Today’s Verse: But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. ~Jonah 1:3 Jonah is listed in the Bible as one of the Minor Prophets. He is considered minor because the length of his book is smaller than the Major Prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. As we study

Today’s Verse: So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. ~Jonah 1:6 Have you ever fallen asleep while driving? That can be pretty scary or, even, fatal! Sleeping at the wheel is a way of saying that someone has not given attention to their responsibilities and has allowed things to slip. It means that someone has been derelict concerning their responsibili

Today’s Verse: They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. ~Jonah 2:8 Have you ever been fooled? Have you ever been a victim of fraud? If you have, you understand the incredible remorse that you can have. You kick yourself, thinking, “I should have looked into this further.” When it comes to the truth, it will always stand the test of time. However, believing lying vanities can get us into a lot of trouble! This morning, we need to test what we hear and read, an

Today’s Verse: And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. ~Jonah 2:10 Have you ever eaten something that not only did not taste edible, but did not sit well with your stomach? If you have, you have probably spit it out. I know this sounds crude, but when we spew something out, it is a reaction to something that does not agree with our sense of what is acceptable. There are some things spiritually that we should feel sick to the stomach about

Today’s Verse: And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, ~Jonah 3:1 “The second time” is an opportunity for us to prove that we are capable of doing what we did not or could not do the first time. It is the opportunity for us to show that we can do what is expected of us. Jonah tried to escape God’s calling to preach at Nineveh. God caught up with him, and through an excruciating process, Jonah realized that it does not pay to disobey God’s calling on

Today’s Verse: When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. ~Jonah 2:7 Fainting is a physical condition when a person becomes very light headed and passes out. Sometimes, a person faints because of extreme hunger and low blood sugar. Sometimes it is because of low blood pressure. Other times, it is because of being overwhelmed by a situation that he is in. Jonah, the runaway prophet, speaks of an unforgettable

Today’s Verse: Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. ~Jonah 1:17 When we say that something is fishy, we are implying that something is suspicious or not right. When something appears fishy, we become reserved about making a decision about that person or event. Jonah was supposed to go to Nineveh and cry against that city. Instead, we see him out on the sea and, later, swallowed by a gre

Today’s Verse: So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. ~Jonah 4:5 A Western idiom that we use is the term “sitting duck.” This is a way of saying that a person is vulnerable to attack or other source of danger. The term comes from hunting, where it is much easier to hit ducks when they are sitting on the water than when they are in flight.