Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me." But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up. Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep. So the captain came to him, and said to him, "What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish." And they said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, "Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?" So he said to them, "I am a Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, "Why have you done this?" For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?"-for the sea was growing more tempestuous. And he said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me." Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. Therefore they cried out to the LORD and said, "We pray, O LORD, please do not let us perish for this man's life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You." So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD and took vows. Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:1-17)
When we read the book of Jonah, we are able to see what kind of attitude we have in front of God when we put ourselves in the position of Jonah and see how he was obedient and disobedient. When we look at Jonah, is it only about our obedience as Christians in front of God? Or perhaps, isn't it beyond our own personal issues, and aren't we able to see the work and plan that pleases God throughout the entire Bible and see this being achieved through the image of Jonah? As we read Genesis chapter 22, we are able to see the position Abraham took in front of God. When God commanded Abraham, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you," (Genesis 22:2) we saw how he obeyed God's order. Similarly, when we read the book of Jonah, we read about God's commandment to Jonah and how he responded to it. We tend to compare the attitudes of Abraham and Jonah from an ethical point of view and think that Abraham is good at following orders and Jonah isn't.
But was Abraham always obedient to God throughout his life? Despite God telling him, "one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." (Genesis 15:4) Abraham had a son through his servant. But the Bible does not mention whether Abraham's actions were right or wrong.After reading the book of Jonah, from an ethical standpoint Jonah made a mistake. Although Jonah was the one who received God's commandment, he disobeyed those words and fled to a different place. His wrongdoing is revealed in Jonah chapter one. But when Jesus came to this world, He never mentioned that Jonah disobeyed His words.
Even when Abraham listened to the words of his wife Sarah and slept with his servant and had a child by this servant, God did not ask him why he acted this way. And when Jonah turned his back on God's words and went to Joppa and got on a boat heading to Tarshish, it mentions that there was a tempest on the sea, however, there aren't any references of God saying that He would punish Jonah for not listening to Him. Actually, Jesus said, "no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." (Matthew 12:39) And He also said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM." (John 8:58) This is beyond man's own ethical standards and calculations. God's voice is beyond time and space and we are hearing His words through the mouth of Jesus.
In the Bible, especially the Old Testament, there are many passages showing us how the people of the Old Testament accepted God's word, and depending on whether they were obedient or disobedient to His words, we are able to see how the nation and individual was affected. The only person God asked why he had done wrong was Adam. God asked Adam who disobeyed His words, "Did you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that I told you not to eat?" and said, "Cursed is the ground for your sake." Then God spoke about the enmity between the seed of the serpent and the Seed of the woman. (See Genesis chapter 3) The prophecy that the Seed of the woman would appear was given and history continued to flow and there were many incidents that took place. Through that one Man born into the history of the nation of Israel and through His death, the blessing promised in the Bible flowed to many nations. The fundamental plan in the Bible solidified and actually took place through the history of Israel.
When we think about the fact that God didn't ask Abraham or Jonah about their mistakes, the events in their lives seem to be showing us that it wasn't because of their actions that we became sinners, however, because we fell under sin, God had already planned how He would save us. And it seems like He is showing us a glimpse of the process of the fulfillment of his plans.Just as it says in the Bible, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners," (Romans 5:19) when Adam did wrong, God said: "Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat? ... God said to the serpent ... And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. ... Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, "You shall not eat of it': Cursed is the ground for your sake." (Genesis 3:11-17) He instantaneously summarized the entire teachings of the Bible that we believe in. And now, with this accomplished, God leads history according to His plan.
In the books of the Old Testament, there are many passages that are incomprehensible with our own moral standards. There are instances when you think God would scold someone and doesn't, but the person who didn't seem to have done anything wrong gets punished. For example, there was a man named Uzzah who was driving the cart that held the ark. When the oxen stumbled, he took hold of the ark and Uzzah was put to death on the spot. (See 2 Samuel 6:1-8) Do you think that Uzzah did something wrong? Although he didn't do anything wrong from a moral point of view, he was immediately killed because he touched the ark of the covenant that wasn't supposed to be touched by anyone else other than the priests.
So when we are reading the Bible, we need to compare our own moral standards against the standards presented in the words of the Bible. If we don't make these comparisons as we read the Bible, we will start asking trivial questions like the ones brought up by people who don't believe in the Bible, such as, "Why does God send people who don't know Him to hell? Does that mean the famous general or that king in the past went to hell as well?" I, too, do not have answers to those questions. That is for God to take care of. But what we definitely come to know and believe through the Bible is that when we truly come to believe in our heart that Jesus Christ shed His blood for us, a new life begins. And it is through Him that we received the eternal blessing.
The Book of Jonah and Nahum in the Old Testament
Let's take a look at the events that take place in the book of Jonah, about where Jonah went and how he ended up in a certain place and while he was on a boat going somewhere there was a storm and the boat was about to be broken up. There were these series of events that took place. The first thing that we need to think about is the type of commandment God gave Jonah. And we need to know about the kind of place Nineveh was and what kind of fate Nineveh was facing. Whenever I read the book of Jonah, I think of the book of Nahum. Although there are prophecies about the city of Nineveh in the book of Zechariah, in the book of Nahum it starts with the passage, "The burden against Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite." (1:1) When we think about the Bible in light of the book of Jonah and the book of Nahum, these two books seem to show us the entire Bible. And while reading the book of Jonah, it feels similar to the book of Acts where it talks about the beginning of the history of the Church and the book of Ephesians where the apostle Paul wrote about the Church. And the book of Nahum reminds us of the content of the book of Revelations where it records that although the people of this earth received a blessing, after a certain fixed time passes there will be this enormous disaster that will take place on this earth.
The book of Jonah was recorded approximately 750 years before Jesus was born. It was in the 8th century. And the book of Nahum was recorded about 120 to 130 years after the book of Jonah was recorded. And both books talk about Nineveh. If we read the book of Jonah chapter 4, we can see that God expressed what He wanted from the people of Nineveh through Jonah. God wanted them to acknowledge God and His words and repent their wrongdoing. In the book of Nahum, we can see that God is again speaking to Nineveh, however, He talks about the destruction of Nineveh. There are horrible things that took place. And there is an image of the harlot that appears in the book of Nahum chapter 3 and it's as if it is showing us the problem that will surface later in history all at once.
Because the book of Micah is in between the book of Jonah and Nahum in the arrangement of the Bible, we tend to not connect the book of Jonah and Nahum. But if we read the book of Nahum after understanding the content of the book of Jonah, it's a bit easier for us to understand what God is trying to tell us through these two prophets. And before we think about ourselves and the position of Nineveh, we must first understand what was going on in this nation historically. We then come to further consider why the books of Jonah and Nahum record a blessing for Nineveh and a punishment for Nineveh. As I mentioned in the beginning, before we apply the things that occurred to Abraham and Jonah to our own Christian lives, we must first understand that it is God's word that is holding onto God's plan and is accomplishing His plans. God also announces His plans through these words. We must be able to recognize this fact.
Jonah Received the Commandment to Cry Out to the Gentile Nation
Let's take a look at the book of Jonah, starting from chapter 1 verse 4.
But the
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