You, me and Jonah ...and mercy.

(click on image for higher resolution)

Dear Reader,

Let’s see now …God is on a mission … Nineveh’s  time is up … time for judgment … BUT …God will give  the people of Nineveh a second chance … because of 200 000 infants and animals.  Well that is my thought after trying to picture this story but I know God loves all his creation and he also sees the people; tortured by the situation in the city. Innocent people are hurting where evilness is governing society.

And here is where God has chosen Jonah as the tool for this second chance. Or … is it Nineveh’s 40th second chance?   So the Boss summons his crew … Jonah  … and Jonah gets mad and runs out of the office and takes a trip to Tarshish instead of following instructions; because, as he later confesses, he knows God to be a just and merciful God. Now that is a strange way to react to God’s mercy isn’t it? What is bothering Jonah?  

Now picture your “pain- in- the- ass-person” (well I guess there are other expressions for this but I want you to wake up) that you must live/work/meet with every day and God tells you that he will let this person win the million dollar lottery and he expects you to be happy about it.

He also wants you to bless this person every day and your prayer should be “Bless , protect and save  this person  and Holy Spirit reveal Jesus to this man/woman and save, heal and  restore him/her into a new life in Christ”  How ready and happy are you to take on that task?  Jesus told me and you to bless the enemy and the only way to be able to do that is to be obedient to God no matter how we feel about it. I know I have run away like Jonah when the subject of co-workers or relatives comes up.  So don’t throw a stone at Jonah –  you might get hit yourself.   

The merciful and just God doesn’t dismiss Jonah from his task but is determined to bring him into the original plan.  What would be more natural than stirring up a raging storm to get Jonah in the mood to obey God? 

It usually turns that way, when we disobey God; a storm of conflicting thoughts will rage inside until we decide to face the truth; that God is always right. 

Somehow the story of Jonah have been shown like a cartoon or fairytale because of that “big fish” and Jonah living in that fish for three days and three nights and this is what I love about God;

that he takes the impossible and tells us “I can make it happen and nothing is impossible for me” 

Jesus took the story serious and used it as a lesson for a stubborn audience that dismissed him as the Messiah so I think we are in good company if we treat this story  with respect and a lesson in our own lives.

And it all ended well?  

Not a happy ending for Jonah as it seems because he obviously had a change of heart again after preaching repentance –  and the people actually repented. He seemed to have hoped for fire and brmstone  over the city but when God proofs to be a just and merciful God Jonah is very disappointed. Unfair! That’s the word Jonah might have used in his self-absorbed mood.

Grude and envy, bitterness and self-pity are like the worm that consumed the sheltering bush over Jonah’s head and the blessing Jonah could have experienced through  God’s mercy towards Nineveh became like “sour grapes” for him.

Compared to God’s pity over Nineveh and Jonah’s pity over the bush; Jonah’s complaint looks ridiculous. And so we are left with a “cliff-hanger” We don’t know what happened to Jonah after his last  conversation with God in this story  but we know that God’s mercy still works and has been working time after time in history and hopefully Jonah  could in the end be content with that..

Well ... off to Micah … 

Sincerely yours, Ida 

Jonah ....

Dear Reader,

I have listened to the book of Jonah three times and those 4 chapters have been a challenge. Questions upon questions have arose in my mind and I have been off in various places on the net to find some more details about this Jonah-fellow; but -  as many people -  as many opinions. Why not ask Jesus; had he any thought about Jonah?

Sincerely yours, Ida

Matthew 12:38-42 and 16:1-4) and the Gospel of Luke 11:29-32).

Matthew 12:38-42

The Sign of Jonah

³⁸ Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”

³⁹ He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰ For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. ⁴¹ The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. ⁴² The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here.

Matthew 16:1-4

New International Version (NIV)

The Demand for a Sign

16 The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.

² He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ ³ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.^{[a] 4} A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.

Luke 11:29-32

The Sign of Jonah

²⁹ As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. ³⁰ For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. ³¹ The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here. ³² The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here.

… to be continued

MercyMe - The Hurt & The Healer

Got this video in my mail and I thank Sherry for sharing it. Wonderful lyrics.

... a "Just-a"

It strikes me that our time isn’t so different from the days of Amos.  The rich oppressed the poor; people had a name of being worshippers of the Lord but lived according to their idols; arrogance and greed served as a tool for making the poor slaves and they considered God to be just one among  all other gods they made offers to.  Sin is rampant through Israel and the surrounding nations and God will bring justice and judgment no matter how rich and safe the people thought they were.  

I noticed that Amos was able to change God’s mind with his intercession for Jacob; God changed his mind because of the prayer of one person. 

I don’t think I have that in mind every time I pray for other people; sometimes it feels like nothing will ever change but Amos gives hope.  

Read somewhere on the net that Amos was a “Just-a”.  Just a shepherd and just a man taking care of fig trees. No fancy title or ancestor line. Just-a ordinary man; at least looking from the outside at his occupation. 

But God took him and gave him an ungrateful task that had to be done and Amos was the man. Even if he was an unimportant man he could deliver a hard but important message. I admire the prophets of those days; their patience, and perseverance; qualities I need loads of.

What a blessing that God sent Jesus to bring a new covenant and atonement for sin. What a blessing that there is still forgiveness for us. 

Sincerely yours,Ida

Amos- my birthday companion.

 

Amos has been my special birthday guest today.

 Being alone at home and having my day to myself I have listened to the book of Joel,  Amos and Obadiah.  I stopped and thought about what Amos said and somehow his message seem to fit in our time also .

You can go to
http://www.ganeydn.com/phd/HebrewLettering.html
to se the author of the next image. It is made by  Peggy Davis,Calligrapher.
Found her website when searching on the net for more information about Amos.

Sincerely yours, Ida

Passing through ...

Ezekiel

Daniel

Hosea

Joel

I have passed through Ezekiel Daniel, Hosea, Joel. So much judgment and wrath fromGod.

By passing through I mean just listening and pondering over the time and place  and some  of the words that are often heard in the books.

I know there are famous prophesies in Ezekiel and Daniel and some place them in our time and are sure they will be fulfilled in our lifetime. But this is not what I have been thinking of.

There is an on-going love affair between God and his people Israel. God promise; “I have loved you with an everlasting love” and the object for his tender words turn her back on him and commits adultery. It’ seems that adultery in the eyes of God is compared to prostitution. His own people Israel sells herself to idols of wood and stone; lifeless idols that Israel worship and bring sacrifices to. They offer their children to Baal by burning them to death. They build altars to foreign gods and they burn incense to them to get favor with lifeless gods.  Other sins followed, including homicide, perjury, theft, and sexual sin.

They are warned that their sins will catch up with them and judgment will follow but nothing seem to get their attention and bondage, captivity and slavery in a foreign country is the result of their idol worship.

But in God’s anger there is still love for his people and hope for reconciliation. Sin has its cost and so has love; but love brings forth forgiveness where sin brings forth death. There will be a new covenant in Jesus Christ but it will take 400 years of silence after the last prophet has spoken.

Well … I’m off to the next book ….

Sincerely yours, Ida