SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/30/2025 10:42 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2“A Remorseful Monarch”
Bible Reading and Meditation Reference: Jonah 3:6
Message of the verses: “Then the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, laid aside his mantle from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes.”
In yesterday’s SD we began looking at these verses and in John MacArthur’s commentary on these verses he stated “When the message God gave Jonah to preach broke through to the courts of the palace, it struck the king and he immediately carried our four actions.” We look at the first action in yesterday’s SD and now in this SD we will start by looking at the second action.
Second, the king laid aside his mantle from him. This would be similar to a modern-day uniform; the mantle was an outer garment that depicted a person’s role or job. Here is an example, from Elijah who wore a mantle that designated him as a prophet “19 So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, while he was plowing with twelve pairs of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. And Elijah passed over to him and threw his mantle on him” (1 Kings 19:19). Now in casting aside his mantle, a symbol of royalty, the king denounced his own position, and this signaled his full surrender to Yahweh. Let us now look at Ezekiel 26:16 to help us better understand this: “16 "Then all the princes of the sea will go down from their thrones, remove their robes and strip off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground, tremble every moment and be appalled at you (Ezek. 26:16).” His action acknowledged that he was no better than his subjects; together, they were all subjects before the holy Judge of heaven. Such abject humility reflected a profound recognition of God’s threatening power and supremacy.
Now we move to the third action which is the king covered himself with sackcloth. Like the rest of the city as seen in Jonah 4:5, the king donned sackcloth to express sorrow and mourning over his transgressions, compare 1 Chronicles 21:16 “Then David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and heaven, with his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, covered with sackcloth, fell on their faces.” Here are some other verse examples (Neh. 9:1; and Ester 4:1-9). The king did not cling to his royal status and his royal robes. Instead, in humiliation he acknowledged the severity of his sin symbolized by the sackcloth. Now to display the extent of his remorse, the king did not merely clothe himself with a few small pieces of sackcloth (cf. Jonah 3:5) but completely covered himself with it, layering this coarse and scratchy goat-hair over his entire body. By that open act of repentance, he acknowledged his sin, here are some verses to look up that go along with this (Psalm 32:3-7; 51:1-9; Joel 2:12-17; James 4:8-10), demonstrating the fruit of repentance (cf. Jonah 3:8; Matt. 3:8). “"But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.” “8 "Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”
Now we will look at the final display of humiliation, the king sat on the ashes. Now these ashes would have been outside the city in a garbage dump where waste was burned—a place full of filthy refuse and foul orders. Think about this as this man was moments ago was sitting on his throne, and now he is in the garbage dump, trading the highest honor for the lowest degradation. This truly demonstrates humiliation. Here is an example from the book of Job “8 And he took a potsherd to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes” (Job 2:8). Nineveh’s ruler placed himself on these ashes to illustrate he was himself as condemned and unworthy before God. “8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,” (Phil. 3:8). The king acknowledged that he had no standing in the sight of the Lord, being void of merit and under judgment, and he thus depicted the contriteness of the chief of sinners.” “13 "But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ (Luke 18:13). “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all” (1 Tim. 1:15).
John MacArthur concludes this section by writing “With the condescension of the king, truly the entire city was impacted by Jonah’s message—“from the greatest to the least of them’ (Jonah 3:5). The immediate, humble, remorseful, and destitute repentance of the king embodied the words of Job 42:6; cf. Dan. 9:3-6; Matt. 11:21; Luke 10:13; Heb. 9:13-14). The radical transformation of Nineveh’s ruler stands as a remarkable testimony to the power of God’s work in salvation. The Lord demonstrated in this act of conversion that He loves all kinds of sinners, and that even a wicked king is not outside the reach of His mercy (cf. 2 Chron. 32:12-15; Dan. 4:34-35; Phil. 1:13; 4:22).”
Spiritual meaning For My Life Today: There are times in my life when the Lord brings things into my life that I know needs addressing, and as I look at how the Lord used Jonah to bring the message of salvation to the Ninevites to bring about the greatest change in their lives, the Lord can also do that to those who are in need of some changes in their lives even though they are believers. He spoke to my heart this morning.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust the Lord through His Holy Spirit to make the necessary changes in my life to bring glory to Him.
10/30/2025 11:48 AM
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