SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/21/2025 8:54 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “The Crew’s Dismay”
Bible Reading and Meditation Reference: Jonah 1:10-13
Message of the verse: “10 Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, "How could you do this?" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.11 So they said to him, "What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?" — for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. 12 He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you." 13 However, the men rowed desperately to return to land but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them.”
We see the phrase “the men became extremely frightened, and in the Hebrew is says “the men became fearful with great fear.” Now remember we are dealing with seasoned sailors here and so if this happened to them then this storm must have been really big and bad. Now in what the Hebrew says it has fearful, and fear in it, and the repletion of the word fear along with great describes overwhelming dread. The sailors were already fearful as seen in Jonah 1:5, but upon hearing about the one true God, who controlled His creation, they experienced terror and far surpassed their earlier misgivings. While Jonah claimed to fear God (1:9), the sailors actually did fear Him, fearing Him greatly, even more than the storm itself (1:5). Their fear indicated that they rightly grasped the awesome and majestic nature of the true God. References: (Deut. 10:12, 20; Phil. 2:12; 1 Peter 1:17).
John MacArthur writes “In dismay, the sailors exclaimed to the fugitive prophet, What is this you have done?” Jonah’s reckless rebellion had placed them in grave danger. The men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of Yahweh and expressed their disbelief at what Jonah had cavalierly told them. Horrified by the prophet’s defiant insubordination, the sailors expressed shock at Jonah’s audacity. At that point, the pagan idolaters manifested a clearer understanding of the one true God than Jonah did.”
That reminds me of when I first became a believer in Jesus Christ. It was January 26th 1974 while visiting a friend near Orlando Florida who allowed me to listen to some tapes from a man named Hal Lindsey which were on the end times, and I could not stop listening to them, and it was the Lord who reached down and saved me. My friend stated he was a believer, but finding out later I know that he was not because he told me. My point is that even though he said he was a believer for a while, and should have been more mature in the Lord I could see that he was not from one of the jokes that he told me, so like these sailors expressing shock at Jonah’s audacity and at that point these idolaters manifested a clear understanding of the one true God than Jonah did. The difference in my story is that my friend was not a believer, while Johan surely was.
Spiritual Meaning for My Life Today: I am trusting the Lord to give my wife great help as she goes through this awful cancer experience.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust the Lord to see me getting to church this morning in order to teach my final Sunday school Class.
9/21/2025 8:40 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment