SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/17/2015
10:17 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
Jonah the Prophet Disobeys God’s call
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jonah 1:1-3
Message of the
verses: “1 The word of the LORD came
to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2
"Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their
wickedness has come up before Me." 3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the
fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.”
As we begin this first section of Jonah I want to mention
that verses 1-17 of chapter one is under the first main point entitled “Rebellion.”
Warren Wiersbe begins this first main section with the following words: “Jonah must have been a popular man in
Israel, because his prediction had been fulfilled that the nation would regain
her lost territory from her enemies (2 Kings 14:25). Those were days of peace and prosperity for
Israel, but they were autumn days just before the terrible winter of judgment.” “25 He
restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of
the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which He
spoke through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of
Gath-hepher (2 Kings 14:25).”
What we can see in these first three verses is that Jonah
had a bad attitude which is what got him into trouble, and the first bad
attitude he had was that he had a wrong attitude toward the will of God. This is an important thing to have a good
attitude about for we have to realize that God is perfect and never makes a
mistake even though He may want you to do something that you do not want to do
as was the case with Jonah. Dr. Wiersbe
writes “It is obeying the will of God that we find our spiritual nourishment
(John 4:34), enlightened (7:17), and enablement (Heb. 13:21). To Jesus, the will of God was food that
satisfied Him; to Jonah the will of God was medicine that choked him.”
Here is the problem that Jonah was facing, and that was
that the Lord wanted him to go to the arch enemy of Israel, Assyria, and
actually have revival meetings with them, and Jonah did not want to do this
because he had no compassion for them and wanted to see them destroyed, but God
had other plans as we will see. I may
have mentioned this before in earlier SD’s but Assyria was a very cruel people
demonstrated by when they conquered a people they would cut off the heads of
their captors and make pyramids with their heads in front of their defeated
city, so we can get a little insight into why Jonah did not want to go and
preach to them. The thing that Jonah
forgot is seen in Psalm 33:11 “But the plans of the LORD stand firm for ever,
the purposes of his heart through all generations.” God loved the people of Nineveh and that is
why He wanted to send Jonah to them to convey His love to them.
Next we see that Jonah had a wrong attitude towards God’s
Word. Jonah had the idea that when the
Word of God came to him that he had an option to take it or to leave it, but
that in fact is a wrong attitude. Jesus
says the following in Luke 6:46 “"Why do you call Me, ’Lord, Lord,’ and do
not do what I say?”
Jonah was a very privileged person, as he was a prophet
of God and had the opportunity to listen to the very words of God and be a part
of God’s plans, and God’s will. I have
to say at this point that Jonah knew that he could not run away from God for
Jonah did have the book of Psalms to read and Psalm 139:7-12 says “7 Where can
I go from Your Spirit? Or where
can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make
my bed in Sheol, behold, You
are there. 9 If I take the wings
of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your
right hand will lay hold of me. 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will
overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night," 12 Even the darkness
is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light
are alike to You.” Dr. Wiersbe writes “Jonah
needed Nineveh as much as Nineveh needed Jonah.
It’s in doing the will of God that we grow in grace and become more like
Christ.”
Jonah had a wrong idea concerning circumstances for he
thought that they were working for him, when they were really working against
him. He goes down to the dock and find a
ship heading in the exact opposite way that God wanted him to go, so Jonah must
have thought that he could work out his plan to perfection. He had enough money to pay the fare, and he
even was able to go into the bottom of the ship and sleep. Dr. Wiersbe writes “It’s possible to be out
of the will of God and still have circumstances appear to be working on your
behalf. You can be rebelling against God
and still have a false sense of security that includes a good night’s
sleep. God in His providence was
preparing Johan’s for a great fall.”
Lastly we see Jonah had the wrong attitude toward
Gentiles, and believer me he was not the only one in the land of Israel who had
that kind of an attitude. God wanted to
use Jonah to spread His light to the Gentiles, something that God had always
planned for Israel to do, but he was not willing to do that. Jonah wanted these Gentiles to face death
because of his wrong attitude he had with them.
Jonah thought it was better for the Assyrians to be destroyed than to
have them attack Israel.
11/17/2015 10:53 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment