Jonah

The Flight of Jonah

/ Tim A. / Leave a comment

There seems to be a few people, maybe many more than a few who do not believe the account of the book of Jonah. They say no one could be swallowed by a great fish and survive. I say since God can do whatever He desires, and if it says that God prepared  great fish to swallow Jonah, then that was a special fish made for Jonah.

Jesus said that Jonah was swallowed by  a great fish, “But He answered and said unto them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.  The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” Matthew 12:39-41

Jonah is mentioned as a prophet in Second Kings 14:25. If you cannot believe the simplest account of Scripture then, you are going to have a problem accepting any of Scriptures.

Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,  “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”  But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
Jonah 1:1-3

Now about “The Flight of Jonah” it crashed 🙂 . God called the prophet to go to a distant city, a Gentile city, because of the evil within that place. When Jonah heard the word of the LORD, he apparently says nothing, just packs a travel bag and goes out from the presence of the LORD. Every step he took was downward from that time until he prayed for deliverance.

He went down to Joppa. He went down into the ship going to Tarshish. When the LORD loved that generation of Gentiles in Nineveh so much that He was not finished with Jonah He sent a storm. Where was Jonah? Down in the lowest part of the ship. He was eventually thrown overboard, and went down into the belly of the fish.

Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of that prepared by God fish, which seems to have been specially prepared for Jonah.

God loves Jonah. He prays from the belly of the fish and despite his rebellion, and his hatred for these Gentiles whom God loves, God  delivers Jonah, by having the great fish vomit him out on the shore (2:10). Then the LORD calls Jonah again (3:1), and evidently with much angst he obeys the LORD reluctantly. When he arrives in Nineveh he warns them of approaching judgment from God, and the whole city repents, and the city is delivered for a few more years. About one generation was delivered from the judgment of the LORD, by His mercy and grace.

The flight of Jonah may have been his national hatred for the enemy nation. Jonah needed to learn love and compassion for others. I pray that he did, and that I do as well.

The love, mercy, and grace of God is clearly seen through the cross of Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son. There He took, willingly, our sins upon Himself to die for our sins; He was buried and He rose from the grave. As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so was the Son of Man three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Do not take flight away from God, but flee from sin, to Jesus Christ, and live.

Out Of The Belly Of The Fish

/ Tim A. / Leave a comment

And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
“Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.”
So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.  And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
Jonah 3:1-5

Need For Repentance

/ Tim A. / Leave a comment

But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
Obadiah 1:17

For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.  And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying,
“Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not?”
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not.
Jonah 3:6-10

Words Of Jesus; Son Of God, God The Son – 072620

/ Tim A. / Leave a comment

“The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired Him that He would shew them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them,
‘When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.’
And He left them, and departed.” Matthew 16:1-4

Jonah’s Anger

/ Tim A. / Leave a comment

“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, ‘I pray Thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil. Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.’ ” Jonah 4:1-3 (KJB)

I do not know, and yet I do know; I believe God was displeased with Jonah’s attitude; and he had to be disciplined.  I am not sure by the end of the chapter and short book that Jonah had learned about mercy and grace.

The prophet Jonah was a patriot to the nation of Israel. It was the godly nation.  It was the nation of God’s people. Here he is angry because God had mercy on a heathen people.

Let us who are saved by the grace of God through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ; the only begotten Son of God; was buried, and He rose from the grave, always remember that God desires the whole world to know that He is the LORD God.  That is stated again and again through out Scripture.

Let us rejoice that enemies of God and our faith become our brethren, and love the Lord just as we do.  We too, were once enemies of God, and the cross of Christ (Romans 5:8-10).

Rejoice every time a soul is redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, who is Jesus Christ.

…From the Presence of the LORD

/ Tim A. / Leave a comment

“Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.” Jonah 1:1-3 (KJV)

In the presence of the LORD there is joy, peace, hope, and life.  Out of His presence there is fear, dread, and chaos.

Jonah was an actual man who lived during the reign of Jereboam 2 of the Northern kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 14:25).  He is also mentioned in a teaching by Jesus in the New Testament (Matthew 12:39-41), and Jesus was not referring to a parable, but using Jonah as factual history, and his being in the belly of a great fish/whale.

The central character of the book of Jonah is not Jonah.  It is God.

Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh.  It as a foreign nation which he knew did not believe in Jehovah/YHWH; and Jonah was a patriot of Israel; so he fled, and “went down to Joppa”  hoped on a ship going to Tarshish, paid his fare, and “went down into it.”

It is quite possible that Jonah sold all his possessions to flee.  He was leaving any family he may have had, friends, home, etc. behind to flee from God’s will for his life.

This was one time when this prophet had no intention of obeying God.  Did he know about God’s richness of mercy?  Most certainly he did.  It is probably why he chose to flee.  He did not want to see a hated enemy repent and experience the mercy of Jehovah God of Israel.

