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Monday, August 3, 2015

JEHOVAH Shows Mercy Over All HIS Creation




Jonah 4:1-11 NIV








Jonah’s Anger at The LORD'S Compassion





1 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 

2He prayed to The LORD

“Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that YOU Are A Gracious and Compassionate GOD, Slow to anger and Abounding in love, A GOD WHO Relents from sending calamity. 3Now, LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”


4But The LORD Replied, 


“Is it right for you to be angry?”


5Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6Then The LORD GOD Provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 






 7But at dawn the next day GOD Provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered.






 8When the sun rose, GOD Provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint.

He wanted to die, and said,  

It would be better for me to die than to live.”


9But GOD Said to Jonah, 


“Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”


“It is,” 

he said. 

“And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”


10But The LORD Said, 


“You have been concerned about this plant, though 

you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up 

overnight and died overnight. 


 11And should I Not Have Concern for the great city of 

Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and 

twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right 

hand from their left—and also many animals?











(From commentaries)


JONAH'S DISPLEASURE AND ITS CORRECTION 



Verses 1-4.  Jonah is grieved at the sparing of Nineveh, the expectation of which had led to his former flight, and complains of GOD'S clemency. 


Verse 1.  It displeased Jonah exceedingly; literally, it was evil to Jonah, a great evil. It was more than mere displeasure which he felt; he was vexed and irritated. The reference is to what is said in the last verse of the preceding chapter, viz. that the predicted destruction was not inflicted.


How the knowledge of this reprieve was conveyed to the prophet we are not informed. It probably was made known to him before the expiration of the forty days by Divine communication, in accordance with the saying in Amos 3:7,


 "Surely The LORD Will Do nothing, But HE Reveals HIS secret to HIS servants the prophets."


Various reasons have been assigned for this displeasure. 



(1) Because he saw in this conversion of Gentiles a token of the ruin of his own people, who remained always hardened and impenitent. 


(2) A mistaken patriotism, which could not endure to find mercy extended to a heathen nation which had already proved hostile to Israel and was destined to oppress it still further. This last seem to have been the real ground of his annoyance. So deep was this, that he would gladly have seen the sentence executed even after the city had repented (compare verse 11, "Should not I spare Nineveh," i.e. which you would have ME even now destroy?) 


He was very angry; Septuagint, συνεχύθη, "was confounded." His vexation increased to anger.


Verse 5.  Jonah, not yet abandoning his hope of seeing the city punished, makes for himself a hut outside the walls, and waits there to see the issue. Went out of the city. It is best so rendered, and not in the pluperfect. It must have been before the end of the forty days that Jonah perceived that Nineveh would escape.


On the east side of the city. The opposite side to that by which he had entered, and where the high ground enabled him to overlook the town, without necessarily sharing in its destruction. A booth.  What would become of the city. He still expected that some calamity would befall the Ninevites, perhaps with the idea that their repentance would prove so imperfect and temporary that GOD Would Punish them after all.


Verses 6, 7.  GOD Causes a plant to spring up in order to shade Jonah from the sun; but it is made soon to wither away and leave him exposed to the scorching rays. 

Verse 6.   Prepared (verse 7, 8);appointed. A gourd; Hebrew, kikaion (here only in the Old Testament); Septuagint, κολοκύνθη," pumpkin and common in the sandy regions of Palestine. It has large leaves and grows to a considerable height in a very few days, so that a mere shrub becomes quickly a small tree. The candor and simplicity of the writer throughout are very remarkable. He may have seen in this providential shelter an intimation that GOD Approved of his intention to wait and see the issue.


Verses 8-11.  Jonah grieves bitterly for the loss of the gourd; and GOD Takes occasion from this to point out the prophet's inconsistency and pitilessness in murmuring against the Mercy shown to Nineveh with its multitude of inhabitants. 


