The Prophets And Social Justice Analysis

Jonathan Sacks, the author of a book ‘The Home We Build Together,’ emphasizes that covenant is a core of the biblical politics, especially in such a way to make the Tabernacle, for us to make a society which respects each others in a diversity. Sacks said that the Tabernacle was made by all Israelites with their voluntariness, devotion, and equality as a common project through covenant regardless of any ethnicity, religion, and culture, which made them have the identity that they build it together and belong to it (Sacks, 138). Therefore, being left as a story to be commemorated to them and give them a gradual changes with personal and social creative constructions, covenant is not just a religious concept, but rather it is zeitgeist to lead

This is because I am one of those who have held on to the interpretation that Nineveh turned to the Israelite faith when they repented (53). I finally understand why Jonah was angry. I see that Jonah probably felt that if they had converted to the Israelite faith, God’s unmerited grace to Nineveh would have been justified. But Gods’ perspective in all this that “His grace is bestowed not upon the final achievement of an unblemished faith…rather, His gracious acts rewards attempts no matter how small they may be” (55). So God was not looking into a total conversion but for them to turn away from what they were doing. In the light of this, I notice that God wanted them to take the first step towards repentance and in His own way He would lead them to Himself. I think it is important that when dealing with ourselves or other people, we should understand that God looks our heart’s attitude. As we seek to walk closely with Him, God does not release His grace upon our lives because we have attained a certain level of perfection in our faith but because He sees that in spite of our human weaknesses we have the desire to do the right thing and are taking steps towards it.

God calls Jonah to go to Ninevah to tell them that God will destroy the city if they don’t turn their ways

According to (Baldwin, 1972:90) in this verse several aspects of the invitation to return are noteworthy. (1) God takes the initiative. It is God, not the people, who is credited with “repentance.” God ordinarily rescinds His decree in response to a change in Israel’s conduct. But sometimes the order—and the causality—is reversed. Rather than God retracting His threats in response to the people’s repentance, the people repent in response to God’s nullification of His anger (Heschel, 1962:285-286). (2) The renewal is conditional. The people must respond with wholehearted conversion in order that the covenant may be renewed. Renewal of the covenant depended neither upon the exiles' return to Jerusalem nor upon the reconstruction of the temple.

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.

The Old Testament ends with the prophets. These teachers provided insight on many issues facing Jews who were desperate to know God. Idolatry, social injustice and religious ritualism are three areas that are emphasized in their teachings and instilled in the minds and hearts of believers today. The prophets were great teachers who had much to say about God and the way man lived, social issues they faced, religious rituals they took part in, and their teachings are just as important today as they were in the past.

I believe the book of Jonah intends to teach us that God is a gracious and merciful Lord who will grant salvation to those who desire to repent, by the virtue of; accepting the Lord with all your heart, mind, and soul. This idea is evident by the content of the book. First, we understand that one cannot seek God and flee from him simultaneously. He wants us to obey his will even if adversity chooses to arise. However, Jonah refuses the Lord’s will and chooses to disobey him. Consequently, Jonah is thrown overboard and swallowed by a fish. Although, once Jonah prays for forgiveness the Lord grants it. Subsequently, Jonah preaches the gospel and the king of Nineveh as well as his people repent to the Lord and forgives. This angers Jonah, even though the Lord forgave Jonah of his atrocious act just as he did with the Ninevites. In conclusion, we learn that if we repent and obey the Lord’s calling, God will give an abundance of

