SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/3/2015
10:57 PM
My Worship Time Focus: God
comforted Jonah
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jonah 4:5-8
Message of the
verses: “5 Then Jonah went out from
the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under
it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. 6 So the LORD
God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to
deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. 7 But God appointed a worm
when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. 8 When
the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on
Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die,
saying, "Death is better to me than life.’”
In one of our last SD’s on Jonah we mentioned that there
was a parallel in the story of Jonah with the story of the prodigal son. Now in verse five we see Jonah leaving the
city and this parallels what the prodigal’s brother did in not going into the
party that his father had put together for his brother. For the second time in the story of Jonah he
left the ministry, for it would have been better for him to stay in the city to
aid anyone who had questions about their new faith in the Lord, for we know
that Jonah knew much about the Scriptures as seen in some of the things that
are written in his book. Dr. Wiersbe
writes “What a tragedy it is when God’s servants are a means of blessing to others
but miss the blessing themselves!”
God knew that Jonah was uncomfortable with sitting in the
booth he made and so He caused a plant to grow up and give Jonah some shade to
protect him from the heat. We read that
this made Jonah extremely happy about the plant. Next we read that God prepared a worm to eat
the plant so that it would die and then the combination of the hot sun and the
smothering desert win made Jonah want to die even more than when he said it
earlier. Dr. Wiersbe writes “As He had
done in the depts. Of the sea, God was reminding Jonah of what it was like to
be lost; helpless, hopeless, miserable.
Jonah was experiencing a taste of hell as he sat and watched the city.”
Dr. Wiersbe concludes by writing some very insightful
words: “A simple test of character is to
ask, ‘What makes me happy? What makes me
angry? What makes me want to give
up? Jonah was ‘a double-minded man,
unstable in all his ways’ (James 1:8 NKJV).
One minute he’s preaching God’s Word, but the next minute he’s
disobeying it and fleeing his post of duty.
While inside the great fish, he prayed to be delivered, but no he asks the
Lord to kill him. He called the city to
repentance, but he wouldn’t repent himself!
He was more concerned about creature comforts than he was bout winning
the lost. The Ninevites, the vine, the
worm, and the wind have all obeyed God, but Jonah still refuses to obey, and he
has the most to gain.” Wise words from a
wise man. 12/3/2015 11:16 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment