Jonah

S

SSquared

Member
Jonah 1-4

This is a pretty cool book. As I've mentioned all along, God's intention was ALWAYS to proclaim the good news to ALL nations. And once again, we have an excellent example of this. But...on the other hand, the Israelites tended to have a very self-centered view and thought the message was only for them. This leads to Jonah's reluctance. He doesn't want other people, Israel's enemies, to know God and to be under that same compassion and love.

Hahaha. Well, God certainly wants to make a point. As stubborn as Jonah is, he can't escape God. And eventually he makes his way to Nineveh, proclaims a prophecy, and Nineveh repents. They recognize their sin and repent. But Jonah is 'angry'. He is so angry, he would rather die, than to see the Ninevites share in God's goodness.

But all along, God's plan is for no one to perish and all to have eternal life.

A little side note. In the NT, Jesus refers to the sign of Jonah. I believe this 'sign of Jonah' is referring to Jonah's 3 days in the whale. Just like Jonah was in the belly of the whale for 3 days and then came out alive, Jesus too was away for 3 days and then rose again on the 3rd.
 
Here's what I got out of it.

The verse that jumped out at me the most is where God says
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Do you have good reason to be angry?
Click to expand...

Think on this.  We have Jonah, he was told to go do something, he complains about it, runs away, gets ate by a fish, then goes and does as commanded, which leads to the 120,000 inhabitants of Ninevah repenting of their sins.  What is Jonah's respones?  He gets angry.

So God asks "Why are you angry?"

Let's flash forward a few hundred years to today.  Today we do things we're not supposed to, we get smacked down.  We do what we are supposed to, and good things happens  We do what we're not supposed to and good things happens, we do what we're supposed to and bad things happen.  Yet through all these things what is our response?  We get angry?  We get mad at each other, at God, at the car, at the cat, we even get mad at the AC when it breaks down.  We get angry.  And God's up there asking us "Why are you angry? What purpose does this anger serve?"

And how do we respond?  "We're angry because <insert lame excuse here>"  

No. We have very little true reason to be angry. Rather we should trust God.  Trust His compassion.  Trust Him to provide.  Trust Him to instruct.  Trust Him to love us.  What does our perpetual anger say about our God, when we are His children?  

People judge parents by how good their children are, by how often they through temper-tantrums in the store, by any standard of behaviour, a parent is judge by the actions of their children.  Remember that the next time you get angry at some pointless trivial nonsense thing.  You are God's child, and by getting angry over pointless nonsense you're acting the part of the child in the candy aisle of the grocery store, on the floor kicking and screaming, and all because things didn't go according to your plan.
 
Noo I just deleted a post that took me about five minutes and was about finished. when I clicked on a link and... anyway I remember the last time I was angry with God. It was Saturday. It was because I wanted to go witnessing with some1 (for those of you who dont know I just got back from a missions trip.) and we had like talked alot Wednesday and I am really getting tired of writing this story over and over and over and... neway we connected really well and I thought God was really calling me to go witnessing with her so we made the plan to go saturday. (as she was fasting thurs and I was fasting Fri) so neway I was doing quiet time with God that saturday morning and God was like you really should talk to her about going witnessing today and I was all like ok so I went to go talk to her and she was like actually I'm going with some1 else and im like ok and leave and Im like "God why do you have to be so stupid" knowing full and well that If it wasnt for God when it came time to pick a partener and I found out that she was going with some1 else I wouldnt of been able to hold it together and probably would of had a really lousy day witnessing. (nows a good time to say that I prayed for God durring quiet time to break me that day more than he had before that week... I just didnt expect him to do it like that) Ne way it was cool because for about 10 minutes I was like Angry with God for making it happen and yet thankful that helped me. I became better because of it. God changed me from a person that would hold a grudge against a friend for betraying me like that or like be worse off than I was but because of God I was led to ask her for prayer requests that is something that I wouldnt do myself but I think God changed me alot. He taught me alot and because of it at least 4 people had good days. Because i was going to go with some1 else but didnt feel led to so I found her a partener and then I went with some1 and we had a great day too.
 
The book of Jonah is one of my fav's. The prayer he makes in the belly of the wale, i can relate to how he was feeling, i'm just coming out of my own wale now. i'm still not sure where God's gonna have it spit me out at but by then i know i'll be ready for it. i think part of the sign of Jonah that Jesus refered to was the fact that as he said "One greater then Jonah stands before you" that if the people of Jeruselem would only repent and belive then they would be saved from their sins and the destruction to come. I really like the last part of the book too, when Jonah wakes up and the tree is dead and he gets mad. Then God points out that he didn make the tree so why is he mad that it died. In those verses God is showing us that he loves us all, becuase he created us all. And that we need to, love eachother and leave judgment to him.
i hope this made sense. I'm a little rusty

Take care and God Bless
Rand NobleBlade
Paladin
 
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