2. Read the Book of Jonah from the Bible and answer one of these prompts, or come up with a topic of your own. Remember that specific evidence is great!
a) What kind of person is Jonah, and how do you know?
b) Is God more stern or more kind in the Book of Jonah? How do you know?
c) What does Jonah actually ask God for as he prays to God from the belly of the whale?
d) Part of the story is that Jonah is sleeping through the storm and has to be awakened. Any thoughts as to what this detail adds to the story?
e) Find an image that is worth commenting on and comment on it.
Have a good weekend.
In the first chapter of Jonah, he refuses to deliver a message to the people the Lord told him to go to, so instead he chose to run away from the Lord. By doing that he endangered the lives of the men at sea whose boat he was hiding on, and when he went overboard, the sea was calm, but he got swallowed by a fish. Then the Lord freed him from the fish and told him to deliver the message to the city of Nineveh again. I think in this book, God resembles a father again, and Jonah is his child. Jonah refuses to do something, and runs away from it, but the father teaches him a lesson so next time he would. After Jonah delivers the message, he becomes angry because God shows compassion and understanding for the people in the city when they stop their sinning, and when Jonah said the same thingst to God before, he was not shown the same passion. So he pouts about this and says he wants to die, then he pouts about the vine, and God still asks if he thinks he has a right to want to die, or to be ungrateful because he has to not only care for him but this whole city as well. So that to me resembles a father, looking after a family, and showing firmness, but also compassion. In that way it can relate to a lot of other books of the Bible where God resembles a fatherly figure to his creations.
ReplyDelete-Maddie Adams
When Jonah is on the ship and sleeps through the storm, I believe it is an example of Jonah's laziness and uncaring for his own life. While the other men on the ship work and pray to their gods for their lives, Jonah simply sleeps, for he has already upset god, and knows that praying would not cease the storm, showing his laziness. Jonah also repeats several times that he would "rather die than to live", showing that he would rather die than suffer through gods anger at him, which could also tie in with his laziness. However, Jonah is not all bad qualities, for we see that when he does realize that if he goes into the see, god will stop the storm, he does agree to do so, in order to save the lives of the men of the ship, showing that he does have some bravery and Humbleness, although he chooses to exhibit these qualities less frequently in this book. Also, I believe the way the bible includes the detail of all the other men praying to their gods is basically a jab at all other religions. The way in which the men on the boat pray to their gods, yet nothing happens, is as if to say that those other gods do not exist or have any power, and only god can stop the storm.
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 3, Jonah exclaims "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." Why did the writers of the Bible choose forty? If you recall, forty was the number of days and nights the earth was flooded. Was there something special about this number? In ancient Mesopotamia, the highest god was represented by the number 60. Both 40 and 60 are multiples of ten. Was there something significant about multiples of ten? Also, Jonah is in the belly of the whale for three days and nights. Three is number of the holy trinity and although that is in the second half of the Bible, there still must be some significance to this number. As we can see, the numbers in the Bible are not just randomly picked. They must have some kind of background.
ReplyDeleteIn the book of Jonah God threatens to destroy the city Nin'eveh and he orders Jonah to warn them of there sins. After Jonah fulfills the duty of the Lord the city of Nin'eveh then prays to the Lord for redemption of their sin. God is willing to forgive them. I think this shows a very loving God because in most other cases God gives warning to a select group of people he felt were good. In this story however God not only forgives Jonah but the Lord also allows the city of Nen'eveh to be forgiven for their wrong doing.
ReplyDeleteThe image that stands out to me the most is the passage at the end about the vine. Where god is relating the vine to the people of the city. I though that was not only beautiful writting but a very interesting idea. I had to read it a few times till I understood it. It is essentialy saying ** I think? : that Jonah was concerned over something he didn't tend or care about (the vine) and he shouldn't have been angry over that. But god created the city (i think) and he should be concerned about it.
ReplyDelete-Audrey Emerson
How Jonah was called by God to preach in Nin'eveh, and disobeys by escaping but being hit by a storm and being swallowed by a fish is to me a huge sign of bad luck for him. How God sees how all the people give up their "wicked actions", he shows an act of forgiveness to them, and decides not to punish. God makes a plant to shade Jonah in his shelter, and that is no different than how God provides for people today. He wanted Jonah to feel comfortable, as he does with people today. God provides homes for people who need them, so they can feel comfortable and sheltered in their own abode. In the end of Jonah God does this for him.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the book of Jonah, God tells Jonah to go to Nin'eveh and talk to the people who live there, but Jonah is to afraid to do it, so he decides to go somewhere else. After that Jonah gets thrown into the sea because there is a huge storm and Jonah thinks that he is the cause of the storm because of his wrongdoings. Jonah feels guilty because he feels he betrayed God, so this will make up for his sins. I think that this is a good story in some ways because it teaches that you should always do what you are told to (if it is reasonable.) Also it teaches that if you do something wrong, it will not go away, and you will not forget about it until you confess and state that it was the wrong thing to do.
