0236. The Commission Disobeyed

The Commission Disobeyed

"But Jonah arose to flee from the presence of the Lord" (Jon_1:2).

"But they would not hear" (Jer_13:11).

Jonah refused to become God’s ambassador to Nineveh; Israel refused time and time again, to represent God among the nations. Jonah brought reproach upon his ministry and defamed the name of his God before the heathen sailors. Israel caused God’s holy name to be blasphemed among the Gentiles. The name they were sent to magnify, they defamed.

The passage in Jeremiah is a striking one. Jeremiah was told to wear a linen girdle before the people. Afterward he was told to take the girdle and place it under a rock, down by the Euphrates. Then again he was commanded to take the girdle, which had become marred, and wear it in the sight of Israel. When he was questioned as to the strangeness of such an act, he was to say:

"For as the girdle clingeth unto the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto Me, the whole House of Israel and the whole House of Judah, that they might be unto Me for a people and for a name, and for a praise and for a glory, but they would not hear."

The priest tied the girdle about his flowing robes in order that he might serve. God wanted to serve the nations; Israel was His girdle. God wanted Israel to show forth His name, His glory and His praise, but Israel would not hear.

Israel ran away from her commission just as Jonah did. God planted a vineyard in a fruitful hill, He digged it, and built a wall about it, and a tower within it, and then looked for it to bring forth grapes, but "it brought forth wild grapes." That vineyard was Israel.

How the heart of God was crushed by Israel’s sins.

God wanted fruit and more fruit and much fruit but He found no fruit. The whole story of Israel’s fleeing God, and of Israel’s fruitlessness is told by an experience of the Lord Jesus. Christ, being hungry, saw a fig tree, and He went over to it, if haply it had any figs. He found nothing but leaves. He said: "Cursed art thou forever" (Gk. For an age). The next day the disciples said: "Master, the fig tree which Thou cursedst is withered away."

Israel was that fig tree. The Lord was looking for Israel to bring forth fruit unto God, but Israel brought forth nothing but leaves.

"Nothing but leaves,

The Spirit grieves,

O’er years of wasted life;

O’er vows and promises unkept,

O’er nations lost, while Israel slept,

And finds from years of strife,

Nothing but leaves,

Nothing but leaves."

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR