Reflections from a young man about God

Sunday, August 20, 2006

The Lord said to Jonah a second time, “Go immediately to Nineveh, that large city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah went immediately to Nineveh, as the Lord had said. (Now Nineveh was an enormous city—it required three days to walk throughout it!) When Jonah began to enter the city one day’s walk, he announced, “At the end of forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!” The people of Nineveh believed in God, and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes. He issued a proclamation and said, “In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles—Let neither human nor animal, cattle nor sheep, taste anything; let them not eat and let them not drink water. Let every person and animal put on sackcloth and let them cry earnestly to God, and let every one turn from their evil way of living and from the violence that they do. Who knows? Perhaps God might be willing to change his mind and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we might not die.” When God saw their actions—they turned from their evil way of living!—God relented concerning the judgment he had threatened them with and he did not destroy them. This terribly displeased Jonah and he became very angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “Oh, Lord, this is just what I thought would happen when I was in my own country. This is what I tried to prevent by trying to escape to Tarshish!—because I knew that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgment. So now, Lord, kill me instead, because I would rather die than live!” The Lord said, “Are you really so very angry?” Jonah left the city, sat down east of the city, made a shelter for himself there, and sat down under it in the shade to see what would happen to the city. The Lord God appointed a little plant and caused it to grow up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to rescue him from his misery. Now Jonah was very delighted about the little plant. So God sent a worm at dawn the next day, and it attacked the little plant so that it dried up. When the sun began to shine, God sent a hot east wind. So the sun beat down on Jonah’s head, and he grew faint. So he despaired of life, and said, “ I would rather die than live!” God said to Jonah, “Are you really so very angry about the little plant?” And he said, “ I am as angry as I could possibly be!” The Lord said, “You were upset about this little plant, something for which you have not worked nor did you do anything to make it grow. It grew up overnight and died the next day. Should I not be even more concerned about Nineveh this enormous city? There are more than one hundred twenty thousand people in it who do not know right from wrong, as well as many animals!” (Jonah 3:1-4:11)

After reading the book of jonah lets talk about him. Here are the different problems with him:

1. he was wrapped in fear
2. he thought he could hide from God

Because of those problems he got swallowed by a fish

Next series: The book of revalations

Saturday, August 19, 2006

I am sorry I don't post much I'm going to try to more often. Here is the next section of Jonah.

Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish and said, “I called out to the LORD from my distress, and he answered me; from the belly of Sheol I cried out for help, and you heard my prayer. You cast me into the deep waters, into the middle of the sea; the ocean-current engulfed me; all the mighty waves you sent swept over me. I thought I had been banished from your sight, that I would never again see your holy temple! Water engulfed me up to my neck; the deep ocean surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the gates of the netherworld barred me in forever; but you brought me up from the Pit, O Lord, my God. When my life was ebbing away, I called out to the Lord, and my prayer came to your holy temple. Those who worship worthless idols forfeit the mercy that could be theirs. But as for me, I promise to offer a sacrifice to you with a public declaration of praise; I will surely do what I have promised. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” Then the Lord commanded the fish and it disgorged Jonah on dry land. (Jonah 2:1-10)

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

And he said, “I am a Jew; I worship Jehovah, the God of heaven, who made the earth and sea.” Then he told them he was running away from the Lord. The men were terribly frightened when they heard this. “Oh, why did you do it?” they shouted. “What should we do to you to stop the storm?” For it was getting worse and worse. “Throw me out into the sea,” he said, “and it will become calm again. For I know this terrible storm has come because of me.” They tried harder to row the boat ashore, but couldn’t make it. The storm was too fierce to fight against. Then they shouted out a prayer to Jehovah, Jonah’s God. “O Jehovah,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin, and don’t hold us responsible for his death, for it is not our fault—you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.” Then they picked up Jonah and threw him overboard into the raging sea—and the storm stopped! The men stood there in awe before Jehovah, and they sacrificed to him and vowed to serve him. Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:9-17)

Friday, April 01, 2005

So the captain went down after him. “How can you sleep at a time like this?” he shouted. “Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will have mercy on us and spare our lives.” Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, Jonah lost the toss. “What have you done to bring this awful storm down on us?” they demanded. “Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?” And Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” (Jonah 1:5-9)

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

But the Lord sent out a great storm on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up. Then the mariners were afraid; and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.(Jonah 1 4-5)