(May 6, 2020) Jonah 4:1 “But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.” Let’s set the record straight: Once upon a time, the prophet Jonah was called by God. He disobeyed. He was swallowed by a fish. He almost died. God was gracious. Jonah lived. He preached. The people repent. Jonah is angry. He wanted [...]
(May 5, 2020) Jonah 3:8a “But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth.” One thing about Jonah’s story is extremely unusual, the fish notwithstanding: Jonah preaches on his first day (3:4), and it seems immediately everyone believes. Amazingly, everyone responds exactly how a prophet would hope they would respond, but never do. The King [...]
(May 4, 2020) Jonah 1:2; 3:2 “Arise, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach…” Seven Hebrew words are repeated twice verbatim; they are translated: “Arise, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach.” And consider how they are prefaced: Chapter 1:2: “The word of the Lord came to Jonah.” Chapter 3:2 “The [...]
(May 1, 2020) Jonah 1:17 “And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” – There is one question that someone eventually asks about Jonah: “Did it happen?” That is, was Jonah literally swallowed by a fish, or is [...]
(April 30, 2020) Jonah 2:10 “And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.” We often have the tendency to sanitize the scriptures, or to take and lift out the verses that we like or make them say what we would like them to say. But here we come to one [...]
(April 29, 2020) Jonah 2:2 “In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and You listened to my cry.” Do you ever feel like you have to present a constant face to others – regardless of what you are actually feeling [...]
(April 28, 2020) See Jonah 2 “…from the depths of Sheol (the grave) I called for help…”– The Hebrew mindset of the creation narrative in Genesis goes something like this: Imagine everything is dark and lifeless and watery chaos is everywhere. Then, bit by bit, God pushes it all aside in order to make a [...]
(April 27, 2020) See Jonah 1 “The captain went to him and said, ‘How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god!’” Personally, I typically do not enjoy re-reading books or watching a movie. It just seems less interesting to me because I already know how the story will turn out. (Unless of [...]
(April 24, 2020) See Jonah 1:12-13 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” [Jonah] replied... Instead, the men did their best to row back to land.” – The supersized Book of Jonah is full of contrasts. Consider: On one hand, we have Jonah. Jonah knows God. He hears God’s voice. He is a [...]
(April 23, 2020) See Jonah 1:1 “Go to the great city of Nineveh...” – Here is a general rule of thumb when reading the scriptures: note which word(s) are repeated. For example, consider Jonah 1. Everything in Jonah is super-sized. God did not send Jonah to the City of Nineveh – no, He sent him to [...]