Jonah's second three-day experience

[mfblume]

N0t only did Jonah go through the whale for 3 days and nights, but a second series of three days occurred in relation to his ministering to Ninevah. And God required a second, sort of, death, burial and resurrection to get him victory over HIMSELF.

Ninevah was so large a city that it took three days to walk through it. Jonah went one day into the city and preached. As we know, he wanted to see the city destroyed. He hated those gentiles due to their sin and felt they deserved destruction. But when God told him to preach for them to repent, he knew God would forgive them if they did repent.

Once he attempts to shame God by saying he knew God would forgive them, and that was the reason he fled to Tarshish, to begin with - to avoid preaching to them - he left the city and watched to see if God would destroy it, anyway.

So entering the city took a day, and leaving it took a second day. That evening of the second day he made a tent and watched.

God not only sent the storm and fish when Noah was fleeing to Tarshish to get him to preach to Ninevah, he then sent three more things after he completed his message. He prepared a gourd to overshadow him in the heat of the day. Jonah was thrilled.

The third day in the morning arrived, and God then prepared a worm to destroy the gourd. Then He prepared a hot east wind that gave him heatstroke and he fainted.

In his complaints to die, repeating the same words he told God about how he felt like dying due to seeing Ninevah spared, God asks him a second time if he did well to complain as He did the first time Jonah complained.

Another third day in the morning saw Jesus resurrect. And although the gourd died, that morning, another man resurrected, in a manner of speaking. Jonah.

God rebuked him and told him that he had more care for a gourd that he did not plant nor water, that came up in a night and died the next day, than all the hundreds of thousands of souls in Ninevah!

That self-centred, selfish miserable prophet wrote the book about himself and ended it as with a mic drop by God, Himself, slamming him for his unbelievable selfishness.

Wow.

What a way to end a book about yourself (!) and resurrect after a death to your own selfishness and become a caring man of God!

We need the older generation of our lives (as with the Exodus story) slain to see the new man arise and be the mature believers we were born-again to be! Infants are born and need to mature.

Spiritual maturity is when the JORDAN river is parted and we enter the KINGDOM Land (not heaven!), as we were saved from sin when we crossed the Red Sea parting. And like Jonah, we need victory of the cross over our fleshliness to rise again into true newness of life where self is kept under!

[jediwill83]

Originally Posted by mfblume

n0t only did jonah go through the whale for 3 days and nights, but a second series of three days occurred in relation to his ministering to ninevah. And god required a second, sort of, death, burial and resurrection to get him victory over himself.

Ninevah was so large a city that it took three days to walk through it. Jonah went one day into the city and preached. As we know, he wanted to see the city destroyed. He hated those gentiles due to their sin and felt they deserved destruction. But when god told him to preach for them to repent, he knew god would forgive them if they did repent.

Once he attempts to shame god by saying he knew god would forgive them, and that was the reason he fled to tarshish, to begin with - to avoid preaching to them - he left the city and watched to see if god would destroy it, anyway.

So entering the city took a day, and leaving it took a second day. That evening of the second day he made a tent and watched.

God not only sent the storm and fish when noah was fleeing to tarshish to get him to preach to ninevah, he then sent three more things after he completed his message. He prepared a gourd to overshadow him in the heat of the day. Jonah was thrilled.

The third day in the morning arrived, and god then prepared a worm to destroy the gourd. Then he prepared a hot east wind that gave him heatstroke and he fainted.

In his complaints to die, repeating the same words he told god about how he felt like dying due to seeing ninevah spared, god asks him a second time if he did well to complain as he did the first time jonah complained.

Another third day in the morning saw jesus resurrect. And although the gourd died, that morning, another man resurrected, in a manner of speaking. Jonah.

God rebuked him and told him that he had more care for a gourd that he did not plant nor water, that came up in a night and died the next day, than all the hundreds of thousands of souls in ninevah!

That self-centred, selfish miserable prophet wrote the book about himself and ended it as with a mic drop by god, himself, slamming him for his unbelievable selfishness.

