21 May (Jonah 4)

Jonah 4

(v.2) People who don't know God, think that God in the OT is mean and judgemental. But Jonah shows us again the true character of God:

~ Gracious

~ Merciful

~ Slow to anger

~ Abundant in loving kindness

~ Relents from doing harm

I think we all would say that describes Jesus, and it does! That makes sense, since Jesus is God, a part of the Holy Trinity, and our Creator and Savior!

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

~ John 1:1, 14

(v.6) God uses typology here again, and unless we look for it, we miss it. This tender plant is a type of Jesus, for in Isaiah, we get a better idea of what God means here:

For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness. And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.

~ Isaiah 53:2

(v.7) Here we see the Tolaith worm again, and as we saw in Psalm 22, we are given more typology of Christ. What the Jews in Jesus' day didn't understand, was that the Messiah, the Christ, had to die first to conquer death and save us from sin. Then, He would come back and bring judgement upon evil and rule Jerusalem in righteousness.

(v.11) God shows great compassion here...He knows that the people of Nineveh are lost, and He wishes for all of them to be saved. I remind my kids of a famous verse in the Bible that speaks of this:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

~ John 3:16

So to recap...Jonah's prediction that Nineveh would burn in judgement was false. So why did Jesus call Jonah a prophet? He did because Jonah lived out prophecy himself!!!

If Jonah came the first time in judgement like he wanted to do, the whole city of Nineveh would be destroyed. But God chose to have Jonah live out what His Son would do centuries later...Jonah died and was resurrected three days later, only to preach and save the city!

So in the future, I pray that this helps you speak lovingly and wisely to the unbeliever, and show them God's plan of redemption in this book. This is a true account, and it points us to our God and our Savior...Jesus!