Consequences from foolish decisions

Proverbs 3:5

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”

I love to read proverbs, for it speaks soley on spiritual wisdom and the cause and effects of what foolish and fleshly decisions can bring. God specifies in His holy word how important it is to make sure that we read and instill the truth in our walk with Him. As we read the bible, you can learn from the many achievements and the unfortunate failures, that a numerous amount of people have made along the way.

Jonah Learned the hard way when he used his fleshly wisdom against God’s wisdom and instructions when it came to the judgement/repentance of the people of Ninevah. Throughout his journey he learned no matter what tactics he tried to avoid going to Ninevah, God’s way will always prevail all the time. The reason of Jonah’s defiance of the people of Ninevah, was that they were in constant battle against the Israelites and therefore the Israelites suffered for it. But regardless of what Jonah thought and felt about it, God is a merciful and loving God and wanted to give them a chance for redemption.

Jonah 1:1-17

Jonah Sent to Nineveh, Flees to Tarshish

Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. 3But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

The Great Storm

 4But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. 5Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. 6So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. 7And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. 8Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou? 9And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. 10Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.

Jonah Cast Into the Sea and Swallowed

11Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. 12And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. 13Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them. 14Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee. 15So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. 16Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows. 17Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

Ninevah repents

Jonah 3:5-10

“So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: 8But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. 9Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? 10And 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.”

Jonah's Anger at the Lord's Compassion

Jonah 4:1-11

1But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. 2And 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. 3Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. 4Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry? 5So 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. 6And 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. 7But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. 8And 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. 9And 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. 10Then 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: 11And 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?” 

(My life lesson shared)

I would like to share an analogy with you guys, as it has pressed deeply in my mind. (in a good way) First I would like to ask, have we done something foolish then after doing it, say why did I do that? I’m sure 100% of you would agree. For example: We all have to go grocery shopping to put food in the house, and the worst part of the shopping day is bringing all of the food in the house. We say to ourselves,  don’t worry we are going to use our incredible superhuman strength and carry as many groceries in the house as we can so there would be less trips. Well, in our version of superhuman strength, we end up with the risk of truly injuring ourselves; whether it being our back, arms or simply falling by the weight of what we are carrying. I know, because I made the mistake of taking more than I can simply handle and seriously hurting myself. I was carrying probably around 3-4 bags of soda bottles and what made it more trivial is that I was walking up the steps to my house. Well I guess I lost my grip of the bags while trying to open the door when all of a sudden the weight of the bags twisted in a way and fell on top of my right ring finger. I instantly heard a crack/rip sound, and I thought that I broke my finger because when I looked down at my hand my finger was really crooked (turned to the right). I cried and regretted my decision of doing something so foolish, and at that time I was trying to figure out if I needed to go to the hospital for a broken finger. After examining the finger I didn’t see any bones sticking out but I was still concerned. Later that night I notice that my right hand was so swollen, that it looked like a baseball mitt; so at this point there it was an immediate prayer session between my dad and I. By the grace of God, my hand had healed with no hospital bill. (Thank you Jesus!) I strongly believe that I had injured tendons and no bones were touched. Now don’t get me wrong, just like any injury there will be a time when they will flair up when triggered, but that Is apart of life. We are reminded everyday that we are only human and we live in an imperfect world; the total opposite of Heaven. In heaven we don’t get sick, we don’t age, we don’t hurt, but we are in peace to rejoice and praise our Lord Father for eternity.

To this day where all of my fingers bend and relax like normal, the one finger likes to stay slightly bent (nothing too serious). And If I use my right hand a lot through strenuous work (cleaning, writing,etc) that finger tightens and it tends to get a little sore; I would just massage my hand a little bit and then it would be alright again.

Putting aside injuries, and fingers, my whole point was to show how we make such foolish decisions that always results in consequences. Throughout the word of God, He tells us to Seek Him, to Trust Him, and to Lean upon Him through everything that we do. Where my foolish decision to carry everything in sight that led to my injury, I should have taken my time where I would have avoided all of that trouble. Which brings to where God talks of wisdom as we live in this crazy world….

Proverbs 28:26

“He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.”