Notice the common thread of all who “flee from the presence of the LORD”.  The “presence of the LORD” is the only place of contentment, peace, rest, and fulfillment.  The “presence of the LORD” is the will of God for our lives (those who are in the faith of Jesus Christ).

Please notice the path of fleeing from the presence of God:  Every step is a downward step:

  1. “Went down to Joppa”  (v. 3);
  2. “Went down into it [the ship] (v. 3);
  3. “Was gone down into the sides of the ship…” (v. 5)

Twice in verse three its says, “…from the presence of the LORD”.  There is warning there for everyone who would step out of God’s will for any reason; no matter how reasonable it may seem.

It is shocking to find how easy it is to find the means to flee from God’s will for our lives.  A ship was at Joppa.  It is very possible that Jonah purchased the whole use of the vessel – he being the only passenger, and the other men being the captain and the crew.  We can always find means to flee, but we rarely find the means to do His will.

Did Jonah think he could go some place where God could not find Him? It is not likely.  For Jonah to flee was pure rebellion against the sovereignty of God in his life.  For any one who openly rebels against God’s will they flee “…from the presence of the LORD”.  We all must learn that where God calls us is going to be the place where we are content, at peace and joyous in the LORD.  That all begins by believing what God tells us about His Son Jesus who died on the cross for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day.  Call on Him and begin your life living in the presence of the LORD.

 

The Angry Prophet

/ Tim A. / 1 Comment

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.  And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, ‘I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.  Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”  Jonah 4:1-3 (KJV)

This prophet who despised the people to whom the LORD had sent him, did not want to see this people forgiven, but rather his desire was to see this mass of people destroyed.  The LORD was having mercy on Nineveh, when He saw their repentance.  Due to their sin Nineveh was destroyed about 100 years later.

Of all things for a preacher to become angry about.  People getting right with God, and changing their hearts and minds about the way they were living.  That is why preachers preach.  There are things worth getting angry about for the preacher.  The murder of the innocent unborn.  The slavery of women and children around the world.  The captivity of drugs, alcohol, gambling, and pornography; and its destruction to our society.  There are many other things for which the preacher to be angry.  Rejoice, however, when people repent of their sins and get right with God.

To give us little bit of background on Jonah; he was a patriot of Israel.  He loved his nation.  He loved his God; and Nineveh was the enemy to himself, his nation and his God.

Let me just end by asking this question:  Is patriotism; love for one’s country more important than following the call and will of God?  I leave the answer with the reader.

-T.A.

Day 64 – Prepare For the Glory of the LORD

/ Tim A. / Leave a comment

All of creation is for the glory of the LORD; even the one’s made in His image; yet we have fallen short of His glory (Romans 3:23), and because of Adam’s sin have brought a curse on the created order.

My reading this morning took me through three of the Minor Prophets – Amos, Obadiah, and Jonah.  These are called “Minor Prophets” because of the shortness of the prophecy, not its measure of importance in  prophecy, and the Word of God.

God, in His Word, shows us quite clearly that He will be glorified; and will spare nothing to make it so.  He who spared not even His own Son, to bring us back into His glory.

There are a couple of verses in Amos I want us to consider this morning.  God shows us His glory in the creation;

“Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is His name…” Amos 5:8 (KJV)
“It is He that buildeth His stories in the heaven, and hath founded His troop in the earth; He that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is His name.”  9:6

In Amos the prophet shows us God even in the everyday things that we take for granted; such as the stars, and the rain which nourishes the ground and our crops.  Note, the prophets awareness of where the rain comes from – how it comes from the “waters of the sea”.

Now note how the prophet Obadiah, the shortest prophetic book of the Old Testament ends his prophecy speaking of the kingdom being the LORD’S;

“And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.”  Obadiah 21 (KJV)

Now as we consider the prophet Jonah we see a very reluctant prophet.  We first hear of Jonah in 2 Kings 14:25 where the prophet had spoken in the days of Jeroboam.  When the LORD calls Jonah to a foreign land, Nineveh, the prophet becomes disobedient, rebellious and flees.  God has something else in mind.  He prepares five different things to bring the prophet to where He wants Him to be; and it is not just to Nineveh;

“But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.”  Jonah 1:4

“Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”  Jonah 1:17

“And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.  But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.  And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, ‘It is better for me to die than to live.'” Jonah 4:6-8

Notice the five things God prepared for Jonah.  1) “a great wind into the sea”;  2) “the LORD prepared great fish…”;  3) “the LORD God prepared a gourd…”;  4) “God prepared a worm…”;  5) “God prepared a vehement east wind…”

Sad to think that he was more concerned with his own comfort than the souls of these people; most of all the glory of the LORD God.  How am I with that today?  I am afraid that far too often I am like Jonah.

May God help me.

-Tim A. Blankenship