Wow.

What a way to end a book about yourself (!) and resurrect after a death to your own selfishness and become a caring man of god!

We need the older generation of our lives (as with the exodus story) slain to see the new man arise and be the mature believers we were born-again to be! Infants are born and need to mature.

Spiritual maturity is when the jordan river is parted and we enter the kingdom land (not heaven!), as we were saved from sin when we crossed the red sea parting. And like jonah, we need victory of the cross over our fleshliness to rise again into true newness of life where self is kept under!

🙌

[KeptByTheWord]

There are so many important events in scripture that occur in patterns of 3. I always find that interesting.

Thank you for bringing out the death to self parable picture.

How important it is to realize that salvation comes to bring us victory over our enslavement to self.

It is a hard-fought battle that we will always fight (our flesh will never give up until the day we draw our last breath), but we can live victorious through the spirit of Christ Jesus living in us. We don't have to live under the burden of it, but we can and must be overcomers... but we cannot fool ourselves into thinking the battle is in the past. It is present, ongoing, and will never end while we draw breath into our bodies. But we can live as overcomers, and that is the exciting part about what Jesus did at Calvary for us!

[mfblume]

Originally Posted by KeptByTheWord

There are so many important events in scripture that occur in patterns of 3. I always find that interesting.

Thank you for bringing out the death to self parable picture.

How important it is to realize that salvation comes to bring us victory over our enslavement to self.

It is a hard-fought battle that we will always fight (our flesh will never give up until the day we draw our last breath), but we can live victorious through the spirit of Christ Jesus living in us. We don't have to live under the burden of it, but we can and must be overcomers... but we cannot fool ourselves into thinking the battle is in the past. It is present, ongoing, and will never end while we draw breath into our bodies. But we can live as overcomers, and that is the exciting part about what Jesus did at Calvary for us!

Good stuff.

I once heard a Kingdom-focused preacher speak about the cross as an entrance truth, so to speak, and then we depart and head into the kingdom understanding. I disagree. I am strong on the kingdom being here now, but the cross is vital in it all the way until the end. We have to remind ourselves of it constantly so that we can say that we died and were buried and risen with Christ so that the same power that raised and enthroned HIm is all for us in our daily struggles. With that in mind, our faith would be so powerful that nothing could discourage us. The victory of the cross is always needed. That is the power that we require to deny self. We cannot do it on our own. We need Holy Ghost empowerment. And the cross that we carry as we follow him and deny ourselves keeps our bodies under, as Paul said in 1 Cor 9, and makes way for God's Spirit to "resurrect" us, so to speak, in victory! How can we abandon the need for the cross?

[Pressing-On]

Originally Posted by mfblume

Good stuff.

I once heard a Kingdom-focused preacher speak about the cross as an entrance truth, so to speak, and then we depart and head into the kingdom understanding. I disagree. I am strong on the kingdom being here now, but the cross is vital in it all the way until the end. We have to remind ourselves of it constantly so that we can say that we died and were buried and risen with Christ so that the same power that raised and enthroned HIm is all for us in our daily struggles. With that in mind, our faith would be so powerful that nothing could discourage us. The victory of the cross is always needed. That is the power that we require to deny self. We cannot do it on our own. We need Holy Ghost empowerment. And the cross that we carry as we follow him and deny ourselves keeps our bodies under, as Paul said in 1 Cor 9, and makes way for God's Spirit to "resurrect" us, so to speak, in victory! How can we abandon the need for the cross?

Your text reminds me of your reasoned explanation, some time back, for the term, "I plead the blood". It is a looking back and acknowledging that work on the cross - it will never lose it's power.

[mfblume]

Originally Posted by Pressing-On

Your text reminds me of your reasoned explanation, some time back, for the term, "I plead the blood". It is a looking back and acknowledging that work on the cross - it will never lose it's power.

Exactly. Love the truths of the cross applied to practical living.