Verse 8.  A vehement east wind; there are two kinds of sirocco, equally destructive and annoying - the violent wind, which fills the air with dust and sand; and the quiet one, when scarcely any air is stirring, but the heat is most overpowering. Beat upon the head. The same word for the effect of the rays of the sun as in Psalm 121:6 and elsewhere.


Verse 11. - Should Not I Spare Ninevah? The contrast between the feeling and conduct of GOD and those of the prophet is very forcible. You have compassion for a plant of little worth, in whose growth you have had no concern, to which you have no right; Should I Not Pity a great city which is MINE, which I Have Permitted To Grow into power? You have compassion on a flower which sprang up in a day and withered in a day; Should I Not Pity this town with its teeming population and its multitude of cattle, the least of which is more worth than any senseless plant, and which I uphold daily with My Providence? 


Six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; i.e. children of tender years, who did not know which hand was the strongest and fittest for use; or, metaphorically, who had no knowledge between good and evil" (Deuteronomy 1:39), at present incapable of moral discernment.


This limitation would include children of three or four years old; and, taking these as one-fifth of the population, we should set the inhabitants at six hundred thousand in number. The multitude of these innocent children, who must perish if the city were destroyed, is an additional reason why it should be spared. A still further claim for compassion is appended. And also much cattle. GOD'S Mercy Is Over all HIS Works; HE Preserves man and beast (Psalm 36:6; Psalm 145:9), and as man is superior to other animals, so are cattle better than plants.


The book ends abruptly, but its object is accomplished. Jonah is silenced; he can make no reply; he can only confess that he is entirely wrong, and that GOD Is Righteous. He learns the lesson that GOD Would Have all men saved, and that that narrow-mindedness which would exclude heathen from HIS KINGDOM is displeasing to HIM and alien from HIS Design.



"For YOU Have Mercy upon all; for YOU Can Do all things, and Winks At the sins of men in order that they should repent. For YOU Love all the things that are, and Abhor nothing that YOU Have Made; for Never Would YOU Have Made anything If YOU Had Hated it.  But YOU Spare all; for they are YOURS, O LORD, YOU Lover of souls."




Amen.






JEHOVAH Will Not Despise A Broken And A Contrite Heart




Jonah 3:1-10 NIV








Jonah Goes to Nineveh







1Then The WORD of The LORD Came to Jonah a second time: 


2“Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it 

The Message I Give you.”


3Jonah obeyed The WORD of The LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 






 4Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”  






5The Ninevites believed GOD. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

6When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:






“By the decree of the king and his nobles:


Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on GOD. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9Who knows? GOD May yet Relent and with compassion turn from HIS Fierce Anger so that we will not perish.”


10 When GOD Saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, HE Relented and Did Not Bring On them the destruction HE Had Threatened.













Jonah 3





3:1-4 GOD Employs Jonah again in HIS service. HIS Making use of us is an evidence of HIS Being at peace with us. 

Jonah was not disobedient, as he had been. He neither endeavored to avoid hearing The Command, nor declined to obey it. 


See here the nature of repentance

It is the change of our mind and way, and a return to our work and duty.


Also, the benefit of affliction; it brings those back to their place who had deserted it. See the Power of Divine Grace, for affliction of itself would rather drive men from GOD, than draw them to HIM. GOD'S servants must go Where HE Sends them, come When HE Calls them, and do What HE Bids them; we must do whatever The WORD of The LORD Commands.


Jonah faithfully and boldly delivered HIS errand. Whether Jonah said more, to show the Anger of GOD against them, or whether he only repeated these words again and again, is not certain, but this was the purport of his message. Forty days is a long time for a Righteous GOD To Delay Judgments, yet it is but a little time for an unrighteous people to repent and reform in.



3:5-10 There was a wonder of Divine Grace in the repentance and reformation of Nineveh. It condemns the men of the Gospel Generation, Matthew 12:41. A very small degree of light may convince men that humbling themselves Before GOD, confessing their sins with prayer, and turning from sin, are means of escaping wrath and obtaining Mercy.


