The
End Game
There are voids in scripture where
details were left out that make me wonder “What if?” One of those is
the prophet Jonah. I wonder if that ungrateful prophet, so full of
himself after God brought repentance Nineveh, ever preached again. What
was God’s end game with Jonah? Did God ever bid him to do
more preaching?
Jonah's path to Nineveh
included a three day, three night ordeal in the belly of the whale—an
ordeal Jesus said provided a sign pointing to his resurrection. But the
last glimpse scripture gives us of Jonah is a preacher with a bitter
rift between him and his boss. Whether he lived out the rest of his
life mired in bitterness or eventually got to a place of usefulness
again, we’ll never know.
Another is Job’s wife. She’s
mentioned (not by name) in Chapter 2, urging Job to abandon his
integrity, “curse God, and die” (2:9). Job responded by telling her she
sounded like “one of the foolish women” (2:10). Job suffered
greatly. But through it all he kept his integrity in tact, blessed God
instead. On the end of his suffering, God gave him “twice as much”
(42:12) as he had prior to Satan’s buffeting. He ended up with
twenty-two thousand head of livestock, seven sons and three daughters,
and a wife who by any standard was living ‘the good life’ despite her
former foolish advice.
He lived an additional one-hundred
forty years and saw four generations of offspring. I take that to mean
he saw his great grandchildren. Since the scripture makes no mention of
concubines, we can assume the same wife who urged him to curse God was
the same wife who afterwards bore him ten more children and shared
the bounty God restored to Job.
I wonder if Job’s wife EVER thanked
God for turning her husband’s captivity (42:10), asking him to forgive
her foolish advice and for giving her and Job a second chance at life.
We know God’s end game with Job was a life filled with familial and
material bounty. But that was NOT the most valuable part of God’s end
game. Job emerged from the other side of his suffering with PRAYER
POWER! When Job prayed for his so-called friends, with whom
God was displeased, the Lord transformed his life. There is NO greater
asset a man can possess in this life than power with God in prayer!
James wrote of Job: “Behold, we count them happy
which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the
end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy”
(James 5:11). If a believer is experiencing MISERY in this life, he can
rest assured God’s end game of that misery is MERCY! God’s ultimate end
game for a child of God is a face to face meeting with Jesus in a
glorified body like unto his glorious body. The resurrection guarantees
it!
There are children of God who suffer
from permanent disabilities, who will never walk, talk or function in a
normal way again. But physical limitations do NOT preclude spiritual
prowess in prayer. Even a bed-ridden ninety-year old saint has the
ability to “pull down strong holds” with prayer as a weapon of
spiritual warfare (2 Corinthians 10:4). That’s an end game EVERY child
of God should desire without regard for his or her physical limitations!
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