SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/19/2025 9:03 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “The Prophets Declaration”
Bible Reading and Meditation Reference: Jonah 1:9
Message of the verse: And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yahweh, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
One of the things that I have noticed in my study of the Bible is that Jonah who was a prophet was only mentioned in his book in the Old Testament, and of course Jesus mentioned him in the New Testament referencing the time that he was in the belly of the great fish, and comparing it to the time that He would be in the grave. I just checked and found one more place in the Old Testament which mentions Jonah: 2Ki 14:25 He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which He spoke through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher.” That, other than in the book of Jonah is the only other time his name is mentioned in the Old Testament. I guess because he was “famous” for being swallowed by a great fish that perhaps some don’t realize that he was a prophet of the Lord, but he was.
Jonah answered the soldiers’ questions with one brief sentence. The first thing he tells them is that he was a Hebrew. This word was often used by foreigners to indentify the people of Israel (Gen. 39:14; 40:15; 41:12; Exod 1:15-16), distinguishing the nation from all others in their appearance, practices, and ideology (Gen. 43:32; Ex. 3:18; 7:16). No to give an example the Philistines spoke of Israel as “the Hebrews” in recounting the plagues against Egypt (1 Sam. 4:6-8). Like the term “Christian” associated Jesus’ followers with Jesus in the New Testament, so the term “Hebrews” associated the Israelites with Yahweh and the practices related to the worship He prescribed. By identifying himself in this way, Jonah revealed to the sailors his homeland, heritage, history, and distinctive of his people with regard to holiness, sin, and sacrifice.
Now comes the next part of this verse as Jonah then summarized the nature of his relationship with God as he stated that he feared Yahweh, denoting not only supreme reverence but also genuine terror. It is possible that the gods of the ancient Near East might have been respected; they were also exploited and even mocked by their followers. However the God of Israel, Yahweh, was not like the demonic, capricious, and foolish deities of the surrounding nations, nor was He a projection of human imagination, for all the things that He did in recorded history in the Old Testament, things like the ten plagues done to Egypt in order to bring Israel out of Egypt. People knew about this as seen in the book of Joshua when the spies spoke to the woman, Rahab who was a harlot, had heard of what was going on in Egypt. John MacArthur then writes: “False demon-inspired gods could make their followers afraid, but Yahweh was the one to be truly feared (cf. Ex. 14:31). As Jonah knew, the true God was perfectly holy (Lev. 19:1-2). He refused to tolerate wickedness (Hab. 1:13). His glory compelled angels to worship Him perpetually (Isa. 6:3). His sovereignty caused the rise and fall of kingdoms (Dan. 2:37-45). He created and destroyed with a word (Gen. 1:1-2; Ps. 33:6; Heb. 1:3). And His righteous wrath devastated the disobedient (Lev. 10:1-3; Psalm 7:10-16). Such a God truly was fearsome (Ps. 46:8; 76:7; 111:9). Ironically, while Jonah only claimed to fear the Lord, the pagan sailors, terrorized by the fierce storm, actually were gripped by fear (Jonah 1:5, 19), grasping in ignorance Yahweh’s majestic power for better than the disobedient prophet who represented Him.”
Spiritual meaning for My Life Today: The Bible teaches believers to fear the Lord, but that does not mean to be terrorized by Him like the gods that are found in the Old Testament.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I continue to seek the wisdom and direction of the Lord in order to help my wife in the situation she has in fighting cancer, as it has gotten worse over the past few weeks. It seems to me that we are living the life of Job where we know that we trust the Lord through these difficult situations, but are not getting the direction we desired for from the Lord, so perhaps we are being tested, I am not sure.
9/19/2025 10:06 AM
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