SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/2/2022 9:04 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-2 “The Reply”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 12:39-40
Message of the verses: “39 But He answered
and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign;
and yet no sign shall 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 shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of
the earth.”
In
our last SD we were looking at the fact that when people don’t truly know the
Father, then they will never know the Son, and that was one of the many issues
with the scribes and Pharisees, and so consequently, Jesus continued, no such
sign shall be given. Now it was not possible for Jesus to perform a miracle of
the sort the scribes and the Pharisees wanted, and it was not because He did
not have the power to do it. The reason
was because it was utterly contrary to God’s nature and God’s plan. The point is that Jesus had to power
(omnipotence), but not from the standpoint of His moral nature and that was
because God is not in the business of bending Himself in order to satisfy the
whims of evil people who have no relationship with Him.
Now
we will begin to look at the sign that Jesus said that they would have and that
is the sign of Jonah the prophet. I
suppose that there are many different things that we could say about Jonah, the
fact that he had some similar ways that went along with the Pharisees, in that
he was not pleased that God brought a revival to a Gentile people, as he, like
the Pharisees wanted to keep God for themselves. Another thing is that when Jonah got his
marching orders from God that he got on a boat and went in the opposite
direction because he did not want to go to Nineveh, for reasons already
mentioned. We know that after leaving to
go to Tarsus a great storm came and Johan told those on the ship to throw him
overboard and then the storm would stop.
That is what happened, but Jonah was then swallowed by a very large
fish. Now speaking of fish, this was one
that was very large, but it was not a whale.
I have seen pictures of large fish that were big enough to do what this
fish did for Jonah. Jonah remained in
the stomach of this fish for three days and then this great fish got sick of
Jonah and threw him up, and then Jonah was right where the Lord wanted him to
be in Nineveh. Now some have reasoned
that Jonah must have come out of the fish looking very white do to the
digestive juice that came from the fish and that is why the people of Nineveh
were attracted to him.
Now
we move onto what Jesus said to these Pharisees “just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS
AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so shall the Son of Man be
three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” I have to say that it is not very often that
I don’t like what the NASB95 version has to say, but I don’t like the words “Sea
Monster” and do like what the NKJV says “A Great Fish.”
John
MacArthur writes “The Old Testament contains two kinds of prophecy regarding
Christ. One is what may be called the
verbally predictive, in which specific and sometimes detailed predictions are given. Such prophecies include those that the Christ
would be born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14), that He would be a descendant of David
who would rule the entire earth with justice and righteousness (Jer. 23:5), and
that He would be born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2).
“The
second type of the messianic prophecy is typical, in which an Old Testament
person or event foreshadowed the person or work of Christ. We can be certain of typical predictions only
if they are specifically identified as such in the New Testament. Here Jesus Himself tells us that Jonah’s
spending three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster before he
was vomited up on the shore typified the burial of the Son of Man, for three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth before His resurrection. It was a predictive prophecy in picture
rather than in specific word. Just as
Jonah was buried in the depths of the sea, Jesus was buried in the depths of
the earth; and just as Jonah come out of the great fish after three days, Jesus
came out of the grave after three days.”
Lord
willing we will finish up this section in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am learning some new things from what Jesus
is saying about Jonah, as I had not really pictured the vomiting of the fish a
picture of His resurrection.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trusting that the Lord will give me great
wisdom to teach our Bible Study this Friday, and then as we continue to go
through Hebrews on Sunday.
3/2/2022 9:34 AM
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