وجبـــــــة روحيـــــ(†)ــــــــــة يوميـــــــــة

[Mary Naeem]

إن باب النعمة ما زال مفتوحًا على مصراعيه أمامك، فهل تقبل دعوة المسيح إليك لتقضي معه الأبدية بطولها؟ ليس في قصر أرضي لساعات معدودة، لكن في بيت الآب في العُلى، وإلى أبد الآبدين. فهو الذي قال: «فِي بَيْتِ أَبِي مَنَازِلُ كَثِيرَةٌ، وَإِلاَّ فَإِنِّي كُنْتُ قَدْ قُلْتُ لَكُمْ. أَنَا أَمْضِي لأُعِدَّ لَكُمْ مَكَانًا، وَإِنْ مَضَيْتُ وَأَعْدَدْتُ لَكُمْ مَكَانًا آتِي أَيْضًا وَآخُذُكُمْ إِلَيَّ، حَتَّى حَيْثُ أَكُونُ أَنَا تَكُونُونَ أَنْتُمْ أَيْضًا» (يوحناظ،ظ¤: ظ¢-ظ£). ليتك لا ترفض دعوة ملك الملوك الصادقة والكريمة.

نعمة غنية اتجهت لي


فكت نفسي من العبودية

لما ناداني يسوع ودعاني


في الحال قلبي اتغير فيّ

[Mary Naeem]

صلاة

سيدي الغالي المسيح.. من أنا لتصنع لي كل هذا الإحسان؟
أعطيتني أسمى مقام، وضمنت لي في بيت الآب مكان،
مُتَّ بدلاً عني على صليب العار والهوان،
آتي إليك وكلي إيمان في قوة دمك للحرية والغفران.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III




Jonah

Nineveh The Great City



How amazing is the title 'great city which the Lord gave to Nineveh! The Lord repeated it twice to Jonah: "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city" (Jon. 1:2 & 3:2). This expression was repeated a third time by the Divine Inspiration when we read:
"Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three day journey extent" (Jon. 3:3). This title was repeated for the fourth time at the end of the Book when the Lord said: "And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and also much livestock?" (Jon. 4:11).
How wondrous that the Lord calls it four times 'great city' whilst it was a gentile and ignorant city whose people could not discern between their right hand and their left. It deserved the prophet's warning of destruction, being wicked, whose wickedness had come up before the Lord. As far as spiritual criteria are concerned, it had no aspect of greatness whatsoever!
Was it a condescension from God in using human expression, so He called it great being a capital city and having more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons?
Or did God behold it in its oncoming greatness in repentance, being a gentile that would reproach the Jews, as the Lord said of it: " The men of Nineveh will rise in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here" (Matt. 12:41).
The title 'great city' which the Lord gave to Nineveh is a beneficial lesson to those who walk by the letter and are meticulous in their usage of terms so that they complicate matters and subject the spirit to the literal meaning of words!
God commanded Jonah to cry out against Nineveh's destruction, yet at the same time He was disposing salvation for its people,

He loved them and wanted to save them, without them asking.
The Book of Jonah gives us a comprehensive idea of how God detests sin and yet at the same time has compassion on sinners and seeks their salvation.
The saying of Nineveh gives us an idea of how God cares for the gentiles, because the Jews thought that God was only for them, and that it was only they who followed and worshipped Him, being His people and His flock. God showed them in the story of Nineveh that he had other sheep not of that flock. In the same way that He reproved His servant Jonah through the faith of the gentile mariners, He also reproved the Jews through the faith of the Ninevites and their repentance; that repentance which was indeed great in its depth and in its efficacy.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III

Jonah

How amazing is the title 'great city which the Lord gave to Nineveh! The Lord repeated it twice to Jonah: "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city" (Jon. 1:2 & 3:2). This expression was repeated a third time by the Divine Inspiration when we read:
"Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three day journey extent" (Jon. 3:3). This title was repeated for the fourth time at the end of the Book when the Lord said: "And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and also much livestock?" (Jon. 4:11).

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III

Jonah

How wondrous that the Lord calls it four times 'great city' whilst it was a gentile and ignorant city whose people could not discern between their right hand and their left. It deserved the prophet's warning of destruction, being wicked, whose wickedness had come up before the Lord. As far as spiritual criteria are concerned, it had no aspect of greatness whatsoever!

