Believe it or not,we all are like Jonah.Think for a minute,there is a three step movement here.(1) Jonah ran from the Lord,like most of us.(2) Then when God spared his life, he ran for the Lord.(3) When Jonah seen how merciful God was he did not mind running for the Lord.
Best of all Jonah builds himself a comfortable place to view the destruction from. God makes one finial attempt to teach Jonah about His love and gives him a gourd vine to increase his comfort and predictably Jonah loves it because it makes him more comfortable. God takes it away and Jonah says in effect if you are going to make me uncomfortable just kill me. The people of Nineveh in their abysmal ignorance understood God better than Jonah because when they heard God was angry enough to kill them they also worked out the unspoken corollary: God loves you enough he is giving you time to repent.
Best of all Jonah builds himself a comfortable place to view the destruction from. God makes one finial attempt to teach Jonah about His love and gives him a gourd vine to increase his comfort and predictably Jonah loves it because it makes him more comfortable. God takes it away and Jonah says in effect if you are going to make me uncomfortable just kill me. The people of Nineveh in their abysmal ignorance understood God better than Jonah because when they heard God was angry enough to kill them they also worked out the unspoken corollary: God loves you enough he is giving you time to repent.
Jonah followed the hero's journey... reluctant to take on the mission, meeting sailors intent on advancing his mission for the survival of all. But having accomplished the mission and being relieved of discomfort he is angered by the outcome even though the ultimate lesson seems to be that repentance secures salvation.
Jonah has reveal his self because the people in nenivi are very bad,but god said a thousands of peoples i kill them but they are obey to me and they changed and they are pasting with in 3 days
and God see them have changes so God they pity them and they will not continue to destroy them.
So God said to Jonah you are alone and that time God give him signed to Jonah now is understand what God preserve them.
You would i do not know why we try to talk to the Lord like He do not know what is going on with us, i feel that the Lord knew that Jonah was going to do this even before he did it.Thank you God that you are meriful upon us, because we think that we should do our own thing, instead of listening to you.
Poor Jonah was insane in his mind. What kind of deceitful trying to hide himself from the eyes of the almighty God. this irony was hidden from the sight of Jonah. He knew well Lord that he was omnipresent therefore, when we Christian we blind our mind, we will never think the power of God and how much God loves us. We will fall short of glory always because we didn't touch light which shalt lead us not into temptation.
Jonah is like many Christians. We either pray for or desire the salvation of the most wicked people in the world. Only God is pure love and wants all to go to heaven. How many Christians prayed for the salvation of Hitler?
Jonah was called, Jonah listened, Jonah disobeyed, Jonah chose opposition, Jonah moved in opposite direction, Jonah confessed, Jonah put those that care for him before him, Jonah was moved in the right direction by the Hand Of God, Jonah was delivered, Jonah put the people that he cared not for before himself, Jonah went to a safe place to witness the response, Jonah was comforted, Jonah was angry because the out come was not what he wanted after all that suffering, Jonah was enlighten on an over whelming problem that he had thst hindered his walk with the LORD>
Poor Jonah! God has been merciful to the repentant Ninevites, and he feels like his credibility has been destroyed. His pride is damaged. His enemies have seen a great turnaround. He just can't take it anymore. The end of the book sees him angry at God.
I believe the Ninevites were very cruel warriors and had been cruel to Israel over the years and that's why Jonah was very reluctant to preach to them.
Now Jonah is furious because he knows that if they repent, so will God, and Jonah goes outside the city to see what will become of it and in his anger cries to God," I am so angry, I can't take it anylonger!, kill me now God!"
God's response is simply ' Is it right for you to be this angry?", and Jonah then goes to make a booth to sit on and see what will become of the city.
Now God prepares a gourd(vine) to grow and give him some shade in order to teach Jonah a lesson.
Jonah, is happy for the gourd, thinking he must be right to be angry, and is now being blessed by God, but that's not the case, God's just blessing him, in order to use the gourd to teach him an object lesson.
The next night God prepares a worm to come nd eat the gourd taking away his shade, making Jonah angry, and God then prepaes a hot east wind to scorch Jonah as a part of this lesson.
That day, the east wind and the sun beat down on Jonahs head and he's angry again, so much so, he wishes he was dead!, and God asks him again, "Is it right for you to be This angry?", and Jonah says" yes, even enough to be put out of my misery"
God replies how can you be so upset over the gord that spared you, which came and went in one day?, and shouldn't I spare the people of Nineveh, for their repentence, that great city of which there are numerous people who can't tell their right from their left(the authors referring to the children of Nineveh, who are toddlers no doubt) and many animals of which have done nothing to Jonah to deserve to be wiped out, they are innocent!, why should Jonah be that angry towards them?
The moral of this is one of several, 1. it's better to do as God asks than to be disobedient, and try to do the impossible, run from his sight.
2. It's not right for anyone to be that Angry to have hate eat at you till you want to die, or for someone else to die, esp. innocents.
3. Although we might not understand or like Gods will, we must accept it and go on, as there are unforseen things only He knows about.
It comes a time in all of our lives, that we need to be obedient to God. To me, Jonah is a classic example of knowing what God wants us to do, but we don't. If we continue to choose wrong over right, God will allow certain things to happen to us, in order to get our attention. In the end, the motto of this story is "Just do the right thing" and allow God to lead you in the right direction and you will always reach your proper destination. May God continue to Bless each and everyone throughout the world. with Love/ Kevin P.
and God see them have changes so God they pity them and they will not continue to destroy them.
So God said to Jonah you are alone and that time God give him signed to Jonah now is understand what God preserve them.
God not willing that any should perish.
God's response is simply ' Is it right for you to be this angry?", and Jonah then goes to make a booth to sit on and see what will become of the city.
Now God prepares a gourd(vine) to grow and give him some shade in order to teach Jonah a lesson.
Jonah, is happy for the gourd, thinking he must be right to be angry, and is now being blessed by God, but that's not the case, God's just blessing him, in order to use the gourd to teach him an object lesson.
The next night God prepares a worm to come nd eat the gourd taking away his shade, making Jonah angry, and God then prepaes a hot east wind to scorch Jonah as a part of this lesson.
That day, the east wind and the sun beat down on Jonahs head and he's angry again, so much so, he wishes he was dead!, and God asks him again, "Is it right for you to be This angry?", and Jonah says" yes, even enough to be put out of my misery"
God replies how can you be so upset over the gord that spared you, which came and went in one day?, and shouldn't I spare the people of Nineveh, for their repentence, that great city of which there are numerous people who can't tell their right from their left(the authors referring to the children of Nineveh, who are toddlers no doubt) and many animals of which have done nothing to Jonah to deserve to be wiped out, they are innocent!, why should Jonah be that angry towards them?
The moral of this is one of several, 1. it's better to do as God asks than to be disobedient, and try to do the impossible, run from his sight.
2. It's not right for anyone to be that Angry to have hate eat at you till you want to die, or for someone else to die, esp. innocents.
3. Although we might not understand or like Gods will, we must accept it and go on, as there are unforseen things only He knows about.