SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/06/2025 9:59 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “PT-2 “The Lord’s Directive” 1:1-2)”
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 can see from these verses that the Lord is commissioning His prophet, as He commanded Jonah to arise, calling him to go. Let us now look at some references that speak of this commission to others from the Lord: “and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh” (Gen. 9:15) given after the flood. “43 “Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, and arise, flee to Haran, to my brother Laban!” (Gen. 27:43 given by Rebekah to Jacob her son). “9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you."(God telling Elijah to go to Zarephath during a famine in the land of Israel). “6 After many days the LORD said to me, "Arise, go to the Euphrates and take from there the waistband which I commanded you to hide there" (Jeremiah 13:6, God tells Jeremiah to retrieve a waistband from where He earlier told him to place it.)
Now in Israel’s history, the Lord commissioned many prophets to proclaim His truth to the surrounding nations as referenced above. Most did so without even leaving the place where they lived, although I do believe Amos had to leave his place where he lived to go to Israel from Judah. However God called Jonah to go, not stay where he was but go. He was to travel to a foreign city, bringing a warning of impending judgment.
John MacArthur states several reasons why God sent Jonah to Nineveh: 1) “He desired to display His mercy and grace toward sinners, even those considered detestable by human standards (cf. Ezek. 18:23).” 2) “God wished to expose Israel’s calloused complacency and wicked hatred toward the Gentiles.” 3) “The Lord intended to use Nineveh’s ready response to rebuke Israel for her stubborn refusal to repent. The wicked city of Nineveh repented at the proclamation of one prophet, but Israel stubbornly resisted God’s message through the Lord sent many prophets to His people (cf. Luke 10:13-15; Acts 7:52).”
As we read through the book of Jonah we can see that Yahweh certainly demonstrated His great love for Nineveh, for there were many, many lost people living there in this wicked city, and as stated God loved them and that is why that He was sending Jonah to talk to them about His love for them. Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, and was a major world power and one of Israel’s greatest enemies. It is true that Israel’s hatred for the Assyrians only intensified their animosity toward Gentiles in general, an attitude that continued into the New Testament times. “John 4:9-10 “9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’” MacArthur concludes “In commissioning Jonah to go to Nineveh, God called His prophet to declare His message to Israel’s foremost adversaries, the very people who would later conquer and destroy the northern kingdom (cf. 2 Kings 17:1-6).” Now we will look at those verses: “1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned nine years. 2 He did evil in the sight of the LORD, only not as the kings of Israel who were before him. 3
Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him, and Hoshea became his servant and paid him tribute. 4 But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, who had sent messengers to So king of Egypt and had offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year; so the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. 5 Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years. 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.”
Now think about this truth and that is that Assyria years before this event happened had a visit from the unwilling prophet Jonah and it sees that the entire city of Nineveh had been saved. Before that happened these people were very cruel to those that they came up against and did some things like cutting off the heads of their captors and stacking them up like a pyramid, and other awful things, but by the time they conquered Israel, because of Jonah going to Nineveh their cruelness had waned a lot.
Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today: God was in control of this situation. God loved the Gentile people of Nineveh as He loves all peoples and people groups. God demonstrated His love for us by sending His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to earth in order to pay for our sins by dying on the cross for us. Think about this amazing truth and then realize that you are a sinner, born a sinner, and can do nothing on your own to save yourself, but Jesus paid for it all, all of your sins and so just tell Him you are a sinner in need of salvation and invite Him into your life and He will save you. Then begin to read your Bible asking the Lord through His Holy Spirit to open your eyes so you can see wonderful things to help you to grow in the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to help me trust Him through the things that are going on in our life as my wife is dealing with cancer and it is very hard on me, but I do know that God is in control of this and will work it out for His glory and our good.
9/6/2025 11:21 AM
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