PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah
William J. Deane [1853-1943] · 94,170 words · 105 reading sections
The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah — Section 61
Ver. 2.-The value of aiftiction (as seen in Jonah's prayer). It: 1. Brings the man to himself. 'l'o soul-consciousness, to God-consciousness. When "in the shadow off\ great affiiclion, the soul sits dumb." Chastened, he feels his need of chastisement, and knows from whom it comes. " Thy waves;" "thy billows." 2. Brings…
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them. 3. "These ,\"-inevites are the foes of my country; let one of their own citizen8 be rai.<ed up to warn them." National hostility and 11ersonal prejudice have done much to hinder God's work in all ages. II. SuoH BIN IN GoD's PEOPLE IS FOLLOWED BY CHASTISEMENT, 1. Ol,astisemen• does ,wt always follow Bin. Someti…
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Vor. 8.-Arose, e.nd went. Ho wns now to _have gone on through the city, repe,:iting o.e prompt to obey oe formerly to flee. We.s; this one awful announcement, as we rearl i.e. when Jonah viaitocl it. Nothing can be of fanatics denouncing woe on J erusnlem nrguocl from Lhe past tense here e.s to the before its final …
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tokrn of mourning wM not confined to the with saokoloth. As we put tr11ppinga on Hehrewe (~ornp. Ezrk. xxvi. 16). horRos in funerols. The LXX. wrongly Ver. 6.-For word oame; and tk6 matt.er l:Df\kes this verse give im. account of tha oamr; fl'Y'Y'""'" o A6')'ot, "the word came exooution of the ediot instead of being…
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HOMILETICS. Ver, 2.-City preaching. In Palestine there were no great cities. The popnlation was scattered through pastoral regions or gathered in small and unimportant towns. 'fhis fact gave a character to the national life of the Hebrews and to their national religiousness. It was a strange experience for a Jew like …
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"Ver. 6.-..4. king's contrition. It is an illustration of the power of truth, of the commanding majesty of the faithful &nd fearless preacher, which we witness in this narrative. An unknown Hebrew, with nothing to recommend him, nothing to enforce attention, comes to a foreign city, passes through the public places,…
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J, 'l'IIE OUTWARD BIONB OF PENlTENOE AND CONTBJTlON ARE GOOD WHEN, AND ONLY WIIEN, THEY AR!!: THE EXPREBBlON OF GENUINE FEELING AND PURPOSE. We feel this to be the case with reference to ordinary human sorrow. The mere garb and semblance of mourning, being but conventional, is of little value. It is felt to be appropri…
1,093 wordsSECTION 68The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah — Section 68
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-3.-Peremptory reiteration and prompt obedience. We see Jonah entering here on the second stage of his strange career. And it is adjUBted logically to the first. His recent experiences and their resulting sentiments form an obvious preparation for the duty next to hand. He has si…
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they ma.y be formally in office, but are incapable of spiritual work. When Jonah fell for the time being out of the spiritual connection, be ceased to be a prophet of God. He could not be o.t once a recruiter and a deserter, an ambassador and a rebel. Now ho has come back, and in resumed spiritual relations he finds th…
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he must eee put away. The forsworn task be enforces with the etrong arm he muet ~ee done. "God looks upon men when he h&S afflicted them and has delivered them out of their affiiction, to see whether they will mend of that fault particularly for ....-hich they were corrected; and therefore in that thing we are conce…
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11There le not the greatest minister, not the mollt learned or acute, but muet observe this rule; not Jamee, not John, not Peter, not all the troop of the apostles, may once vary from this: he who she.II bring other doctrine, let him be accursed by us ; he who speaketh of himself, let him be refused by us; howsoever go…
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people (Mark xii. 37), when the scribes and Pharisees, who were more familiar with revelation, remained uuinfluenced almoet to a man (John vii. 48, 49). It would eeem· as if Di,·inc truth, like potent drugs with the body, is effective most of all in its first cont.nets with the soul. Lengthened and frequent contact …
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.death, the fact wae ground of hope to the people who had forty days' reprieve. Thus the faith in which the Ninevites' repentance originated" wrought by fear and hope combined. The evil dreaded vras sufficient to break and humble all their pride. And .the hope they entertained was sufficient to prevent their fear fro…
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and shaped by royal edict detracted in nothing from the value of the Ninevitce' repi!nt- anoe. 'l'be obligations of religion rule every relation of life. Ench community ought to be religious, and the rulers of eaoh to consider their office sacred to the accomplish- ment of this rcsnlt. Monarchs should reign for the glo…
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of old, and for such reasons BB we have named, it was still, as at fir3t, a city !!I'eat t0 God" (Raleigh). The message is somewhat different Crom before: "Preach the pr.each- ing niterally, • cry the cry :;J that I bid thee." Thie may either mean, " the cry that I will bid thee at the time,' or" the cry that I alre…
