The Sacrifice of Prayer – Day 351 Through the Bible

“Calvin Campbell (the Peanut Man) caught this picture of the sun lighting up the snow capped Black Mountain Range Sunday evening."  Mount Celo - near Mt. Celo Church - is part of the Black Mountains, which are part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are part of the Appalachian Mountains.

My Meditations on Today’s Readings

(Ellipses are mine and are used for contemplation.)

Key Words/Phrases:  Arise and go; from the presence of the LORD; Salvation is of the LORD; You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abundant in lovingkindness, and One who relents from doing harm; Bow down Your heavens, O LORD, and come down; lest I be full and deny You; the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the angel’s hand.

Jonah’s Prayer in Affliction - Jonah 1, 2, 3, and 4 – (Facts: What It Says – Summarized) – God’s Command to Jonah:  Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city.  Cry out against it…for…their wickedness has come up before Me.  Jonah’s Response: BUT…Jonah rose to…flee…to Tarshish…from…the presence of the LORD.  He went…down…to Joppa, found a ship to Tarshish…went…down into it…to go with them…from the presence of the LORD.  What God Did About That Disobedience: He sent a great wind against the ship.  How the Men on the Ship React: Cargo was thrown overboard.  Jonah…had gone down into the lowest parts…and was asleep.  The men cast lots, and it was determined that Jonah was the reason for the storm.  The reluctant prophet admitted it, and even said the men should throw him overboard.  The men were afraid of the disobedient Hebrew and the God of Israel.  They prayed that God would not hold them guilty for Jonah’s life, and they thew him overboard.  The Whale Rider: God had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah.  Jonah was in the belly of the fish for 3 days and 3 nights. Jonah’s Prayer of Fear:  I cried out to the LORD...because of my affliction.  Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice...The waters surrounded me, even to my soul…The deep closed around me. YET…You…have brought up…my life from the pit, O LORD, my God.  When my soul fainted within me…I remembered the LORD.  I will pay what I have vowed.  Salvation is of the LORD.  God’s Response: So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.  God’s 2^nd Command to Jonah: Arise, and go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message I tell you.  Jonah’s 2^nd Response to God: Jonah obeys and prophesies to the Ninevites, ‘Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ Nineveh’s response to God’s Word: 1) Nineveh believed God, 2) proclaimed a fast, 3) put on sackcloth…from the greatest to the least.  3) The king did likewise and sat in ashes. 4) The king decreed that neither man nor beast should eat, taste, or drink anything…but all be covered with sackcloth and…cry mightily…to God. 5) Let everyone…turn from…his evil ways…and from the…violence that is in his hands.  Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish.  God’s Response to Nineveh’s Repentance: God saw…their works…that they…turned from…their evil way…and God…relented from…the disaster that He said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it. Jonah’s Response to God’s Mercy: He was angry and asked God to kill him.  It displeased Jonah exceedingly.  Ah. LORD, was this not what I said?  Therefore I fled…for I know You are a gracious…and merciful God…slow to anger…and abundant in lovingkindness…One who relents from doing harm.  Therefore, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. God’s Object Lesson to Jonah: Jonah seeks shelter in the sweltering heat to watch what would become of the city.  God caused a large plant to grow above Jonah to give him relief from the heat.  Jonah was very grateful for the plant.  In the morning, God prepared a worm…and it so damaged the plant that it withered.  Again, Jonah was very angry and asked to die, telling God that he had a right to be angry…even to death.  But the LORD said, ‘You have had pity on a plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up and perished in a night.  Should I not have pity on Nineveh…that great city…in which are more than 120,000 persons…who cannot discern between their right and left hand – and much livestock?” Principle:  One of the hardest commands for believers is to forgive the enemies of their souls who repent and receive God’s mercy.  Jonah pitied a plant but not the pardoned souls of 120,000 sinners.  This story is illustrative of God’s Sovereignty and Providence as He seeks to bring sinful man into communion with holy God.

David’s Prayer in Affliction – Psalm 144: 1-8  (Facts: What It Says – Summarized) David’s Affliction: Foreigners who speak lying words, and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.  David’s Appeal to God’s Character: Blessed be…the LORD my Rock…who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle; My lovingkindness…and my fortress…my high tower…my deliverer…my shield…and the One in whom I take refuge…who subdues my people under me. David’s Questions to God: 1) What is man that You take knowledge of him? 2) Or the son of man, that You are mindful of him?  Man is like a breath…his days are like a passing shadow.  David’s Requests of God: 1) Bow down Your heavens, O LORD, and come down. 2) Flash forth lightning and scatter them. 3) Stretch out Your hand from above. 4) Rescue me…and deliver me…out of great waters.  Principle: David is pleading the destruction of his enemies.  This is what Jonah also wanted.  The difference was that when God offered His Word to the Ninevites they believed and repented…at least for a time.  In both cases, God ultimately brought destruction on both groups of enemies who continued in their wickedness against His Chosen People.

