Throughout the story, Jonah uses the Socratic method . While all these storms (which he caused) are raging, Jonah is asleep. He tried to kick up to the surface, but no air was foundonly waves and water. God does not save us merely for our own sake, but also, for the sake of others with whom our life is intertwined. This is why He gave the order of ministry in Acts 1.8. Their gods had failed. He has declared the first shall be last, and the last first (Matthew 20.16). The point of Jesus parable and the point of Jonah is that grace is greater than law. Some things must ultimately be left to God. What is important is they believed God. Despite his sin, Jonah does not lose his dignity. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the. This is what every sinner, whether outside the Church or inside, needs to hear: wake up and look at what youre doing; see how youre affecting yourself and all of us. Jh). Turn back to God lest we all perish. To deny the historicity of Jonah is to deny Christs resurrection. The book of Jonah ends with God having the last word: 10Then the Lord said, You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. On the one hand, there are the Ninevites, the evil Jonah Scott will no longer be appearing this year. When Jesus told the Twelve not to go to Gentiles it was because Israel had to repent first to comply with the kingdom blessings which were part of the Abrahamic Covenant. In sure you have touched a lot of lives.. Keep doing what youre doing. By Msgr. Jonah decided it was better to live than to die, due to his discomfort. We read: So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of theLORD. Jonah instinctively knows that if they repent of their sinfulness they will grow stronger. The unusual nature of the tempest showed them that it was sent in judgment. One does not get far in an English novel of 1,328 words. Make a deal with God and He will keep it. The city walls did not encircle this entire areaas archaeology has discovered. Next they say to him, Pray!In other words, get back in touch with God, from whom youre running. Learn how your comment data is processed. There is abortion, disease, teenage pregnancy, children with no fathers, and all the grief and pain that come from broken or malformed families. 3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you (Jonah 1.12). Jonah 4:7-11. I just knew it. Jonah left the city and sat east of it. I knew You would find a way to spare and bless these pagans. Deor. Jonah is now on his way to Nineveh, and the word of the Lord has come to him a second time. Where do you come from? That which I have vowed I will pay. The book of Nahum prophesied and described its doom. Indeed, many people spend lots of money and go miles out of their way in order to be able to stay in sin. Its always a longer journey when you disobey God. Rebirth, it seems, is short-lived. Jonah hated this idea because Nineveh was one of Israel's greatest enemies and Jonah wanted nothing to do with preaching to them! He belonged to the tribe of Zebulon and ministered during the reign of King Jeroboam II (c.786746 BC). 2He prayed to the Lord and said, PleaseLord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? God caused the dice reveal Jonah as the problem.3The mariners demanded an accounting. - with those thoughts in mind, let me invite you to turn to the closing verses in the book of Jonah. 8Sennacherib boasted hemade Hezekiah a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage (Magnus Magnusson,Archaeology and the Bible, 1977, p.186). We are currently reading Jonahs story in daily Mass. Jonah had appeared during a time of national distress and its rulers could ill afford divine wrath by aninvading army, famine, earthquake, epidemic, or flood. In the end, the men must hand Jonah over to the Lord. Deliverance-Then they cried to the LORD, We beseech you, O LORD, let us not perish for taking this mans life; do not charge us with shedding innocent blood, for you, LORD, have done as you saw fit. Then they took Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the seas raging abated. The next few verses demonstrate Gods grace and power: 14Then they called on the Lord and said, We earnestly pray, OLord, do not let us perish on account of this mans life and do not put innocent blood on us; for You, O Lord, have done as You have pleased.15So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. The Lord upbraided their lack of faith (Mark 4.40; Luke 8.25) but Jonahs sailors became believers. God does deliver Jonah. The city of Nineveh is represented in Cuneiform by a symbol of a fish within a house. Jonah was called to preach the word of warning to the city of Nineveh, but he ran in the opposite direction. Somehow, they sense His just verdict yet they fear their own judgment and ask for His mercy. Verse 2 of chapters 1 and 3 contain the same three Hebrew verbs: (arise), (go), and (cry). In verse 7 the sailors are casting lots, doing divination to try to figure out who the guilty person is. Scripture indicates that these people were really dead, and came back to life, though, unlike Christ, all of them faced physical death again in the future. Gods mercy trumps every time. God not only plays dice, His dice are loadedand invisible. Jonah 3 God gave His commission to Jonah a second timeand this time, Jonah was ready to obey. May God have mercy on your soul. Even in the sad situation in which we can do little but prevent people from ever harming others, we ought to appreciate their need for Gods mercy as well as our own. Nineveh was located on the eastern bank of the Tigris river, opposite the modern city of Mosul in Iraq. Hereby in it, likewise, the one other, same, she, so much, such deed, that, Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural, Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not. These