Book Of Jonah Research Paper

Runaway, rebellion, and shocking; these are 3 word in which best describe the story of Jonah. Though a exceedingly short book in the Bible, only 4 chapter long, Jonah in nonetheless a significant book in the Bible. We are not told much about the “prophet;” (if he can even be called that) but what we do know makes us question how and why he was chosen by God to deliver a very important message that literally had the fate of an entire city riding on its delivery. We can, however, conclude book of Jonah is most definitely written by a single author; this is evident in its unified theme and style. The author of Jonah is relatively unknown. However, it is possible, but unlikely, that Jonah himself is the author. It is difficult to see a man with such stubbornness and childish actions wrote this

“Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object or person. It can come in the form of irreverence to sacred persons, places, and things (Net 2).” From the beginning, Jonah received the word from the God, who asked him to dissipate the evilness in city of Nineveh. But he did not obey God’s command, instead, he ignored what God’s saying and became evasive, setting forth to another place in the presence of the God. Here his deportment is a direct sacrilege to God’s authority.

In the book of Jonah we see the vast amount of tension between both God and Jonah. He is one of the prophets who also believes in tolerance of non-Jews opposite to Ezra’s and Nehemiah’s stress of an unadulterated blood race of Jews under a restrictive Jewish God. Jonah is one of a vast line of important people in the bible who argues with God. As you see in past books of the bible everyone has stood their own against the Lord. Jonah though decides to try and run from God. The Lord called to Jonah and said “Arise, go to Ninevah, that great city, and cry against it,” but Jonah flees to Joppa, setting sail on a ship duty-bound for Tarshish, assuming he can evade the Lord. Jonah views the Lord as sort of a indigenous God of restrained power that his hand would not reach as

Jonah was given the task of delivering God’s message of impending judgment to a society that Jonah despised.

John Walton’s The Object Lesson on Jonah 4:5-7 and the Purpose of the Book of Jonah is a very enlightening work of research. In this article, Walton seeks to reveal to us that Jonah chapter four and particularly the object lesson in verses 5-7, holds the key to our understanding of the purpose of the book of Jonah. He highlights Jonah’s anger which is caused by how God responds to Nineveh’s repentance. Walton also reveals to us the significance of the author’s intended purpose for including this incidence in the book. He concludes that the message of Jonah is a theological message. Before reading this article, I must admit that my understanding of Jonah has always been from a missiological perspective. I had never considered the fact that the

Before he went to the island of San Lorenzo, Jonah was floating on a cloud, not really paying attention to too much detail. However, as he met more people on the island things started to click for him, and he was able to make sense out of some of the puzzle that would eventually become his book. Jonah also makes some dumb mistakes, just like humans do. I don't think that his agreeing to become the president of San Lorenzo was a smart move, but at the time all he could think about was marrying Mona, and that in itself was enough motivation for him. "Love is blind" is a very popular saying, and it rings true in most humans, and in this case, Jonah.

Turning to 2 Chronicles 7:14, Short read, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Friend… what has God been tugging on your heart about, and you haven’t obeyed Him yet? The temptation could be to join Jonah in his downward spiral, to turn away from the rich life God desires for

Tullock, J. H., & McEntire, M. H., (2006). The Old Testament Story (9th Ed.). p.

God came with peace and good news, to Israel, saying “I will cleanse you from your sins, I will bring people into your cities and the ruins will be rebuilt” (Ezekiel, 36:33 NIV). Ezekiel’s oracles of spirituality, thus Israel was spiritual dead with no hope of vitality ( Ezekiel 37:5 NIV). Yet, God will restore life back into those dead bones, if Israel would turn from their sinful ways (Ezekiel 37:14). In chapter 40 of Ezekiel, God showed, the prophet a vision of God’s dwelling place, of those who are faithful thus, they will live with the Lord forever (NIV). Yahweh carried, out judgment on Jerusalem by the Babylonians (Hays, 2010). The “oracles against the nation” in (Ezekiel 28:17) This oracles were against king Tyre, whom were destroyed, the king’s content were evil, whereas it represent the same pattern as Satan. (Hays, 2010). Thus, God delivered, Egypt to Himself ,although Jerusalem were destroyed, God gave hope of restoring His people, the city was renamed,because of Yahweh’s present remain in the city. God will restore life back in the city if His people would repent of their sins, He will judge those who will not repent and save those who would repent (Ezekiel 33:11-21; 24:21; 33:22). God will Shepherd His flock

He was a prophet during the time of Jeroboam II. Jonah’s defining event was being swallowed by a whale for disobeying God by not going to Nineveh to warn them. Jonah is credited with writing the book of his namesake where the account of the whale is told.

“Jonah, by contrast preaches a short, reluctant sermon in Nineveh (of all places!) and the entire city repents, from the greatest to the least.” (Hays,2010, P.171). “When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.” (Bible.org, N.D). repentance to me is the social justice part, If God’s people repents He will heal the land. The bible says, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2nd chronicles 7:14).

It is known that king Nebuchadnezzar exiled the Jews to Babylon, after his conquest of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.E. This traumatic event for the Jews could be understood in terms of Yahweh's judgment of His people. The Jews felt abandoned and more importantly, the question of why had the God of Israel let foreigners destroy them? God’s use of Gentiles and their gods to punish

2. Background and Introduction: Jonah was instructed by God to go to Nineveh and preach the message of repentance to them.

To recap the first half of the Book of Jonah, God calls upon Jonah to go to the great city of Nineveh and send them a message that God will punish the Ninevites if they do not repent for their sins. Jonah, refusing to help the Ninevites, decides to “flee from God in disobedience” (Cosby 124) to Tarshish. Jonah boards a ship with a couple of sailors and sets sail to Tarshish. However during their sail, God sends a terrible storm due to Jonah’s disobedience. The sailors eventually had to throw Jonah into the sea in order to calm the storm. God creates a big fish to engulf Jonah where Jonah was in its belly for three days and three nights. This part of the story in particular allows the reader to stop and ponder if Jonah’s incident with the big fish really took place in history. It is impossible to survive one day in a belly of a fish nevertheless three days! Knowing this bit of information, we can deduce that the