June 23 ▪ Day 174

Scripture Readings

Psalms 36:9
Jonah 1–2
Revelation 5–6
Proverbs 24

Verse Focus (Psalms 36:9)

For with you is the fountain of life;
     in your light we see light.

Meditation

Today’s verse focus is Psalms 36:9. It says, “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” Truly, God is the source of life for us — not just life, though, but abundant life. A fountain has that sense of spurting and bubbling over. Exhilaration. Excess. Plenty. But a fountain is also something from which you might drink. And we are reminded of Jesus’ invitation to come to him and drink. Streams of living water — the Holy Spirit — to revitalize us.

But mostly it’s the second half of the verse that speaks to me. “In your light we see light.” God gives us insight. God gives us the ability to see. God opens our eyes.

I think we might not be able to see light at all if it weren’t for God’s light. Take the pandemic, for example. Ask the world, and it has been a terrible thing. It has brought pain, death, devastation, isolation, economic ruin, and more. But with God’s light, we also see the light that came along with the pandemic — a chance to reevaluate our priorities, to understand the importance of family and relationships, to simplify our lives, to focus on eternal matters. Many families with children ready to leave the nest treasured and really appreciated the extra time the pandemic gave them to enjoy each other. Admittedly, the past year was tough on all of us. But I wouldn’t be writing this devotional today if it hadn’t been for the pandemic.

My point is simply that God gives us the ability to see goodness and light. But we need to be in God’s light to see the light. On the one hand, we cannot escape God’s light. He is everywhere, and He gives light everywhere. But when we get busy, or start backsliding, our vision dims. But get closer to that Light and suddenly you’ll have new vision and new insights again.

And that is my final insight from today’s verse. This verse tells us that God is the source. God has what we need. We need to go to the fountain; we need to go to the light. May we seek Him first today and every day!

Father God, I thank you for giving me life. Thank you for breath and spirit. Thank you for sustaining me. Thank you also for being the one who gives us abundant life and eternal life. Thank you that your light illuminates everything in our world. May your Holy Spirit fill all of us this day. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Today we get to read the first two chapters of the book of Jonah. Jonah is included among the minor prophets, although the book is unusual in that it is not a book of prophecy, but rather is a story about a particular prophet. It is a fun book to read, and there are strong parallels to the way believers respond to God.

The main character is the prophet Jonah, son of Amittai. Jonah means “dove” and his father’s name means “truth.” There is one reference to Jonah outside the actual book of Jonah. It comes from 2 Kings 14:25, which mentions the prophet as living during the reign of Jeroboam II of Israel. That verse tells us that Jonah came from the Northern Kingdom, from the town of Gath Hepher, which was a border town in Ancient Israel. It was actually located in the region that came to be known as Galilee, and was about 3 miles from Nazareth and a half mile away from the town believed to be the New Testament town of Cana (where Jesus turned water into wine). Tourists today may be shown the site long believed to be Jonah’s tomb.

Most scholars date the events of Jonah to about 760 BC, although many scholars believe the book wasn’t written until several centuries later. With this dating, Jonah was called about six years after the prophet Amos, and about seven years before the prophet Hosea was called to preach against the corrupt kingdom of Israel. Nineveh, the city that Jonah was supposed to warn of coming destruction, was a large city in the Assyrian Empire — and, in fact, as you may recall, it was the Assyrian Empire that conquered and deported Israel in 722 BC (about 38 years after Jonah’s adventures). This makes the timing of Jonah’s activity very interesting. By this account, God called a prophet to preach to a corrupt foreign empire — an empire that repents, and the immediate judgment is withheld. Perhaps this was a plan to make the empire better hosts for the soon to be deported Israelites? Israel had already had warning of their impending judgment from Amos, and the kingdom would continue to receive warnings through the prophecies of Hosea and Isaiah. Nineveh did fall eventually to the Medes and Persians, about 150 years after Jonah went to them (in about 612 or 607 BC).

Whether or not the events of Jonah describe actual, real events is debatable both to many scholars and believers. Those who doubt the historicity of Jonah believe that the story was never intended to be taken as a history, but is an allegory or fable used for teaching. And it is true that everything about this story is miraculous, legendary, and larger than life. Some describe the story as a satire or parody, and see elements of literary absurdism.

Of course, part of your view of whether or not Jonah speaks of real, historical events will be influenced by whether or not you believe in miracles at all. Many also believe the book of Job is a fable rather than a story of true events. Personally, I lean towards believing that Jonah is a genuine history. To me, that doesn’t mean that the story may not also be a satire. That Jonah was swallowed by a “big fish” (as the Hebrew describes it — to the ancient Hebrews a whale would have been seen as a fish since they didn’t distinguish mammals from other types of marine creatures) and lived to tell about it is one of the aspects that most strains credulity, yet it was only a couple of years ago that a man was almost swallowed by a whale (and it was caught on camera). If you google it, you’ll discover that there was another incident earlier this month of a man from Massachusetts almost being swallowed by a humpback whale.

