God used Jonah's disobedience to reveal himself to unsaved sailors

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Ever feel like your attempts to share the gospel are feeble and impotent?  God can do far more than we think, ask or imagine.

In the book of Jonah, God not only uses Jonah’s eventual obedience to spare the great city of Ninevah, but chapter 1 shows how he uses Jonah’s disobedience to save a shipful of pagan sailors.

First God commands Jonah to head 500 miles northeast by land to warn Ninevah of impending judgment on their sins.  But Jonah disobeys, flees the opposite direction, books passage on a ship and heads west on the Mediterranean.  So God hurls a storm on the ship.

When the tempest first strikes, the sailors fear for their lives.  As it worsens, and they discover Jonah’s at the vortex, they begin to fear God when the prophet says:

“I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. (9-10)

Suddenly these pagan sailors are introduced to the God of heaven, the one who created the sea and the dry land.  Now they are “exceedingly afraid,” not merely for their lives, but of God. When they hurl Jonah into the sea and the storm ceases immediately, they not only fear God, but they worship him:

Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows. (16)

God used Jonah’s disobedience to reveal himself to these pagan sailors.  If Jonah had obeyed God initially, he’d never have taken the ship, and the sailors may never have come to know the living God.

So be encouraged about your seemingly weak or failed attempts to share the gospel.  If God could use Jonah’s sin to rescue lost sailors, he can use our feeble efforts to save lost sinners.