Jonah 4 It's about you!

WEEK    25                                               Jonah 4

FRIDAY  Reflections

The book of Jonah ends on a very unsatisfactory note. There is no clear-cut solution, no resolution, no word on the future of Nineveh since they repented, or on Jonah. Jonah realized God was a God of mercy, but he didn't want God to be merciful, at least not to Nineveh. 

The book ends with the question being turned to the readers: How would you respond? In the end, this book isn't about Jonah or Nineveh. The book asks you, how are you going to respond to God’s mercy on your enemies? 

So how are you going to respond?

Side note: They have many cattle (the way to repent according to the Law), so what are you going to do? People have Jesus today, so how are you going to respond?

Jon 4:1-11
(1)  But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
(2)  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.
(3)  Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
(4)  Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?
(5)  So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.
(6)  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.
(7)  But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
(8)  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.
(9)  And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.
(10)  Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
(11)  And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

Jonah 3

WEEK    25                                              Jonah 3

THURSDAY  Reflections

Jonah went this time when God told him to. He gave the message but just barely and left. He didn't preach to the whole city, try to instruct them on repenting, or tell them how to get right with God. He just said that they were going to be destroyed (turned over) in 40 days.

 

The Spirit of God had to move on these pagan people because, without instruction, they repented in sackcloth and ashes (ways to show grief and remorse). They were not going to take any chances and even clothed their animals with sackcloth and ashes. These people believed, and since the proclamation was for forty days, I assume they wore these types of clothes the whole time. If you have ever held sackcloth and felt how uncomfortable it is, you can understand that these people were serious. 

Jon 3:1-10
(1)  And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
(2)  Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
(3)  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.
(4)  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.
(5)  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.
(6)  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.
(7)  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:
(8)  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.
(9)  Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
(10)  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.

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Psalm 95

WEEK   25                                           Psalms 95

WEDNESDAY  Reflections

Let's worship God but let's not be like Israel who first worshipped and then disobeyed. God is so good but when we turn our back on him there are consequences. For the people who came out of Egypt, they missed out on going into the promised land. I don't know what promised land God wants you to take or what it looks like for you but it will be good, so let's remain faithful to the shepherd of our soul so we can see it.

Psa 95:1-11
(1)  O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
(2)  Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
(3)  For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
(4)  In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
(5)  The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
(6)  O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
(7)  For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
(8)  Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
(9)  When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
(10)  Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
(11)  Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

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Jonah 2

WEEK   25                                               Jonah 2

TUESDAY  Reflections

Some have said that you have to hit rock bottom before you look up. For Jonah, it was a different bottom; it was the bottom of the ocean in the belly of a fish. Jonah's prayer was answered. He was delivered, but what a deliverance being vomited up by a fish. Disobedience brings consequences. Jonah now relented and promised God he would go to Nineveh.

Reminder to self: obey God, don't run away.



Jon 2:1-10
(1)  Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly,
(2)  And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
(3)  For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
(4)  Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
(5)  The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
(6)  I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
(7)  When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
(8)  They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
(9)  But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.
(10)  And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

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Jonah 1

WEEK   25                                             Jonah 1

MONDAY  Reflections

“Jonah was a prophet, Oo-ooh!, but he really never got sad but true...” sing the vegetables in the Veggie Tales movie Jonah. The story has a lot of silly stuff happening in it, but this song nails it. Jonah was a prophet, and it seems he never did get it. Jonah did get it. that God could show mercy, and he never wanted that to happen.

 

In the first chapter, Jonah, who later confesses God was the Lord of the land and the sea, tried to run from God's call by going on the sea. This is as smart as jumping into the ocean to escape sharks. In the defense of his thinking, it wasn’t like staying on the land was going to help him any better. However, he should have known there wasn’t anywhere he could run to.

 

Though Jonah was not an example of what a prophet should be, I am amazed to see God using Jonah’s actions to bring people to Him. We see at the end of chapter one, as Jonah is being swallowed by a great fish, the sailors are in revival (calling out and making vows to God).

 

God can even use disobedience, though that doesn’t save the disobedient from trouble.

Jon 1:1-17
(1)  Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
(2)  Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
(3)  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.
(4)  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.
(5)  Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
(6)  So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
(7)  And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
(8)  Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?
(9)  And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.
(10)  Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
(11)  Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.
(12)  And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
(13)  Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.
(14)  Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee.
(15)  So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
(16)  Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.
(17)  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.

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