The Quest
The Quest
A strange thing happens when the hunter becomes the hunted. It's one thing to be at the top of the food chain, confident in having a superior intellect and abilities. The gun or bow at your side is also a great confidence boost. However, too many hunters have discovered all too late that they have become the prey. Recently, here in Montana, a hapless hiker learned that lesson the hard way. His weapon was his camera and his hunter was the grizzly he photographed too closely. He left a record of his exploits in the photos he shot just before the grizzly made a meal of him. Then there is the story of the fellow in the western part of the state who dressed in a gilly suit and thus tried to initiate Sasquatch sitings. Gilly suits are great for camouflage. His camouflage was so successful that a young girl driving her car through a wooded area never saw him until she hit him. Neither did the second girl in the second car. Now that I think about it, maybe these two stories don't really illustrate the point I am trying to make.
I think instead of two men from the pages of the Bible. One is found in the Old Testament and one in the New. Jonah is the first and the part of his story I would like to emphasize is found in the first chapter of the book named after him. You hardly get into his story before you read that Jonah knew he was being pursued by God. So, he does the only logical thing - he runs from God by going on a sea voyage. I suggest you don't try this at home. Just do the math on this; open sea, tiny boat, superstitious sailors, fleeing prophet, and the guy who spoke the universe into being. Yes, you heard me (read me) right. He uttered words and the universe came into being. I'm thinking the guy in the boat didn't have a chance, and actually the story confirms it. A fierce storm started to terrorize all who were aboard the ship Jonah sailed on, and the sailors asked him what he had done. At least Jonah was truthful. He told them that he was running away from the Lord. He even went so far as to tell them how they could get out of their predicament - just throw Jonah overboard. The rest is history; big fish, Jonah swallowed, fish vomits, Jonah preaches, city repents, and God gets what He wants. There is more to the story, but I'll let you read it.
In the book of Acts, the story of a guy named Saul gets told. By the way, Saul was hunting Christians, that is until he found out he was being hunted by God. This is a nice story about a good Jewish boy wanting to be a hero of his people. I do like the way the NIV describes Saul's pursuit of those dirty Christians, "Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples." Now that's dedication to one's hobbies. Well, from here the story looks a lot like Jonah's; the road to Damascus, Saul's groupies, soon to be Christian hero, and ... the God of the universe. Yep, you guessed it right. God gets His way. Saul suffers blindness, repents, gets baptized, gets a name change and, in case you were wondering - he does get his sight back.
I went to Ethiopia with the intention of observing a ministry we supported firsthand. Perhaps I could be of help, after all I've been on mission trips before...right (insert Bill Cosby's voice here). With each experience, every contact, and at every venue I felt God's hot breath against my neck. I was falling in love with Ethiopia, the people, and with God's work there. At first I thought it was part of my quest, but then I discovered I was the hunted. In those eleven days I think I may have managed to get a total of three night's sleep. Two days of sleep were robbed on the plane over. The rest were spent in fevered prayers, tears and question after question thrown to God. They basically came down to one plea, "Father, what do you want of me?"
So, I have our theme for "The Quest on Thursday Nights." The fact that I came up with the title with no idea for a theme before I left for Ethiopia confirms its providential nature. The Holy Spirit was working on me before I even left. God is relentless in His pursuit. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are a formidable team. God gets His way and the theme will reflect that, "When the Hunter Becomes the Hunted."
