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Thesis on the book of jonah
Analysis on the book of jonah
Thesis on the book of jonah
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Jonah to bring a prophetic message to Nineveh, appointed the plant to grow up amazingly quickly, and then appointed a worm to kill the plant, and caused a brutally hot wind to blow. Cynics often scoff at the book of Jonah, and even Christian scholars wrestle with the unbelievable events recorded in the book. But the point of the book isn’t to say this stuff happens all the time, it’s meant to be unbelievably miraculous because God is revealing something unbelievably massive about Himself and the payload for that revelation is in these final verses. God confronts Jonah – and us – with a final question. Once again God asks him the question, do you do well to be angry for the plant? Jonah says, yeah, I do well to be angry – angry enough to die. …show more content…
That is true. And God will and must judge the wicked. He sees their wickedness, but He also sees their deep ignorance. They are blind and foolish. It’s the same heart displayed in Jesus when he said from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” There is real sin and it must be judged, but there is real stupidity too, and God has compassion on their ignorance. They are precious souls that God had everything to do with – He created them. And their souls aren’t just here and gone again in a day, but eternal in nature. This question reveals that God’s heart is filled with compassion for the wicked and pagan nations just as His heart is filled with compassion for His chosen people. He really is a gracious God, merciful and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love – and not just to Israel, but to pagan, wicked cities. Not just to Christians, but to hardened, non-Christians. Jonah’s religion had hardened into a smug, self-righteous judmentalism instead of a compassionate and merciful outreach to those who are far from God. God’s question asks Jonah to compare his heart to God’s. His question asks us to compare our hearts to God’s too. It’s an open question that leaves us to write our own ending: will we view forgiveness the way God does, or will we limit our compassion to people and things that we are close to and judgment for the people we don’t relate to or agree …show more content…
He does care about cows. And dogs. And cats. And animals. They are not made in His image like man. Their lives aren’t sacred as human life is, but they aren’t worthless in His sight either. David writes in Psalm 36:6, Man and beast you save, O Lord. In the book of Job one of the ways God reveals His power and sovereign care over this world is by describing His care over animals – lions and ravens and goats and calves and donkeys and oxen and ostriches and horses and eagles. Jesus taught us that our heavenly Father feeds the sparrow and sees when one falls from a tree. He used a parable of a lost sheep and asked which of them, having a hundred sheep, if he were to lose one, wouldn’t go looking for that one lost sheep? God cares about animals. But God’s heart is not uncaring toward animals. Proverbs 12:10
Simon Wiesenthal’s book The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness spoke to me about the question of forgiveness and repentance. Simon Wiesenthal was a Holocaust prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. He experienced many brutal and uneasy experiences that no human being should experience in their lifetime and bear to live with it. Death, suffering, and despair were common to Simon Wiesenthal that he questioned his own religious faith because he asks why would his God allow the Holocaust happen to his people to be slaughter and not do anything to save them. During Simon Wiesenthal time as a Jewish Holocaust, Simon was invited to a military hospital where a dying Nazi SS officer wanted to have a conversation. The Nazi SS officer told Simon his story of his life and confesses to Simon of his horrific war crimes. Ultimately, the SS officer wanted forgiveness for what he done to Simon’s Jewish people. Simon Wiesenthal could not respond to his request, because he did not know what to do with a war criminal that participate in mass genocide to Simon’s people. Simon Wiesenthal lives throughout his life on asking the same crucial question, “What would I have done?” (Wiesenthal 98). If the readers would be on the exact situation as Simon was
God is sinless, loving, forgiving and full of wisdom. God’s love is shown throughout the Old and New Testaments. Many times throughout the Old
Forgiveness and justice are very similar than we believe them to be. We believe that justice is
...ow by forgiving the people who hurt him and Baldwin is trying to redeem Jesus’ example by forgiving the people who hurt him. Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the chains that embodies mankind. Forgiveness could be thought of as the potion that unites America and brings equality to the redeemed world.
