Jonah 1:1-2 (Short Commentary Version)

Jonah 1:1-2
1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.”

Vs. 1-2 Jonah a prophet of God, was from Gath Hepher, a town in the tribe of Zebulon in Northern Israel during the divided Kingdom era when King Jeroboam II an ungodly King (793-753 B.C.) reigned in Samaria. While Nineveh was an ancient city founded by Nimrod (see Genesis 10:10-12), which was located near the Tigris River, and eventually became the capital of the Assyrian empire, (885 B.C. to roughly 625 B.C.). Now Assyria at the time of Jonah was a growing world power, which frequently threatened Israel, beginning with King Jehu's reign, and would continue to do so until the Israelites were according to Word of the Lord taken into captivity by Assyria in 722. B.C. Now the Word of the Lord which came to Jonah was go and preach to Nineveh; but that was not something Jonah was willing to do, given their enemy status with Israel, though Jonah had already been a faithful preacher to his countrymen (2 Kings 14:25). Therefore when God commanded Jonah to go to and preach to Israel’s enemies at Nineveh, so that they might be given an opportunity to repent and be spared. Jonah hardened himself and refused. And thus Jonah’s hardness of heart is seen throughout the Book. For Jonah didn’t want the people of Assyria to receive God’s mercy, he wanted God to punish them. Which is an attitude that can easily frequent us as well if we harden our hearts to God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ to all people as well, especially those “we have a history with” and or who have sinned against us? Indeed if we grew up in the faith and have been "obedient" to it all our lives, we can also rather easily become like the older brother in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son who was quite unwilling to receive even his own brother, and thus became very upset at their Father for receiving and celebrating the return of His own repentant son (See Luke 15:11-31). Nonetheless God does not deal with people that way, for He wanted to show the people of Nineveh mercy, as He does everyone, for the Lord God takes no delight in the harm, death, or destruction of anyone or anything (Ezekiel 18:23), only Satan does (John 10:10). Therefore God never brings judgment on anyone without first seeking reconciliation. Offering conditions of peace by which He may bring forth our well being when in repentance and faith we turn to Him  (John 3:16). Again that the wickedness of the people of Nineveh had come up to God indicates God’s longsuffering towards all people, even His enemies. But even that has an end as the Apostle Peter warns us of those who now foolishly scoff at the Lord Jesus Christ’s Second coming and are not reconciled with Him while they can be (see 2 Peter 3:9-17).

Have you then come to the place of grace, of acknowledging your sins to God, and asking Him because of the crucifixion  death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross to save you from them? For repentance towards God begins with a humble heart (James 4:8-10); of being poor in spirit as Jesus said, which opens the doors of the Kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:3). For Jesus can and does save us from God's wrath and judgment to come when we believe in Him (John 3:35-36). Trusting His death on the cross and Resurrection from the dead apart from anything we do or have done He then brings us into God's favor and peace. And this He does by bringing us into a relationship with Himself and God the Father by His Holy Spirit who indwells us all who believe, by which we experience His life and peace. For these things always begin on the inside, and are an outworking of Christ in our lives. They are not something we are to try to do for ourselves. They are something God does in us and through us when we repent and believe (Mark 1:15). If you would like to receive the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart and life (Rev. 3:20) and become a child of God (John 1:12) just pray a simple prayer like this, in repentance and faith: Dear Lord Jesus I know that I am a sinner and that apart from you I have neither life, nor peace with God. Therefore I repent of my sins and self directed living and invite you into my heart and life to be my Lord and Saviour, in Jesus' Name amen.

Scripture Quotations
The Holy Bible, New King James Version, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.) 1982.

John 1:5

John 1:5
And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

That the darkness did not comprehend the light (or overcome it) as the margin reading gives it, is that it is of the Sovereign God that all those who do not believe and receive the love of the truth will neither prevail or prosper against the truth. For though the Lord Jesus Christ’s light shines everywhere and upon every person, there are those who simply do not comprehend it, as neither the Jews, chief priests or the Roman governor Pilate who acquiesced to their desire to crucify Jesus did not (see John 18:28-38; Acts 13:26-41). And thus they do not believe the revelation of the Living Word of God Jesus Christ, neither receiving God's gospel nor His redemption work done through it, for them, and us all. Yet that is exactly what God desires for everyone, to personally know Him, by receiving the love of the truth, the glorious gospel, the only Good News and hope for humanity, to mentally and emotionally grasp all that is about His Son Jesus Christ sent to save and redeem us all from our sins and death. To take firm hold of it like a thirsting man would a pitcher of water; or a starving man a loaf of bread. For only in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is found the grace of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes (Titus 3:4-7). That profound reality that God loves us all and has already atoned for our sins by Jesus' death on a cross, and now wants to restore His life back into us all (John 3:3-5), and thus by doing so restore us back to Himself, and thus save us all from the judgment to come, must never be lost on us (John 3:16-21). For the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is not some “mystery” that one acquires by observing religious rites and rituals; nor is the gospel a message for only a select “obedient” few who think themselves worthy of it (Mark 2:15-17). The gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is for everyone who sees their need for the salvation of God and believes in His Son Jesus Christ as the sole means and Person charged with bringing it to us all. For it is the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ who came down from heaven to earth as a Man to redeem us from our sins (Isaiah 59:2). And by doing so restore us to a right relationship with God the Father, by what He has done, not by what we have done (Eph. 2:8-9). Therefore By His own birth, life, crucifixion death, then resurrection from the dead and finally His ascension back to God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God has made the way to God the Father possible for everyone and anyone who simply believes in His Person (John 6:29). For that is the light of Christ God shines on all of His creation, to come to Him through His Son Jesus Christ as the sole means of being reconciled back to Himself (John 14:6; 2 Cor. 5:21). To do so while the hour of grace is upon us all. For when you do, new and everlasting Life, Jesus Christ’s Resurrection Life will come within you, and thus the Holy Spirit by whom this life comes to us all who believe in Jesus, will seal you for all eternity (Eph 1:13-14). And thus Jesus having secured you forever (John 6:39), you have both physical life now, but also Spirit life by which one enters the Kingdom of heaven (John 3:3-5). No longer then separated from God by sin and death; and thus under the wrath of God, which is now reserved only for those who don’t believe in, nor obey His Son (John 3:35-36; 2 Thess 1:8). Instead having been born-again by the Spirit of the Living God, you and I are the children of God, because we believe and received the love of truth about Jesus, God’s only Son. For "...as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John 1:12-13


