SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/05/2025 10:49 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “PT-1 “The Lord’s Directive” 1:1-3)”
Bible Reading and Meditation Reference: Jonah 1:1-2
Message of the verses: “1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.’”
We have been looking at the book of Jonah for a while now and in today’s SD we really begin looking at the first two verses of the book of Jonah. In these first two verses we are introduced to two drastically different characters, Yahweh and His prophet Jonah. Jonah is one of the minor prophets, meaning it is shorter than the major prophets, and in other of the minor prophets like Hosea, Joel, Micah, and Zephaniah, the first verses are similar to the book of Jonah where we read “The word of the LORD came.” Now in the commentary written by John MacArthur we see that he uses the name “Yahweh” instead of LORD which is what LORD means, so if you see in my commentary LORD realize that it means Yahweh. So back to what I was writing about when I was writing about “The word of the LORD came” to the prophet, indicating that this book is divine truth (Deut. 18:18-20; 2 Peter 1:20-21). Now its contents are fundamentally God’s own revelation being inspired by Him and therefore profitable for sanctification in the life every believer as seen in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” MacArthur writes “Scripture elsewhere uses this phrase (the word of Yahweh) to refer to more than a message, but in fact a Messenger (cf. Gen. 15:1-6; Num. 12:6-8; Jer. 1:4-10; John 1:1-3; Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:1-2; Rev. 19:13). When referencing a Person, the Word of Yahweh refers to the second Member of the Trinity, God the son (cf. Isa. 61:1; Zech. 2:8-9; John 1:1; 5:24, 37; 7:29; 8:42; 10:36; 17:3; Rev. 19:13). The Word of Yahweh created the world (Gen. 1:1-3; Ps. 33:6), upholds the natural order (1 Kings 17:16), and governs history (Jer. 47:1). In the case of Jonah, the connection between the message and the Messenger is vital. The gracious words of Yahweh through Jonah to Nineveh were only possible because of what the incarnate Word of Yahweh (John 1:14) would later accomplish on the cross (cf. 1:Tim. 2:3-7). Thus, Yahweh’s gracious commission reflected His saving character and pointed to the Person and work of the incarnate Word—the One who would come to redeem sinners from every tribe, tongue, and nation (Dan. 7:13-14; Rev. 7:9).” Now I think you may understand why I quoted from MacArthur’s commentary, and at times I am amazed by how he can relate different passages of the Bible to the one section that is being talked about here, like what we are talking about in Jonah 1:1-2.
As we look again at the first verse ““1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying,” we can see this stood in stark contrast to the divine Messenger as Johan was from Gath-hepher, which is located in Galilee, and he ministered around 784-774 BC, during the reign of Jeroboam II (ca. 793-758 BC; cf. 2 Kings 14:25, something that we covered in the introduction to the commentary by John MacArthur. I find it interesting that the name Jonah means “dove,” a bird that represented either a messenger of peace as seen in Gen. 8:11 or a person acting foolishly as seen in Hos. 7:11. “So Ephraim has become like a silly dove, without sense; They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.” MacArthur goes on to write “In this book, Jonah lived up to both contrasting meanings of his name. Though he brought a message of repentance to the Ninevites, indicating they could be pardoned by God if they turned from their wickedness, he also exhibited the folly of defiant disobedience. Perhaps it was Jonah’s lack of faithfulness that centuries later caused the Pharisees of Jesus’ day to discount his prophetic ministry. In attempting to discredit Jesus, the Jewish leaders issued this challenge: Search and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee’ (John 7:52; cf. 5:39). Whether intentional or not, they overlooked the ministry of Jonah, who was in fact a Galilean prophet. Despite Jonah’s lack of faithfulness, God remained faithful, a reality reflected in Jonah’s full name: the son of Amittai, meaning ‘truth.’ Throughout this book, the Lord repeatedly proved true to Jonah and to the people of Nineveh whom He sent Jonah to reach.” This last sentence, the highlighted one is something that really means a lot to me, and the reason is that the Lord repeatedly proved true to Jonah and also the people that Jonah was sent to witness to.
Spiritual Meaning for My life Today: I am thankful that the Lord continues to work in my heart as there are times, like in Jonah’s case that I do not remain faithful to Him, and that is because of His great love He has for me, even though I do not deserve it.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to continue to do the things that the Lord has called me to do, for the cause of Christ, and also to trust the Lord in dealing with the severe illness my wife has at this time.
9/5/2025 11:40 AM
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