Hi James and Ellen,
Jonah is a seminal event in Jonah’s life that another guy may have scribed to leave as a true account for future generations from what he heard about Jonah. Jonah lived over 2,750 years ago. Jonah was a Jew. Jonah’s home was in Israel’s northern kingdom’s land area. Jonah’s God-ordained vocation was being a prophet. Jonah had a number of serious character flaws. Jonah portrays himself or is portrayed by the Jonah Book editor as being proud, pouting, a self-centered egotist, willful, jealous and bloodthirsty. Jonah comes across in this brief, concise account that bears his name as not understanding God’s omnipresence and omnipotence as well as having a lack of love that is seen in his deep-seated hatred of the people group guys and gals who were an eminent threat to his people group of guys and gals. When Jonah was mandated by God to target the guys and gals who lived in the country of Assyria – more specifically the guys and gals who were living in the city of Nineveh, with a message to repent openly to Him from their wicked ways or else, Jonah – because he really wanted God to completely eradicate the guys and gals who lived in the country of Assyria, thought that he could get away from God by boarding a ship that was preparing to set sail for the city of Tarshish. If Jonah had managed to make it to the city of Tarshish, Jonah would have been as far away from the city of Nineveh that he could have gotten 2,750 years ago in the existing commercial world. The city of Tarshish may have been located in the land area that is now the country of Spain. The city of Nineveh was located on the opposite side of the Tigris River where the city of Mosul is now located in the land area that is now the country of Iraq. The trek overland by foot from where God told Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh to . . . may have been a contributing factor to Jonah trying to bail out of doing what God expected him to do as it would have taken him possibly up to a month to make the long hike. Because God is always everywhere, God knew that Jonah was on a ship. Because God’s power has no limits, God sent a violent storm to get Jonah’s attention. When Jonah internalized that it was his being on the ship was why God was sending massive waves to capsize the ship . . ., Jonah told the ship’s sailors to toss him over the ship’s side. Even though Jonah had given up on doing what God had told him to do, God had not given up on Jonah doing what He wanted done in the city of Nineveh. What took place next after Jonah was summarily thrown somewhere into the Mediterranean Sea by some very scared sailors is one of the most debated accounts recorded in the Bible. Per what is scribed in Jonah, a monster fish – very possibly a whale, swallowed him, that he survived in the big fish’s stomach for three days and that the fish regurgitated him unto dry ground. This very implausible moment in Jonah’s life story would not be hard to throw under a bus except that Jesus uses this moment in Jonah’s life story to illustrate His pending three day stay in the heart of planet Earth.
In spite of Jonah knowing that God had extended his planet Earth assignment because of wanting him to be His messenger of doom to the guys and gals who were living in the city of Nineveh, Jonah really did not expect nor did he want a repentance revival to break out in the city of Nineveh. Even though God had a vine grow to give Jonah some shade from the area’s intense heat, Jonah still struggled with not having things done his way which had God shriveling up the vine because of Jonah’s selfish complaining about wanting God to do a number on the guys and gals who were living in the city of Nineveh. Jonah – in this timeslot of his life story, went from being an impertinent brat who thought that he could run from God – to being a trapped defier who could only pray to God – to being an unenthusiastic herald who wanted to see God’s wrath exerted – to being an angry oaf who really believed that God had made a mistake when He had the guys and gals who were living in the city of Nineveh repent. God put down Jonah in the end when He essentially told Jonah that He was more concerned about the 120,000 guys and gals who could be found in the city of Nineveh’s limits than He was with Jonah’s private well-being.
The Jonah Book’s four chapters are a Biblical case model of what a guy, gal or kid is not to do if he or she is given a call by God to do whatever. Your grandpaa knows a guy and a gal who were both Moody Bible Institute graduates who God gave a missionary vocational call who never followed through on their call. By the time that your grandmaa and grandpaa came to know the gal, the gal had become an embittered spinster. Not long before your grandmaa and grandpaa got to know the guy, the discontented guy decided to divorce his wife – who became a good friend of your grandmaa and grandpaa, so that he could marry another gal. The value of Jonah to the Biblical canon is its’ prophetical spirit and teaching. An obvious message found in Jonah is that God’s grace is not limited to His specially chosen guys and gals; but that His grace is also for guys and gals who are called Gentiles. Other absolute truths that can be found in Jonah includes God wanting His Good News message taken to Gentile guys and gals so that Gentile guys and gals will have the opportunity to repent – which implies that Gentile guys and gals will repent when given the chance. Jonah’s story inaugurates global evangelism. A note regarding Jonah’s diary is that Jonah scribed his memoir in a third party context – just as your grandpaa writes ‘James and Ellen’ in a third party context.
Jonah