Too Many Verses

Jonah 3:3
“So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.”

I believe that the Book of Jonah has too many verses. I know that this is a shocking statement. No, I am not saying that I believe that God made a mistake in this book by putting too many verses in it. Also, I still believe that every word in the King James Bible is inspired and preserved by God. However, what I mean by this statement is that there are too many verses because Jonah chose to rebel against God’s original call to go to Nineveh. If you were to read the Book of Jonah and take all the verse of rebellion, self-pity and running from the LORD out, you would find the Book of Jonah would be a very short book. Yet, it was the rebellion, self-pity and running from the LORD that added two extra chapters and several verses to this book.

Sadly, many Christians are adding too much to their life that should not be there. All the rebellion, questioning, self-pity, and running from the LORD adds to our life things that God never intended to be in our lives. If you were to look back at your life and take out everything that you added, you would find that your life would have been much simpler with more of God’s blessings to enjoy. Just like it would be wrong to add to God’s Word, it is just as wrong to add incidents into your life that God never intended to be there. Let me ask you; if your life were a part of the Scriptures, have you added too many verses to your life? This is certainly a sober question, but we must answer it. There are four admonitions this thought should bring to your life.

First, sin always adds unnecessary drama to anyone’s life. Just like sin added to Jonah’s story, sin adds things to your life that God never wanted you to experience. If you don’t want your life to be filled with added verses, you had better learn to listen to God’s voice the first time. Every time you don’t listen to God, you are adding unnecessary verses to your life.

Second, sin always keeps out more stories of God’s blessings from your life. You have to wonder what else God could have done through Jonah during the time he wasted while he rebelled and ran from God. Likewise, when you rebel and run from God’s will for your life, you are wasting time that God could have been doing His mighty works through your life. There are many miracles missed because of time wasted in sin. You must be careful that you are not keeping God’s blessings out of your life because of sin.

Third, sin always wastes the time others must invest in you to get you back. I know this statement sounds harsh, but think of what those who are trying to bring the sinner back could have done had they never rebelled and ran from God’s call in their life. Though no life is a waste, you certainly understand that time invested in bringing back the backslidden could have been better used to reach the lost had the backslidden never backslid.

My friend, are you guilty as Jonah was of adding verses to your life and keeping God from doing works through you that He wants to do? Let me encourage you not to add verses to your life. It is always a greater blessing to live a drama-free life than it is to add verses of sin and rebellion and have to live through the drama it causes.

Author: Allen Domelle