{"id":865,"date":"2012-08-07T13:03:37","date_gmt":"2012-08-07T17:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dustoffthebible.com\/?p=865"},"modified":"2016-06-23T17:34:36","modified_gmt":"2016-06-23T21:34:36","slug":"jerks-of-the-bible-series-entry-4-jonah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/2012\/08\/07\/jerks-of-the-bible-series-entry-4-jonah\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerks Of The Bible Series | Entry #4: Jonah"},"content":{"rendered":"<hr \/>\n<h2>Jonah was a jerk!<\/h2>\n<p>Most of us know the story of Jonah, and we also know that part of his story is that he ran away from God&#8217;s calling for him. What most people don&#8217;t recall is the rest of the story. It is the 4th chapter of the book of Jonah that reveals that he is a flat out jerk.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>Why Jonah is a Jerk<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>He was totally full of himself<\/li>\n<li>He refused to do the job gave him<\/li>\n<li>He delighted in the thought of God destroying a while population<\/li>\n<li>He pouted like a baby when God showed mercy on them<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h4>Background\/Setting<\/h4>\n<p>Jonah lived in the 8th century from what information we can draw from the book of Jonah and 2 Kings 14:25, which seems to indicated that Jonah is alive or was recently alive at the time.<\/p>\n<p>He was given orders by God to go preach to\u00a0Nineveh, a city that was in the heart of Babylon, one of Israel&#8217;s foes and a dominant world power. Essentially, it would have been like and Iraqi man being told to go proclaim Islam to the Bob Jones campus. As you might imagine, Jonah did not think it was a good idea, and decided he knew better than God and he fled in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Jonah 1:1<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The word of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0came to Jonah\u00a0son of Amittai:\u00a0\u201cGo to the great city of Nineveh\u00a0and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Jonah ran\u00a0away from the\u00a0Lord\u00a0and headed for Tarshish\u00a0. He went down to Joppa,\u00a0where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the\u00a0Lord.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If you are not yet aware of the rest of the typical Jonah story, here is the cutest little girl in the world who is glad to share it with you. She does an impressive job until the end. The end is presented just like everyone else presents it; happily ever after. But lets take a look at what the Book of Jonah actually says. It&#8217;s not all butterflies and daisies at the end of the story. In fact, Jonah is more of a jerk at the end than he was at the start.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Z4VrujheblY\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After fleeing from the Lord on a boat, God sent a mighty storm to the seas. Like most superstitious easterners of that day, they assumed they upset the Gods. It turns out that Jonah was the one who did and he was thrown over-board!! What happened next is what we always remember about Jonah; he was\u00a0swallowed\u00a0by a giant fish\/whale. Whilst inside said fish, Jonah appears to come to his senses and prays to God.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dustoffthebible.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/jonah-in-the-whale.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-917\" title=\"jonah-in-the-whale\" src=\"http:\/\/www.dustoffthebible.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/jonah-in-the-whale.jpg\" alt=\"jonah-in-the-whale\" width=\"300\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/jonah-in-the-whale.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/jonah-in-the-whale-270x300.jpg 270w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Jonah 2:7 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen my life was ebbing away, I remembered\u00a0you,\u00a0Lord,and my prayer\u00a0rose to you, to your holy temple.&#8221;<br \/>\nGod, in His great mercy allows Jonah to live (presumably\u00a0only because he felt bad for the whale&#8217;s indigestion because Jonah did not shape up after the whale incident).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Jonah&#8217;s only act of obedience<\/h3>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Jonah 3:1-6<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>3\u00a0Then the word of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0came to Jonah\u00a0a second time:\u00a0<sup>2\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cGo to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><sup>3\u00a0<\/sup>Jonah obeyed the word of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it.<sup>4\u00a0<\/sup>Jonah began by going a day\u2019s journey into the city, proclaiming,\u00a0\u201cForty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.\u201d\u00a0<sup>5\u00a0<\/sup>The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.<\/p>\n<p><sup>6\u00a0<\/sup>When Jonah\u2019s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Amazingly, the people of\u00a0Nineveh\u00a0repented. So much so that they even made the cattle and livestock participate in the city-wide fasting and mourning.