“Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.”
This verse was a verse that one of my teachers shared with me back in high school. The goal was to someday create a VBS theme designed with that verse in mind, training up in the Word. Although I am far from writing full on VBS material, I have begun work on a series devoted to Training up in Christ.
In today’s lesson we will discuss the first step in training up in the Word: Listening to His Commandments. There are several accounts of men and women who listened in the Bible, but I’d rather spend our time discussing the most famous non-listener in the Bible, Jonah.
Jonah 1:1-3 NKJV
“1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” 3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshishfrom the presence of the Lord.”
In these verses it’s plain to see what God’s plan was, He didn’t try to hide it. God envisioned Jonah going to Nineveh and preaching the Word to them. However Jonah’s selfish desires got in the way, much like ours do today, and Jonah chose not to listen. In Jonah’s mind Nineveh didn’t deserve God. To us that sounds crazy, why would Jonah ever say or do such a thing. But are we really any different? We all have that person at school or work who we can’t stand. Maybe it’s not a full on hatred but a strong dislike. If we withhold Jesus from anyone for any reason we are no better than Jonah. God tells us to share with everyone, not with everyone we deem worthy. Aren’t you glad someone cared enough to listen to God and share Him with you? You can’t train up in the Word if you aren’t prepared to listen.
Thanks,
Bro. Austin
*Next week we will look at the second step in training up in the Word: Obedience.
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