While I enjoy the story of Jonah for how Jonah represents the ways we rebel against God, let’s not forget that “the sign of Jonah” was the prophecy of how Jesus would die and be resurrected (Matthew 12:38-41). Early Christian interpreters believed that Jonah was actually a type for Jesus.

Chapter 1 begins with the LORD’s call to Jonah: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me (v. 2).” Of course, going to Nineveh is the last thing Jonah wants to do, and so he runs away. He goes to the seaport of Joppa, and boards a ship bound for Tarshish. No one knows exactly where Tarshish was, other than that it was very far away across the sea, in the opposite direction of Nineveh. Some modern scholars have suggested that Tarshish was in Sardinia or Spain; others have proposed other areas of Italy or even Africa. When I was doing some prep work for today’s meditation, I discovered that in my own mind I’d been confusing “Tarshish” with “Tarsus” — the town that Paul came from, which was located in Turkey. They are not, however, the same place. Tarshish is somewhere across the sea, and it was known for its mineral exports.

So Jonah gets on a ship for Tarshish, and when they are en route, a huge storm comes up. The kind of storm that will sink a ship. These are experienced sailors, but they are frightened. Each prays to his own god to be saved. The captain, however, finds Jonah sleeping. (Is this meant to parallel when Jesus slept on the boat in the Sea of Galilee?)

The sailors cast lots to find out who is responsible for the gods’ apparent anger. The lot falls to Jonah, and he tells them that he is a Hebrew, a servant of the LORD, who created both the seas and the dry land. They are “terrified (v. 10),” because they know that Jonah is fleeing from God. When they ask what they should do, Jonah tells them that they must throw him into the sea. Despite Jonah’s admission of guilt and his recommendation to thrown him overboard, the sailors do not act upon this advice immediately. They try everything possible to survive without causing harm to their passenger. But they eventually give in. Praying for mercy from God, they throw Jonah overboard. And, of course, the sea immediately becomes calm. Verse 16 tells us, “Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.”

That the heathen Gentiles would come to have faith in God is part and parcel of the miraculous events of Jonah. It’s interesting that Jonah does not try to take his own life, even though he knows the entire ship is in danger because of him. Even though suicide is usually condemned, some religious traditions consider suicide resulting from heroism to be a gray area. Not so with Judaism. In Judaism, suicide is a sin that can never be repented. So even while Jonah is running away from God, he is not willing to jeopardize his eternal standing before the LORD.

The first chapter ends with the LORD directing “a great fish” to swallow Jonah. And we are told that he is in the “belly of the fish three days and three nights (v. 17).”

In chapter 2, Jonah prays. And when he finally comes to the point where he is willing to do what God wants him to do (v. 9), then the LORD commands the fish and Jonah is vomited out onto dry land.

It wasn’t until fairly recently that I realized that Jonah was in the fish for three days and nights before he started praying. His prayers are also very interesting. He is praying Scripture — quoting Scripture. Most of the phrases come directly out of the psalms, although Jonah rarely quotes an entire verse. He strings together phrases from Psalms 3, 31, 42, 50, 69, 88, 118, and 120 (although not in that order). I only recognized this because of the quote from Psalm 42:7 in verse 3 — “All your waves and your billows passed over me.” It is a verse that has always resonated for me.

Only verses 6 and 7 have no Scriptural parallels, and it makes me wonder if these words come from something that didn’t make it into the Hebrew canon. Part of verse 6 is similar to Psalm 30:3, and part of verse 7 is like 2 Chronicles 30:27. Of course, these words might equally be Jonah’s own heart prayers:

• “I sank to the foundations of the mountains; the earth with its prison bars closed behind me forever,” says the part of verse 6 that has no Scriptural references.
• “When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD,” says the part of verse 7 that is also unique.

Jonah’s prayers strike me as the kind of prayers we pray when we’re desperate — we think of whatever we can remember of the Bible and we repeat that. I’m not trying to say that Jonah is not sincere. On the contrary, I believe Jonah’s prayers are heartfelt.

This chapter obviously references Christ’s time in the belly of the earth, but to me it speaks of what it might take for us to repent. Often we are not willing to turn until some personal disaster occurs. But when you look at the book of Jonah as a whole, you will see that it is all about repentance — not just of Jonah, but of the sailors, and the Ninevites as well. This is perhaps once reason why in Judaism the book of Jonah is read in its entirety on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Repentance is key, but God is merciful.

In Revelation 5, we are introduced to the Lamb. The one sitting on the throne in chapter 4 is God the Father. We know this partly from the description — He is described as jasper and carnelian, but there is no mention of a human-like figure as there was when Jesus was described in chapter 1. But we also know this because here in chapter 5 we see the Lamb, standing between the throne and the four living creatures (v. 6).

It’s a good thing we already know that the Lamb is a vision of Jesus Christ, because the way he is described in this chapter is completely symbolical. John sees “a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth (v. 6).” Of course we already know that Jesus is our Passover Lamb; his crucifixion on the cross was his sacrifice on our behalf. Horns usually symbolize power in some way; eyes symbolize perception and discernment (not to mention the idea of the eyes being a window into the soul). Combined with the number seven, we get an idea of the perfection and completeness of Jesus’ power, majesty, and understanding.

