Podcast 60, Stories of the Bible, “The Book of Jonah, Ch 4 a”

Podcast 60, Stories of the Bible, “The Book of Jonah, Ch 4”Notice how the parallel introductions tie the four chapters of the Book of Jonah together.Chapter 1:1Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,Chapter 2:1Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly,Chapter 3:1And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying,Chapter 4:1-2But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.As you can see, Chapter 1 is parallel to Chapter 3 & Chapter 2 is parallel to Chapter 4. Being only four chapters long, that provides the framework: ABAB. The one primary character, or foil, in each chapter is Jonah. Nineveh has 120,000 people, yet Jonah requires more attention than them all. The question isn’t. ‘Why is the Lord patient with the people of Nineveh?’ The question is, ‘Why is the Lord so patient with Jonah?’ An even more important question perhaps is, ‘How much like Jonah are we?’ Are we sometimes contrary with the Lord when he tells us to do something that we do not want to do? The Lord tells Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah immediately hops on a ship and goes in the opposite direction. By extraordinarily strange means, the Lord is patient with Job and turns his course around. Can we relate to that? Jonah’s response may at first seem rather strange.Jonah 4:3Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.Does that sound familiar? Have you ever said, “I’d rather die than endure this or that.” The Lord seldom does things our way. One would naturally think that a prophet of God would be pleased that the people repented. Jonah fully understands the purpose of prophetic warnings. As the Holy Bible teaches, when there are prophets in the land, the Lord always sends them to warn the wicked of impending disaster. The entire purpose of the Lord is to get them to repent to avert the dangers. Why did Jonah want the people of Nineveh to be destroyed? Why does Jonah want the Lord to take away his life? Why does he think it is better for him to die? We know of the tension between the Assyrians and the tribes of Israel, but at this point the Assyrians are not a huge threat. They are still struggling for an identity, and 120,000 citizens make Nineveh, the capitol of Assyria, seven times larger than Jerusalem, which is the capitol of the southern tribes, and four times larger than Samaria, which is the capital of the northern tribes.    The Lord is patient with Jonah. Jonah 4:4Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?By converting Nineveh, it strangely extends the life of the Ten Northern Tribes of Israel. After all, it is the Assyrians who later conquer the Northern tribes and cause them to become lost to the world. Of course, destroying Nineveh would also prevent the Assyrians from later conquering the Ten Northern tribes. This is a very complicated situation, though, at this time, neither the Assyrians nor the Israelites know what is at stake. The Lord uses the prophet Jonah to warn the Assyrians that if they don’t repent, they shall be destroyed. The Lord later uses the prophet Isaiah to warn the Israelites that if they don’t repent, they shall be destroyed. It eventually turns out that they are all either exiled or destroyed. The Assyrians play a large role in the destruction and exile of the Northern Tribes, and the Babylonians play a large role in the destruction and exile of the Southern Tribes. The Babylonians also destroy the Assyrians in 612 BC, nearly 200 years later