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III

Jonah

Was it a condescension from God in using human expression, so He called it great being a capital city and having more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons?
Or did God behold it in its oncoming greatness in repentance, being a gentile that would reproach the Jews, as the Lord said of it: " The men of Nineveh will rise in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here" (Matt. 12:41).
The title 'great city' which the Lord gave to Nineveh is a beneficial lesson to those who walk by the letter and are meticulous in their usage of terms so that they complicate matters and subject the spirit to the literal meaning of words!
God commanded Jonah to cry out against Nineveh's destruction, yet at the same time He was disposing salvation for its people,

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III

Jonah

The Book of Jonah gives us a comprehensive idea of how God detests sin and yet at the same time has compassion on sinners and seeks their salvation.
The saying of Nineveh gives us an idea of how God cares for the gentiles, because the Jews thought that God was only for them, and that it was only they who followed and worshipped Him, being His people and His flock. God showed them in the story of Nineveh that he had other sheep not of that flock. In the same way that He reproved His servant Jonah through the faith of the gentile mariners, He also reproved the Jews through the faith of the Ninevites and their repentance; that repentance which was indeed great in its depth and in its efficacy.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III




Jonah

Nineveh's Greatness in Repentance

When God described Nineveh as being the great city, He was not considering its ignorance and sin but He was looking with great joy at its profound repentance.

Nineveh was quick in responding to God's word.

When Lot warned the Sodomites of the Lord's hot displeasure, they scorned him, and "to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking" (Gen. 19:14), whereas the Ninevites listened with utter seriousness to Jonah and responded quickly to his word, despite the respite of forty days which could have been taken for slackness and slothfulness. The word of the Lord was fast, bearing life, efficacious and sharper than a double-edged sword.

In their immediate response, the Ninevites were much greater than the Jews who were contemporary to Christ the Lord, the incomparably greater than Jonah. Those Jews saw the Lord's numerous miracles and beheld His infinite spirituality, yet they did not believe and repent. The Lord reproved them by the Ninevites (Matt. 12:14).

The word of the Lord was prolific. It yielded an abundance of amazing fruits.

The first fruit of the Ninevites was faith: "So the people of Nineveh believed God."

The second fruit was the unfeigned contrition of heart; humiliating themselves before the Lord. Thus they put on sackcloth "From the greatest to the least of them". And sackcloth is a rough material made of goats' hair; a sign of affliction, abstinence and rejection of worldly pleasures. Even the king of Nineveh himself took off his royal robe and covered himself with sackcloth, arose from his throne and sat in ashes.

The Lord looked at that debased city and smelt a pleasing aroma; for "the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart- these, O God, You will not despise" (Ps. 51:17). Truly how wonderful is this unique spectacle! A whole city is seen contrite in dust and ashes, debased in sackcloth, from the king to the infant. Even the livestock were covered with sackcloth!

The word of God also yielded fasting and prayer.

The city proclaimed a general fast for all. People abstained from eating and drinking, and even the beasts, herds and flocks did not eat or drink. People did not want to be occupied with feeding their flocks so that they could spare their time for worship and supplication to God. Thus they mingled their fasting with prayer and cried "mightily to God".

The most important fruit of the Ninevites was repentance.

Repentance led them to faith because sin was an obstacle between them and God,

The fruit of their repentance was their humiliation, fasting, wearing sackcloth and crying out to God. Their repentance was a sincere repentance in every meaning of the word: serious and from the heart, in which everyone turned 'from his evil way and from the violence that was in his hands."

By this repentance they deserved God's mercy. He pardoned and forgave them, received them and joined them to His own. In this respect the Holy Bible says: "Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it" (Jon. 3:10).

The Holy Bible did not say: "When the Lord saw their fasting, prayer and affliction", but said: "Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way". Therefore repentance was the reason for God's mercy on them. Their fasting, prayer and humiliation were but fruits of repentance.

I would like here to pause for a while at a verse said of the repentance of Nineveh, that is: "It repented at the preaching of Jonah".

What Was Jonah's Preaching?

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III

Jonah

When God described Nineveh as being the great city, He was not considering its ignorance and sin but He was looking with great joy at its profound repentance.

Nineveh was quick in responding to God's word.

When Lot warned the Sodomites of the Lord's hot displeasure, they scorned him, and "to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking" (Gen. 19:14), whereas the Ninevites listened with utter seriousness to Jonah and responded quickly to his word, despite the respite of forty days which could have been taken for slackness and slothfulness. The word of the Lord was fast, bearing life, efficacious and sharper than a double-edged sword.

In their immediate response, the Ninevites were much greater than the Jews who were contemporary to Christ the Lord, the incomparably greater than Jonah. Those Jews saw the Lord's numerous miracles and beheld His infinite spirituality, yet they did not believe and repent. The Lord reproved them by the Ninevites (Matt. 12:14).

The word of the Lord was prolific. It yielded an abundance of amazing fruits

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III

Jonah

The first fruit of the Ninevites was faith: "So the people of Nineveh believed God."

The second fruit was the unfeigned contrition of heart; humiliating themselves before the Lord. Thus they put on sackcloth "From the greatest to the least of them". And sackcloth is a rough material made of goats' hair; a sign of affliction, abstinence and rejection of worldly pleasures. Even the king of Nineveh himself took off his royal robe and covered himself with sackcloth, arose from his throne and sat in ashes.