Jonah And Nineveh Essay

3.1. Where is the passage set? Jonah preceded Amos and ministered under Jeroboam II, Israel’s most powerful King (793-753 B.C.; 2 Kings 14:23-25). Assyria was Israel’s great enemy; it conquered Israel in 722 B.C. Nineveh’s repentance must have been short- lived, for it was destroyed in 612 B.C.

Jonah leaves feeling angry and not understanding the purpose of this. God will teach Jonah a lesson for this. Jonah finds shelter and sits in the shade wondering and waiting to see what happens to the city. God provides him with a plant, but the next day the plant is dead and Jonah is hot and asking for his death (Shulman, 2008, pg. 336). God uses this as a metaphor for the city of Nineveh to show why he took pity over them (Shulman, 2008, pg. 336). God explains that he was the one who made that city and he was the one who made the plant and that it should be him to judge and if he wanted he

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

God’s angel says that his descendants will follow God and bless all nations. Jesus is born, God’s love starts to affect us. It shows Abraham's faith to us, and that God loves everyone. Jonah Lord People of Nineveh The book of Jonah God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah ran away from God, God sends a large storm, sailors threw Jonah at the sea, Jonah got eaten by a Giant fish, Jonah gets thrown up, Jonah goes to Nineveh and tells them to stop being wicked and they do.

The book of Jonah is the story of God’s plan of redemption for mankind. It is a book that has received much criticism from many who would question the historicity of the book and has received heavy debate regarding different aspects within the book, from the conversion of the sailors, to the cause of Jonah’s anger over the city of Nineveh being spared.

God called Jonah to “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and cry aginst it; for their wickedness is come up before me.” (Jon 1:2) Jonah fled Gods calling to Tarshish. During his escape a great storm came upon the boat that he was on. So the crew cast him into the sea where “the lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” In Matthew 12:40 Jesus refrences this as “Jonah being in a whales belly for three days.” While in the belly of the fish Jonah prayed to God to let him out. “the Lord spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land”.(Jon 2:10) Jonah then went to Ninevah “and cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”( Jon 3:4). Ninevah repented and turned back to God and he showed mercy. Jonah was still angry because God showed this savage nation mercy. God then explained to Jonah that everyone needs mercy even your greatest

“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).

Jonah and the Whale The “Jonah and the Whale” bible reference is Jonah 1-4. While Jonah was praying, God ordered Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh to tell them about God as they did not follow the teachings of God, were enemies of Israel and were evil. If Jonah had not told Nineveh about the teachings of God, the city would be destroyed in 40 days. When Jonah heard this, he was scared, so he disregarded God’s order and tried to escape Nineveh by boat.

The diffrence is Queen Esther went to talk to the king not God and she was also not stuck in a big fish's belly . On the other hand , Jonah was stuck in the big fish's belly and was talking to God . He also was not talking to God for his People , he was talking to god to free him from the big fish's belly

The book of Jonah is short, compassing four brief chapters of 48 verses. Despite brevity, it is a powerful story of God’s grace to Gentiles and a reflective study into God’s character and mercy. Jonah is a story of contrasts. It reveals God’s greatness and man’s pettiness. God was gracious and Jonah peevish. It is a story of repentance. The sailors repented from following false gods to trusting the one true God. Jonah repented from fleeing God to obeying Him. The Ninevites repented from wickedness to righteousness. Some think God is absent from the world’s affairs and that the world goes on unnoticed by Him.  Jonah 1:1-2 should arrest one’s attention. God is aware of all man does. In most cases, He allows man to do as he will and

16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him. 17 Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

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

THE SIGN OF JONAH is a character-driven story of self-discovery, healing, and redemption. The story feels as if it’s based or inspired by true events. The story tells the struggle of one man’s ability to overcome his depression and his journey to finding God.