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Jonah 3:7-9<\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cBy the decree of the king and his nobles:<\/p>\n<p>Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink.\u00a0But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call\u00a0urgently on God. Let them give up\u00a0their evil ways\u00a0and their violence.\u00a0Who knows?\u00a0God may yet relent\u00a0and with compassion turn\u00a0from his fierce anger\u00a0so that we will not perish.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And as you might have guessed, God was not only merciful on Jonah but much more so on the people of\u00a0Nineveh\u00a0for their sincere\u00a0repentance.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Jonah 3:10<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented\u00a0and did not bring on them the destruction\u00a0he had threatened.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>The uncut alternative ending of \u00a0the Jonah Saga<\/h3>\n<p>This is usually where the story ends. Which is sad because an ENTIRE CHAPTER remains in the story that highlights the\u00a0awful\u00a0behavior of Jonah. In fact, the \u00a0editors of the NIV Bible don&#8217;t even mince words. The heading title at the start of chapter 4 reads as thus:<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Jonah\u2019s Anger at the\u00a0Lord\u2019s Compassion<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Jonah was not only mad that God spared\u00a0Nineveh\u00a0but he was so ticked off he told God that he was a jerk for making him preach to them. On top of that, he was sooo mad that he would have\u00a0preferred\u00a0to die! Possibly a bit of a over-reaction to God&#8217;s executive decision.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Jonah 4:1-3<\/strong><br \/>\n4\u00a0But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry.\u00a0He prayed to the\u00a0Lord, \u201cIsn\u2019t this what I said,\u00a0Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew\u00a0that you are a gracious\u00a0and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love,\u00a0a God who relents\u00a0from sending calamity.\u00a0Now,\u00a0Lord, take away my life,\u00a0for it is better for me to die\u00a0than to live.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The last few verses of the story are the best. God uses a simple plant as an object lesson and informs Jonah of his bafoonery.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dustoffthebible.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/jonah-in-hut.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-918 aligncenter\" title=\"jonah in hut\" src=\"http:\/\/www.dustoffthebible.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/jonah-in-hut-300x217.jpg\" alt=\"jonah in hut\" width=\"300\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/jonah-in-hut-300x217.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/jonah-in-hut.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Jonah 4:5-11<\/strong><br \/>\n5\u00a0Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.\u00a0Then the\u00a0Lord\u00a0God provided\u00a0a leafy plant\u00a0and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant.\u00a0<sup>7\u00a0<\/sup>But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered.\u00a0<sup>8\u00a0<\/sup>When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah\u2019s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die,\u00a0and said, \u201cIt would be better for me to die than to live.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><sup>9\u00a0<\/sup>But God said to Jonah, \u201cIs it right for you to be angry about the plant?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m so angry I wish I were dead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><sup>10\u00a0<\/sup>But the\u00a0Lord\u00a0said, \u201cYou have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.\u00a0<sup>11\u00a0<\/sup>And should I not have concern\u00a0for the great city of Nineveh,\u00a0in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left\u2014and also many animals?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>\u00a0Summary<\/h3>\n<p>Jonah&#8217;s\u00a0obedience\u00a0to preach to\u00a0Nineveh\u00a0was out of\u00a0desperation\u00a0it seems. His words from within the whale makes it sound like he it\u00a0truly\u00a0repentant, but as we can see at the end of this story, Jonah is still completely\u00a0rebelling\u00a0against God and NEVER repents. He even uses the 5th grade tactic of wishing death upon yourself in hopes that mom and dad will feel bad for you.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jonah was a jerk! Most of us know the story of Jonah, and we also know that part of his story is that he ran away from God&#8217;s calling for him. What most people don&#8217;t recall is the rest of the story. It is the 4th chapter of the book of Jonah that reveals that &#8230; <a title=\"Jerks Of The Bible Series | Entry #4: Jonah\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/2012\/08\/07\/jerks-of-the-bible-series-entry-4-jonah\/\" aria-label=\"More on Jerks Of The Bible Series | Entry #4: Jonah\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,273,274],"tags":[501,502,371,361,362,369,360,363,368,367,364,370,365,366],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dustoffthebible.com\/Blog-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}