MAC KIRK

 The Chapter We Would not Write Jonah chapter 4----The Chapter We Would Not Write One outcome Jonah that Jonah feared was that God would be gracious unto Nineveh and they would repent, and He would not destroy the city. He was all too happy to say, " Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."3:4 He was glad that God was going to execute His judgment on the people of Nineveh, for they deserved it. They were not godly people. They did not deserve God's love as Jonah said in 4: 2," I pray thee O LORD, was this my saying...I fled to Tarshish..for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repented thee of the evil." This is not the ending I expected either. Jonah is so angry, white hot anger 4:1 it says that " he prayed unto the LORD" . If this is what you are going to do God, then, " I beseech thee, take, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live." 4:3 He is mad because

 Jonah gets a second chance to do the will of God Jonah chapter 3. Out of the Whale, A Second Call and the Result of the Preaching Jonah is now out of the whale and on the dry land. What happens next ? Where does Jonah go? I turn to my 1866 book by Raleigh from Scotland :" God did not prepare a great bird to bear him home on its wings. Probably he went to some house that was near for rest....Or perhaps he was cast up on the shore so near Joppa...Did he present himself at the place where he had paid his passage not many days before? ...Did the shipmaster and his sailors now their passenger again?...From Joppa the prophet probably went up to Jerusalem to appear in the temple, to voice his thanksgiving....Then he probably returned to Gath-Hepher, his former home..And there he was ..." The call comes back to him, " And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time saying , Arise, go unto Nineveh" How many times he may have wondered, what do I do now? Is God going

 The Great Fish, the Prayer and the Result Jonah ch. 2 The Sea, The Whale and the Prayer of Jonah in the Belly In the middle of the difficulty, a rescue by a great( big) fish ( could be a whale, but the white sharks in that area had also swallowed whole people before...and the Hebrew word can mean either). We note again that in ch. 1 Jonah had confessed his problem to them, the Mariners, and they even tried to save him; they prayed to the God of the Universe as never having so before. " 1: 14 , " We beseech thee , O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life..." They feared the LORD we are told in 1:15, and " made vows." Disappointment-His Appointment in our lives 1:17- " a great fish had been prepared by the LORD to swallow up Jonah" Again, our difficulties, just as Jonah's ( being cast forth into the sea 1:12) are smokescreens for a bigger plan that we are unaware of in our lives. We lament and mourn when we or others suffe

 Jonah chapter 1 and its themes and Lessons for every Believer in Christ Jonah chapter 1 -A SEA STORY " A Garrison is not free from danger while it has an enemy lodged within" was part of Charles Spurgeon's devotion for Friday last. He went on to comment, " You may bolt all your doors, and fasten all your windows, but if the thieves have placed even a little child within doors, who can draw the bolts for them, the house is still unprotected." He comments further, " Hence, it is clear, our greatest danger is from within...Alas our heart is our greatest enemy; this is the little home-born thief." 1. Jonah's Running Away from God Jonah's difficulty was that he heard a clear direction from the LORD, but he chose deliberate disobedient action. "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 ..." 1:3 This is our story of cours