40 matching verse commentaries
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
I went down to the bottoms of the mountains;- To the very roots and foundations of the mountains, where the big jagged rocks made huge buttresses for the hills above: “I went down to the bottom of the mountains;” — Jon_2:6. The earth with her bars was about me for ever: Down went the fish, as deep as he could go: and, of course, down went Jonah...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: It is a blessed memory that serves us faithfully in a fainting fit. Mostly, when the heart faints, the memory fails; but Jonah remembered the Lord when his soul fainted within him. Jon_2:7. And my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. Think of Jonah’s prayer going right within the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. If you trust anywhere but in God, you will run away from your own mercy. God is the only really merciful One who can always help you; but if you trust in your own righteousness, if you trust in priest craft, if you trust in any superstition, you are observing lying vanities, and forsaking...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
But I will sacrifice unto thee-“ I long to do so. I cannot do it just now, but I would if I could; and I will do it when thou shalt grant me deliverance from my present peril.” Jon_2:9. With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD. That is one of the grandest utterances that any man ever made:...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. God has only to speak, and even sea-monsters obey him. I know not how he spoke to the fish; I do not know how to talk to a fish, but God does; and as the Lord could speak to that fish, he can speak to any sinner here. However far you may have gone from all that is good,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. There is no preaching like that which Gods bids us. The preaching that comes out of our own heads will never go into other men’s hearts. If we will keep to the preaching that the Lord bids us,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey. For those times, Nineveh was “an exceeding great city,” but it is far exceeded in size by this modern Nineveh of London.
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. His message was short and sharp, there was not a word of mercy in it. There was nothing to distract the attention of the hearers from the one point and the one subject; and there is a great deal in that. We may sometimes...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. There is no change in God, absolutely considered, but there is often an apparent change, that which he threatens, while men remain in sin, is not executed upon them when they repent and turn...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. A nice prophet this! Jonah was a man of a somewhat ugly disposition, yet I think he has been misunderstood. He was the true child of Elijah, the prophet of fire. Elijah was a rough, stern servant of the Lord, who felt that the indignities which had been done to Jehovah deserved instant...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish : for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. This was as much as if he had said to the Lord, “I went and did thy...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry? How kind of God to speak thus gently to his rebellious servant. Are any of you given to anger? Might not the Lord say to you, “Doest thou well to be angry, so soon, — so often, — so long, — about such little things?”
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
So Jonah went out of the city, — When, no doubt, everybody would have been willing to entertain him, for all, even to the king, must have felt a deep respect for the messenger who had brought them to their knees before the Lord: “Jonah went out of the city,” — Jon_4:5. And sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. Those who are angry with God show the littleness of their minds. “Little things please little minds;” so a gourd made Jonah glad.
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, — Jonah was soon up, and soon down. Yesterday, he “was exceeding glad of...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. He had gotten into such a bad spirit that he could even brave it out with his God. Oh, that we might be preserved from such an evil temper! It is well for us that, “Like as a...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: and should not I spare Nineveh, — “Nineveh, for which I have laboured; Nineveh, which I made to grow; Nineveh, which has been many years in the building; Nineveh, which contains...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
That great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; — This is always supposed to mean infants, and I judge that the supposition is a correct one. So Nineveh had a population of over one hundred and twenty thousand who were under two years old, so it must have been an...