KJB Daily Devotion – Following Jesus Through Every Chapter
Date: Saturday, July 07, 2018
Chapters: The Book of Jonah
Message: Salvation For All Who Believe
Hello My Friend,
The book of Jonah contains four chapters, the author of the book is Jonah and it was written to the nation of Nineveh. The timeline for these events took place approximately between 825BC to 790BC. The purpose of the book was to get Nineveh to acknowledge God, repent, and turn to Him for their salvation. What we are to learn from the book is that God does not put a restriction on salvation, it is for all who call upon the name of the Lord. “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 4:11.
Do not let it fool you to believe that the world does not know who God is, they may reject, and even say He does not exist, but given the right circumstance they will admit that there is only one Almighty God. Jonah spent most of his days in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, he was even sent to speak to king Jeroboam concerning their judgment, but God was about to send him to another place, one that was not of the Jews. God told him to go to Nineveh to warn them of the judgment placed on them and give them a chance to repent, turn away from their false gods, and to Him. Jonah, like many Jews, was under the assumption that salvation was only for the Jews, and therefore refused to go. He found a ship headed in the opposite direction, boarded it, found a cozy spot to lay in and fell asleep, all of a sudden a storm came upon the sea, a hurricane, in fact. All the other men feared for their lives, started crying out to their gods, to no avail, and then realized Jonah was sound asleep during all this. They woke him up asking him if he had something to do with this.
“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. 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. 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. 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. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them. 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. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows. 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 1:6,9-10,12-17.
“Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.” God had a purpose for Jonah, and He was not about to let him drown in the sea. God used the fish, or as Jesus called it a whale, to get him to see that you cannot outrun God and you cannot get out of doing what He has told you to do. There was something else that happened through all this, all the men on the ship got saved that night. Many times God will use our own experiences to bring others to Christ. Jonah sat in the belly of that fish for three days and three nights, he realizes that he was not getting out of there unless he agreed to do what he was supposed to do and finally calls out to God.
“Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly, 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. 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. When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD. And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.” – Jonah 2:1-3,7-10.
“Salvation is of the LORD.” Salvation is not for who we think I should be, it is for all, and as long as there is breath in that soul that soul has a chance for salvation. It is often a wonder since God is the Creator of all, and knows all, of us, if He really does give all the freewill to choose or decides for Himself who gets saved. I think it is a little bit of both. Of course, God chooses who gets saved, He chooses those who choose Him. More importantly He chooses those who believe in His Son. Yes, He has already predestined that all who believe in Him to be saved. However, this is where freewill comes into play, we are all born with the knowledge of God at birth, the mind and heart alters that for some as we age because while some are taught to believe others are taught not to believe and that is how we get the freewill to choose. Every one of the souls He created was predestined to be saved, but He only chooses those who choose His Son as their Saviour. “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.” – Ephesians 1:9-12.
Jonah went back to Nineveh, what would have been a three day journey only took a day led by God. Jonah spoke to the king, and right away he responded as well as all of the people. All of them put away their false gods, removed anything that was evil, fasted and prayed, all led by the king himself.
“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. 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 3:5-10.
“And God saw their works,” You know that salvation is not based upon our works at all, it has always been by the grace of God, even thought they offered sacrifices to God. However, without works faith is dead. This is what I mean by that, it takes an effort to go to God and admit we need Jesus. We can have complete faith in Jesus saving us, but unless we confess to Him that we do believe and are only trusting in Him as our Saviour faith does nothing for us. Faith is believing in what Christ did on the cross for us, asking Him to save us is what saves us. Millions of people die, fully knowing what Jesus did on the cross, but are in hell right now because they never asked Him to save them. “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.” – Romans 10:8-12.
“For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek:” Jonah did not believe that at all, in fact, he was angry that these people were even given the chance to be saved. He could not get over the fact that God would save a heathen nation, could not understand why God spared them when they would just go back to their wicked ways. He just knew that they would forsake God and turn back to their wicked ways, and he wanted to catch them, kind of like an, “I told you so.” to God. So, he camped himself up and watched over them.
“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. Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry? 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.” – Jonah 4:1-5.
“till he might see what would become of the city.” We cannot pick and choose who we tell the Gospel to, it is to be told on whomever God tells us to. It saddens me to say this, but I have family in hell right now because they never received Jesus as their Saviour, they never even got that chance. Likewise, there are probably some people I do not care for that is in heaven right now. Do I know that everyone I tell the Gospel to and say they believe is saved? No. But God does, and that is between them and Him. We who are saved have the responsibility to tell everyone God lays upon our heart about Jesus, no matter who they are, and He will get us to do it no matter what He has to do to get us to do it. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” – Matthew 28:19-20.
Jesus Christ Magnified: “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.
Today’s Prayer: God, You have blessed us with so much, You have given life to all who believe in and receive Your Son. We are saved only by trusting in His death, burial, and resurrection, and He not only saves us from hell, He even brings us out of every mess that we have gotten ourselves when we choose to walk with Him. How merciful You are, how wonderful You are to save a sinner like me. Thank You, Jesus, and thank You God for giving me the opportunity to repent of my vain works and enjoy a new found, abundant, never boring, life with You in it. Lead me and guide me, let me not run from anyone You lay upon my heart to tell them about Jesus, let me boldly speak and proclaim You as my Saviour and how they can be saved too. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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