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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Such thing as a choice? | Eccl 6:10 | Morant61 | 153053 | ||
Greetings Doc! How would you explain the following sequence of verses? 1) Jonah 3:2 - "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you." 2) Jonah 3:4 - "On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: 'Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.'" 3) Jonah 3:5 - "The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth." 4) Jonah 3:9 - "'Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.'" 5) Jonah 3:10 - "When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened." Did God not really intend to destroy them as He said? Did God have Jonah lie to Nivevah? Or, was God's plan (at least as regards the destruction of Nivevah)conditioned upon Nivevah's response to Jonah's preaching? This is an unsual case because there is no conditions proclaimed at all. There are other cases in Scripture where God says things like, 'if you repent, I will...'. Yet, there is no such promise in this case. Many times when Scripture says that God 'repented' the explanation is usually that it is simply an antropomorphism. Yet here, God clearly says that He is going to do one thing and then doesn't because of Nivevah's response. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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2 | Such thing as a choice? | Eccl 6:10 | Wild Olive Shoot | 153054 | ||
Couldn't the conditioned be implied since it was not proclaimed? If God had meant to destroy Nineveh, would He have bothered to send Jonah forty days beforehand to issue the warning? He could have overthrown Nineveh without any warning as with Sodom, but decided to send a messenger to them instead. If God was unwilling to forgive and chose to destroy without an opportunity of pardon, would He have bothered to send Jonah in the first place? WOS |
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3 | Such thing as a choice? | Eccl 6:10 | Morant61 | 153055 | ||
Greetings WOS! I am positive that God wanted them to repent! :-) Even Jonah said of God, "He prayed to the LORD, 'O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.'" (Jonah 4:2) But, the message to Nivevah was, 'Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.' (3:4). It didn't say 'might be overturned' or 'could be overturned'. ;-) Then, 3:10 clearly states that God changed His actions based upon their response to Jonah's preaching. I would not add a 'condition' to the text where none is explicitly expressed. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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