have we found ourselves in some unexpected storm? Well, what are we going to do?
 
I would suggest asking yourself two questions:
 
First, are you running from God or two are you disobeying Him in some other way. If you are not running or disobeying Him then the odds are you may be the victim of an attack from the evil one (to read more about this read Job 1).
 
The devil has used torture and pain against Christian successfully for a lot of years so there is really no good reason for him to stop using these weapons. 

• Answering The Sailors Questions 

Their first question: "What have you done to bring this awful storm down upon us?" they demanded. I will be making this answer as brief as I can: Jonah's answer would be "I am doing the exact opposite of what God wants me to do."
 
Question 2: -"Who are you? The Lord knows I want to give you a funny answer here but I won't. The Correct Answer - "A man that doesn't want to listen to God."
 
Question 3 - What is your line of work?  I am a preacher/prophet or at least I am supposed to be.
 
Question 4 - What country are you from? I am from Israel.
 
Question 5 - What is your nationality?"  I am Hebrew.
 
Why are they asking Jonah all of these questions? I believe they are trying to figure out who his god is. One must remember there were a lot of local and national deities and I believe they want to know which god has caused this so that they could appease him or her.
 
Jonah tells them in verse 10 that he is running away from his God. It says the sailors were "terrified" when they heard this and asked him "How could you do this?" Some translations ask "Why have you done this?"
 
Why do we humans violate God's commands on a regular basis? May be we are more like Jonah that we care to admit.
 
What are we going to do? Chapter two verse one says, "Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from inside the fish." The best advice I can give you is to pray to the LORD and ask for His help.
 
What have you done? It may be the only thing you have done is confessed Jesus to be your LORD and Savior and because of your faith the evil one is bringing the hammer down on you.

Don't worry, be happy, everything is going to turn out ok for the believers.
 
Notice what God is going to do for those who remain faithful and are permitted to enter in to God's place of rest (Heaven).
 
Rev 21:4 - And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." NKJV
 
Think About These:
 
To succeed in life you must be easy to start and hard to stop.
 
The person who does things that count doesn’t stop and count them.

Stay Pumped,

Gary A. Serago

Minister of God's Word