SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/15/2025 10:15 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “A Flagrant Accusation”
Bible Reading and Meditation Reference: Jonah 4:2-3
Message of the verse: “And he prayed to Yahweh and said, “Ah! O Yahweh, was not this my word to myself while I was still in my own land? Therefore I went ahead to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning evil. So now, O Yahweh, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.”
I continue looking at these difficult verses, at least to me as I find it hard to understand why Jonah acted the way he did after delivering the message to the Ninevites that the Lord charged him to give, and then get the results that the Lord desired to have as we have looked at in the previous chapter, and yet we see Jonah upset which can be seen here in these two verses.
John MacArthur writes “Though it came from an embittered heart, Jonah’s articulation of God’s saving character was theologically accurate. It reflected the Lord’s self-description in Exodus 34:6-7, when He showed His glory to Moses. The Lord declared of Himself:
Yahweh, Yahweh God, a compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.
Israel should have died for worshiping the golden calf (Exodus 32). However, out of His infinite mercy, the Lord spared and restored the nation. Accordingly, God’s people joyfully repeated this declaration throughout the Old Testament (Neh. 9:17; Ps. 86:15; 103:8; 111:4; 112:4; 116:5; 145:8). In referring to God as the one who relents concerning evil, Jonah’s specific phrasing not only reflected these earlier texts but specifically drew from Joel 2:13. The prophet Joel declared to Israel that if they would repent, they would receive mercy because God faithfully extends grace to His people Israel. Jonah’s prayer summarized an entire history of Yahweh’s forbearance, forgiveness, and faithfulness toward His people. This truth about God’s kindness to Israel exposed Jonah’s hypocrisy, revealing that he fully accepted God’s grace when it was extended to undeserving Israel, yet he rejected it when it was given to any other people.”
Let me just say that this truth which I have just wrote about coming from John MacArthur’s commentary has deeper meanings as far as I can see, as it continues to happen to believers in the church age, and has for the entire church age thus far. Now what am I referring to? I am referring to what happens to a person who becomes a believer through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, confesses that he or she is a sinner and turns his life around to follow the Lord, thankful for the forgiveness, and then something happens to them when someone sins against them. It may be something very small that this person did to offend them, and yet they refuse to forgive them. I remember a story that happened in the church that I used to attend, as we had a guest Pastor, who was a friend of our Pastor come to speak. He told the story of a man who would not forgive another man, I don’t recall what the incident was, but he had in his wallet a paper that had something to do with the sinful act that was done to him, and this paper was yellow because of age, and yet he kept it there because it reminded him of what this person had done to him, that he would not forgive. I suppose this man forgot about this incident a long time ago and yet this man with the yellow piece of paper in his wallet was miserable for all those years. The point that I am making is that if you are a born-again believer under the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, who took your punishment on the cross so that you can be forgiven, the biggest and best thing that has ever happened to you as you are forgiven of all your sins, past, present, and future, and yet will not forgive another person, and that is exactly what this story of Jonah is all about as he accepted the forgiveness from God for his sins, yet did not want this to happen to the people of Nineveh.
Spiritual Meaning for my Life today: I am thankful for the forgiveness that I have in Christ Jesus, as on the 26th of January, 1974 the Lord reached down to save me, and has forgiven me all of my sins, and so I must be able, even though at times it may hurt to forgive others who have sinned against me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I continue to trust the Lord who is in total control of what is going on with my wife as she deals with the cancer that has invaded her body that the Lord, who never makes a mistake, will work out His will in her life, and also in my life.
11/15/2025 10:52 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment