Jonah
My thoughts for the Itty Bitty Bible Study group on Facebook. (join if you’d like to get these in fb!) The conversation starts Monday, February 5th.
Itty Bitty Bible Study – Jonah – introduction
Jonah chapter 1
The whole premise of Jonah starts out in the very first couple of verses.
God tells him to go left and he goes right or you could say God told him to go right and he went left.
This reminds me of the parable of the two sons in Matthew 21:28-32. The difference is, the disobedient one chose to go obey – he wasn’t swallowed by a fish. Or is that really a difference?
I promised you a story!
I just want to make confession right now, that I know that I am saved by faith are by grace through faith and that not of my own but it’s the gift of God.
I know that I was saved in 1969.
I also know that God became my father figure which means that with some issues of a teenage girl I wasn’t always so good at listening to my father God.
I had been part of ministry teams.
I had served in many capacities and all sorts of ways through my Junior and Senior High School.
That’s age 9 through 17!
As we came up to my graduation, I had been working full time to pay the bills for or at least help pay the bills for my mom and my brother. I was given a scholarship to The Ohio State University. It was for music and art. At least that’s what I remember. I also loved English and there are so many ways I could have gone. The difficulty was that I had no self esteem, and I remember that when I got the scholarship, which I didn’t even remember applying for, I looked up to the sky and said “you have no idea what you’re talking about.” Yes, I was talking to GOD!
Think about a teenager, I was seventeen at the time, being told by their parents,
“you have such a great gift! You need to go to college and you need to explore your gift and to give it back to mankind!”
And that teenager just looking at their parents and saying “you have no idea what you’re talking about.” That makes sense, right? This is the difficulty with 17 year olds…they know so much more than their elders! The problem was, I wasn’t talking to my earthly parent! I completely confess that this is not the way a person should interact with the Creator God of the universe, and I’m not excusing my behavior, I’m just explaining it.
One requirement was that I was supposed to take an SAT or an ACT test. It’s the rite of passage of all good students. I was a 3.8 or 3.9 grade point average, while slacking, and working full time, so the ACT and SATshould not have been very difficult for me. For the first time in my life, I got test anxiety and doubled over and was not able to go take the test. I knew I would fail. I knew I didn’t have it in me in order to take the test that would seal my going off to college.
I also had no idea how I was going to afford it because for some reason, I had no concept of the scholarship program. At the time, my mom was basically incapacitated and my dad was not really helping me because he was very busy with his wife and her children. So I didn’t do the test. What I did do was go to a Navy Recruiting Station. There, they had me take an ASVAB and I aced the ASVAB on all of the different things that you can choose from. I was told “well you can choose whatever job description you want.” I felt that I’d found my place in which to succeed! I knew that they would train me, I knew that I would be paid, I knew that medical things would be taken care of, and I knew that I’d be able to send money home.
I remember signing the recruiting papers and seeing that Ohio State scholarship letter before my eyes and saying, again, “God you don’t know what you’re talking about I am not good enough for that.” Years later I found out that the Navy actually has art and music programs and I was so determined that I was not skilled enough, I didn’t even notice these. Or actually, as the story moves along, God blinded my eyes.
I was excited to be going into the Navy. I always have felt that it is each Citizen’s responsibility to serve their country in some form and I was going to serve my country. So I was shipped off to Orlando, Florida(in July and August) for boot camp for women. Day one was tricky, day two was interesting, and on day 3 as we were running around the big parking lot we called a grinder to do the Run part of our physical training, I fell.
Actually, during the run, I was excited and turned to the Sailor that was jogging with me and said “this is great! I’m not out of breath! I’m not dizzy! I’m doing the Run!” No sooner had I gotten those last words out of my mouth, that I blacked out and from the description of those that were there I fell straight back on my rear end, snapped my neck back and hit my head on the pavement. This paved area was like the size of a football field, I think, and the people on the far Corner heard my head hit the concrete or the pavement. Needless to say everyone was concerned.
I’m pretty sure I went to sick call right away, but because there was no damage, I was probably given some sort of pain medication and sent back to the unit. As swelling incurred in my low back, I started having less and less use of my right leg and while I had started out as the caller (think Cantor) for the unit’s marching, at this point I was needing to be carried back and forth to class and to the dining hall. Naturally, I was sent back to the Infirmary.
I had pain from my right hip down my right leg and I was not able to put weight on it. They called it paralysis(or a word similar) at the time. While I was lying on bedrest for one week, stuck all by myself in this completely white environment, void of any other color, I asked the Lord why he allowed this to happen. He told me “I said go to school.” At this point I made a bargain with God, but I’ll write about that a little later. Right now the main point is that the inflammation did go down enough and I was able to finish my boot camp and graduate with my unit(part of my deal with God). I went on to San Diego, California for my a school. Radioman, which was very early computer things and the Navy had plans for me to be the first female on a Navy ship that wasn’t just a supply ship, to be in the Radio Shack. God had other plans.
Jonah chapter 1
The whole premise of Jonah starts out in the very first couple of verses.
God tells him to go left and he goes right or you could say God told him to go right and he went left.
Jonah, son of Amittai, is mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25-26
25 He(the King) restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher. 26 For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there was none left, bond or free, and there was none to help Israel.
