Day 262 of the podcast, reading Jonah 1-4 NET, read along at:
https://netbible.org/bible/Jonah+1-4/
This is day 262 of our journey.
Jonah is a short story about a most reluctant prophet who is called to prophecy against the city of Ninevah. Ninevah is the capital city of Assyria, the enemy of Israel. Instead of traveling northeast to Ninevah, Jonah finds a ship sailing as far west as possible to flee from the call of God. God causes a great storm to come and Jonah is thrown overboard only to be swallowed by a great fish. After three days in the belly of the fish, God rescues him from the fish and Jonah finally fulfills the commission God placed on him. God gives his ministry great success and the people of Ninevah repent! The destruction is averted, but Jonah cries out to God in despair. How could he possibly rescue this wicked people? God states his case for rescuing them, but the book ends with Jonah still wallowing in his own self-pity.
Join me in Jonah 1-4 for God's compassion to ALL men!
Key verses:
Jonah 1:3
Instead, Jonah immediately headed off to Tarshish to escape from the commission of the Lord. He traveled to Joppa and found a merchant ship heading to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard it to go with them to Tarshish far away from the Lord.
Jonah 2:9
But as for me, I promise to offer a sacrifice to you with a public declaration of praise; I will surely do what I have promised. Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
Jonah 3:10
When God saw their actions – that they turned from their evil way of living! – God relented concerning the judgment he had threatened them with and he did not destroy them.
Jonah 4:11
Should I not be even more concerned about Nineveh, this enormous city? There are more than one hundred twenty thousand people in it who do not know right from wrong, as well as many animals!”
All Scriptures are from the NET.
Check out these links for more thoughts on the topic:
https://thebibleproject.com/explore/Jonah/
