VERSE BY VERSE TEXT by Dr. Grant C. Richison Jonah 4:8 Jonah 4:8 “And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; We have the word “prepared” for the third verse running; God prepared a plant, a worm and now “a vehement east wind.” God prepared this hot wind to intensify Jonah’s discomfort, to show him where his true values lay. God knows something about meteorology. Pr 30: 4 “Who has ascended into heaven, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, If you know?” and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he grew faint. Jonah may have experienced sunstroke here. Then he wished death for himself, Again, for the second time Jonah wished that he was dead. He asked God to kill him in verse three, but that did not work. Children say this sometimes but they do not mean it: “I wish I were dead.” This is a faulty appeal to compassion in their parents. It sounds dramatic. Jonah tried to be dramatic with God at this point. Here is a miserable servant of God who thinks he can appeal to a false sense of compassion in God. and said, “It is better for me to die than to live Jonah claimed that it was “better” for him to die than to carry on with the knowledge that God did not discipline the Ninevites. He did not know that for sure. PRINCIPLE: God puts discord into our lives to show us the true and ultimate value of fellowship with Him. APPLICATION: If our lives are out of harmony with the Lord then we are out of tune and our lives are in discord. We do not have music but noise in our soul. God will make music in our lives if we walk in fellowship with Him. Sometimes God brings discord into our lives. That may not be pleasant for the moment but God has a blueprint with eternal values. We do not know all the factors as to why God does this; however, there is one thing that we do know – God is too good to do wrong and He is too wise to make a mistake. He will make our Christianity real or He will put us through the ringer. He will strip all superficiality from us. God will also build us into what He wants us to be for our lives. There is no way that we can sidestep the sovereignty of God.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 12:42:39 +0000
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