SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/20/2025 8:54 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The Prophets Declaration”
Bible Reading and Meditation Reference: Jonah 1:9
Message of the verse: “He said to them, "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Yahweh God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land."
Jonah is making it clear that he served not just any god, but that he served Yahweh. Now by using God’s personal and covenant name, Jonah is pointing the sailors to the God of Israel. The name Yahweh refers back to God’s self0disclosure to Moses in the revelation of “I AM WHO I AM” (EX. 3:14). As “I AM,’ God revealed that He is self-existent, since He always is, eternally existing and never having been created, and I know that this is hard to understand, nevertheless it is true because God has always existed even before He made the earth, which we call “eternity past.” God is also immutable since He constantly is and never becomes anything else. As “I AM” God is infinite, for He is not confined to time; He always is and forever will be (see John 8:58; and Heb. 13:8). “God is transcendent, so that, unlike false gods, He cannot be defined by any created thing in this world or fully described by human language. Nothing compares to Him (cf. Ex. 15:11; Ps. 113:5; Isa. 44:7). God gave His people His personal name, Yahweh (cf. Ex. 3:14), demonstrating that He is a God both of eternal preeminence and of boundless love and faithfulness (cf. Ps. 89:8), writes John MacArthur.
He goes on to write “Jonah emphasized that Yahweh was the God of heaven, highlighting His supreme authority and lordship over the supernatural realm. God also had complete sovereignty over the natural realm, for he made the sea and the dry land. By identifying Yahweh as the Creator, Jonah highlighted both Gods transcendence over any distinction from His creation. The doctrine of creation lays the foundation that God is the sovereign Sustainer and Judge of the world. Jonah, like the prophets and the apostles, began his declaration of the truth with creation and with God as the Creator of all (cf. Gen. 1:1; Ps. 95:5; Isa. 51:13; Acts 17:24-26; Rom. 1:19).
“As Creator and sovereign God, Yahweh alone possesses definitive and comprehensive authority over everything. By referencing the sea and the dry land, Jonah made plain to the sailors that Yahweh was the One who caused the terrifying storm on the sea and that He alone would determine whether they returned to the dry land (cf. Jonah 1:13, 16). The prophet stressed not only that Yahweh reigned over the world in a general sense but also that He exercised specific and absolute control over the sailors’ current situation.”
Now the following paragraph in this section we can see that MacArthur talks about conversion, that is conversion to being a Christian. “For conversion to occur, sinners must have the truth (cf. Rom. 10:17) and turn from false idols to the one true God (cf. Acts 17:22-31; 1 Thess. 1:9). In a short sentence, Jonah pointed the sailors away from their goes to recognize the one true God of Israel, Yahweh, the Creator, who exclusively rules over the natural and the supernatural. In an ironic twist, the prophet who fled God’s presence to avoid telling a Gentile city about Yahweh found himself declaring the truth about the Lord to these Gentile sailors.”
Spiritual Meaning for My Life today: I have said this before in my Spiritual Diaries, and that is one of the reasons that I write them and put them onto my blogs is so that those who read them will find salvation through what is written here in the things that I write. Not all of my Spiritual Diaries speaks directly about salvation, but many of them do, and it is my prayer that the Holy Spirit of God will use them to call some of those who read them.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to use these Spiritual Diaries to cause believers to grow in the Lord and to call others to salvation.
9/20/2025 9:28 AM
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