Jonah Chapter One

My Bible study is group has been studying "post cards of the Bible". We define that as any book under five chapters. So right now we are discussing Jonah. The whale (fish) gets discussed a lot when one talks about Jonah but the cross cultural interaction is also a part of the story. Jonah's story takes place before the northern Kingdom Of Israel were carried off by the Assyrians. In a sense Jonah is an example of interacting with the Assyrians. Jonah may witness to the Assyrians (Nineveh) by his righteous life or he may show the power of God in judging his sin. God gets his work done either way. Later on the Northern Kingdom would have their sin judged by God allowing the Assyrians to drag them off into exile. The Samaritian people would be a result of that conquest, a half Assyrian - half children of Israel mix of people. By the way, a small group of Samaritians still exists today.

Another interesting observation is that Jonah mentions to these sea going people that God is LORD of both land and sea. We often see in the Old Testament passages a deviding of the different environments like this. Jonah says...

"I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD , the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land."


While their classifications of environments may not fit the modern ones, it is interesting how the Old Testament treats this concept.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Was the New Testament Letters Only Written to Male Brothers?

  Question:   Was the Bible written to men only and not to women?   Some teach that the New Testament letters address brothers exclusively.      Executive Summary Answer:   Women and men share in the blessings of the gospel, Scripture was written for both women and men. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Gen. 1:27 ESV) Answer:   The Bible recognizes differences between genders but also recognizes the commonality between male and female genders.   The book of Proverbs is written to sons to gain wisdom.   “Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.”   (Prov. 1:8-9 ESV) The book of Proverbs was written in order to teach young men wisdom.   Even so, often it is the female gender that teaches wisdom.   Early in the book, the male gender, a son, is to embrace the teaching from a member of the
Read more

In The Hours

Image
In The Hours Words by Helen L. Parmelee Music by Kevin Twit http://www.igracemusic.com/hymnbook/lead/inthehours.pdf This song by Indelible Grace is one that really moves me. I think it moves me because it reminds me of my own story. The words remind me of God's work in my life through the blessing of suffering. A lot of my best days walking with my Lord has actually been days of suffering. Verse one reminds me of growing up when I felt rejected by others but God was my song. 1. In the hours of pain and sorrow, When the world brings no relief When the eye is dim and heavy, And the heart oppressed with grief While blessings flee, Savior Lord we trust in Thee! While blessings flee, Savior Lord we trust in Thee! Verse two talks about my drifting from the Lord when I was caught up in pride and the sin of self-sufficiency. 2. When the snares of death surround us, Pride, ambition, love of ease Mammon with her false allurements, Words that flatter, smiles that please Then ere we yield, S
Read more

Celtic Words In English

I once heard a lecturer say that English was made up at its heart three languages; Anglo-Saxon (A Germanic tongue), French (influence from William the Conquerer A.D. 1066), and Latin (from the church and scholars). She also mentioned that Celtic had been the language of England before the influence of the Anglo-Saxons and some “tie together words” had been brought into English. I assumed she meant words which tie sentences together, or nouns. But I was not sure which words she meant in particular. So I did a little research to find out what those relics in our language are. It seems that Celtic has few words surviving in English. I'm not counting the Celtic words which came in through other languages such as French. I'm not sure that there is a definitive list of Celtic words in English but here are a few I found in various places on the Internet and a book I have. ass (borrowed earlier by the Celts from the Latin asinus) bannock bard blarney bucket car cart clock coll
Read more