Ecclesiastes 1:1 says, The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.  Solomon identifies himself, if not by name, at least by description.  He calls himself the Preacher, and he was by nature of the fact that he was presenting God's word to the people there.  Solomon had been guilty of sinning against God, but God had restored him.  Matthew Henry says there is none better to preach than someone who has been restored to God in spite of their sins.  That would include all followers of Christ.  He didn't put the fact that he was the son of David or the king first.  When we reach out to the lost world today, we must first identify ourselves as those who proclaim God's word.  Who our parents are nor our standing in the world are important.  Presenting the word of God accurately is what we are called to do.  Verse two says, Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.  Solomon was sharing God's truth.  When he looked to the things of this world for happiness, it all amounted to nothing.  We look in vain today to find happiness anywhere other than in the will of God. Solomon was indeed one of God's people, one of the most successful in the eyes of the world, but he said it all amounted to nothing.  We may be one of God's people and very successful in the eyes of the world, but if we are putting all of our effort into maintaining or gaining more of the world's riches, it will all come to nothing.  Verse three says, What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?  Solomon was not saying that we shouldn't labor, but that labor and all that we get by it can never satisfy the soul.  Only our relationship with God can do that.  If we reach the point where all our efforts, our labor, are spent to gain the things of this world, it all amounts to nothing.  I don't want to belabor the point, but we must work for heavenly things for our labor to have any value.  The things we do for God are what bring value to our life.

I am going to go from the book of Jonah to the book of Ecclesiastes.  Jonah ran from God for fear of success in getting the people of Nineveh to follow God.  Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes turned from God because God had blessed him so much he felt he could do anything he wanted to at times.  Matthew Henry says that people waited around to hear his wisdom.  Solomon was one of the richest and wisest men who ever lived.  His wisdom came from divine revelation and his riches as a blessing from God, but he often forgot that in his life.  We today need to look to God for wisdom, and acknowledge Him when blessings come our way.  Solomon seemed to often think he could find happiness through the things of this world, but as his life began to pass away, he realized how wrong he was.  This is not a call for us to give up hope, but for us to realize that what we do for God is what really counts.  If we look to our own wisdom, then we have every reason to despair, but if we look to God for wisdom, we will realize that material things are not what make us happy.  There are those today who feel that knowledge is the answer to the problems of the world, and that if they learn more about the world and how it works, they will find happiness in this world.  They can never find enough truth, though, because they don't look to the author of truth, God, in faith.  Some people look to material wealth for happiness, but again, they never gain enough wealth to be satisfied.  Drug addicts did mot start out to be addicts, but to find happiness, or at least momentary escape from the pressures of this world.  Solomon shares with us his conclusions as we look at the book of Ecclesiastes.  We as followers of Christ need to acknowledge that what Solomon said then is still true today.

Jonah Review

I am going to review some of the things I believe we can learn from Jonah.  The first is that God has a purpose for us.  We are not saved to just sit back and watch the world go by waiting to get to heaven.  If salvation is simply a ticket to heaven, then once we are saved, there would be no reason to remain here on earth.  We do have a purpose, though, and that is to witness to the lost and dying world.  Next, we need to realize that God is not going to force us to obey His calling. We can run, just as Jonah did.  It doesn't matter why we run.  When we do, we put ourselves and others at risk.  We don't even have to leave home to run.  Anytime we fail to follow God's will for our life, we are running from Him.  Jonah was still one of God's people, even when he ran, and so are we.  After we are saved, we are God's children forever.  Still, we need to realize that running brings consequences.  It affects not only us, but all those around us.  If we are rebelling against God's call, we cannot be an effective witness for Him.  Our decisions as Christians affect all those around us. Fortunately, as He did with those on the ship, God still waits for them to come to Him and can still reach them through us even if we are running.  We simply have to acknowledge that the one true God is who we serve and that He is in control.  We should never be so full of hate that we don't want certain people saved.  My belief is that God did not call us to be destroyers but witnesses.  We need to witness to the love of God for everyone, not to His love for some and hatred for others.  God loves the vilest sinner as much as the mildest sinner.  We can trust God to meet our needs.  Jonah may not have felt that way in the belly of the whale, but God was saving his life.  Running from God may lead us to some bad situations, but we are still His forever. We simply have to run to Him instead of away from Him.  Finally, we are never justified in being angry when someone is saved, no matter how much we may dislike or hate them.  Again, as followers of Christ, we are to live by His example and reach out to all with the love of the Father.

