Prophetic Prospective Daily Devotional

And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

Jonah closes his prophetic book abruptly indicating that the prophet was angry, depressed, hot and faint. Jonah was left to contemplate God's words about his own lack of compassion and God's depth of compassion.

The truth be known, Jonah could not have written this book unless he had learned the point God was seeking to bring to the prophets attention. It is most likely that Jonah did come to an understanding of his error and then wrote this historical, biographical narrative to urge Israel to flee from disobedience and spiritual callousness.

Jonah ran the opposite direction from where God had sent him in chapter 1. In chapter 2 the prophet got his heart right after being resurrected from the dead. Chapter 3 reveals the record of the prophet doing what the Lord sent him to do, preach to the Gentile city of Nineveh. God's Word was effective and the city turned to the Lord.

When we come to Jonah 4 we see the Jewish prophet actually depressed that he had been used of God to reach these Gentiles. The narrative reveals Jonah's sorrow over the loss of his physical protection, provided by God, but totally void of any compassion for those who the Lord had displayed great compassion for, the people of Nineveh.

God worked in the heart of this Jewish preacher and then allowed him the ministry to his own people to show them the Lord's heart and compassion and their lack of compassion and failure to serve the Lord within His plan and power.

As I read this chapter I was reminded why the Lord has not come back to earth and in fact why He has not shouted for us to join Him in the air at the Rapture. II Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise (the promise to call us up to heaven) as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

That's His compassion for the lost, and it should be ours also. By the way, you and I can hasten the coming of the Lord, II Peter 3:12, by leading lost people to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

Prayer Thot: Help me Lord, to do what must be done to reach the lost and dying world before it's too late, as I await and hasten Your return.