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For I know the plans I have for you,declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jer 29:11 |
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| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Thursday, June 8, 2023
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :Jonah’s Anger and the Lord’s Mercy [2] Bible Verse:Jonah 4:5-11 (ESV) "Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” " Message:
In these final verses from the Book of Jonah, we find Jonah building a booth, a rough latticework structure with a roof and sides of sorts. This kind of temporary structure was often seen in the Middle East at markets and festivals, where ventilated protection from the sun was more important than protection from rain.
Jonah, as we saw in the preceding verses, is distraught because God has commanded him to preach to the Assyrians, a heathen people who were often enemies of the Hebrews, while his homeland in the northern Kingdom of Israel turns to idolatry under its degenerate king, Jeroboam. Jonah would have considered them not only the enemies of Israel, but the enemies of God. (Not much has changed in 2800 years, because Syria today has practically the same relationship to modern Israel!)
The matter makes Jonah so angry that he wants to die. He expects God’s wrath to fall on idolaters and the enemies of His people. But the entire story of Jonah is a bellwether of the New Covenant, a glimpse at the coming of Christ. It was no accident that Jonah spent three days in the whale’s belly and was, in effect, resurrected to save a heathen nation.
The situation could hardly be more appropriate to contemporary life. We find a very understandable and sympathetic character in Jonah, for like him, our own country seems hell-bent on rejecting Christ and sinking into depravity, while factions of the heathen Islamic world seek to attack us.
The secular world will do what it will do; whether to make war and how to do it is beyond the scope of Daily Prayer. Our concern is the lesson given by the Bible here.
We must not shirk from the daunting task of trying to bring the people of the world to Christ and this includes our enemies, even in war. We must love them as God loves them, and seek to bring them the greatest gift of all, salvation and eternal life. Our duty to the Muslim world, friend and enemy alike, is to let them know the truth of salvation and the importance of accepting Christ in their lives.
(The artwork below, from the great altarpiece of Ghent, is a panel showing people of all sorts coming to worship the Lamb at the Day of Judgment.)
Meditation : Prayer : May God the Father bless us; may Christ take care of us; the Holy Ghost enlighten us all the days of our life. The Lord be our defender and keeper of body and soul, both now and for ever, to the ages of ages....Amen |
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