SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/16/2025 10:19 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “The Captain’s Desperation”
Bible Reading and Meditation Reference: Jonah 1:6
Message of the verse: “So the captain came near to him and said to him, “How is it that you are deeply sleeping? Arise, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”
Verse six tells us that the captain came near to look for Jonah. Now the term captain designated the chief of those who pulled the ropes in order to steer the ship. Now we can understand that because of the great storm that they were not able to steer the ship, however this captain was used by God to steer Jonah. The Lord directed him to confront the disobedient prophet, asking incredulously, “How is it that you are deeply sleeping?” The captain was shocked that Jonah displayed such apathy in light of their dire circumstances. I think that it was unusual that a pagan sailor understood the situation better than an Israelite prophet was a severe indictment on Jonah. John MacArthur writes “At one point in Israel’s history, God used a donkey to restrain a prophet’s madness (Num. 22:31-34; cf. 2 Pet. 2:15-16); here, the Lord used the rebuke of a Gentile captain.” I have looked at the story about Balaam who was ridding his donkey and it was actually the donkey who saw the angel of the Lord who was about to kill Balaam, but the donkey saved his life, and the thing that gets me is that the Bible tells us that it was a female donkey, and that is something that I have always remembered.
MacArthur goes on to write “The bewildered sailor not only reproved Jonah but also exhorted him, saying, “Arise, call on your god.” The captain commanded the sleeping prophet to arise and repent from his wicked indifference. Moreover, the prophet who tried to escape the Lord’s presence, the captain urged him to call on your god. In a strange way, this was a call from a pagan for genuine repentance00for Jonah to turn from rebellion to his God. In that call, the captain served as God’s mouthpiece to Jonah. The commands to arise and call are the very commands the Lord used when He initially commissioned Johan (cf. 1:2). God put His words in the captain’s mouth to summon His wayward prophet to return to Him and fulfill what He had commissioned him to do.
“Even while employing the captain to work on Jonah, God was also at work on the captain himself.” Now here is one of those cases that I think that even though this was the Old Testament time that God used Romans 8:28 to help me to understand that the sailors would become believers in Yahweh, for if Jonah had not disobeyed the Lord and gone directly to Nineveh then he would not have had conversations with these sailors who we believe became true believers. MacArthur goes on “The captain concluded his speech to Jonah, saying, “Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.” The captain was still spiritually blind, viewing Yahweh as merely a god. But the Lord was introducing him and the other drew members to Himself, using the storm to open their eyes to the true God (John 9:39; 2 Cor. 4:4-6). The sailors had been calling on their gods, but to no avail (Jonah 1:5). The crisis revealed the impotence of their demonic pagan deities, who were neither concerned for them nor able to prevent them from perishing. Having exhausted all other options, the captain turned to Jonah. In saying ‘perhaps,’ the captain indicated he was not certain that Yahweh would have compassion on him and his fellow shipmates. But he was desperate enough to acknowledge his helplessness and to turn to Jonah’s God for deliverance. Te Lord was bringing the captain to the point where he would realize that the God of Israel was his only hope. Every sinner, whether Jew or Gentile, must come to that same point of recognition in order to be saved (cf. Rom. 10:13).” “For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." “The question was whether or not Yahweh would show compassion to him and his colleagues. The answer to that question lies at the heart of this book. It was the very reality Jonah resisted-the willingness of the Lord to show grace and kindness to the nations.” I have to say that this is something that I have really not understood, that is why Jonah did not want to see Gentiles come to know the God of Israel. I spend hours a week in writing my Spiritual Diaries and then taking the time to put them onto my blogs which the Holy Spirit then takes around the world to tell others how they can be saved from their sins by putting their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, and it is my desire that anyone who is not a believer will come to the knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord not matter where they are from of what the color of their skin is.
One more paragraph from MacArthur’s commentary which will end this first chapter in his commentary. “This was not the last time a ship, a storm, and salvation figured into God’s plan. Eight centuries after Jonah, the Lord Jesus, like Johan, boarded a boat (Matt. 8:232; Mark 4:36; Luke 8:22) and fell asleep (Matt. 8:24b; Mark 4:37; Luke 8:23b). But this time, unlike Jonah, Christ not only calmed the storm (Matt. 8:26; Mark 4:39; Luke 8:24) but also went to the Gentiles in obedience to God’s call (Matt. 8:29; Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26; cf. Matt. 28:18-20). About thirty years after that account from the life of Christ, another ship set sail only to be wrecked by a storm (Acts 27-28) to journey to Rome (27:6), so that the gospel would go forth from Rome to the ends of the earth (28:28). Jonah’s hard-hearted disobedience was not the final word on Yahweh’s heart for the nations. The God who was drawing the sailors to Himself in the book of Jonah is the God who continues to draw sinners to Himself from every nation, tribe, and tongue.”
Spiritual Meaning for My Life today: I know that God will move heaven and earth to get to a person in order to call them to salvation, and that is what He was doing in the life of the prophet Johan, even though Jonah did not realize it.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trusting the Lord for all of the things that are going on in the lives of my wife and I, as it is a time of trusting the Lord, learning to trust Him more, and growing in the Lord. 9/16/2025 10:00 AM
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