would be paid whatever was right. At noon and 3 p.m. he did the same thing. Ask Jonah. The sailors wrenched to and fro and the wind howled so that the crew screamed to be heard. But the plant wasnt an act of divine mercy it was part of a divine lesson. K. M. Craig, Jr. stated it was enormously varied, rich, and complex (A Poetics of Jonah: Art in the Service of Ideology). Hence Jonah is not just insubordinate; he is unbelieving and untrusting. The phrase, or like expression, the word of the LORD came governs the books structure and occurs twice (Jonah 1.1, 3.1). I wonder if (and hope that) the young people who sang it understood its significance for them, too. Can you help me out here? Deor.,' 3:37). If we had Jonah's faith, our evangelistic efforts might be multiplied exponentially. Jonah is now beginning to come to his senses,but not with godly sorrow, more with worldly sorrow. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple., ut You have brought up my life from the pit, O, Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple (Jonah 2.4). Surprisingly, the men are not willing to kill him,at least not as the first recourse. The storm was so violent they knew their ship was about to shatter. This order extended to humans as well as animals. In effect, God says to Jonah, Now, where were we?. Like Jonah, though, many line up to pay the price and take the long, painful journey deeper into defiance and sin. As our defiance deepens, the headwinds become ever stronger and the destructive forces ever more powerful. Jonah responded: He said to them, Pick me up and throw me into the sea. VI. Thanks so much. 6When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes (Jonah 3.5-6). It is true, however,that not everyone is willing or able to be corrected. What are your thoughts on this? Jonahs problem was he could not see beyond his hatred of the Assyrians and his patriotism. The passage reveals Jonahs thinking and motivation in fleeing God. Then the mariners became frightened and each one cried to his god. From one end of the Mediterranean to the other, God pursued Jonah, and Jonah ended up right back where he started, with the call of God, in Israel. His words revealed his change of attitude: . Those who are morally alert do not say such things; those who are in the darkness of delirium, in a moral slumber, say them. Verse 7 - Finding the storm still violent, the crew come to the conclusion that it is sent by Heaven in punishment of some crime committed by one on board; and they proceed to cast lots to discover the guilty person. The Ninevites repented from wickedness to righteousness. L. C. Allen wrote it was a model of literary artistry, marked by symmetry and balance (Joel, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah) and H. C. Brichto described it, from beginning to end, in form and content, in diction, phraseology, and style, a masterpiece of rhetoric (Toward a Grammar of Biblical Poetics). Charles Pope. Even the fallen deserve our love and respect as fellow human beings. - I had toyed with the idea of concluding this series last week but there are some nagging words at the end of the book that I believe we need to study. If I ascend into heaven, thou art there; if I descend into hell, thou art present. When all the paycheck so were handed out the men hired earliest were unhappy because those who worked only an hour received the same pay as those who worked all day. Am I correct in my understanding that Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because he was a good law keeping Jew because Jews had no dealings with gentiles? Thanks again for sharing your study and research with us. The great majority of it. Later, about 9 a.m. he hired more workers. The sailors repented from following false gods to trusting the one true God. Yom Kippur Prayer Services. Response of Those in Command: Captain and King. Stop with your self-justifying slogans and look at whats really going on! wrote Ninevehwas about sixty miles in circumference and twenty miles across. Such was the case of Peter who reluctantly went to Cornelius house (Acts 10.28). 2, 26-30. He gave this wayward prophet a second chance to fulfill the commission that was given. 6The Hebrew reads, , a great fish. That attitude, rather than Jonah's outward disobedience, was what upset God the most. VIII. Phantom, Thank you. When they heard these words they began to scream, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live (Acts 22.22)! The Ninevites werepagan, idolatrous Gentiles. He falls asleep, and then is thrown down into the sea. I do not see Jonah as having fear, or being scared or afraid. 2 questions. The other worker, with whom he made no contract (whatever was right), received pay according to the landowners heart. It is rife with wickedness. Not so, Jonah. 9The message was certainly longer, but this was the central message. In the 20th century, we often like to doctor up the word of God. He was Gods channel of blessing but he refused to celebrate his ministry. Such objections impress only the weak minded. But the entire city of Nineveh responded to Jonahs message. At Gods behest, Noah builds an ark, Abraham leaves his homeland, Moses returns to Egypt (where he is wanted for murder) to free the Israelite slaves. When Alex talks about his plant, Jonah intuits all the problems that the plant has, even without Alex mentioning them. Jonah's Commission Was Clear But Distasteful "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me." a. Despite brevity, it is a powerful story of Gods grace to Gentiles and a reflective study into Gods character and mercy. Yes, sin is usually very expensivebut many seem quite willing to pay the price. 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