If you’ve read any books on Biblical prophecy, you’ll know that some interpreters find very specific meanings for the horns and other symbols in Revelation. In chapters 12 and 13, the dragon and the beast are described as having multiple horns, heads, and crowns. I have read Biblical interpretations where people tie these symbols to current events — and they will tell you that the ten horns represent the European Economic Union, or that the seven heads refer to Russia. While I cannot definitively tell you that these types of interpretations are wrong, I do wonder if they are missing the larger points in their quest to find fulfillment of these prophecies in today’s history.

To me, chapter 5 is about worship. The Lamb who is worthy. And any interpretations of the symbolism here should first and foremost communicate that worthiness of the Messiah.

We also have a scroll “sealed with seven seals (v. 1).” And in chapter 6, Jesus begins to open the seals. When the first seal is opened in verse 1, one of the four living creatures commands, “Come!” And John sees a white horse, with a rider carrying a bow. The rider is bent on conquest. As the chapter continues, we have a red horse, a black horse, and a pale horse. The riders of these horses are, of course, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. This Biblical scene has made its way into our culture, and now many books, plays, and movies will reference the Four Horseman — they are the portent of doom, a signal of horror.

Biblical scholars will tell you that the horses and the riders of Revelation 6 echo the vision that Zechariah had in Zechariah chapter 6. In Zechariah 6:5, an angel tells the prophet about the horses and riders, saying, “These are the four spirits of heaven, going out from standing in the presence of the Lord of the whole world.” If these two visions reference the same beings, then we can interpret that the horses and riders of Revelation 6 are four of the seven spirits of God. Now doesn’t that just boggle your mind?

It makes me wonder if the other seals will reveal the other spirits of God. After the four horseman (with the last horseman ominously named Death), the following two seals are quite different in nature.

The fifth seal reveals “the souls of those who had been slain (v. 9)” being under the altar of God. They cry out to God in verse 10, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” The answer is disturbing — there are yet more who will be slain for their testimony, and the number is not yet complete.

When the sixth seal is opened, there is a great earthquake. The sun turns black, the moon becomes like blood, the stars fall out of the sky. The sky is rolled up and the mountains and islands are removed from their places. Naturally, there is terror on earth. The rich and powerful and everyone else attempts to hide, recognizing at last that “the great day of their wrath has come (v. 17).”

Chapter 6 is about judgment. And we see judgment coming in the form of military conquest, war, scarcity, and death. Over a fourth of the peoples of earth will die because of the horsemen (or perhaps just because of the last horseman). But then we see what the writer of Hebrews spoke about — the removal of things that can be shaken.

And that ends our reading in Revelation for today. 🙂

Proverbs 24 happens to contain a number of my personal favorites among the proverbs. Of course, I do have tons of favorites — but still. I love verse 6b, “In abundance of counselors there is victory.” Also verse 10, “If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength!” There are more, but I’ll let you discover them for yourselves.

The 30 sayings in the current “Sayings of the Wise” section comes to an end in this chapter. And at verse 23 we immediately launch into another small section — “Further Sayings of the Wise.” These proverbs are also unattributed, but they are reminiscent of some of Solomon’s proverbs.

One of the verses in this new section caught my attention. It is verse 32. As it says in the ESV, “Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction.” In the context of the saying, the verse is talking about receiving wisdom from observation of the overgrown yard of a slacker. There are thistles and weeds and the wall is falling down. And as I thought about seeing a yard like that — haven’t we all seen yards that look like that? — it struck me as how curious it was that the speaker could get wisdom from this scene. I can’t say that it’s ever occurred to me to consider the value of discipline and hard work when I’ve seen a garden that’s more or less abandoned. And that’s why verse 32 strikes me. The wise person observes. They see what’s around them and they consider it. They think about it. And they find instruction. They find wisdom.

Recently, I’ve had some conversations about seeing beauty in the world around us. As a photographer, I like my pictures to capture some of the ordinary details of the joy that exists in God’s creation. But often times these details might be surrounded by things that don’t look beautiful — litter, trash, a pile of garbage, an ugly building. So I feel like part of what I do as a photographer is train my eye to find the beauty. And that’s what I think this proverb is talking about. The speaker isn’t looking for beauty, but for wisdom. And wisdom can be found everywhere and in everything — it’s just a matter of perspective. You need to train your eyes to be able to see it.

Father God, help us to find wisdom in all that we see. Help us to really observe. But then help us to understand. Thank you for Jonah’s story, and for your mercy towards us. Even as people of faith, we balk and we can run away from you. Thank you that you do chase after us, and you bring us back to you (even if you might need to do something extreme). Thank you for the power of repentance. Thank you also for the vision of heaven we get in the book of Revelation. Help us to understand your magnificence and glory. And give us wisdom to understand this challenging book. In Jesus’ name, Amen.