Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

The Assyrians were fierce enemies of Israel and Jonah knew this. The capital of the Assyrian empire was Nineveh and it was to this city that Jonah was sent to warn to people and encourage them to repent. It was no wonder that Jonah ended up going in the direction towards Tarshish so that God could deal with the people who were a constant threat to the Israelites. Jonah’s actions were quite typical. The average person would want to see their enemy destroyed and Jonah was no different. Like all the Israelites, he hated the Assyrians. They were powerful and ruthless and would eventually make Israel a vassal state of theirs. So when he received the call to warn them about the impending destruction he was understandably in a quandary about what to do. How do you react when you are told to face your enemies to try to bring restoration to a situation? How far should we go in trying to be peace makers? Jonah got it woefully wrong. Although he eventually went to Nineveh to warn the people, he was very sad that they repented and were not destroyed. Jesus tells us that we should love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matt 5:43-48). This is very difficult in reality and shows great spiritual maturity when we are able to do this. Recently the President of the United States of America ordered his special agents to kill the renowned terrorist Osama Bin Laden. Osama was a thorn in the side of America for well over a decade and was apparently responsible for blowing up the twin towers. So when the news was released that he was dead, people went onto the streets in America and celebrated.  I believe Jonah would have celebrated like those people from America, but what would Jesus have done? Jesus went on to say in Matthew 5:45 “the father makes the rain fall on the just and the unjust” and so he will enact judgement in his time. So although it may be difficult, pray for your enemies, bless them and allow God to exact his judgement.

Read Matthew 5:38-48 and allow love to overcome hatred.