SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/04/2025 10:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “A Heartfelt Cry”
Bible Reading and Meditation Reference: Jonah 2:2
Message of the verse: …and he said,
“I called out of my distress to Yahweh,
And He answered me,
I cried for help from the belly of Sheol;
You heard my voice.”
I can say that this SD will be rather short as I will leave a little bit of this section for tomorrow morning’s SD because it is Sunday and my Spiritual Diaries are done before I go to Sunday school and then church service after that. I hope that all who are reading these Spiritual Diaries from the book of Jonah are meaningful to them. I realize that It is difficult for me to truly understand things from the book of Jonah, things like why Jonah seems to prejudice against the city of Nineveh when the Lord’s desire was for him to go and tell the people of Nineveh about the saving grace of God, and how then they will become a people who love and serve Yahweh. I realize that these people were very cruel and that is all the more reason for him to go and preach to them, for if God was sending him to preach to these people then He certainly was going to use Jonah to bring them to a saving knowledge of the Lord, which will make things in the world much better than when they were unbelievers, but the main truth is that it will be better for the Nineveh’s as the will have gone from eternity in hell to eternity in heaven to be with God. It seems to me that being prejudice is a sin that is difficult to get over, and yet by looking at the whole world as a missionary project is the very best thing that a person can do. It is certainly one of my goals of writing Spiritual Diaries and then putting them onto my blogs is for believers who read them to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and also it is my goal for unbelievers to read them and then the Holy Spirit of God to give them an effectual call for salvation which is the very best thing that can happen to anyone.
John MacArthur writes as we continue looking at this section from Jonah “The prophet described his circumstances of distress as being in the belly of Sheol. This phrase depicts the deep darkness of the churning sea as the grave of the dead at the very bottom of the ocean. While he had not drowned, deliverance required a miraculous escape from the bowels of his aquatic tomb.
“At the bottom of the ocean floor, Jonah understood that his situation meant certain death. Many have died at sea (Rev. 20:13), and that was undoubtedly Jonah’s expectation (Jonah 1:14). For that reason, he compared his experience to being in Sheol. While the word can refer to the place where unbelievers are held in judgment (cf. Isa. 14:15; Ezek. 31:16; 32:27; Rev. 20:13), the term fundamentally signifies the grace and, by extension, the afterlife (cf. Gen. 37:35; Num. 16:30; Pss. 16:10; 116:3, 9; Ezek. 32:27). Jonah knew that in the depths of the sea, he was as good as dead, about to depart from the land of the living (cf. Pss. 88:10; 115:17; 116:3, 9; Ezek. 32:23). In crying out to the Lord, he understood that only divine power could overcome death and save him.”
I will save the final two paragraphs of this section for tomorrow’s SD, Lord willing.
Spiritual Meaning for My Life today: I am trusting the Lord to help me to understand more things from this short book of Jonah, learning things that will help me to grow in the Lord, so I can serve Him better.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trusting that the Lord will continue to give me grace and understanding in order to help my wife as she may be about to begin the effects of the chemo treatment she received last Wednesday.
10/4/2025 11:16 AM
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