Jonah ran away from God’s plan. God was ready to destroy Nineveh because of their sin. But God gave Nineveh a chance to repent. This responsibility of the ‘chance’ was Jonah’s responsibility. Jonah didn’t want to see this pagan nation Nineveh saved, but rather destroyed.
So Jonah ignored God’s command and went the other direction. Because of Jonah’s rebellion, both he and the ships crew were in danger of God disciplines. Jonah gave orders to the crew to toss him overboard to save them. [I’m not sure why Jonah didn’t just jump off himself?].
Jonah repented of his rebellion and cried out to Nineveh, who quickly repented. Even though Jonah completed his task, his heart was still not aligned to God’s. God provided a lesson about caring. Jonah’s lesson from God was how could Jonah care for the death of a plant over death of 120,000+ people? We don’t know if Jonah learned the lesson (the book doesn’t say), but we hope that he did.
The book of Jonah shows how God cares for all creation. And we see that God also doesn’t give up with his family, even when we run away from Him. We see God caring for both Nineveh and for Jonah; both were disobedient to God and in both cases God spared both
So Jonah ignored God’s command and went the other direction. Because of Jonah’s rebellion, both he and the ships crew were in danger of God disciplines. Jonah gave orders to the crew to toss him overboard to save them. [I’m not sure why Jonah didn’t just jump off himself?].
Jonah repented of his rebellion and cried out to Nineveh, who quickly repented. Even though Jonah completed his task, his heart was still not aligned to God’s. God provided a lesson about caring. Jonah’s lesson from God was how could Jonah care for the death of a plant over death of 120,000+ people? We don’t know if Jonah learned the lesson (the book doesn’t say), but we hope that he did.
The book of Jonah shows how God cares for all creation. And we see that God also doesn’t give up with his family, even when we run away from Him. We see God caring for both Nineveh and for Jonah; both were disobedient to God and in both cases God spared both
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