The people followed the example of the king. It became a national act, and it was necessary it should be so, when it was to prevent a national ruin. In prayer we must cry with fixedness of thought, firmness of faith, and devout affections. It concerns us in prayer to stir up all that is within us. 

It is not enough to fast for sin, but we must fast from sin; 

and, in order to the success of our prayers, we must no more regard iniquity in our hearts, Psalm 66:18.


The work of a fast-day is not done with the day. The Ninevites hoped that GOD Would Turn from HIS Fierce Anger; and that thus their ruin would be prevented. They could not be so confident of finding Mercy upon their repentance, as we may be, who have the death and merits of CHRIST, To Which we may trust for pardon upon repentance. They dared not presume, but they did not despair. Hope of Mercy is the great encouragement to repentance and reformation. Let us boldly cast ourselves down at the footstool of Free Grace, and GOD Will Look Upon us with compassion. GOD Sees who turn from their evil ways, and who do not. Thus HE Spared Nineveh.


We read of no sacrifices offered to GOD to make atonement for sin; but a broken and a contrite heart, such as the Ninevites then had, HE Will Not Despise.








Salvation Is From GOD The FATHER The SON And The HOLY SPIRIT




Jonah 2:1-10 NIV







1From inside the fish Jonah prayed to The LORD his GOD. 2He said:


“In my distress I called to The LORD,
and HE Answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
and YOU Listened to my cry.





3You hurled me into the depths,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all YOUR waves and breakers
swept over me.
4I said, ‘I have been banished
from YOUR Sight;
yet I will look again
toward YOUR HOLY Temple.’
5The engulfing waters threatened me,a
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But YOU, LORD my GOD,
Brought my life Up from the pit.
7“When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered YOU, LORD,
and my prayer rose to YOU,
to YOUR HOLY Temple.
8“Those who cling to worthless idols
turn away from GOD’S Love for them.
9But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to YOU.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, 


‘Salvation Comes From The LORD.’ ”






10And The LORD Commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.












Jonah 2





2:1-9 Observe when Jonah prayed. When he was in trouble, under the tokens of GOD'S Displeasure against him for sin: when we are in affliction we must pray. Being kept alive by miracle, he prayed in the belly of the fish.


No place is amiss for prayer. Men may shut us from communion with one another, but not from communion with GOD. To WHOM he prayed; to The LORD his GOD. This encourages even backsliders to return. What his prayer was. This seems to relate his experience and reflections, then and afterwards, rather than to be the form or substance of his prayer. Jonah reflects on the earnestness of his prayer, and GOD'S readiness to hear and answer. If we would get good by our troubles, we must notice The Hand of GOD in them.


He had fled from the Presence of The LORD, WHO Might Justly Take HIS HOLY SPIRIT from him, never to visit him more. Jonah reflects on the Favor of GOD to him, when he sought to GOD, and trusted in HIM in his distress. He warns others, and tells them to keep close to GOD. But Jonah's experience encourages others, in all ages, to trust in GOD, as The GOD of Salvation.



2:10 Jonah's deliverance may be considered as an instance of GOD'S Power over all the creatures. As an instance of GOD'S Mercy to a poor penitent, who in distress prays to HIM: and as a type and figure of CHRIST'S Resurrection. Amidst all our varying experiences, and the changing scenes of life; we should look by faith upon our Once Suffering and Dying, but Now Risen and Ascended REDEEMER, CHRIST JESUS.


Let us confess our sins, consider CHRIST'S Resurrection as an earnest of our own, and thankfully receive every temporal and spiritual deliverance, as the pledge of our eternal Redemption in HIM.







The SON of Man Will Be Three Days And Three Nights In The Heart Of The Earth




Jonah 1:1-17 NIV








Jonah Flees From The LORD





1The 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.”


3But 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.






4Then The LORD Sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 






 5All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.


