May 20, 2023
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Reading along with us in Jonah? Here’s today’s reading:
Jonah 1-2 (NIV)
Jonah Flees From the Lord
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord...........Continue Reading
Jonah 1:2, despite the evil of Ninevah against Israel, God sent Jonah to preach against it. God heard the cry, because of Ninevah’s cruelty. Our national news reports daily the anger, cruelty, and murderous deeds of our own citizens. But as incredibly evil as these deeds may be, God foreordained before the world began, that all mankind should live eternally with Him. In my heart, I want God’s judgment on these wicked people in America so much! How can they kill innocent people? Not unlike how Jonah felt against Ninevah. Not hard for me to understand. It is in me too. Oh wretched man that I am!
Self reflections, gordy
Jonah 2:1 Out of the depths of the fish’s belly, Jonah could still pray and cry to God for salvation!
In the depths of the greatest tribulation that will ever be, mankind will still have the ability to call out to the Lord to repent! No matter how invested one can be in sin, no matter how far along they may appear to us, even if they take the mark of the beast, God still loves the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever (that means just that, any one & every one) who believes will have eternal life. Ask the thief on the cross. The message to me, it is never too late! Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. Gordy
Jonah 1-2 done
Have you ever hated anyone enough to let them stay in their sins? Yup! And there’s no question that God would want us to share with these people. Gods grace and mercy for everyone. Even those WE don’t think deserve it. We were just as guilty before our introduction. God gets Jonah to do His Will eventually. Would have been alot easier if Jonah didn’t run. Makes no sense. Reminds me of Samaritan women at the well and her village
Jonah was the son of Amittai a citizen of Gath-hepher in Zebulun of Galilee and a subject of the Northern Kingdom. He lived during the reign of Jeroboam the 2nd, king of Israel. [ 2 Kings 14; 25.] In my reference book[ All the Men of the Bible it refers to Jonah as one of the earliest prophets, if not the first whose writings are preserved to us.] Also this same reference mentioned that Jonah is from Galilee. This making the Pharisees wrong and giving a false statement. [ John 7; 52 ]. By friend and foe Jonah had been mistreated. He believed that salvation was only for the Jews. Also the people of Nineveh were very evil. So he had a very strong hated toward them. God calls Jonah to go and preach against the city Nineveh. What does Jonah do but set sail as far away from there as he could. He doesn`t care for them at all. So God in His love and mercy keeps seeking Jonah to bring him back into the will of God. He brings about a great storm to get Jonah`s attention and despite the storm he is found sleeping in a deep sleep. God does get the attention of the others on board and they wake him up. Jonah is not only physically, sleeping but is spiritually sleeping. He thinks that going to sleep will erase God`s will for him. They with great reluctance throw him overboard. God sends a great fish to swallow him for three days. God finally has Jonah`s attention. Jonah He prayed and repented and said he would go to preach to Nineveh. He says that salvation is of the Lord. After this the fish vomited him out onto dry ground. Jesus refers to this actually event as real history. [ Matthew 12; 39,40 and Luke 11; 29,30]. In the KJV in Matthew 12 Jesus says the whale`s belly but in the NIV Jesus says fish.] Either way it was a large fish like creature that swallowed Jonah. Perhaps created for this very purpose. Anyways it was not a myth but it actually did happen. Jonah was a person that lived as recorded in history. Sometimes when we are sleeping spiritually God will get our attention also.
Jonah 1-2
” The waters surrounded me, even in my soul: the deep closed around me, Weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings of the mountains: the earth with it’s bars closed behind me forever: Yet You have brought me up my life from this pit, O Lord , my God.”
What an image… “the moorings of the mountains”. God’s got you no matter what you’ve gotten yourself into. I love scriptural contrasting statements illustrating God’s power and grace.
What a classic story that still rings true with lessons for all of us as we confront the will and character of God. We can try to run from God and will find opportunity to do so but He will not make it easy. The efforts He takes here to set Jonah on the right path for his life shows that God has as much of a message for Jonah as He does for the people of Nineveh. God could have accomplished His mission to Nineveh anyway way He wanted, but He goes to great lengths to teach Jonah this lesson. And don’t we often know exactly what is happening when circumstances are heating up because we are being disobedient? Yeah, it’s me..God is after me. And what a prayer Jonah makes in the belly of the fish. What a miracle that he is there and alive, but nothing like uncomfortable circumstances to bring repentance. He must admit that God is right and he is best to follow Him and how gracious God is to meet Jonah (and us) in the dark places we find ourselves. I LOVE Jonah 2:8. May we learn from Jonah not to forfeit the grace that could be ours. God is always reaching out…are we willing to grab hold of His hand?
We cannot run away from God; he is omnipresent. When he gives someone a job to do, he expects them to do it. Even though Jonah was in a horrible situation (living in the belly of a fish), he prayed to God with prayers of thanksgiving and expectation that God would save him. Jonah praised the Lord and promised to be obedient to him. After that, God answered his prayer. When we pray with faith, no matter how awful the situation is, he will always answer us.
You can’t run from God. He has a plan for each of us and He will be with us through it but even more importantly what I took from this is that He will be with us until we get on that path as well! The the time it takes for us to get on board will not be easy and even though it is from our own choices that we will put ourselves in a more difficult place He will still be there waiting for us to come to our sense and follow Him!