Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies. Jonah 2:8 NLT
Jonah, chapter two is a wonderful piece of literature. But verse eight is especially interesting. In the original it is very indefinite. The sentence says “those who carefully guard worthless things have abandoned their steadfast love (ḥesed).” In keeping with its purpose of making every Biblical statement immediately meaningful, the NLT (above) has given the verse an explicit meaning. What it says is quite correct, but to give a clear, explicit meaning, it closes down some additional possibilities, because virtually every word in the sentence is rich with those possibilities.
The word I have translated “carefully guard” is used throughout the covenant and is usually an auxiliary word with “keep” or “do,” speaking of covenant obedience. So “keep carefully” or “guard yourself to do,” etc. So it is to pay very careful attention to something important and valuable. Is that what these people are doing? No! They are giving careful attention to “worthless vanities.” Could the two words describe gods? Yes, and they are used in that way sometimes. However, there are many more things in our world that are worthless vanities than merely idol-gods. There are cars, and houses, and sex, and jobs, and alcohol, and the list could go on forever. Must we pay attention to these things? Of course, and there is nothing wrong with that attention. But there is only one thing that must be carefully guarded before and above all others, and that is our relationship with the present God.
What happens when you don’t jealously guard that relationship? You abandon, divorce yourself from, the most precious possession you could ever have, your birthright, the self-giving, self-denying love of God. It is ours from birth. You don’t have to struggle to get it; you don’t have to work your fingers to the bone to earn it; you don’t have to make some terrible surrender to win it. IT’S YOURS. And Jonah, Jonah of all people, knows that. Oh, don’t give that up for trinkets that the casket cannot hold. Don’t abandon the best gift of all because you are carefully guarding some pieces of junk. Instead, do all you need to to nurture your relationship with the living God, and in so doing you will find yourself wrapped in the everlasting arms.
Called To Be Transformed 