In the classic tale of the great white whale, the reader is introduced to Captain Ahab, ashore in Nantucket, recovering from the loss of a leg, bitten off by the harpooned whale that came to be known as Moby Dick. So obsessed was Ahab for revenge, that it became for him a hopeless addiction. Though he knew instinctively, in his more rational moments, that it was madness to attempt such a thing, he thought himself powerless to alter his course. He took his whaling ship and crew around the globe in search of the giant killer whale.
His first mate, a Christian man, tried repeatedly to convince him to be satisfied with the cargo of whale oil they had already stowed, and to turn for home and families waiting back in Nantucket, but he would have and heed none of it.
Upon finally encountering the great whale of his obsession, all attempts to harpoon it well enough to kill it were futile, as the whale wrecked boat and crew, one after another. There bobbing on the sea, Ahab watched helplessly as Moby Dick rammed the ship and stove in a section, leading to it’s inevitable sinking. All was lost as Ahab bore the weight of his own ruin and the ruin of his entire crew.
Such is the nature of those addictions born of hate, or of lust and self-gratification. They always spell ruin. Ahab is like many who think it impossible to alter their course toward ruin. Humanly speaking it is. But the first mate was right. He called on Ahab to repent of his way and call upon God. The Ahab thought he could not, the fact was that he would not.
All of us have a free will, not to change ourselves by grit and will-power, but to turn to the Lord God in surrender, making the way open for God to change us. The Lord Jesus will deliver whosoever will, from the bondage of sin and its many addictions. Don’t be lost and ruined on the sea of self-will. Sail home to Nantucket, to family, to the LORD over all.