NEWSLETTER 040 MESSAGE

Message

”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.” Jonah 3:2

Jonah is an interesting story - by the way, the Bible does not say he was swallowed by a whale but a great fish. As you know, God told him to go to Nineveh the capital of Assyria and he didn’t want to go. God convinced him to obey.

Jonah preached and the entire city - over 120,000 people repented. Most preachers would be jumping with joy at such a great success. Not Jonah, he was depressed, so depressed he wanted to die. He didn’t want those people to repent, he wanted them destroyed and sent to Hell.

Why? Why would this prophet of God want 120,000 people destroyed? Why did he hate these people so much that he would disobey God because he knew God in mercy might spare them?

Assyria was a very cruel nation and an enemy of Israel - in fact about 50 years after this incident Assyria invaded and destroyed Israel. Jonah did not want mercy given to a national enemy. His loyalty to his nation was greater than his obedience to God.

As the people of God, our first priority is the Kingdom of God. We have to look through the eyes of God Who would have all men come to repentance. Sometimes we wish destruction on personal or national enemies. Our priorities are on ourselves and our best interests.

Sometimes we place personal or even national issues ahead of the Kingdom of God. We get caught up in politics and the loyalties of a political party or of our nation without considering the teachings of Scripture or the potential consequences to the cause of Christ.

That is not to say loyalty to our nation is not important only that there is a higher loyalty in case of conflict. Jonah could not see that. To him the cause of Israel outweighed everything else. God taught him differently.

It is important to know that Israel was later destroyed by Assyria only because Israel continued in unrepentant evil. If they had heeded the warnings of God to them through their own prophets, Assyria would not have been a threat. They would have had the protection of God. The greatest danger to any nation is sin within the nation, not the enemy without or even terrorists. God will look after the nation which wholeheartedly seeks Him.

Announcements

A lot of new things this month.

First, there is a brand new report on site: Tithing: The Great Test. There is much food for thought here. Take a few minutes and look over the report. Also included are common questions about tithing.

Second, I have begun two “blogs.” One is on the vital book of Genesis and the other is on the much misunderstood book of Daniel. They will be up-dated at least once a week - probably more often. Check them out at Christian Blogs on our Free Bible Study Lessons site.

Third, on the Home Page and on the E-Mail Course page you will find a Google search box. This box not only allows you to search the web but also you can search just our site. This is handy if you would like to quickly find everything on the site on a particular topic.

Fourth, on a few pages you will notice Google ads. Also, we can now recommend carefully selected books available from Amazon. For example, the course Biblical Law requires a textbook [the only course that does] and now you can easily get a copy from Amazon. I paid $60. Canadian several years ago but, last I looked on Amazon, you can pick up a used copy for $15.00 US or around $25.00 US for a new one.

God bless you,
Glenn Davis
Free Bible Study Lessons
Joshua Club