Day 181-11

You can run, but you can not hide.

Jon 1:4  But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.

Which made me think of this passage:

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;  Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.  I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.  My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.  (Psalm 139:7-16)

There is no place where God is not.  That is an amazing thought.  He is all seeing, all knowing, all present.  My finite mind can not wrap itself around the magnitude.  I am humbled and grateful for His watchful care.

Jon 1:16  Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.

My notes:  True conversion?  Not unless there is continual evidence.  Many a person has made an *outward* profession which is substantiated as nothing more than mere words by the evidences in their lives.  O Lord, let those of us who confess to be Yours, give a proper estimate and be worthy to called the children of God.

Jon 2:1  Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly,

I had heard someone say that Jonah was dead...dead people normally do not pray.  As I was typing that, I was remembering the corresponding verses in which Jesus said that just like Jonah HE would be in the depths for 3 days and 3 nights.  While HE was not *alive* in the sense of walking and talking about the earth, while in the depths HE was active or so it would seem.  I was looking for what I thought was the companion verse:

1Pe 3:19  By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 

But a cursory review of the commentaries would seem to negate that thought as valid.  :-/

Partially sharing Matthew Henry's commentary on the verse:

1. For the explication of this we may notice, (1.) The preacher - Christ Jesus, who has interested himself in the affairs of the church and of the world ever since he was first promised to Adam, Gen_3:15. He went, not by a local motion, but by special operation, as God is frequently said to move, Gen_11:5; Hos_5:15; Mic_1:3. He went and preached, by his Spirit striving with them, and inspiring and enabling Enoch and Noah to plead with them, and preach righteousness to them, as 2Pe_2:5. (2.) The hearers. Because they were dead and disembodied when the apostle speaks of them, therefore he properly calls them spirits now in prison; not that they were in prison when Christ preached to them, as the vulgar Latin translation and the popish expositors pretend.

I will have to put these thoughts about Jonah and Jesus in the hopper, pray and meditate upon them.