Here we have Jonah. he has prophesied before to Great results, so he knows that when he hears this voice that this voice is God’s voice and he needs to listen. One of the things that I don’t quite get or didn’t until looking into this booklet is why do you just take off and run? In the various links I gave you for introduction there are some theories about Nineveh being an enormously powerful pagan City, and then he was just afraid for his life. I get it, no problem.
I think we have the answer in Jonah 4:1-3 where Jonah is fussing at God because God answered the prayer of the Ninevites to deliver them after Jonah preached destruction. I’m not absolutely certain, but I think just about every time destruction is prophesied there is that olive leaf of Hope that if you turn … but if you return to me… but if you confess your sins…if you humble yourself and seek my face I will hear from heaven and heal your land. I think Jonah knew this, and maybe a little bit of his ego is in there, thinking “I’m going to preach Hell-ire and Damnation and God’s going to come in with grace, mercy and forgiveness and everybody is going to point at me and say you were all wrong.”
One point that I want to make about this is I think everyone, me included, has some Jonah in our hearts. When God says to do one thing, and I really, really do not want to admit that I heard him. In fact, I have a book I’ve been choosing not to hear God about for a few years and I’m working on it now I’m trying to be obedient now. I’ve been supposed to be writing Bible studies all along and I’ve told God that I don’t have the schooling, I don’t have the training, I don’t have the Theology and Seminary degrees behind my name so obviously he has the wrong person. That didn’t work so well with Moses. Didn’t work well with Jeremiah. It hasn’t worked so well with me. Is there something in YOUR life that God has called you to do and you are choosing to turn a deaf ear? How different is that from running the other direction and hopping onto a ship?
So in my old age, I’m just giving up and deciding to be obedient. I guess God has kept me alive 57 years because he knew I would just give up. My suggestion to you no matter how old you are is give up now! If you have given your life to God through Christ Jesus and you have the Holy Spirit living within you, you are not your own! You were bought with a price! Even more so, there are giftings that God created in you that you would produce fruit and good works That’s all stuff in Ephesians and Corinthians. One of the things that I am learning is that when God calls you to do something he will strengthen you and enable you to do it.
The next point that I see in this first chapter is how disobeying God put a whole bunch of innocent people in jeopardy. Jonah wasn’t even aware of the storm that was threatening to destroy the ship and kill everyone on it. I’m a little disappointed with Jonah that they had to draw a lots to figure out who it was it was causing this and yet God still orchestrated that. There was probably some aspect in these men’s minds that couldn’t just say oh yeah it’s me and believe him. The drawing of lots, or the straws, the pulling the Short Straw or whatever, this was all something that would be common in their mind to find out what the will of whatever god was attacking them was. But kudos to Jonah “yep I’m a Hebrew. God is mad at me and he’s found me and you need to throw me over the ship.”
Kudos to the sailors that didn’t want to just throw him over the ship, though we know they did.
Now, the voluntary being thrown over the ship looks really self sacrificing on the cover, but he was still trying to get out of going to Nineveh. I don’t even know if he knew how to swim. He’s like “throw me over and I’ll die and I won’t have to go to Nineveh.” The reason I say this is going back to a later part of Jonah, chapter 4, when he’s fussing it God because God forgave Nineveh. He says “just take my life it’s not worth anything.” I know prophets are prone to drama, and depression. All you have to do is read the prophets and you’ll see that very clearly. I’m thinking Jonah was having them, rather than take his own life, which would not fly well in the face of Hebrew theology, he was having the men on the ship throw him over and he wouldn’t have any responsibility for his suicide. It would fall under death at sea, or murder…but not suicide. Likewise, later when he’s fussing with God he tells God take my life! There’s a mentality here.
Why am I pointing out this suicidal issue?
I have lived with suicidal ideations, suicide attempts, depression, anxiety and a whole host of other mental illnesses and syndromes that come from PTSD from abuse. I can hear the sound of suicide in someone’s voice. Not always, not every time. Oh, my goodness, wouldn’t it be awesome if every single time someone was contemplating suicide and wasn’t telling anybody I could say hey I know that you’re thinking of suicide and I would like to help you and then there would be no more suicides because people could be saved before they make a decision. What I’m saying is, I’m familiar with the parameters that can draw someone down to the depths of despair where they wish they had never been born.
Spending three days in a fish just might do it.
The Fish?
I guess this would be a good time to discuss the great fish that God prepared beforehand to swallow Jonah. A fish big enough to swallow a man. Well, God created everything with one word. The fish probably was not created that day and may have just been created and grown. On the other hand, God could create that fish at that time, at that place and that size to collect Jonah and take him where he needed to be. I provided several resources in the introduction blog about was Jonah swallowed by a fish or a whale. and I will put those links here again as well.
The Bible Answer Man about Jonah
Institute in Creation Resarch
GotQuestions
I hope you all enjoyed photos of our whale watching trip, and I cannot explain to you how Majestic those blue whales were in real life! Even as huge as they are, I don’t think they can actually swallow anyone because they have a different kind of mouth. They are amazing no matter what. Our God is an awesome God and all creation sings his price!
If you missed it, put this url in the search box and you should be able to enjoy them!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/w3NLZH8rdiY3BWqY2
I also found this little overview – from the overviewbible on Jonah.
This art is from them:
Yes, I’m going to be applying scripture to this, because scripture does apply!
For now – let’s accept that Jonah is scripture! Of course it is!
Jim & Christi 2017
Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.
“The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear.
If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation.
If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself.” – from My Utmost for His highest
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