God uses broken people
‘That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity’. Jonah 4:2
Jonah was one of the most successful prophets in biblical history. God used Jonah to send revival to the city of Nineveh with over 120,000 people, with each person repenting before God. It should have been caused for a great celebration, right? But in chapter 4 we don’t find Jonah in a state of joy, but deep and resentful anger. He curses his own life and declares that he actually wanted Nineveh to be destroyed and he wanted God not to relent.
In scripture, Jonah is regarded as a prophet who found ministry impact despite his poor character, unfaithfulness and anger. He flees from the LORD when he is called to preach, He is angry when God works powerfully in the city. So why is Jonah such an important character to learn from?
The book of Jonah is subversive in the sense that it’s about God’s sovereign will to use dysfunctional people for His powerful purposes. It’s meant to stretch the readers’ imagination of how wide the love of God is and what kind of people God is able to use for His glory.
There are many times when we are like Jonah, when we are angry at the wrong things, we become fixated on our own self-interest over God’s Kingdom. There are moments when we purposely run away from God’s purpose in our lives, when our sin draws us to hate though we should love, break things we should restore. In those times it can become easy to doubt whether God has any grace left for us. In those moments, let us think of God’s sovereign grace at work in Jonah, still guiding him towards his kingdom purpose.
How is your soul this week? Is it tired and broken like Jonah? Let scripture encourage you today, that no one is beyond the grace of God and no one too broken for Him to use powerfully. We only need - like Jonah - turn back towards God’s holy presence again.
神使用破碎的人
「所以我當初逃往他施去。因為我知道祢是有恩典、有憐憫的神，不輕易發怒，有豐盛的慈愛，並且轉意不降所說的災禍。」約拿書4:2
約拿是聖經歷史上最成功的先知之一。神使用約拿為尼尼微城帶來復興，尼尼微城有十二萬多人，每個人都在神面前悔改。這理當是帶來一場盛大的慶祝，對嗎？但在第四章中，我們並沒有看到約拿處於喜樂的狀態，但反之是處於深深並怨恨的憤怒之中。他詛咒自己的生命，並宣稱他實際上希望尼尼微被毀滅，他希望神不要心慈手軟。
在聖經中，約拿被視為有事工果效的先知,儘管他品格不佳、不順服和發大怒。當他被呼召去傳講信息時，他就逃離主耶和華；當神在城裡行大能拯救時，他就發怒。那麼，為什麼約拿是個值得學習的重要人物呢？
約拿書是顛覆性的，它講述了神衪的主權使用有缺陷的人來實現祂至高無上的旨意。它的目的是擴展讀者們的想像力，讓他們了解神的愛有多麼廣闊，以及神能夠使用什麼樣的人來榮耀祂。
很多時候，我們就像約拿一樣，當我們錯誤地對事情感到憤怒時，我們變得專注於自己的利益過於看重神的國度。有一些時候，當我們會故意逃避神對我們生命的旨意，我們的罪會牽引我們去恨，儘管我們應該愛；去破壞,儘管我們應該修復。在那些時候，我們很容易懷疑神是否給我們留下了任何恩典。在那些時刻，讓我們想想神按祂至高無上的恩典對待約拿，仍然引導他走向祂國度的目的。
這週你的心靈怎麼樣？是否像約拿一樣疲憊和破碎不堪？今天就讓聖經鼓勵你吧，沒有人會超乎神恩典的深遠，也沒有人因太破碎而無法被神大能地使用。我們只需要 - 像約拿一樣 - 再次轉向神聖潔的臨在。
