SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 8/25/2025 9:32 AM
My
Worship Time Focus:
“Title Author,Date”
Just
a little update on what I am doing in these first SD’s on the book of Jonah,
and that is I am going over the different things that John MacArthur wrote at
the beginning of his book on Jonah, and his book also included a commentary on
Nahum. So today we go over “Title and
Author.
“The
book is titled after the name of the prophet Jonah, whose name means ‘dove.’ In Scripture, the dove represents either a
messenger of peace (Gen. 8:11) or a symbol of foolishness (Hos. 7:11). Both descriptions apply to Jonah’s
ministry. On the one hand, Jonah was a
messenger of warning and repentance, calling the Ninevites to make peace with
God. On the other hand, through his
disobedience and disdain, he often proved to be a foolish prophet.
“According
to both Jewish and Christian tradition, the author of the book is Jonah, the
son of Amittai and the servant of God (Johan 1:1; cf. 2 Kgs. 14:25). Second Kings 14:25 records that Jonah was
from Gath-hepher, a town from the tribe of Zebulun (Josh. 19:10-16) in the region
of Galilee near Nazareth. This indicates
that Jonah was a prophet to the northern tribes of Israel. However, the
Pharisees overlooked or ignored the fact that Jonah came from Galilee, for in
rejecting the messiahship of Jesus the claimed, ‘Search and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee (John 7:52; cf.
7:41). Within Jewish tradition,
although without Scriptural evidence, Johan is believed to be the son of the
widow from Zarephath, that is, the boy who died and whom Elijah raised from the
dead (1 Kings 17:8-24).
“Even
though the text refers to Jonah mostly in the third person (but cf. Jonah
2:2-9), Jonah’s authorship of this book should be affirmed. Writing on speaking in reference to oneself
in the third person was not unknown, and at times in Scripture, the biblical
author shifts between first and third person for effect (e. g., Exod. 11:3;
Ezra 5:3-5; Neh. 1:1; Amos 1:1; 7:1-2, 19-17; 8:1-2; and see Exodus 34:6-7; 1
Sam. 25:18-31; 39-41; 2 Cor. 12:1-6).
The details revealed about Jonah in the book—both in the third person
(chs. 1, 3, and 4) and in the first person (ch. 2)-suggest that Jonah himself
wrote this as an autobiographical accent.
Moreover, the introduction to the book of Jonah (‘Now the word of Yahweh
came to Jonah’) follows the general formula that appears in other prophetic
books, in which the prophet himself records a message from Yahweh (cf. Hos.
1:1; Joel 1:1; Mic. 1:1; “Zeph. 1:1; Hag. 1:1; Zech 1:1).”
“DATE”
“According
to 2 Kings 14:23-25, Jonah prophesied during the prosperous reign of Jeroboam
II (ca. 793-758 BC), perhaps between 784-774 BC. In Assyria, the king would likely have been
either Adad-nirari III (ca. 835-796 BC) or Ashur-dan III (ca. 772-755 BC). Jonah was preceded by Obadiah (ca. 850-840
BC) and Joel (between ca. 835-796), overlapped with Amos (ca. 763-755 BC), and
was succeeded by Hosea (ca. 755-710 BC).”
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life Today:
The story of Jonah shows me that the Lord can use a person even if that
person was not really happy with the results of his ministry. I realize that Jonah should have been
overjoyed with what the Lord was doing through him, but because the Ninevites
were Gentiles he was not happy.
My
Steps of Faith for Today:
I do not want to have that kind of attitude that Jonah had to prejudice
against someone because of what people group they come from.
8/25/2025 10:07 AM
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