Their prayers not helping, the sailors cast lot to try to determine who it was that had made God so angry. So they mixed a number of small stones together, as was the custom, and when they cast the lots it fell on Jonah. They must not have know who Jonah was for when the lot fell on him they excitedly inquired of him, why this was happening, what was his occupation, where he had come from and what was his nationality. Jonah knew God had caught up with him! So Jonah confessed that he was a Hebrew and a prophet, of the true God who made the heavens, sea and land. He further explained he was running from
Forgiveness is generally the ability to renounce one’s desire to punish others for their transgressions. However, there are occasions when one needs to absolve oneself of past transgression as well. In the novel BOO, Neil Smith illustrates how when Boo is in heaven, he begins to break down the barriers that separate him from socializing with others. He realizes the implications of isolating himself from the rest of the world. More importantly, he learns to establish a good relationship with other people, and to trust them in order to attain a meaningful life. Smith suggests that it is only through forgiveness of himself, that Boo is able to recover from the past bitterness and move on.
Near the beginning of Moby Dick, Father Mapple reminds Pequod sailors of the biblical prophet Jonah and his unique encounter with a whale. The whale, known as a Leviathan in the Bible, swallows Jonah because Jonah refuses to obey God's command to preach to a wicked group of people. Father Mapple in his sermon says, "If we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists" (47). Once Jonah admits his sinfulness and follows his maker, the whale frees Jonah. Father Mapple says that obeying God can be difficult and might not seem logical to the person listening.
The motivation and tendency of people to forgive others remains an important topic of discussion. In today’s society most people at some period have experienced feeling of un forgiveness towards friend, or relatives. “Forgiveness was defined as the ability to relinquish of resentment towards others” (Baskin & Enright, 2004, p. 80).
When Jonah didn't do what the Lord commanded him and ran away from Nineveh it wasn't good. A great wind and violent storm arose and threatened to sink the ship and we all know that Jonah ended up in the belly of a big fish.
For Christians animals “feel pain”. Ignore it would be an absurdity. They also have rights. Not surprisingly there are rules to protect animals and Christians accept them. Four major religious movements such as the Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist promote compassion, love and respect for animals. The problem is that the faithful do not always respect these provisions and transform these ideas of universal compassion so that is most suitable to their desires.
On an opposite note, Jonah was a man whom God called upon to become a prophet. Jonah refused because he didn't desire a life of servitude. Knowing that he had committed an ultimate sin, Jonah fled to the ocean, risking hundreds of crew members' lives, believing that God would not be able to follow. In the sea, Jonah was swallowed by God in the form of a whale In the whale's belly, he repented and prayed for forgiveness. He was spit up by the whale upon dry land and all was forgiven.
The book of Jonah is an adventurous story of a prophet chosen by God to go preach denouncement to a heathen nation. With the exception of stating that Jonah is the son of Amittai, the book itself fails to reveal any background information. Nevertheless, a plorthea of scholars have attempted to provide us with some insight to the, who, when, where, and what of the book. This paper will utilize four scholarly commentaries in a quest to determine the author or authors of the book, the time when it was written, the original audience it spoke to, the occasion, the historical, social and cultural context in which it was written. It will also address the historical, social and cultural context of the book and that of the pericope of 3:1 – 10.
People sent him plants from all over the world, and he would devise a way
“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”(Matthew 6:14-15, NIV) Husain Haddawy’s The Arabian Nights discusses many situations in which individuals learn to forgive others for the wrong that they have done against them. The Bible refers to the idea of forgiveness as an act not only for the person that has wronged you but for yourself; in order to grow, we have to forgive because if we do not, God will not forgive us. Haddawy’s literary work emphasizes the importance of forgiveness through the stories relating to the Demon and King Shahrayar.
A strong Christian lesson on the true nature of forgiveness can be found in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount: