SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/11/2025 9:10 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “A Fierce Anger”
Bible Reading and Meditation Reference: Jonah 4:1
Message of the verse: “But this was a great evil to Jonah, and he became angry.” “This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry” (NLT).
I have to say that I did not get too far in looking at this verse as those who read the SD from yesterday know that I wrote about the early life of Josh McDowell, as some of the things in his life were similar to the things that happened to Jonah, with the exception that after Josh became a believer the Lord used and is using him for the cause of Christ, but the only thing that we read about in the Bible about Jonah is when Jesus stated that he spent three days and nights in the belly of the great fish, as He would do in the grave. I realize that sometimes this part of the story of Jonah causes me to get upset with him, and the reason is that it is and always has been my desire to spread the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world so that the Holy Spirit of God can use it in everywhere He sends it through these blogs to bring fruit for the cause of Christ and to save those that the Spirit takes it to. I am certainly not perfect and do get angry with different people, but I know for one thing that God can save the evilest of people for the Apostle Paul writes that he was the worst of sinners and God saved him.
The following statement from John MacArthur as he begins this section is upsetting: “The spiritual salvation of Nineveh under God’s display of lavish mercy was a great evil to Jonah. While English translations often render this phrase as ‘but it greatly displeased Jonah,’ the Hebrew literally states it was evil in his sight. Evil is clearly defined throughout the book—being identified with Nineveh’s collective wickedness (Jonah 1:2; cf. 4:2), the people’s individual acts of violence (3:8, 10), and the calamitous nature of divine judgment (3:10; cf. 4:6). But Jonah defined evil in a way that turned it on its head. He regarded the repentance of Gentiles—the act of turning from evil to God—as itself being evil. For Jonah, the fact that God mercifully restrained His hand of judgment against Nineveh constituted divine injustice. In Jonah’s view, God’s salvation of Nineveh made God guilty of evil. The prophet’s perspective was so distorted that he called what is good, evil (cf. Isa. 5:20; Rom. 1:32). The repetition of the word evil twice in Hebrew (literally, ‘it was evil to Jonah, a great evil’) emphasizes the depth of his darkened thinking.”
Now I want to look first at Isaiah 5:20 and then Romans 1:32, verses mention in the highlighted part from MacArthur’s commentary above:
“5 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
“32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”
I have to admit that I struggle with what Jonah did and I would never want to do this kind of thing of not withholding the gospel to anyone at anytime that the Lord is leading me to tell them the truth, for in telling the truth of the gospel it will change the lives of anyone who has truly accepted it. I know from my own experience that the Lord has change me in ways that I could never have done myself, in fact He changed me so greatly that I am ashamed of the way that I lived for almost 27 years, and I was actually enjoying my sin filled life until that day in January of 1974 when while listening to a number of sermons by Hal Lindsey that the Lord used those messages on the end times, and then after every message Lindsey gave out the gospel and that is what the Lord used to save me. My life surely is not perfect as I, like all true believers sin, but we all feel badly when we sin and then need to confess those sin or sins to the Lord “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Now this verse does not mean that we were not forgiven all of our sins when we were saved, for we were forgiven all of our sins, past, present, and future, for if we were not then we could not enter into heaven. Bu confessing our sins to the Lord after we are a believer we will stay in fellowship with the Lord and can be continued to be used by the Lord for the cause of Christ. As a true believer we desire to continue to do the work for the Lord that He has called us to do, something that if we faithfully do then we will receive rewards from the Lord, and when we get to heaven after the rapture of the church we will then be able to place those rewards at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, for it was because of what He did for us that we earned those rewards. I for one want to have rewards to lay at the feet of my Savior and Lord for I owe Him everything.
Looks like I will have to try and finish this section in my next SD, tomorrow, and perhaps that will be a short one as I have to be with my wife tomorrow as she gets her next infusion treatment for her cancer.
Spiritual Meaning for my Life today: It seems after all of these years that I have a better understanding of this last chapter of Jonah, and that is that Jonah was wrong in not wanting the Ninevites to come God for salvation, and like I said I never want to withhold the salvation message to anyone.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I am trusting the Lord for my wife’s treatments to be greatly beneficial to her, as she, like myself and all believers are in the hands of our great Physician to do with us what He desires to do, and to bring glory to the Lord as we trust Him.
11/11/2025 10:04 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment