SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/31/2025 8:09 AM
My Worship
Time Focus: PT-3 “Themes”
In
today’s SD, I continue to look into the intro to Jonah what John MacArthur
calls “Themes” and there are seven different titles that we will be looking at,
and today we will begin with the theme of “Salvation of Gentiles”
SALVATION OF GENTILES
“The main thrust of the book of Jonah deals with
God’s saving love for Gentiles. The very
first words of God’s commission to Jonah (‘Arise,
go’) demonstrate the heart of Yahweh for those outside of Israel (Jonah
1:2). Instead of immediately judging the
Ninevites for their wickedness, the Lord showed them grace by giving them a
warning (1:2; 3:2); and instead of abandoning them when Jonah refused to go
(1:4), God persisted until His reluctant servant submitted and went (3:3). Throughout Jonah’s journeys, the Lord saved
the Gentiles that the prophet encountered, from the sailors (1:16) to the
Ninevites (3:10). The entire plot of
Jonah is driven by the unrelenting compassion of God for those outside of
Israel.
“The book of Jonah, moreover, defends God’s love for the
Gentiles. This narrative exposes the
hypocrisy of Jonah who loved divine grace when his life was spared (1:17), but
who hated divine grace when his enemies were delivered (4:1-2). It
reveals Jonah’s pride in that he believed he was more deserving of God’s
grace than the Gentiles, when in fact it was the sailors who feared Yahweh more
than Jonah did (1:8-10, 16). It
discloses that Jonah’s hatred so twisted his theology that he called God’s
mercy evil (4:1) and selfishly demanded to die (4:3). No one has the prerogative to object to God’s
grace (cf. Rom. 9:20-23), for all are sinners in need of salvation. If one can rightly care about a plant that he
neither toiled over nor caused to grow, then the Lord most certainly has the
right to care for those He created in His own image (Jonah 4:10-11).
“As noted above, this theme of God’s salvation of the
Gentiles is so pervasive that it echoes throughout redemptive history. Like Johan, Peter too would one day journey
from Joppa to bring the gospel to the Gentiles (acts 10:1-23). Paul also would travel on a ship through a storm
while preaching God’s Word to the Gentiles (Acts 27:1-44). They did this because Jesus had commissioned
them, and all His disciples, to go throughout the world and proclaim the gospel
(Matt. 28:18-20). Thus, what God
accomplished in the time of Jonah did not end with Jonah, Rather, God has
continued to work out His saving purposes through history to the present,
pointing sinners to the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who fulfilled the sign of
Jonah through His death and resurrection (Matt. 12:39).”
Lord willing we will look at the purpose and outline of
this introduction to the book of Jonah from John MacArthur’s commentary in
tomorrow’s SD.
8/31/2025 8:26 AM
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