ReplyDeleteIn the belly of the whale, Jonah surprisingly does not pray to God, asking him to let him out of the whale, but instead he thanks him for saving him; "But you brought my life up from the pit, oh Lord, my God." And at the end of his prayer Jonah says, "But I, with a song of thanksgiving,will sacrifice to you.What I have vowed I will make good.Salvation comes from the LORD."I find it truly remarkable that Jonah was filled with so much thanksgiving in this strange situation!
ReplyDelete-Erin Moody
I think that Jonah is a responsible and a nice person from the passage that I am about to share with you. In this passage, Jonah takes the blame for what he has done, and there for he takes the consequence like a sincere and culpable person. Here is the passage that comes from Jonah 11: Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. and Jonah 12: And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. I felt as thought that this thing that Jonah did was a very nice thing to do.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the book of Jonah, I thought that god was very taunting and seemed to tease Jonah throughout all of the chapters. For example, When Jonah is thrown off of the ship, God does not just let him die, but he instead gives him slight hope yet discomfort by making him get swallowed by a giant fish. There is also the part when Jonah made himself a booth, and God gives him a bush to keep him in the shade, but then after dark, God removes the bush, which makes Jonah even more desperate to die; which makes me believe that God in this section of the bible, is harsh and somewhat cruel.
ReplyDeleteThe image that stood out to me while I was reading was Jonah 3:6, "When the king of Ninevah heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes. He dressed himself in burlap and sat on a heap of ashes." Whether this was done out of fear or appreciativeness, the obedience that was expressed to the extent of the once evil but dignified king stripping off his royal clothings to kowtow respectfully to God made the reader be moved by the king's eagerness to repent. The taking off of his royal robes signify that the king was yearning to step down from authority and let the mighty God take charge for him.
ReplyDeleteI think that Jonah so easily offers himself to death because he believes that the way to be with God is through the ultimate sacrifice of his own life. When God saved Jonah from the sea Jonah felt something like an epiphany; he was saved. He suddenly felt that he owed something to God, "what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the Lord!" I think that this deliverance is Jonah sacrificing himself to God, because through sacrificing himself to God he will become with God. I think that Jonah becomes angry when God forgives the people because Jonah feels that the people should sacrifice themselves to God and so Jonah asks to sacrifice himself. I think that God is saying that Jonah should not sacrifice himself to God, but that he should sacrifice himself to what is needed amongst his people. If Jonah is willing to give himself to the Lord, then Jonah should be willing to give himself to the Lord's children. That is what God wants of Jonah. Maybe it is more important to know what God wants of us, rather than us thinking we know what we want to do for God.
ReplyDelete-Alana Pagano
I thought that the whole image of the first chapter of Jonah was very vivid and I almost invisioned it as a movie in a way. When Jonah denied to go to Nineveh, it was almost a challenge to God. Jonah's doubt of God's power caused him to somehow think he had a change of disobeying God. As Jonah ran away from God's request, God sent a horrible storm to the seas in which the ship was sailing on. Overall, the images presented in the chapter were very vivid and well described. This chapter of Jonah really showed the power god and what happens to people who don't believe in his power.
ReplyDeleteOh, I have read.
ReplyDeleteI thought that Jonah's reaction to God forgiving Nineveh really showed Jonah's character. It seems to me that his angered response showed that he was a person who believes in having to pay the consequense for your actions. Also, his running away from God tells a lot about Jonah; I think that is shows that not all people who become prophets or carries out Gods requests do so willingly.
ReplyDeleteAlso, what is "throwing lots"? I have an idea but I'm pretty sure that I am dead wrong!
-Ashley
I think that here, God is trying to show Jonah that once he has given him a responsibility, he should accept it and fufill it, not ignore it. Because he ignored it, God tried to show him how important it was by punishing him and everything around him. When Jonah realized this, he immediately jumped off the ship, trying to save the other people from the harm of the storm. There Jonah suffered a little more in the fish's stomach, but when God discovered that he was being truthful and he was going to fufill his responsibility, he let him out to fufill it. I think in this part he was being kind, letting Jonah be the one to have the responsibility, but then also being a little stern, giving Jonah the punishment that he did. -Lara
ReplyDeleteAshley: By the way, I think throwing lots means giving a vote, like they were voting for who they thought caused the storm. That's what I thought "throwing lots" meant. I may be wrong.
I think that the relationship between God and Jonah is very interesting in this book. It is odd to see so much "back and forth" contanct between God and a man. After Jonah disobeyes god by boarding the ship to tarshish, he is punished with a violent storm, being overthrown, and being swallowed by a whale. Perhaps the lesson to be learned from this is that it is impossible to hide from God and what he wishes will eventually come to be. This also suggests that god has a plan for everything and does not cause trouble just because he feels like it.
ReplyDelete