Bible Verse of the Day Thursday, January 12th, 2023

 Jonah 1:1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."

The book of Jonah is all about a man who did not want to preach to people who did not know the true God. Preaching and teaching in the Land of Israel was acceptable, but preaching to gentiles was out of his scope of acceptability. Jonah received a direct revelation concerning what God wanted him to do. The City of Nineveh was very evil, and God wanted Jonah to go and lead the people there to a saving knowledge of the one true God. Jonah did run away from this mission, but God had a plan by which Jonah might have time to think about what God wanted him to do and change his mind about shirking the responsibility.

This story, on the surface, seems like the story of a man and a fish, while at its core foundation, it is a soul-winning story. Unfortunately, people seem to be very skeptical when they hear a fish story because mostly the fish gets bigger and bigger with each rendition of the story. Consequently, the Book of Jonah is the subject of much scorn and mockery. The worldly ways cannot accept that a big fish swallowed someone, and they lived to tell the tale; they see it as a legend or a myth. The truth of God's supernatural world has no bearing on worldly science and will seem foolish to the natural person (1 Corinthians 2:14). 

Jesus spoke these words to validate and substantiate His earthly ministry. The Jewish leaders wanted a sign from Jesus before they would believe Him. The only sign they would receive was as Jonah was inside the great fish for three days, so would He be in the heart of the earth for three days. Jonah's experience was a clear forerunner and herald of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary.

The connection with Jesus advance and exalts the book of Jonah to an extremely high level of genuineness and legitimacy. If one chooses to attack the Book of Jonah, they are attacking and assailing the credibility of Christ Jesus. The Bible does not need the authenticity and endorsement of the natural world of science. It has a solid foundation because of its authority from the Creator of all in heaven and on earth. In searching for the absolute truth, humans do not call God into account; God calls humans into account (John 5:24)