The "Two-Things-I-Ask-in-Life" Prayer - Proverbs 30:6-9 – (Facts: What It Says – Summarized.)  The Two Things: Two things I request of You (Deprive me not before I die); 1) Remove…falsehood and lies far from me; 2) Give me…neither poverty nor riches.  The Reason for the Request – to Protect God’s Honor: Feed me with the food allotted to me; lest I be full…and deny You, and say, “Who is the LORD?”  Or lest I be poor and steal…and profane the name of my God.  Principle:  The former concern is one we see God addressing throughout the Bible – that it is in His blessings, that we often fail in our faith.  We deny God, take credit for ourselves the very blessing He bestowed on us, and then deny our need of Him at all. Another prominent theme throughout the Bible is God's hatred of lies and falsehood.  So, this is a prayer…according to God's will.

Prayers of the Saints as Sacrifices Before God – Revelation 8 – (Facts: What It Says – Summarized)  The 7^th Seal: When He opened the 7^th seal there was…silence in heaven…for about half an hour.  To the 7 angels standing before God were given 7 trumpets.  Another angel…having a golden censer…came and stood…at the altar. He was given much incense…that…he should offer it with…the prayers of all the saints…upon the golden altar…which was before the throne.  And the smoke of the incense…with the prayers of the saints…ascended before God from the angel’s hand.  Then…the angel took the censer…filled it with fire from the altar…and threw it to the earth.  Then the 7 angels prepared themselves to sound.  The 1^st Angel Sounded: Hail and Fire followed, mingled with blood, and were thrown to the earth.  1/3 of the trees and grass were burned up.  The 2^nd Angel Sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea. 1/3 of the sea became blood.  1/3 of the living creatures in the sea died, and 1/3 of the ships were destroyed. The 3^rd Angel Sounded: And a great star, Wormwood, fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and fell on 1/3 of the rivers and the springs of water making them bitter, and men died from the water. The 4^th Angel Sounded: And 1/3 of the sun, and the moon, and the stars were struck and were darkened.  1/3 of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. Preparation for the Sounding of the Next 3 Angels: And I looked…and heard…an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, ‘Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth…because of…the remaining blasts of the trumpets of the 3 angels who are about to sound.” Principle: Our prayers are so powerful and important to God that they are burned as sacrifices on the altar before His throne in Heaven and usher in the Great Tribulation.  Recall the cry of the souls of the saints under the altar for God to avenge their blood on those who dwell on the earth.  (Revelation 30:10)

My Lessons and Applications:  I have a confession to make.  I hate to say this, but if I had to name one Biblical character that I think I am most like, it would probably be Jonah.  Aaagh!  But let’s give him his fair due for a moment. How bad were the Ninevites really?  Why did Jonah so despise them and flee from his mission? First of all, Jonah is not a mythical character.  He is named in 2 Kings as a prophet of Israel during the time of Jeroboam and spoken of by Jesus in Matt. 12:20 – "As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Ray Stedman says, “In the ancient world, the Ninevites had the record for the being the bloodiest, most viciously cruel, merciless people.” The Chosen People were the targets for much of their brutality.  Nineveh was an atrocious, “godless, sinful nation. “ Have you – like Jonah - had your life destroyed by someone, without reason or cause – only for the selfish gain of the attacker?  Is your life starkly different than it once was because of the fraud and cruelty of someone that caused the death of a family member, destroyed your finances and possessions and all you had spent your life building and that had been committed to God?  Then you come a little closer to understanding this reluctant prophet.  How could God forget the Ninevite cruelty against His own people?  He didn’t, but He was merciful when they were repentant and turned from their evil.  When they returned to their former sins, God destroyed them.  Do I pity a plant (like Jonah) or an animal over which I had no part in its life or growth, but refuse to have pity or mercy on the soul God has pardoned – regardless of what that soul has done to me?  Do I realize the power and cry of my prayers before God? Has The Revelation taught me that suffering does not mean I am unloved by God, or that my prayers are not heard by Him? "Consider" Christ, the prophets, the apostles, and many of the Biblical saints and what they endured "lest you become weary and discouraged in your soul" Hebrews 12:3. Am I able – like David – to be so humble before the God who is everything to me (my Rock, my Deliverer, my Fortress, my Savior, my Lord) – that I am amazed He would condescend to be mindful of me, much less desire an intimate loving relationship with me?

God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry?”  Jonah 4:9

Do we have a right to be angry? Perhaps sometimes,  It is good to be angry with ourselves for remaining foolish after so much godly instruction or to be angry with others when the sole cause of our anger is the evil they are doing.  Someone who is not angry over sinfulness is someone who is partaking in the sin, for it is a loathsome, hateful thing and no renewed heart can patiently endure it.  God Himself is angry with the wicked every day and His Word says, “Let those who love the LORD hate evil.” (Psalm 97:10)

But we must never use our natural weaknesses as an excuse for sin.  If we cannot control our temper, what has grace done for us?  Instead we must run to the cross and pray for the Lord to crucify our temper and renew in us the traits of gentleness and meekness that reflect His image.  “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” Ephesians 4:30-32. Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Lord, forgive me for my anger toward others and toward You.  May my anger be directed only toward sin, not others.  (Jim Reimann, Commentary on Spurgeon’s devotional.)