But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”





7Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”


9He answered,


“I am a Hebrew and I worship The LORD, The GOD of Heaven, WHO Made the sea and the dry land.”


10This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away From The LORD, because he had already told them so.)

11The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”

12Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”

13Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before.  






14Then they cried out to The LORD, “Please, LORD, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, For YOU, LORD, Have Done As YOU Pleased.” 15Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 






 16At this the men greatly feared The LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to The LORD and made vows to HIM.







Jonah’s Prayer





17 Now The LORD Provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, 






and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.












THE BOOK OF JONAH





Jonah was the son of Amittai, of Gath-hepher in Zebulun (called Gittah-hepher in Jos 19:10-13), so that he belonged to the kingdom of the ten tribes, not to Judah. His date is to be gathered from


2 Kings 14:25-27;


"He (Jeroboam II) restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to The WORD of The LORD GOD of Israel, which HE Spoke by the hand of HIS servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher. For The LORD Saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. And The LORD Said Not That HE Would Blot Out the name of Israel from under heaven: but HE Saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash."


Now as this prophecy of Jonah was given at a time when Israel was at the lowest point of depression, when "there was not any shut up or left," that is, confined or left at large, none to act as a helper for Israel, it cannot have been given in Jeroboam's reign, which was marked by prosperity, for in it Syria was worsted in fulfillment of the prophecy, and Israel raised to its former "greatness." It must have been, therefore, in the early part of the reign of Joash, Jeroboam's father, who had found Israel in subjection to Syria, but had raised it by victories which were followed up so successfully by Jeroboam. Thus Jonah was the earliest of the prophets, and close upon Elisha, who died in Joash's reign, having just before his death given a token prophetical of the thrice defeat of Syria (2 Kings 13:14-21).


That the account of Jonah is history, and not parable, appears from our LORD'S reference to it, in which the personal existence, miraculous fate, and prophetical office of Jonah are explicitly asserted: 


"No sign shall be given 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" (Matthew 12:39, 40). 


The LORD Recognizes his being in the belly of the fish as a "sign," that is, a real miracle, typical of a similar event in HIS OWN History; and assumes the execution of the prophet's commission to Nineveh, 


"The men of Nineveh … repented at the preaching of Jonas; and 

behold, a Greater than Jonas is here" (Matthew 12:41).



The Book of Jonah is among the Scriptures, as the only prophecy in it concerns Nineveh, a heathen city, and makes no mention of Israel, which is referred to by every other prophet. The reason seems to be: a tacit reproof of Israel is intended; a heathen people were ready to repent at the first preaching of the prophet, a stranger to them; but Israel, who boasted of being GOD'S elect, repented not, though warned by their own prophets at all seasons.

This was an anticipatory streak of light before the dawn of the full "light to lighten the Gentiles" (Luke 2:32).


Jonah is himself a strange paradox: a prophet of GOD, and yet a runaway from GOD: a man drowned, and yet alive: a preacher of repentance, yet one that repines at repentance. Yet Jonah, saved from the jaws of death himself on repentance, was the fittest to give a hope to Nineveh, doomed though it was, of a merciful respite on its repentance. The patience and pity of GOD stand in striking contrast with the selfishness and hard-heartedness of man.


Nineveh in particular was chosen to teach Israel these lessons, on account of its being capital of the then world kingdom, and because it was now beginning to make its power felt by Israel. Our LORD (Matthew 12:41) makes Nineveh's repentance a reproof of the Jews' impenitence in HIS day, just as Jonah provoked Israel to jealousy by the same example. Jonah's mission to Nineveh implied that a heathen city afforded as legitimate a field for the prophet's labors as Israel, and with a more successful result (compare Amos 9:7).


The book is prose narrative throughout, except the prayer of thanksgiving in the second chapter (Jonah 2:1-9). The purity of the language implies the antiquity of the book, and the likelihood of its being Jonah's own writing. Indeed, none but Jonah could have written or dictated such peculiar details, known only to himself.