Last week we looked into Jonah’s refusal to obey God and his finding of a ship to escape the will of God. This week let me call your attention to Jonah chapter 1 verses 4 through 10. In his rebellion to God’s will Jonah found a ship, paid the fare, found a good spot and went to sleep. [In like manner many Christians have done so; abandoned their post, found a comfy spot in the world and gone to sleep]. In verse 4 and 5 God sent a terrible storm. In verse 6 through 9 the mariners feared for their lives and struggled to determine why this storm was upon them. [There is a massive doctrinal and life lesson there too] can you see it? In verse 8 and 9 (with 11 considered) they confront Jonah and he confesses who he is and why the storm has befallen them. In verse 10 after Jonah tells these seasoned veteran shipmasters why they face the destruction of their ship and their lives, they were terrified and they demanded to know “Why Hast Thou Done This”?

Let me borrow your imagination for a few moments. The sky is black with storm clouds, the wind howls, the peels of lightening flash and the thunder is deafening. It rips the sails to shreds and breaks beams! You must shout to be heard by the man standing next to you. The ship reels and bucks and groans under the strain as the waves crash down on the deck. It plunges down into the troughs and then up on the next wave. Crates, ropes and tackle shatter against the railing. The men, white with panic, stagger and struggle to find something to hold onto. Some have seen the huge fish circling the ship. They fear the ship will be destroyed and they will all perish. Amidst this scene they shout their accusatory question at Jonah “WHY HAST THOU DONE THIS”?!

Why have you turned your back on God? Why have you abandoned what He told you to do? Why did you say “I surrender all to thee” when you had no intention to do so?! For the rebelling Christian alone many hard life lessons are stuffed into these few verses. Questions like: ‘Why did you tell God you would do His will and then turn your back on it’? ‘Has your storm arrived yet?’ Are you already in the belly of hell? Jonah 2:2. Can I point out that God sends storms only to turn those He loves back. He sends a storm because all else has failed to get our attention! When the mariners obeyed God that storm stopped. Can I point out that God has some storms beyond our wildest dreams if that’s what it takes to break our pride. We’re out of time and space for this week but let me urge you to study your Bible and see what God might show you.

After Elijah killed the false prophets of Ba-al [1st Kings 18:40] we find him running for his life in the next chapter [see 1st Kings 19:3-4]. The notorious blow-hard queen Jezebel was all in a tizzy over Elijah killing her 400 dancing monkeys at the first annual Ba-al worship concert and she’d threatened to kill him within 24 hrs. This scripture baffled me for a long time in years past. I questioned Elijah’s stamina and judged him harshly for running. How in the world, I wondered, could the great Elijah possibly be afraid of a mop-head like Jezebel? Run from her, surely you can’t be serious? In fact I wondered why Elijah didn’t invite her to bring her “Ba-al worshippers against God” sign and come on down to Mt. Carmel so he could straighten her out like he had her false prophets. I’ve many times wondered why he feared her. But let’s go on.

As we take up his story, it was just a few days ago that the miraculous “fire of the Lord” fell upon the altar of God in Mt. Carmel. It was such a dramatic demonstration of the power and majesty of the Living God that Elijah must’ve thought ‘surely this will turn the world back to the Living God of Abraham, Isaac and Moses!’ None could deny it. Yet, within hours many of the infuriated Jews and Gentiles had again thrown down the altar of God and were after Elijah! How could it be? From this great miracle where people had shouted “The Lord, He is God” [Ch 18:39] had degenerated into an angry mob! {That should sound familiar to those who study their Bibles}.

It is no surprise to me personally that we find Elijah in chapter 19:3-4 discouraged, depressed and exasperated. Like many who suffer from depression he’s sought solitude. Exhausted from running, he’s laid under a tree alone and gone to sleep. Yet God, who loves us and watches over “his children”, who never leaves us nor forsakes us, has seen every step Elijah has taken and watched him fall asleep. In His tender pity and mercy He sent an angel to build a fire and cook a little “cake” for Elijah [the country preacher commentary, by which I mean mine, says “cake” in the Hebrew means cornbread]. Now the Lord could have simply dropped a bag of manna from heaven beside Elijah. He could have just given Elijah the strength of Sampson or the courage of Gabriel and strengthened him and sent him home. But no, our God sent His angel to cook this discouraged weary servant a “cake” {cornbread and maybe some coffee too}; in fact verse 7 says he did it twice! Psalm 34:7 says “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them”. I urge you to read verse 6 and then read Psalm 27:13-14 too. The point is, look at our God’s tender handling of His servant during this darkest hour of Elijah’s life. Look how gentle and providential He was! When my children were small I often sat beside them as they slept and softly rubbed their head. I won’t be one bit surprised to one day learn that God does that to us during hard times. I know beyond all doubt that in my deepest pits my tender Lord whispered “trust me”.

In Alan Dean Foster’s bestselling western novel “Pale Rider” the main character {a role later played by actor and director Clint Eastwood} is portrayed as gun slinging whiskey drinking preacher ‘Gabriel’ who mysteriously comes to the rescue of poor downtrodden gold claim miners who are oppressed by a gold greedy land baron. Set with ominous music there is a scene where someone reads part of Revelation 6:8 “And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him…”

But instead of getting our doctrine from Hollywood let’s look at what the Bible has to say about the real PALE rider. “The Four Horsemen” of the Revelation is far more frightening than you might think. First, get this settled in your head: If you are really a “born again” [John 2:3] “saved” [Acts 16] “believer” [John 1:12] of the gospel of the risen Lord Jesus Christ [I Cor 15:1-4] –You Won’t Be Here when the Divine Seals are broken and the Angelic Horsemen are released. Look at Revelation 6 where we will find the period known as ‘The Tribulation’ or “The Time of Jacob’s trouble” [Jeremiah 30:7]. The FIRST SEAL is broken and the FIRST ANGEL horseman is released. He is ‘The Conqueror’ upon his WHITE horse. His ministry is terrible! Government and Nations of the world will collapse and be ripped to shreds. He will turn them against each other and against Israel.

The SECOND ANGEL horseman will combine his terrible power with that of the first – WAR rides the RED horse. The planet will be devastated. Peace will be taken from all the earth. On a global scale no one senses peace but rather a sense of impending doom and battle. He will cause man to turn on man and nation to turn on nation. It will be savage and brutal war unending until the “anti-Christ comes with his false promise of peace”. It will be horrible when the White horse conqueror and the Red rider of WAR is released.

Now “come and see” the third seal broken and the THIRD ANGEL Horseman comes thundering out of heaven riding a BLACK horse and with his balances in his hand [Revelation 6:5]. The BLACK horse rider is empowered to bring global economic ruin. Food, fuel, electricity, hospitals and all things that require economy will be brought to collapse. The ensuing panic and plagues will be unimaginable. Hunger and violence and homelessness and mob rule will grip the planet under the BLACK horse rider.
These three ANGEL Horseman will leave the earth a smoking war-torn battlefield. Now try to hear with your imagination as the fourth beast says “Come and see” and here let me urge you to read Revelation 6:8 in its entirety…and behold, a PALE HORSE and his name that sat on him was Death…and these FOUR angelic horseman will have power to kill with plague, wild animals, starvation and war! I just cannot imagine this scene and frankly I don’t want to. It will be merciless. I don’t know about you but I am glad I won’t have to see the suffering these Horsemen bring …because I’ll be with my Lord at the marriage supper.

One of the saddest things I suppose we Christians can experience is the feeling that God is far from us! Sin can bring about this feeling of abandonment and hopelessness. *There is a huge difference between spiritual {judicial} forgiveness and parental forgiveness. In fact in Psalms 22:11 the great king David cried out “Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help”. I agree with him – I notice that sometimes God allows a bad situation to get so bad that I am faced with the irrefutable realization that there is not a soul on earth who could have helped me deal with what I was facing. At such times, when God does finally step in, it has gotten so bad that I must acknowledge that He alone could have helped. I think when David said “…for there is none to help”, it was because he had reached that place where God alone could help. Have you ever felt that way?

Look at these similar places in David’s life where he cried out to God in desperation: Psalm 22:19 But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me. Again in Psalm 27:9 Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. David, you may remember, made some huge blunders in his spiritual life and committed some atrocious sins [2 Samuel chapter 11 onward]: Lust, Adultery and Murder yet he repented of his sins [Psalm 51]. I always find it humorous to hear someone say that they have finally reached a place where they don’t commit sin {John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, popularized the teaching of Christian perfection in his 1777 book “A Plain Account of Christian Perfection”}. I am glad for our sakes that God recorded David’s sin, confession and repentance in the Bible! We find David again crying out in Psalm 35:22 “This thou hast seen, O LORD: keep not silence: O Lord, be not far from me.” If that isn’t enough to convince you that even David wasn’t perfect, take a look at Psalm 38:21 “Forsake me not, O LORD: O my God, be not far from me” and Psalm 71:12 “O God, be not far from me: O my God, make haste for my help”.

As you were reading David’s great psalms / prayers beseeching God to not leave him alone and without hope, I trust you noticed that any one of these prayers might be great to memorize for your own dark hours. Over the many years thousands like yourself have cried out to God and cited these prayers of David or words very similar! This feeling of being alone in deep despair and hopelessness is not new to us and in fact if you’ll turn in your Bible to Matthew chapter 28 verse 46 you’ll find our Lord Jesus Christ praying “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me”? Jesus was forsaken in your place that through his sacrifice you might have the fellowship He has with the Father and never be forsaken again! Glorious work of Calvary!