To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice

Now this message from the LORD came to Amittai’s son Jonah: “Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city! Then cry out in protest against it, because their evil has come to my attention. But Jonah got up and fled from the LORD to Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, secured passage on a ship bound for Tarshish, paid the fare, and boarded, intending to go with the mariners to Tarshish to escape from the LORD. Then the LORD sent a great wind over the sea, and a severe storm broke out. It seemed as if the ship were about to break up. At this point the mariners became terrified, and each man cried out to his gods. They began to throw the cargo into the sea in order to lighten the vessel. But Jonah had gone down into the vessel’s hold, had lain down, and was fast asleep. Jonah 1:1-5

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When God commanded Jonah to go and warn the sinful people of Nineveh, he refused but fled in the opposite direction. God who is merciful and gracious and doesn't want anyone to perish determined to bring Jonah back.

He sent a fierce storm that threatened to sink the ship but not to kill anyone on board. The seamen, who were not Hebrews, prayed to their gods to save them, and tried to persuade Jonah to also call on his God for help.

They all did what they could but their prayers brought no results, and so the seamen concluded that the storm must have been a supernatural punishment upon someone in the ship.

Jonah confessed his sin, acknowledging that this was God’s judgment upon him but then a great trouble has already comenupon them leading to lose of their goods.

Jonah never knew what will be his fate after suggesting to the seamen that he should be thrown into the sea to stop the tempest. Jonah could have lost his life if not for the fact that he accepted his sins and pleaded God and ask forgiveness on time.

Obedience is one of the important virtues that God wants His children to learn and to put to practice. Obedience to God is a moral duty, constantly and indispensably necessary.

We cannot afford the cost of disobedience becuase there is no way to compensate God for that, the reward for disobedience is sometimes deadly.