God has brought us into the community and it is our responsibility to include God into the community He has given to us. Worship involved songs that all were relatively regarding God’s reign and community. The songs and Scriptures read/song had a meaning of how Christians will be saved if we continue to be followers if we love God and keep his commandment, and if we preach the Word we will be saved by grace. The covenant of grace has many significant meanings in the Christian Reformed Church, “the covenant of redemption may be defined as follows: “The agreement between the Father, giving the Son as Head and Redeemer of the elect, and the Son, voluntarily taking the place of those whom the Father had given him” (Hoekema 187). The value of keeping the covenant of grace is to preach the Holy Scripture but to also grow stronger in faith. The covenants made between man and God are meant to keep commandments and to join in fellowship with one another. The message of the importance of the covenant of grace in the reading of Perspectives in the Christian Reformed Church is that “the covenant of grace, further, does full justice to both the individual ad social aspects of Christianity. The covenant of grace requires man’s full-orbed service of God as God’s covenant partner” (Hoekema 200). God alone is all powerful, great, good, Creator, Redeemer, and the

Jonah and Jesus both had a mission to convert the Gentiles to God and help them to acknowledge that God was the source of their salvation. Jonah’s mission was to call the Assyrian gentiles in Nineveh to repentance whilst one of Jesus’ mission was to convert all nations –including Gentiles- into the covenant of God. In Jonah 3:8-10 Jonah proclaims to the people of Nineveh. Jonah is preaching to Assyrian gentiles in order to deliver them from their evil habits and sin and bring them back to the grace of God. This is similar to one of Jesus’ missions; for not only did Jesus want the Jews to be educated about God but he also wanted the Gentiles to be and we see this in Mathew 28:19 when he proclaims that people of all nations (Jews and Gentiles, Israelites and Assyrians etc.) are to be told about God and become

The story of Jonah is a great building block in some ways on how the church should pursue the Lord’s ultimate mission in spreading his word over all the world. Jonah had sure had his struggles finding the trust and strength to go there and preach, but in the end he did his job. Now there are somethings that the church can do in which jonah did not. He struggled with why he had to be there, and he was just angry that God saved the City of Nineveh. As a church we can grow in the areas that Jonah missed. Let’s start with the good that Jonah did.

One weakness of the Bishops’ theory of justice, is their approach to human nature, as human beings being rational. Human beings are not rational, they are spontaneous and can act in unpredictable ways. They often times, do not learn from historical patterns – the Reagan and Bush administrations making tax cuts in order to create an opportunity for corporations to create more jobs. I believe humans sometimes act on emotional response more intently than acknowledging the rationality behind their actions before they act. For example, those who become drug abusers, often times are looking for an escape from their present circumstances, and do not have the resources to help them target and understand what they are feeling is rooted in, to move past

what I shall call the interpersonal test. This tests how robust a policy argument is

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

We often read stories in the Bible without taking the historical context into consideration. As a result, we become unaware of the story’s historical validity. In some cases, stories are used to share a moral concept, or used as a tool to teach a lesson. The Book of Jonah is an example that will be used to determine if this particular story describes an accurate recount of history, or if it teaches the readers a lesson. In the Book of Jonah, Jonah (the prophet) is instructed to go to a pagan city (Nineveh) to preach to the Ninevites, hoping that they will repent for their sins. However, he challenges God and travels to Tarshish instead. Jonah receives consequences for his actions and Nineveh is eventually forgiven by God. Although the

Unjust and uninhibited control is an innate trait of bureaucratism, as a byproduct of an institution’s quest for efficiency. In perpetuation of their lack of limits, bureaucrats create survival networks across spheres, and thus are more difficult to bring down. In regards to the Potter series, the Ministry creates a network with The Daily Prophet. Bureaucracy knows no limits, and may take unjust actions. The Daily Prophet publishing deceiving articles is unethical by general contemporary standards; however, by bureaucratic definition the institution is self-justifying, and defines themselves as the most rational organization. The Ministry believes that they have proper justification in using the newspaper to their advantage, and the newspaper plays along. In doing so, they expand past the boundaries between public and private affairs by exploiting Harry. The Daily Prophet is the Ministry’s pawn in their obsession with order, which in itself is disordering according to bureaucratic politics. The Daily Prophet’s corrupt articles only create more disorder even though they have the goal of preventing panic.