Scripture Quotations
The Holy Bible, New King James Version, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.) 1982.

John 1:4

John 1:4
"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."

Daily Devotional
In Christ was the life (that is the life of God that everyone one of us desires and needs) for it is the life in Jesus that is the light of men. That is what draws men and women to Jesus, the life of God within Him and. For that is the purpose that Jesus came forth from God to restore the life of God within us. Something that humanity lost when Adam; the first man who sinned, and thus sin entered the world through him, hence all of us being descended from him are born into that separated state from God. Spiritually dead and in need of life, God's life restored within us (Gen. 2:15-17). For the Scripture says "the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom. 6:23 And so it is for that reason that Jesus Christ came forth, stepping into our world as a Man, to not only restore us to life; the life which Adam lost when he sinned, and thus sin entered the world through him.
But to bring life, and to bring it more abundantly, which we all receive when we believe in Him (John 10:10-11; 3:16). For it is the Lord Jesus Christ's death on the cross by which first atonement for our sins is made, and thus His sacrificial death becomes the justification by which God through His Spirit imparts Jesus Christ's Resurrection life with us. And so it is Jesus Christ's life within us which likewise illuminates or gives light to all men, if we are in a relationship with Him (Matt. 5:14). For it is the life of Christ that is the light by which people find God and experience new and everlasting life (2 Cor. 5:17). We don’t impart the life, we are just partakers of it, and vessel’s by which Jesus (if we are living in a right relationship with Himself) illuminates Himself and brings true and everlasting life to others (2 Tim. 2:19-21). Again it is Jesus’ life that speaks to the very heart and souls of men and women and says: ...“I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” John 8:12

Scripture Quotations
The Holy Bible, New King James Version, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.) 1982.

Proverbs 4:23

Proverbs 4:23
Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it spring the issues of life.

Daily Devotional
What you give your heart over to eventually will rule your behavior and life. That is what this proverb is warning us about. For as a man’s feet are lead by his eyes. So the human heart is lead or mislead by what it embraces. And thus ones heart (that is the desires within it) often dictates what one's person and life will be like. Therefore keep your heart with all diligence is an exhortation for us to be discerning and careful about we embrace as truth and this we can do by keeping it solidly grounded in the Word of God. For it is only by knowing the Word of God that sin and error can be rightly exposed. For in this world there are many philosophers and philosophies, many “religions” and "belief" systems, and many if not all are contrary to the truth of God’s Living Word and thus God's Living Son Jesus Christ. Likewise popular culture in unending forms and mediums daily expounds various sins, vices and pleasures as the purpose and pursuit of our lives. Many subtle and not so subtle things to appeal to or entice the sinful nature of us all are bound up in this world; yet are so easily and readily justified by popular opinion and or assimilation. (Nonetheless consider what the Lord Jesus says in regards to these Matt. 18:7-9). Therefore my exhortation to you is guard your heart with all diligence and do not build your faith upon the transient values and "evolving" opinions of unregenerate men and women. Rather guard your soul by building your faith upon the Rock: that is the Lord Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead and learn obedience to His and His Apostle’s commandments. For that is the only safeguard against falling into the deceptions of Satan, who is the "god" of this world who ensnares and deludes all those who are ignorant, disobedient; or worse in their unbelieving pride make light of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word sent to save them and all who will believe in Him, from eternal destruction and the judgment to come. Therefore as a child of God be watchful and circumspect in all things, for there are many things (moral, spiritual, even doctrinal things) that believers can easily stumble into if they are ignorant and unaware of the dangers that are both in the world; and sadly, inside the house of faith as well (2 Cor. 11:13-15).

Scripture Quotations
The New King James Version. 1982. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.