•What Is Your Biggest Take-Away From The Message?. •How

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

“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 recent years, God has become a very important part of my life. I am determined to learn more about God and look forward to seeing what he has in store for me and my family. At one time God was not a big part of my life, I did not attend church regularly or feel close to him. I have always believed in God and Jesus Christ as our savior, but did not actively seek a closer relationship with him. I feel that much of that changed when I accepted my current job in a church based preschool program. After taking the position in the preschool, I was then offered a position in the church’s nursery on Sunday mornings. I accepted this position also and my son and I started attending Church every Sunday. In the time since, my husband, myself, and our children have all joined the Church, been baptized, and become very active in our Church. I feel that this was God’s plan for us all along. I feel that God guides our decisions each and everyday, and I now use prayer to seek his guidance for our lives.

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

One of the many choices he makes is the decision for others to decide. At first he wants the ability for people to choose what they want, but he later decides it would be unsafe if people choose their own mate and job. The following quote states: “It’s the choosing that’s important, isn’t it? The Giver asked him Jonas nodded… ‘Or what if... they choose their own jobs?’ ‘Frightening, isn’t it?’ The Giver said Jonah chuckled. ‘Very frightening. I can’t even imagine it. We really have to protect people from wrong choices” (Lowry, 124). A second choice he makes about keeping the community safe is agreeing to what the Giver told the Elders about adding an extra child to a family unit. He first thought it was a good idea, but the Giver said that there could be famine and starvation and with Jonah already knowing about the hunger he willingly agreed. A final choice is Jonah agreed to letting the pilot go. In the novel the Elders were prepared to shoot it down, but advice from the Giver told them to wait. In the novel, it states “Do you remember the day when the plane flew over the community? ‘Yes. I was scared’ ‘So were they. They prepared to shoot it down, but they sought my advice. I told them to wait… I used my wisdom, from the memories. I knew that there had been times in the past—terrible times– when people had destroyed others in haste, in fear, and had brought down their own

Some times the question of “Where is God” surfaces with all the adversities, and I find myself asking “what is God doing for all these people who are suffering?” But however amidst all the issues I know that He is there, and all these problems and conflicts do not change the fact that God exists, and I still have hope for change for these suffering people no matter what the circumstance.

When writing this captivating book the authors had a specific goal in mind, this was to convince their audience that the bible is more than Sixty-Six separate books, rather the bible is in depth piece of writing that can only be revealed from beginning to end. It goes through six acts and reviews each era of the bible beginning with creation and finally ending with the return of our one true king. Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen do a very good job at informing their readers that God is constantly at work in the individual lives of every human being as well as at work with the world. In my personal opinion this book goes far beyond telling those who read it that the bible is one whole story, it also all people whether you are a Christ follower or not a story to base their everyday life around. While reading you often come across different quotes that are used to emphasize a certain point such as “At the cross God delivers the death blow to human sin and rebellion and accomplishes the salvation of the world” (Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen, 126). These quotes are perfect for keeping the reader interested and focused on the books purpose. Quotes aside there all also key questions at the end of the chapter to help the reader really grasp what the chapter was about. Whether you have known the lord for years or only a few weeks this book is the perfect read for any individual looking to strengthen their relationship with the lord.

Assignment 11 - Jonah and Nahum assignment Nineveh is described as a very large city (it took three days to go through it), the capital of the Gentile nation of Assyria; God calls it “the great city”. Jonah does not wish to go to Nineveh to preach repentance to the people- as God has commanded- because he is convicted that God will not carry out his threat to destroy the city and he doesn’t want to preach against them. In Jonah chapter one, the sailors learned that God does what he pleases; They showed compassion while also fearing the LORD. Jonah got mad at God in Jonah 4 because God did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened, and to Jonah this seemed very wrong. Personally, I do not think that Jonah is justified in his response.

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).

He spoke about Jonah whom had an assignment from God. Jonah did not want this assignment because he felt like Nineveh did not deserve to be saved. Jonah knew that if he delivered the word of God that God would deliver the Ninevites. Jonah had a hatred for Nineveh because of what Nineveh had done to his people. Jonah did not want God to deliver them.

God responses to a repented heart. After the Ninevites turned from the evil ways and cried out to God, God responded by not destroying the people according to Jonah’s proclamation.

Bolin, Thomas M. “Should i Not Also Pity Nineveh? Divine Freedom in the Book of Jonah.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament no. 67 (1995): 109-20.

The point of this assignment is to discuss the passage chosen, as well as information regarding the historical/cultural background of the passage and applying it to my life as a human being. It is also important that I apply this information on the passage to the Christian life or church ministry. The passage I have chosen for this assignment is from Matthew chapters 5-7 and is labeled “The Sermon on the Mount”. The Sermon on the Mount is the longest and most prominent of the five discourses of Jesus in Matthew. The whole point of the Sermon on the Mount was to show people who converted to Christianity how to live. It is to show how Christians should live in their actions, words, thoughts, and others ways of life. With that being said, this way of life was preached by Jesus Christ as he “went up on the mountain” to deliver his powerful message. The information for this passage is in, of course, the bible and our textbook “Encountering the New Testament”, as well as many other resources on the web that are related to the bible and passage.

In addition, the city of Nineveh is described in Nahum as “bloody, full of deceit, and full of plunder” (Bolin 117). The Ninevites’ actions therefore justified Jonah’s decision to disobey God’s command because of how ruthless they were. The nature of the great city disgusted Jonah and made him believe that the Ninevites were not worthy of God’s forgiveness. Although Jonah’s intuition to ignore God’s command seems admissible, we later learn that it is not up to Jonah to determine the Ninevites’ fate.