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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Why jonah chose tarshish? | Jon 1:3 | shael | 156266 | ||
Why do you suppose Jonah chose to go to Tarshish. | ||||||
2 | Why jonah chose tarshish? | Jon 1:3 | Wild Olive Shoot | 156278 | ||
The following is from Ray Stedman's "Jonah: The Reluctant Ambassador" "What made Jonah so anxious to avoid this commission? Why did he not want to go to Nineveh? Why did he flee from God? Well, some suggest that he had such a primitive idea of God that he regarded him as just a tribal deity, for Israel alone; that he thought God could not really be interested in Nineveh; and that is he could get out of the land, he would get away from God. I think that idea is scotched by Jonah's own reference to God. When the voyagers asked who he was, he said to them, "I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." (1:9) That does not sound like a tribal deity to me. No, this is not why Jonah avoided going to Nineveh. The answer is that Jonah knew God too well and that is why he did not go to Nineveh. Does that sound strange? Well, look at the beginning of chapter 4: But it [Nineveh's repentance] displeased Jonah exceedingly, and be was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, "I pray thee, 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 thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repentest of evil." Because Jonah knew that God was that way, he would not go to Nineveh. This is interesting, don't you think? Look again at the last phrase. Jonah says, "I knew you God. I knew that you were the kind that repents from evil if you get a chance." God had said to this prophet, "Now go to Nineveh and announce to them 'forty days and the city shall be overthrown.'" And that was exactly what Jonah wanted. He wanted to see this city destroyed. This was the great enemy of his people. Perhaps Jonah had actually seen these cruel, ruthless, bloody Ninevites periodically coming down into his land and raiding his people. Perhaps he had even suffered the loss of loved ones at the hands of these merciless people. In the ancient world, the record for the .bloodiest and most vicious kinds of cruelty belongs, perhaps, to the Ninevites. They found more incredibly ingenious ways to be cruel than any other nation that has ever lived. They were brutal and godless and sinful---and Jonah hated them. The one thing that he wanted more than anything else was to see Nineveh destroyed. Yet when God told him to go announce to Ninevah its destruction, he said, "I know you too well, O God. If anybody, by repenting, gives you half a chance to be merciful, you'll change your mind and won't cay out your sentence upon them." So he fled to Tarshish." - Ray Stedman Stedman, Ray. "Jonah: The Reluctant Ambassador." Discovery Publishing. Blue Letter Bible. 01 Mar 1996. 20 Aug 2005. http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/ray_stedman/adv/adv_jon.htm WOS |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Jon 1:3 | Author | ||
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angelface | ||
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reese764 | ||
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reese764 | ||
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Zsuzsi | ||
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shael | ||
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Wild Olive Shoot | ||
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MeLuvYou0627 | ||
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Gillyhaz |