Today I was reading Jonah chapter 1.  I’ve read it a lot. I’ve preached on it more than once. Yet, the cool thing about scripture is that God can give you something new each time you read it!

So back to the story many of you may already know… Jonah gets called by God to a place he doesn’t want to go so he jumps on a ship headed in the opposite direction.  While he’s cashed out below deck a storm comes up and threatens to wreck the ship and kill everyone on board. The captain, who’s obviously a nice guy, wakes up Jonah to see if “his god would take notice.” The crew members cast lots, find out it’s all Jonah’s fault, don’t want to kill him (which I wish the bible would expound more on, because I’m sure they didn’t want the wrath of God because they were murders, but they just found out it was Jonah’s fault that all of their lives were in danger!  You can’t tell me there wasn’t at least one guy onboard that was ready toss him overboard immediately! But I digress…), but finally realize after the storm gets even worse that their only hope is to toss Jonah overboard.  And they do (which made that one guy who wanted to in the first place happy, I’m sure).

And here’s where it gets cool! IT WORKS!

But not just that, the Bible says that “the men greatly feared the Lord and offered a sacrifice (other than Jonah, I’m assuming) and made vows to Him.”

We know that God sends a large fish to swallow Jonah, spit him back up, and that Jonah fulfills his calling, but I think its great that these sailors lives get to be changed and mentioned in scripture forever because of Jonah’s disobedience!

Disclaimer: this does not mean you can disobey God on purpose, but it does mean that God can work through you even while he’s getting you back on track!