The Book Of Jonah Essay, Research Paper
The book of Jonah differs from the books of all the other Prophetss in that its lone message was addressed to the people of a foreign state. Furthermore, the book is purely narrative in signifier, and contains no direct message from God except His bid to the Ninevites to atone. This is where Jonah & # 8217 ; s function in the Bible takes topographic point.
Jonah was a prophesier from God, who at foremost tried to avoid that function by running off to from his quest, God, and duties given to him by God. Jonah & # 8217 ; s responsibility was to & # 8220 ; Go to great metropolis of Nineveh and preach against it, because its evil has come up before it & # 8221 ; ( Jonah 1:2-3 ) . Summoned to denote the day of reckoning of Nineveh, holding no desire to travel as a prophesier to a foreign metropolis, and being unconcerned about the transition of its dwellers & # 8211 ; evidently with an invitation to atone, Jonah sets out in the opposite way, for Tarshish ( Jonah 3:510 ) , meaning to fly from the presence of God. The looking hopelessness of the mission to Nineveh and of the chance that its non-Israelite population might atone was another ground that led Jonah to shrivel from the committee.
On his manner to Tarshish on a ship, God sent a great air current on the sea, which scared the crewmans, and made them inquiry Jonah & # 8217 ; s actions, because they knew that he was running off from God ( Jonah 1:10 ) . The lone manner to salvage the crewmans from the unsmooth see that was acquiring rougher was for him to be thrown in to the sea. He didn & # 8217 ; t care what happened to him. He was giving himself for the people, they would be safe and God wouldn & # 8217 ; t use him as an instrument of the devastation. After the crewmans threw him overboard the ramping sea grew unagitated ( Jonah 1:11-15 ) . Jonah would hold been finished anyhow because he knows he has disobeyed God, but God has shown clemencies to him
and & # 8220 ; & # 8230 ; provided a great fish to get down Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish for tree yearss and three darks & # 8221 ; ( Jonah 1:17 ) . This presentation of physical bravery stands in crisp contrast with Jonah s moral cowardliness in trying to run off from God.
After passing three yearss inside
the fish with a supplication Jonah realized that redemption comes from God, and God commanded the fish to allow Jonah onto land ( Jonah 2:9-10 ) . Then the word of God came to Jonah for the 2nd clip with the same message as the first. Jonah had pictured this province of personal businesss, it seemingly being God’s purpose to allow the state a period of favour as an incentive to return to the true God. The Ninevites believed in God and the Ninevites repent, God spares the metropolis ( Jonah 3:5-10 ) . Despite the clemencies shown him, Jonah resents God s clemency extended to the people of Nineveh ( Jonah 4:1-2 ) , and is “very angry.”
In the first topographic point, it condemns the intolerant bias of the Hebrew nationalist, who refused to acknowledge that non-Israelites could be considered eligible to redemption. Besides his deformed sense of values is apparent from his arrant indifference toward the Ninevites. Why should Jonah be the lone 1 who gets a opportunity to atone? God is giving the Ninevites an chance to atone, and Jonah is being selfish and inconsiderate because in his ain selfish manner he thinks that the lone state and the lone class of people that deserve to be saved are the Hebrew. His deformed sense of values is apparent from his arrant indifference toward the Ninevites and his great concern over the calabash that has withered. After recognizing that his actions do non look like the criterion of a net income he wants his life to be taken away by God ( Jonah 4:3 ) . Still after those words, and after all of his actions Jonah manages to acquire angry at God, and for what? For being alive, or for salvaging a metropolis?
Jonah & # 8217 ; s actions don t explain why God & # 8217 ; s great clemency was demonstrated in saving the lives of the pagan mariners. In saving Jonah & # 8217 ; s life despite his noncompliance. In giving the Ninevites an chance to atone and in debaring penalty when they did so, and in His patient traffics with Jonah ( Jonah 4:111 ) . But by an object lesson God shows Jonah the foolishness of his attitude and justifies the determination to save the people of Nineveh ( Jonah 4:4 11 ) . The narrative besides reveals the simple means God frequently employs to carry through His will ( Jonah 1:4, 17 ; 2:10 ; 4:68 ) .