Jonah 4:6

Jonah 4:6 says, And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. Jonah was in the hot sun, and God brought him relief in the form of a gourd that provided him shelter from the heat.  This is at least the second time God had met Jonah's physical needs.  We might wonder at the giant fish and the gourd, but they met a need.  We have to understand that it would have been just as easy for God to immediately place Jonah on dry land from the sea or to place clouds and a cool wind over Jonah, but God was attempting to help Jonah grow in faith and compassion.  Jonah was exceedingly glad that his physical need had been met.  We need to be careful that we don't rejoice more when God meets our physical needs than when He meets others spiritual needs.  Verse seven adds, But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.  God was not trying to bless and then torture Jonah. We can be sure that if we have been received a blessing from God and it is then taken away that it doesn't mean that God loves us any less.  Verse eight continues, And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.  God took away the shelter He had prepared for Jonah, and once again Jonah said it would be better for him to die.  Do we act the same way when we lose material blessings?  We may value something, or even someone, so highly that if we lose it or them, we feel that we would be better off dead.  Jonah was self-centered, and if we feel that way, so are we.  Verse nine states, And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.  Jonah felt justified in his anger.  He was not getting what he wanted.  We today may feel justified to feel angry unto death when things don't go our way, but that isn't God's will for us.  That is being self-centered. Verse ten adds, Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:  God was again attempting to teach Jonah.  He wanted Jonah to grow in his understanding of what is important, and He wants the same for us today.  Verse eleven continues, And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?  God asks Jonah what was more important, the gourd or all the people of Nineveh.  We are not told Jonah's answer.  God asks us the same thing today.  What is more important, our physical comfort or the salvation of souls.  It is up to each of us to answer that question.

Jonah 4:4

Jonah 4:4 says, Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry? Jonah was angry that a whole city had accepted God as their God, and God wanted to know why Jonah felt that was the right attitude to have.  When people today come to Christ as their Savior, we should never be upset or angry about it.  Jonah was angry at least in part because the people of Nineveh were Gentiles, and God was accepting them.  We cannot feel that there are people who shouldn't be saved, much less whole nations of people.  Verse five adds, So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.  Jonah wanted to view the city to see if God would yet destroy it.  We today do not need to be sitting back waiting for God to destroy evil people.  Had He done that, we would have been among them.  Jonah was attempting to be comfortable while he waited.  We need to be careful that we are not guilty of the same thing today.  We are not called to sit back in comfort while waiting for the destruction of those we do not like and who do not like us. We are to be witnesses for God, not judges of the world.  Jonah definitely did not want to go to Nineveh, and he was angry when they repented. There may be places we don't want to go today to share the gospel, not because we are afraid that people won't listen, but because we are afraid they will.  We want God to forgive us, but we want Him to punish others.  This is not what we are called to do.  We are called to share the message of Christ with all those we come in contact with. We cannot spend our time trying to make ourselves comfortable while waiting for God to destroy those that we don't like.  As followers of Christ we are called to a higher standard.  Until we truly begin to reach out to all the world with the message of salvation through Christ, wanting all to be saved, God may be asking us if we do well to be angry.

Jonah 4:1

Jonah 4:1 says, But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.  We would think that Jonah would be very happy that his obeying God and proclaiming His word had been used by God to save Nineveh, but Jonah was displeased with what God had done.  He was more than upset.  He was angry.  I believe he was angry with the people for repenting and being saved, at God for forgiven them and even at himself for his part in it.  We today need to guard against resenting anyone being saved.  No matter how we may personally feel about them, we need to realize that everyone is saved by the same grace of God, and the only way anyone is saved is by the grace of God.  We should rejoice anytime this happens.  Verse two adds, And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.  Jonah was in effect telling God I told you so.  Even before Jonah tried to run away to Tarshish, he knew that God's mercy would be extended to the people of Nineveh if they repented and turned to Him.  Jonah, I believe, would have willing gone to Nineveh if he thought the people were actually going to be destroyed.  As followers of Christ, we need to be careful that we are not looking for the vengeance of God to fall on anyone, but for His mercy to be displayed.  I do not believe that we can ever have the attitude that we are waiting for God to give those that we don't like, even those that we hate, what they deserve.  Instead, we need to pray that God will save them through His mercy, just as He did us.  Verse three continues, Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.  Jonah was so successful as an evangelist that he wanted God to take his life.  That is a powerful hate for a group of people.  I believe too often today we hate groups of people instead of wanting to reach them with God's love.  A person who dies without knowing Christ as their personal Savior is forever separated from God, and we should mourn anytime that happens.

Jonah 3:10

Jonah 3:10 says, And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.  The people of Nineveh were saved because they truly repented, asked for God's forgiveness, and turned from their evil ways.  Again, true repentance is more than words.  True repentance is a change in our very nature, where God's forgiveness leads to a new way of life.  There are those who say everything, both good and bad, is preordained.  Here, we read that God changed His mind about what He was going to do to the people of Nineveh.  Some would say that God knew all along that they were going to repent and be saved, but He did not send Jonah with a message of salvation, but of destruction.  Fortunately, we as His followers today are sent with a message of salvation.  I don't believe we are to look for the destruction of sinners, no matter how evil they are, but for their salvation.  We know Jonah knew of the reputation of the people of Nineveh as being evil, but it wasn't a fear of them that made him not want to go. We know he didn't want to go because he was afraid that they would be saved.  What is our attitude today about those who are truly evil today?  Do we fear them?  Do we want them destroyed?  As followers of Christ, we must pray and witness for their redemption, not their destruction.  If anyone dies without coming to a saving knowledge of Christ, then they are forever separated from God.  We, as God's followers, should never be happy when this happens, no matter how evil, or good, that person might be. We cannot write off whole segments of society, or the world, because we view them as evil.  Again, from the cross, Jesus asked for forgiveness for those who crucified Him.  We might say they didn't deserve it, but neither do we.  If we, as followers of Christ, begin to live our lives out of fear and hatred of whole segments of the world, then we cannot be effective witnesses for God.  God may still work through us, but we will miss the joy of our salvation.