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Jonah 1:7-10 What is this that you have done? Day 326

Good morning saints in the Lord,

We find ourselves visiting Jonah on the ship bound for Tarshish in the midst of the storm.  Any time a bunch of pagan sailors ask "What is this that you have done?", it is not a good sign. Having been in the Navy, I can attest that while not all sailors are great sinners, the reputation is not far from truth. So when these sailors recognize that Jonah is the cause of their problems, they know he has done something really bad.  But thanks be to God that he uses even this for good.

Blessings,

Jeff

All part of the plan.  Even though Jonah goes outside of God's revealed will (Go to Nineveh), God's sovereign will is not frustrated.  In fact, if Jonah had not run away, he would not have wound up in the belly of the great fish for three days and nights.  If he had not wound up there, Jesus would not have had "the sign of Jonah" as a sign of death, burial and resurrection.  God's plan of salvation included using the disobedience of his prophet Jonah to provide a picture of the fulfilment of Genesis 3:15.  Jesus is the one who crushes the serpent's head in death, burial and resurrection.  

Yet, this in no way condones disobedience of revealed will.  One of the ways God delivers us from evil so that we may not be tempted is revealed will in Scripture.  While we cannot be justified by the law, it still has a function of restraining the passions and desires of the flesh.

From https://journal.rts.edu/article/martin-luthers-doctrine-of-temptation/ A commentary on Luther's doctrine of temptation.

The spirit of our time is such that one might suppose Luther is against the moral law as a rule of life for the believer. This would be an utter mistake. What we noted above about the need for conscience to be awakened shows this. Luther’s comments on the law in the Galatians Commentary indicate the same:

We have said before that the law in a Christian ought not to pass its bounds, but ought to have dominion only over the flesh, which is in subjection to it, and remaineth under it. But if it should presume to creep into the conscience, and there seek to reign, see thou play the cunning logician and make the true division. Say thou: “O law, thou wouldest climb up into the kingdom of my conscience and there reprove it of sin, and take from me the joy of my heart, which I have by faith in Christ, and drive me to desperation that I may be without hope and utterly perish. Keep within thy bounds, and exercise thy power upon the flesh,” for I am baptized and by the gospel am called to the partaking of righteousness and everlasting life.[39]


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