SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/19/2015
11:21 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Jonah the
Rebel Suffers for His Sins
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jonah
1:11-17
Message of the
verses: “11 So they said to him,
"What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?"-for
the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. 12 He said to them, "Pick me up
and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know
that on account of me this great storm has come upon you." 13 However, the
men rowed desperately to return to land but they could not, for the sea was
becoming even stormier against them. 14
Then they called on the LORD and said, "We earnestly pray, O LORD,
do not let us perish on account of this man’s life and do not put innocent
blood on us; for You, O LORD, have done as You have pleased." 15 So they
picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. 16 Then the men feared the LORD
greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows. 17 And
the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach
of the fish three days and three nights.”
We start with a quote from a wonderful man of God,
Charles H. Spurgeon who said that God never allows a man to sin successfully and
as we look at the verses from above we realize this is true in the case of
Jonah. The writer of the book of Hebrews
writes in Heb. 12:6 “For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every
son whom He receives."” (NKJV)
Dr. Wiersbe points out that Johan was certainly not a martyr
for a martyr dies for the glory of God and this was not the case of Johan, for
even though he was doing the right thing to save the lives of the men on the
ship and was willing to die, he had sinned in the first place and that was what
got him into trouble. Dr. Wiersbe writes
that “he should have surrendered his life to the Lord and let Him give the
orders. Had he fallen to his knees and
confessed his sins to God, Johan might have seen the storm cease and the door
open to a great opportunity for witness on the ship.”
We can see that the people on the ship were not at first
ready to have Jonah thrown overboard and did what they could to get the ship to
land, but when they found it was hopeless they decided to throw Johan
overboard, but they did begin to ask the Lord not to hold any sin against them
and we can see that they were fearing the Lord.
We read in verse fourteen “for You, O LORD, have done as
You have pleased,” and this was speaking of what happened to Jonah. I suppose that they figured if the storm had
stopped then God would have answered their prayers in that way, but since it
did not stop then they felt that God had not answered their prayers in that way
and thus it was up to the Lord to have Jonah thrown overboard.
Now the men feared the Lord even more when the storm
stopped and we are told that they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and also made
vows to Him. Not really sure how or what
they offered to the Lord as a sacrifice since they had thrown everything
overboard, but we have to believe that it did happen, even if they waited to
get to land to do so.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “For us to rebel against God’s will,
as Jonah did, is to invite the chastening hand of God. That’s why the Westminster Catechism states that
‘the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ We glorify God by enjoying His will and doing
it from our hearts (Eph. 6:6), and that’s where Jonah failed.” Ephesians 6:6 says “not by way of eyeservice,
as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.”
Psalm 118:18 states “The LORD has disciplined me
severely, But He has not given me over to death.” Jonah may have read this and may even been
thinking about it when he was in the stomach of the great fish. In an endnote Dr. Wiersbe points out that
this last verse in chapter one is the first verse in chapter two in the Hebrew
Bible. We will think about the
significance of Jonah being in the belly of the great fish later.
11/19/2015 11:51 PM
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