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life for my ~ake shltll find it." Acknowledge the reality of Divine protection nnd ■trength-sense of p<'ace and proof of it, for, after all, fidelity to God is the true policy, "Them that honour me, I will honour" (1 Sam. ii. 30),-W, G. B. Vars. 5-9.-The f'epentance of Nineveh. "So the people of Nineveh believed God…
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way, and from the violence that is in their hands." The humiliation of the peopl'} more tho.n external-" Let the wicked forsake his way, o.nd the unrighteous man his thoughts" (lee.. Iv. 7)-instinctive recognition of the holiness of God-it is nnholy r.cts o.nd o.n unholy Rpirit that excite his displeasure (see Isa. …
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display; giving them up as acts, and trying to give them up as objects of desire'; seeking to have the heart cleansed as well as the hands; to have the natural love of. them subdued by the thought that they excite against us the fierce wrath of God; and in our ca.e, under the light of the gospel, by all the consider…
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Vera. 1---4.----.Jonal, in Nineveh. I. A. GREAT RESTORATION. .After his recreancy to <luty, who had been surprised if Jonah had been thrust out of the prophet's office? The guilt of his flight, the moral insensibility into which he had sunken, rendered him, many would think, unfit to be God's spokesman to men. But G…
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lf their caRe had been utterly hopeless, why bad he come at all? So, though they h~d seen no miracle, they "believed God." That doom was at hand; doom that might-- who could tell ?-be averted, if they "battered the gates of heaven with storms of prayer." They proclaimed a fast; "the people;" for then, as al ways, natio…
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from their evil way." Then is the threatened doom to come P No; "God repented of the eYil, that he hnd 8aid that he would do unto them; and he did it not." And yet in ot.ber Scriptures God is 81\id not to repent. Words can only faintly portray a human friend. How feeble, then, a.re all words to declare God I Words t…
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EXPOSITION. ra.lly, I anticipated to fly; Septuagint, 1rpo· CHAPTER IV. ltp8a<1a. .-ov ,Prryeiv, " I made haste to flee; " Vera. 1-11.-JONAH'S DISPLEASURE, Am> Vulgate, prlBOCCupafli ut fag"em. I h&11t- ened to fly before I ehonld be reduced ITS O0RREOTI0N, to seeing my mission rendered nugatory. Vera. 1-4.-§ 1. …
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Ye111. 6, 7.~ 3. God cau.,111 a plant to warm night, with a moist atmosphere, will 8pring up ,,. order f,0 shade Jonah 'from the sut1:1ce ~o pr~uce ~ host of caterpillars, ~,m ; but it. i• made Boon to witl,er au,ay and which m an mcred1bly ~hort time strip a leave him exposed to the aoorching rays. plant of nil its…
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the snme word la ueed of the effecte of beet. Neither madest it grow. As God had thiret; oomp. eh. ii. 7). Hie position on made Nineveh into a" great city." Which the eoet of the city (ver. 5) exposed him to came up in II night, and periahed in II night ; the full force of the ecorching sun and litere.lly, which 'ID…
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HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-S.-Repining at God's mercy, A. more mixed character .than .Jonah's it would not be easy to imagine. God's treatment of him, God's language to him, prove that he we.s regarded as a servant, as a prophet, of the Lord. His ownJ.rayers and tbanksgi'l'ings indioated a nature in happy fellowship with …
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himself ia represented in bis Word as having been angry with the wicked; and 11 righteous anger or indignation with wrong-doers is now and again in the Scripture narrative mentioned with approval. Indeed, a nature to which anger is foreign cannot but be, lacking in morn! fibre. On the other hand, into how many sins …
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JV. THE PRIVATION OF EARTHLY COMFORTS 18 INTENDED TO LEAD MEN TO SEEK 'l'HEIBHIGHEST 0000 IN GoD. Such discipline docs not, indeed, produce t.his effec, upon all men; many are hardened, some are driven to despair, by adversity. But with regard to the truly pious, it may be said that., when the gourd withers, the Giv…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHOilS. Vere. 1-4.-A miaanthrope's case against Divine benevolence. It takes a good deal to make a man of God perfect. After a whole life's discipline the old man of sin will sometimes show his baleful features at the window of the soul. Jonah has just been figuring to our mind as a changed ch…
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,·11conragcment of t.he very heathen power by which she was to fall. Then the over- ; !m,w of Nineveh by nn angry God would have been a terrible example to quote to Isrnel, nnd a rod to conjure with when calling on them to fly the wrnth of God; whilst its <'scape the prophet's careless countrymeu might wrest to thei…
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barring the quality of Rincerity, this prayer lacks almost every other element of ecoeptable worship. 1. Ie ia inappropriate in ita matter. (Ver. 3.) It is not abso- lutely nn'd necessarily wrong to pray for <leath. Paul, persecuted and affiicted, ha,\ "a desire to depart nml be with Christ." It is easily conceivable…
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11nd no place in the chain of cause and effect at which it could come in. We do it solely on our own responsibility, in violation of the Divine harmonies, and at our own risk and loss. It settles nothing outside ourselves, influences nothing, and has no right of way across the field of providence. God is supreme, and m…
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with the question of men's salvation, for the first pince in the attention of God's people. Words have, for some paltry personal consideration, been left unspoken, interviews unsought, measures unattended to, on which, humanly speaking, the question of some one's eternity bung. Those who know God and sprak for him w…
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11re treated often as our o_wn gains, and so are godlessly enjoyed. They arc understood 0nly_ when. God 1s seen Ill them, and rightly used when used as from his hand; hut, reee1,ved ~nth the _dry _e-r:e of ingratit11de, or with the shut eye of insensibility, they 11re oeforced of their D1vme element, aud to U8 are G…
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was absent in the case of Jonah. He had not produced, nor contrihnterl to th~ pro- duction of, the much-lamented gourd. But what had God not done for Nineveh? His were the lives forfeited, his the blessings menaced, his the repentance which led· to the reprieve. In pitying Nineveh God was pitying the work of his own…
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II. REASON ABSIG?s'"ED FOR IT. (Ver. 2.) God too merciful-his mercy on this occneion judged out of place. JonRh's truthfulness as a prophet seemed to be compromised; he was made to appear foolish in the eyes of men-the whole of the painful experience he bad gone through shown to be unnecessary; he would have to retu…
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believed in by many-sfaves treated wHh fearful violeuce-the terrors of the Inquisition brought down on heretics-offence or many at the clemency of Lord Canning after Indian Mutiny-Ireland must be scourged with fire and sword-scoundrels, said Carlyle, must suffer the unmitigated doom of scoundrels. God's methods more me…
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me, I remern bered the Lord; " here "be fainted, and wished ln himself to die "-Jonah his own reprover. The great lesson-we should sit loose to creature comforts, like the -gour<l-tlJBnkful for them while we have them, not repining, and, above all not despairing, n-hen we lose them. Habakkuk's spirit the model, "Althou…
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them enjoying life-shrinks from what needl~ssly entails or destroys it-thoughtless and needless infliction of suffering antl death on animals is a great sin in God's eye. 'l'he prophet is silenced now-he opens not his mouth. Tho narrative ends somewhat abruptly; but leaves two great truths full in view- the littlen…
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His way is perfect. "Consider Jesus, 1&t ye be wearied and faint in your minds.:'' What is our grief t,o his? "0 brothers, let ns leave tl1e shame and sin Of tnt.-ing vainly, in a plaintive mood, The holy name of grief /-holy herein, That, by the grief of One, came all our good." & with him so with us-the way of th…
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II. PITY ON THE BIIORT-LIVEO GOURD; PITY ON THE NINEVITEB, IMMORTAL 0DEATUREB. That gourd had but the life of a day. Then "the grace of the fashion of it perished." So frail I But look at those multitudes in Nineveh. Few there had so brief a life as the gourd. And all of them were heirs of immortality, passing to an…
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..,ne falleth on the ground" without him. 6. He would have them preserved from cruelty and needless destruction (Exod. ix. 19). 7. It is God-like to care for the lower animals. •He prayoth well who loveth well Both man, and bird, and beast. He prayeth best who loveth best All things both great and small a For the …
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III. TnAT TROUDLBB llllLDOM COME ALONE. It was bad enough to lose the Rhclter of the gonrd, but it was worse to find II vehement east wind springing up jnst after it withered-not one liko ours, cutting in its keenness, but one singularly depressing and relaxing in its effects. It came over the burning desert sands; it …
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that strips the trees in autumn, thRt steals strength from the strongest animal, cmd gnaws away the life of the youngest? Verily man and all his earthly good is being "destroyed from morning to evening." 3. In its destr1iction. "God prepared a vehe- ment, east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fain…
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we.ye, he repented ol the evil he said he would do unl;o them; e.nd he did it not" (eh. iii. 10). It ie ever eo. "Let the wicked forsake hie w_e.y, and the unrlghteo_wi man hill thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, e.nd he will he.ve mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will e.bundantly pardon." Amongst the ma…
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the offspring of the Infinite, capable of tracing his existence to its Source, having the power to move as he pleases, and endowed with powers inexhaust-ible, and ever- increasing development I . But if a plant is nothing to one man, what is it to the thousands of men that are found in Nineveh? You, Jonah, would hav…
1,165 wordsSource & rights
Public domain historical Pulpit Commentary. Source page identifies the volume as Public Domain; text extracted from its historical PDF.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.