SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/25/2015
10:26 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Marvel
of an Undeserved Commission PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jonah 3:1-2
Message of the
verses: “1 Now the word of the LORD
came to Jonah the second
time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it
the proclamation which I am going to tell you.’”
Dr. Wiersbe writes the following in his introductory
comments: “The question is usually asked in Old Testament survey classes, ‘Was
the great fish more relieved to be rid of Jonah that Jonah was to get out of
the great fish?’ Maybe their sense of
relief was mutual. At any rate, we hope
that Jonah gave thanks to God for the divinely provided creature that rescued
him from certain death.
In these two chapters, we are confronted with four
marvels that we dare not take for granted:” Now will begin to look at the first
marvel in our Spiritual Diary for today which is mentioned in the “focus” part
of this SD.
We have to wonder
if anyone saw Jonah being spit out of the fish and then go and report it to
those in Nineveh. Perhaps that is why he
got such a wonderful reception. We have
already mentioned that Jonah may have looked very different because of the
digestive juices that were on him, he may have looked like he was
bleached. Matthew 12:38-41 says “38 Then
some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, "Teacher, we want to see a
sign from You." 39 But He answered and said to them, "An evil and
adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah
the prophet; 40 for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE
BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights
in the heart of the earth. 41 “The men of Nineveh will stand up with this
generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the
preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” We see in verse 39 that Jonah was a sign to
the Ninevites and this may have been the way he looked.
It really does not matter what the people thought about
Jonah, it is important what God thought and also what He would do next for this
repentant prophet. Charles H. Spurgeon
said “The life of Jonah cannot be written without God, take God out of the
prophet’s history and there is no history to write.” How true that statement is.
God Met Jonah: We
are not told where the great fish deposited Jonah, but we do know that God was
there. Dr. Wiersbe writes “God is more
concerned about His workers, than He is about their work, for if the workers
are what they ought to be, the work will be what it ought to be.” I find this a very comforting statement. We
know that even though God was not pleased with the work of Jonah, God never
left him alone, for He was with Him, and continues to be with him. We know that it was the Lord who controlled the
storm and also the great fish to rescue Jonah from the storm, and from certain
death. We have read in Hebrews 13:5 a number of different times which
says “I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Isaiah also has some interesting words that certainly could be applied
to Jonah: “When you pass through the
waters, I will be with you (Isaiah 43:2).”
God spoke to Jonah:
We have already pointed out that God was upset with Jonah, but he spoke
to him through the storm and the rough sea.
I am sure that Jonah was not happy with the way that God spoke to him
during that time, but Jonah brought it upon himself. We studied the second chapter and found
repentance in the heart of Jonah so now the Lord can speak to him through His
word once again. Dr. Wiersbe writes “One
of the tests of our relationship to God is, ‘Does God speak to me as I read and
ponder His Word?’ If we don’t hear God
speaking to us in our hearts, perhaps we have some unfinished business that
needs to be settled with Him.” We will
stop at this point and pick us some more from this section in our next SD.
11/25/2015 10:52 PM
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