To start out this series of Bible studies, I would like to catch up on some recent studying I've enjoyed. I began a side-trip from my usual method when I discovered some neat insights into Malachi 2:17-3:5 which I posted on Alaska4Jesus. This got me started on taking a deeper look into the "minor prophets" (Hosea-Malachi), and I've been skipping around in them a bit. So, to skip around a bit more, I thought I'd start with some light reading...
Jonah... The story of the man in the whale, right? Well, I encourage you to read the book again (which should only take a few minutes). The key point of the book, of course, is that God is more merciful than Jonah is. But there are some additional points I've realized:
- In chapter 1:12, Jonah asks the mariners to throw him into the sea, to get God to calm the storm. Did God really require Jonah to do that? Or was Jonah hoping to commit suicide and avoid God's call to Ninevah? I think God would have calmed the storm just as well if Jonah had said "take me back to Joppa so I can go where God sent me". But Jonah's solution left a bad impression of God on the sailors. I suspect they never saw the fish which rescued Jonah's life, and they forever assumed God had taken him as a human sacrifice. "Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly..." (vs. 16) wasn't the result that God wanted. Respect, yes. Fear, no. How often do my words and actions leave a bad impression of God on others?
- God is in control. "But the Lord sent out a great wind..." (1:4); "Now the Lord had prepared a great fish..." (1:17); "And the Lord God prepared a gourd..." (4:6); "But God prepared a worm..." (1:7); "...God prepared a vehement east wind..." (1:8). If I'm running into circumstances in my life, perhaps God is trying to tell me something. Maybe he's trying to show me that I'm not the only person he loves. Like Jonah, I need to develop the same kind of love God has for all humanity.
- This isn't part of the book of Jonah, but the "rest of the story" is a few pages later, in the book of Nahum. You can understand better why Ninevah was in danger of destruction in the first place, if you read chapter 3:1-4. I'll cover Nahum in greater depth in a future post.
Warren
