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THE KING’S BUSINESS Jonah a Missionary To Nineveh NOVEMBER $1 1915. LESSON VIII. Jonah 3:1-10. (Commit v. 10.) G olden T ext : “G o ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of fhe lather, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to ob serve all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”—Matt. 28:19, 20.
DAILY BIBLE READINGS Mon., Nov. 15—Jonah 3 :1-10. Tues., Nov. 16—Jonah 4:1-11. • Wed., Nov. 17—Isaiah 6:1-8. Thurs., Nov. 18—Rom. 10:1-15. FrL, Nov. 19—Acts 1:1-8. Sat., Nov. 20—Acts 10:34-43. Sun., Nov. 21—Matt. 28:1-10, 16-20.
EXPOSITION AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
v. 1. "And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time.’’ It was won derful grace on God’s part that He spoke to Jonah the second time, when Jonah had turned a deaf ear to His command the first time. Jonah had deliberately and definitely refused the call to go to Nineveh, and he got into terrible trouble by running away from his divinely prescribed duty (see Ch. 1), but Jonah had repented of his disobe dience and God gave him another call. God does not always give us a second chance when we refuse the first (Num. 14:40, 45). v. 2. "Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.” Jonah was not allowed to choose his own message, he was simply to preach the preaching that God bade him preach. No preacher has a right to preach a mes sage of his own devising. A true preacher is a man with a message, but he must go to God to find the message, and the message that God gives him he must declare whether his audience likes it or not, or whether he, himself, likes it or not (cf. Ezek. 3:17; Isaiah 8:20). We are not to preach what prudence dictates or policy suggests, nor are we to preach what pleases the people, or what we have ourselves reasoned out. We are not to preach what we think, or guess, but simply what God declares and what He bids us preach.
It does not matter at all whether men will hear or forbear (Ezek. 2:7). It is none of our business whether men like it or not. We are not simply to preach what God bids us to preach, but we are to preach all that God bids us to preach (Jer. 1:17; Acts 20: 27). The Hebrew word here translated “preach,” means literally “to cry put” or “call out” and Sets forth the intense earnest ness and insistence that is necessary on the part of the true representative of God. v. 3. "So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.” Jonah proved the genuineness of his own repentance by immediately rising and doing as he was told. He went without asking any questions. The great secret of 3. happy and useful life is doing at once just what God bids us do. Jonah had thor oughly learned his lesson; the first time he was bidden go, he would not go at all; now he goes without asking a question or saying a word. "Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.” Nineveh was a vast and magnificent city, but its vastness and magnificence did not atone for its wick edness. The greatness of a city or a man never lessens, but rather increases, the guilt of their wickedness. * v. 4. “And Jonah began to enter into the city, a day’s journey, and he cried, and said,
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