Jonah 1:1-17
The story of Jonah is one that lends itself to comic strip presentation. One cannot consider this little book without sensing there is something not quite right about the story it tells.
The swallowing of Jonah by the “whale” is the stuff of cartoons and many, I am sure, have been produced but there is more to this little piece hidden away toward the end of the Old Testament scriptures than the comical story first suggests.
Jonah is told, by God, to go to Nineveh (think of Mosul, across the River Tigris, in northern Iraq). Nineveh was the capitol of the Assyrian Empire, Israel’s formerly implacable foe. By the time the Book of Jonah is written the might of the Assyrians had been superseded by Babylon and others. Jonah is having none of it and defies God by going in the opposite direction and so begins this wonderful tale of storms at sea, hardened, experienced sailors terrified (while this land lubber sleeps) and his eventual throwing into the sea to be consumed as breakfast, dinner or tea by this great leviathan.
What is this book about?
Aren’t you curious that the God of Israel tells Jonah to warn the inhabitants of that metropolis of Nineveh that their sin has been noted. Jonah’s thinking is, why should this bother God? He is not their God, but ours. Think about it.
The story of Jonah is one that lends itself to comic strip presentation. One cannot consider this little book without sensing there is something not quite right about the story it tells.
The swallowing of Jonah by the “whale” is the stuff of cartoons and many, I am sure, have been produced but there is more to this little piece hidden away toward the end of the Old Testament scriptures than the comical story first suggests.
Jonah is told, by God, to go to Nineveh (think of Mosul, across the River Tigris, in northern Iraq). Nineveh was the capitol of the Assyrian Empire, Israel’s formerly implacable foe. By the time the Book of Jonah is written the might of the Assyrians had been superseded by Babylon and others. Jonah is having none of it and defies God by going in the opposite direction and so begins this wonderful tale of storms at sea, hardened, experienced sailors terrified (while this land lubber sleeps) and his eventual throwing into the sea to be consumed as breakfast, dinner or tea by this great leviathan.
What is this book about?
Aren’t you curious that the God of Israel tells Jonah to warn the inhabitants of that metropolis of Nineveh that their sin has been noted. Jonah’s thinking is, why should this bother God? He is not their God, but ours. Think about it.