Jonah 1:3-7, “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 Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”
There are many lessons in the book of Jonah. One of them is God’s mercy. When the people of Nineveh repented at the prophesying of Jonah, God showed them great mercy by withholding His judgment from them. Likewise, when we repent of our sins, God will forgive us and we will be spared His correction.
We are told not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Yet, how often do we entertain unbelievers; someone who is not born again as a potential mate. It is the “yes, but” that gets us into trouble: “Yes, but have you seen those lips, those hips😊” “Yes, but he is so charming, so disarming😊” Jesus told us to take His yoke upon us and learn from Him. When we are yoked with someone in marriage, we are forced to choose one path or another. The yoke causes us to move together. So, if an unbelieving spouse, especially a husband (to whom a wife is supposed to submit) chooses a wrong path in his blindness, it puts the believing wife in a predicament.
We should never take someone on as a spouse thinking we can change them. If we find ourselves saved after marriage and our spouse is not, the Bible says that spouse may be won to Christ by our example. However, we are told not to marry an unbeliever because we will be unequally yoked. The reaping from bad seeds the unbeliever has sown will also impact their spouse.
We might find ourselves, like the people in the boat with Jonah, reaping what we have not sown, due to our proximity to the one receiving God’s judgment. We are most vulnerable to those who are closest to us. An unbeliever is most often directed by their flesh and the devil’s influence. That is a dangerous situation for a believer to put themself in.
Sometimes we have to throw a relationship overboard, so that peace can reign in our life.
