SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/16/2025 8:10 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4 “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 this difficult passage, at least it is to me, and I may quote some more from John MacArthur’s book on Jonah as that way I can finish this section, that when I continue to think about it will cause me to get upset over how Johan acted. I realize that God has forgiven Jonah for this sinful behavior, as He forgives all believers, and the best thing to do when we as believers sin is to confess it to the Lord, something that I have not seen Jonah do in this passage.
He writes “Incredibly, Jonah disobeyed the Lord’s command while being fully aware of God’s compassionate character. As he confessed, for I knew.” The prophet grasped God’s lavish mercy and patience, both to Israel historically and to him personally and to him personally. But instead of allowing those truths to prompt him to desire mercy for others (cf. Eph. 4:32), he attempted to prevent the Ninevites from experiencing that same grace (cf. Matt. 18:32-33).
“Jonah ended his complaint by saying, ‘So now, O Yahweh, please take my life from me.’ The pouting prophet’s concluding request (so now) was the culmination of his hateful prejudice. He appealed to Yahweh with a manipulative and melodramatic demand, insisting that the Giver of life take his life. As previously, in asking to die, Jonah was driven by his selfish desires, not the honor of Yahweh. The prophet’s response was sensational and childish, asking God to kill him if he could not have his way. Earlier, he had told the sailors to throw him overboard (Jonah 1:122), preferring to die at that time as well. Jonah stubbornly maintained this bitter attitude throughout the rest of the chapter (4:3, 8, 9). While the prophet expressed joy when God extended grace to him (2:9), he hated that the Lord would show grace to the Gentiles. He would rather experience death than see the Ninevites experience life.
“The prophet continued by declaring the rational for his death wish, saying, For death is better to me than life.’ Jonah did not merely have a warped view of the nature of evil and saving purposes of God (see discussion above); his understanding of life and death was also distorted. Jonah viewed his life as no longer worth living because the Ninevites were spared from divine judgment. In making this claim, the prophet demonstrated his ingratitude for the fact that God had rescued him from certain death in the sea (Jonah 2:6-10). Though the psalmist once declared that God’s ‘Lovingkindness is better than life’ (Ps. 63:3), Jonah’s animosity toward the Gentiles was so formidable—apparently, the dominating passion of his life—that God’s lovingkindness toward them would rob him of his reason to live. With this twisted perspective, Jonah declared, ‘Death is better to me than life.’”
Spiritual Meaning for my Life today: I know that it is easy to criticize what Jonah’s attitude was in this section of Scripture but I know that I have things that are in need of confessing before the Lord too, and so the best thing for me to learn from this passage comes from 1 John 1:8-10 “8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I am trusting the Lord to care for my wife who has cancer, that His will, will be done and that He will give grace and mercy to her as she fight’s this cancer.
11/16/2025 8:35 AM
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