by Chadwick Brewer<\/p>\n
“And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster<\/em>” (Jonah 4:2).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In the list of most criticized people in Scripture, Jonah often falls among those at the top of the list. We note that he is hard-hearted, rebellious, petulant, and whiny. He is unforgiving and disappointed in God for being forgiving and long-suffering. In our minds, we divorce our self-image from Jonah in a way that we rarely, if ever, ask ourselves if we are like Jonah.<\/p>\n
Ancient cuneiform tablets describing the acts of Ashurnasirpal II (who reigned about the time of Jonah) describe a brutal and cruel man who covered the pillars of the city with the skins of his enemies. This helps us to understand Jonah’s refusal to go. It is probably true that the sins of Nineveh far outstrip those who have wronged us, but do we also harbor desires of vengeance and retribution, not wanting God to bless them?<\/p>\n
Maybe you’re thinking, “God called Jonah to go to his enemies, but I never got that call.” But we have on a variety of occasions. We are to “go into all the world… to every creature… making disciples<\/em>.” We are to “love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us<\/em>.” We are called to “take up our cross<\/em> (an implement of self-sacrifice) and follow Jesus<\/em>” as we give ourselves up for others.<\/p>\n
Am I Jonah? Do I run away from the commands of YHWH as Jonah did? Do I harbor the same or similar feelings in my heart toward those who have hurt me?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Chadwick Brewer “And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[992,54],"class_list":["post-87422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-disobedience","tag-obedience"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":88961,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/looking-to-his-holy-temple\/","url_meta":{"origin":87422,"position":0},"title":"Looking to His Holy Temple","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Seth Mauldin via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 2, February 2015 For me, the book of Jonah has always been something of a depressing book. Of course, there are positives to be found; we'll always have the good example of the Ninevites who threw themselves into the task of repentance.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":70789,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-men-act-when-they-repent\/","url_meta":{"origin":87422,"position":1},"title":"How Men Act When They Repent","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steve Klein via Seeking the Things Above In Matthew 12:41, Jesus said, \"The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.\" According to Jesus, the men\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21835,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/lessons-from-jonah\/","url_meta":{"origin":87422,"position":2},"title":"Lessons from Jonah","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The book of Jonah is unique among the prophets \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The emphasis of the story is upon the messenger instead of the message. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We learn lessons from the actions of the prophet, instead of the message he delivered. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The tale of a man being swallowed and living\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17999,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-god-in-jonah-16-in-lower-case-in-some-translations\/","url_meta":{"origin":87422,"position":3},"title":"Why is “God” in Jonah 1:6 in lower case in some translations?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Jonah 1:6 in NKJV & ASV show referring to God as \"God.\" The captain told Jonah to pray to his God. But in the NASB it refers to the Lord God Jehovah as \"god.\" Is this a typo with the printer? Why would the NASB show this?\u00a0 Could it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33988,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jonah-wrath-of-man-mercy-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":87422,"position":4},"title":"Jonah – Wrath of Man \/ Mercy of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 9, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ross Ward We all know the story, but have we really gotten the point? Story The book is about Jonah Not gentile city Outline of book Ch 1 - Jonah runs from God Ch 2 - Jonah's salvation Ch 3 - Nineveh's salvation Ch 4 - God's mercy on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54283,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-word-of-the-lord-to-jonah\/","url_meta":{"origin":87422,"position":5},"title":"The Word of the Lord to Jonah","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wesley Key The Minor Prophets","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}