King James Bible Study – [Mark 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.]
Date: Wednesday, July 07, 2021
Chapters: The Book of Jonah
Message: Commissioned
Hello My Friend,
I had to read this report from school that criticized those who do not believe in climate change, stating that the extreme, which really are not that extreme, weather patterns we have today are a result of us not taking care of the planet. Contrary to what people fail to recognize is the fact that weather patterns often do change, it is just God’s way of taking care of the earth and or judging it. And there is a perfectly good reason why the earth will in fact, continue to get hotter, judgment is coming. They can try to stop it all they want, but it is inevitable and unless they repent they too will burn up with earth. And as I was reading the chapters, this passage came to mind, [Matthew 16:1-4 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. 3 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? 4 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.]
Out of all the books in the Bible that tell of the judgment to come, there is one that stands out to tell us how we can be saved more than even the New Testament books, and that is Jonah. When the Pharisees and Sadducee’s asked Jesus for a sign to prove that He was of God that is when He told them that the only sign they will receive would be of Jonah being in the belly of the whale. 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, [Jonah 4:11 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 spent most of his days in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, prophesying after Elisha died. God told him to go to Nineveh to warn them of the judgment placed upon them, but Jonah, like many Jews, believed 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 the while a hurricane forms right before them.
[Jonah 1:1-5 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.]
[and cried every man unto his god,] The men feared for their lives, crying out to their false gods, to no avail, and then realized Jonah was sound asleep during all this. Is that not what the world is doing right now with all this save the planet nonsense? Crying out to the gods of scientists and environmentalists who think they have a clue what is going on when they do not. And guess who they blame? The Christians. And guess who really is to blame? It is the Christians. We are supposed to be warning them, but we are avoiding them. Now. as Jonah lays there asleep the ship master came to him, asking him all sorts of questions, and when they discovered who Jonah’s God is, they panicked.
[Jonah 1:6,8-12 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. 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.]
[Then were the men exceedingly afraid,] Talk about a wake up call, these men went from praying to every god they could think of to unanimously praying to the Almighty. They knew that He is not only God, but LORD. Do not let the world fool you into believing that they do not know who God or even say He does not exist, given the right circumstance they will admit that there is only one Almighty God. And that is what each and every one of the men did, [Jonah 1:14-17 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.]
[Now the LORD had prepared a great fish] God had a purpose for Jonah, and He was not about to let him drown in the sea. God used the fish to get him to see that you cannot outrun God, and you cannot get out of doing what He has told you to do. Many times God will use our own experiences to bring others to Christ, which He did when the men on the ship got saved. Now, as 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 calls out to God.
[Jonah 2:1-2,5-10 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. 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.]
[out of the belly of hell cried I,] What Jonah was referring is the same thing we all realize before we ask Jesus to save us, we are in hell without the LORD. Salvation is not for who we think it should be, it is available for all. It is often a wonder since God is the Creator of all, and knows all, 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. By choice, God has already predestined that all who believe in and follow Him would be saved from hell. However, this is where freewill comes into play, while every soul that God creates is predestined to be saved, we must make that choice ourselves, [Ephesians 1:9-12 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10 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: 11 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: 12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.]
Jonah went back to Nineveh, what would have been a three day journey only took a day because he was led by God. Jonah spoke to the king, and right away he responded as well as the people. All of them put away their false gods, removed anything that was evil, even fasted and prayed, all led by the king himself.
[Jonah 3:3–7,9-10 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: 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.]
[And God saw their works,] While salvation is solely given to us by the grace of God through our faith in Christ, we still must call out to Him and ask Him to save us, [Revelation 3:20-21 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.]
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, then faith does nothing for us. Faith is believing in what Christ did on the cross for us, it is the act of calling on Him that saves us. Jonah could not get over the fact that God would save a heathen nation, and 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 return to their wicked ways, he encamped himself at a distance, [Jonah 4:1-4 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?]
[Doest thou well to be angry?] We cannot pick and choose who we tell the Gospel to, it is to be told on whomever God tells us. We would not have wanted to miss the opportunity ourselves. You see, they do not know that what they are doing is wring because of the way they were taught. God did not want them to end up in hell, He wants to save all, but unless we tell them they will know not the way. God tried to show Jonah that by planting a squash where he was camping.
[Jonah 4:6-11 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?]
[Thou hast had pity on the gourd,] This is where we teach them the right way, and let God handle the rest. There are probably some people I do not care for that is in heaven right now, but thank God that that is not my decision to make because I know I do not deserve to go there either. Jesus Christ, God, in the flesh Himself, does not nor ever has limited Himself to one group of people to save, He saves all who believe in God, and Him, and receive Him as their Saviour, We who are saved have the responsibility to tell everyone God lays upon our heart, in fact, Jesus commands it Himself, [Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 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.]
Jesus Christ Magnified: [Jonah 1:17 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.]
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, He even brings us out of every mess that we have gotten ourselves when call on 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. Lord, Lead me and guide me, let me not run from anyone You lay upon my heart to tell them about Jesus, and let me boldly speak and proclaim You as my Saviour and how they can be saved too. I ask these things pray in Your name, Jesus. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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