Today's Favorite Verse: Jonah 4:1, 5, 10-11

Today's Favorite Verse: Jonah 4:1, 5, 10-11
"But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very 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.
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:
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 was called to preach repentance to the people of Ninevah. He first ran away from the calling, but the Lord found him and taught Him a lesson. Jonah entered the city and told the people in 40 days Ninevah would be overthrown if they did not repent. The king and his people believed and put on sack cloth and ashes, and fasted and repented. They did exactly as God asked. They turned from evil and God forgave them. God was not going to destroy them. That is a lesson for the ages. What I find interesting is that after all this Jonah is angry that the people of Ninevah are being spared. He sits outside the city to see what will happen to it. It made me think about how the Lord would feel looking at us, wishing he would come and destroy all the wicked. We should never wish the destruction of people. We should have more feeling for others than for a gourd.

Day 4041

Today's Favorite Verse: Jonah 4:4

Today's Favorite Verse: Jonah 4:4

"Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?"

It's interesting to see that Jonah was angry with God for showing mercy to the people of Nineveh when they repented. Yet, the Lord could have just as well left Jonah in the belly of the fish for his sins. He wanted to see others punished for their sins, but forgot the mercy God had shown Him. Does it do well to be angry? No, because you lose sight of what is important and don't see things that you should see.

Day 3052

Today's Favorite Verse: Jonah 3:4-5, 10

Today's Favorite Verse: Jonah 3:4-5, 10

"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.

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.

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."

I love this story. Jonah prophesies that in 40 days Nineveh would be overthrown if they did not repent. AND, the people repented. They listened to the warning, humbled themselves, man and beast fasted and wore sackcloth and ashes, and cried mightily to the Lord for forgiveness. Then God said they were no longer worthy of that punishment. Judgment was reversed and the entire city was preserved. This is such a rare occurrence in the scriptures. So many times when people are told they will be destroyed they don't listen, and then they face that punishment. It shows that the fulfillment of God's warnings are based on our obedience or disobedience to His words. We can repent and be forgiven.

Day 3051

Today's Favorite Verse: Jonah 2:2

Today's Favorite Verse: Jonah 2:2

"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."

I pondered on how we all can have our Jonah moments. It is only when our eyes are awakened to our awful situation that we can cry "out of the belly of hell". We can go from the darkness into light when we grasp what Christ's atoning sacrifice means. God will always hear that cry.

Day 3050

Today's Favorite Verse: Jonah 1:3, 12

Today's Favorite Verse: Jonah 1:3, 12

"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.

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.

I pondered on why Jonah fled. I've heard of the violence of the people of Nineveh, yet it doesn't seem like Jonah's motivate was fear of death or to save his life. He was willing to have the men throw him overboard. Jonah didn't want this call to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh. Nineveh was a heathen nation, Jonah just didn't want to preach repentance to them.

"Jonah tries to escape from the command to proclaim the word of God in Nineveh by flight to Tarshish, because he is displeased with the display of divine mercy to the great heathen world, and because, according to ch. iv. 2, he is afraid lest the preaching of repentance should avert from Nineveh the destruction with which it is threatened. In this state of mind on the part of the prophet, there are reflected the feelings and the general state of mind of the Israelitish nation towards the Gentiles."

(Old Testament Student Manual Kings-Malachi, "Jonah: One Should Not Flee from His Responsibilities" (9-39) Jonah 1:3, page 98)

It made me ponder on no matter how upset we are with others or feel they are worthy of God's wrath, we still need to be an instrument in God's hand to help them repent. We shouldn't be so ready to see people destroyed.

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;"

(Matthew 5:44)

Day 3049

Today's Favorite Verse: Ezekiel 29:4

Today's Favorite Verse: Ezekiel 29:4

"But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales."

The Lord is having Ezekiel speak to Egypt. With the hooks in the jaw I could just picture the fight a fish takes to not be reeled in. It's hopeless, they will eventually become dinner. When the Lord says something will happen it will happen. If Egypt and those that stick to her are prophesied against it will happen. There is no changing course if that course has been determined. There are very few times in the scriptures that people have actually repented and changed the course that was to come. The story of Jonah and Nineveh are one such example, and there was a fish in that story too.

Day 2990

Today's Favorite Verse: Jonah 4:11

Today's Favorite Verse: 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; and also much cattle?"

In James 1:8 it says:
"A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."

So for the Lord to say Nineveh could not discern between their right or left, the perspective of their repenting would mean they were not stable and could swing the other way. I was curious about what happened to Ninevah later and read in Nahum 3 "the miserable downfall of Nineveh is foretold". The prophecy against Nineveh is also in Zephaniah 2. Nineveh fell in 607 B.C.

So what does that teach me? That when the Lord promises destruction, he may rescind the time frame it will happen if you repent. But, if you turn from him the same condemnation is upon your head. You can never escape God's warning. The timing is the Lord's.

"And behold, I. the Lord, declare unto you, and my words are sure and shall not fail, that they shall obtain it.
But all things must come to pass in their time."
(Doctrine and Covenants 64:31-32)

Day 1468

Today's Favorite Verse: Jonah 3:10

Today's Favorite Verse: Jonah 3:10
"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."

It is beautiful that the city of Nineveh listened to Jonah and repented. That is exactly what a prophet's voice of warning is for, for us to repent and change our way. The wording of this verse threw me a little so I turned to the Joseph Smith Translation (JST Jonah 3:10) for clarification.

"And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way and repented; and God turned away from the evil that he had said that he would upon them."

This felt right for it to be worded this way.

This reminded me of the 8th Article of Faith
"We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God."

Day 1467

Today's Favorite Verse: Jonah 2:3-4

Today's Favorite Verse: Jonah 2:3-4
"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.
Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple."

This was me today. The vicissitudes of life overwhelmed me and it was a rough day trying to keep my head above water. Or maybe its that I've been trying to hold my breath to long that's been hurting. This is just part of what life is, at times. This is why I need my Savior. Thankfully there is the temple and I could come and find clarity, direction, and allowed to rest. I know when I do what the Lord told me to do, all this will work for my good.

Day 1466

Today's Favorite Verse: Jonah 1:2-5

Today's Favorite Verse: Jonah 1:2-5
Arise, go to Ninevah, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
But Jonah rose 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.
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.
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."

This is a familiar primary story of Jonah and the whale. Jonah is called by God to cry repentance to the city of Ninevah. Instead Jonah is afraid and flees. What I had forgotten about this story was that while the great tempest was brewing, and the others were afraid the ship would be broken up, Jonah lay fast asleep. If that shipmaster did not come and wake him the ship would have gone down into the depths of the sea and they would all have perished. Jonah would not have known what hit him.

This all made me think of deafness and blindness that comes to the disobedient. How if we do not follow God's commandments we can perish and never know what hit us. Jonah did not sleep in the belly of the ship with a clear conscious like Jesus did as the storm raged. Jonah slept in ignorance but was not innocent. Jesus was able to rebuke the winds and calm the sea because of his righteousness. Jonah had to personally suffer.

So maybe when Jesus said in Matthew 16:4
"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."

He wasn't just talking about the 3 days Jonah was in the belly of whale, as a a similitude of his death and resurrection. He was talking about those that are seeking a sign, and through apathy are totally asleep and can spiritually perish. Like the shipmaster awoke Jonah to danger, the prophets and apostles are there to wake us up.

Day 1465