The whole city of Jerusalem was suffering, but Jeremiah had faith in God. Sorrow is not the end of the sins. God is kind and he would not allow his children to suffer all the time. Jeremiah’s faithfulness leads the reader to the theme of Lamentations, which is that sins happens sometimes, however, God always brings hope to people when they are desperate. As long as people return to God with regrets of what they have done to confess their sins, worship God humbly with faith and love, God is always with his children and gives them love and forgiveness.…
The consistent disobedience of humans would only be forgiven if humans stopped sinning and began listening and living the word of God. “And whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Romans 8:30, ASV). When humanity started glorifying God and his creations, God revealed his love for humans and helped them understand their sins and ask for…
The two stories of Nehemiah and Jonah are similar in ways such that the great city of Nineveh was stricken with sin, just as Judah seemed to be going nowhere good. Both of them turned out to be just fine. They also both show that trusting in the Lord will bring you to the good parts in life. But, when we don’t trust in God, as Jonah didn’t at times, we will always be led astray and into the ways of the…
The story of Jonah is traditionally told on Yom Kippur, a day when we face the darkness within and examine all of our negative actions and habits. By taking account of every hurt we’ve ever inflicted upon another, every transgression, every selfish act (whether intentional or unintentional) we open ourselves up to blessings. If we do not reflect upon our negative ways, we cannot transform. Yom Kippur is our opportunity to broaden our consciousness and take in enough Light to get us through the year ahead. The size of our “vessel” on Yom Kippur determines how much Light will be able to enter.…
Jonah’s attitude 2.b. Structure - Major relationships (with questions) A Recurrence of theme of universal lordship and universal concern of Yahweh Lordship (and concern) over nature (1:4,9,12-15; 2:1,10; 3:9; 4:6-8,10-11) Lordship (and concern) over humankind (1:2,14- 16; 2:8; 3:5-10; 4:1- 2,11) (These 2 dimensions explicitly brought together at 4:10-11) c. Ask a few interpretive questions based on each major structural relationship observed. 1. What, specifically, is involved in this universal lordship and concern of Yahweh, and what is the meaning of each of these major dimensions?…
The book has a psalm within itself to bring a new level of sadness with Jonah being in the whale. Literary aspects put Jonah in theses aspects especially the ones that need to look more deeply into Jonah such as it being possibly an analogy for justice versus mercy and God and his relationship with all people (Trible, 1994, p 484). Jonah being a narrative shows him and God as the main protagonist while everybody else except for the Nineties as minor characters (Trible, 1994, p. 474). There are instances of irony such as Jonah expressing God is the creator of land and sea while he is fleeing from God on the sea (Walton, 2006, p. 476). The plethora of literary details and techniques do not make up for the lack of historical context ,but elevates the story to being what it was intended to be great literature that gives emphasis on the Lord and his…
We see in this story that God shows compassion to more than 120,000 people living in this city (Jonah 4:10-11, ESV). He is saying to Jonah, “You can show pity to the plant, but cannot bear my compassion to many people”. His compassionate love is way deeper and wide than Jonah can…
Jonah was commanded to go and preach to Nineveh; the capital of Assyria. Assyria was the lone empire to “repent after hearing God’s warning and Jonah was the one prophet to hide God’s warning message,” (Flurry) meaning God was going to use Assyria in the future to discipline His child, Israel, for being disobedient. This disciplinary event happened after Tiglath-pileser III seized Assyria and followed up with a campaign of expansion. Jonah precisely took place in the period of Assyrian instability between the “death of Adad-nirari III and the seizing of the Assyrian throne by Tiglath-pileser III.” (Gaebelein, Jonah Section)…
The book of Ezra is a book of history and the fifteenth book in the Old Testament written by Ezra. It gives an account of the Jewish people returning to the land of Israel and the restoration of the temple. The people were of idolatry even though it was the very nature of their previous downfall. King Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. But not all wanted to do return being they were born and lived in Babylon and new of nothing else.…
The civilization of the ancient Hebrews is one of the most fascinating to study, if only due to its longevity in the face of countless trials faced throughout history. Their imagined community, formulated by their religious practices and their devotion to scripture as the center of their beliefs, kept their culture mostly separate from others, allowing them to retain many customs and practices to which they still adhere to this day. The Book of Job in the Hebrew Bible, written circa 580-400 BC, is an excellent indicator of the importance of religious text in their society. It tells the story of a man named Job, the godliest man on earth, of whom God boasts and protects, though Satan, referred to as “the Adversary,” challenges Job’s righteousness,…
GOD IS PRESENT 2 God Is Present The Book of Esther in the Holy Bible never mentions God, nor does it acknowledge His existence or actions. Despite His name never being mentioned, there are specific circumstances where it is evident that God is present.…
When addresses the meaning of a biblical text, one has to us certain skills to understand the historical, literary, and contemporary worlds. The further one develops the technique of combining the three worlds together, the more one can evaluate what the Bible truly represent. This papers will be discussing the book of Esther, one well be analyzing her Biblical leadership rule. The book of Esther is essentially what a servant leader can accomplish by empowering a…
The book of Jonah, just like the other Minor Prophets, is a short story – only 4 chapters with 48 vesicles – which, between other characteristics, its distinguishes by having the prophet as the main character, while the other prophets are only collections of oracles. Another difference with the other minor prophet books, is that the book of Jonah is a narrative story about the mission ordered to Jonah, and, even in other books of the Bible, we find parallel writings of this particular style, none of them is as dominating as this. The most distinguished of its characteristics is that, while most of the prophetic books in the Bible the narrator is the prophet (redacted on first person), the book of Jonah is narrated by a third person. This book…
In today’s society, we sometimes find ourselves glued to our cell phones or computers, watching YouTube videos about the “End of Days”, “The Coming Apocalypse”, or “The Rapture”. These videos can be quite appealing in the nature that it’ll leave you feeling either a bit fearful or curious. We also find ourselves intrigued when magazines such as The National Enquirer or Star Magazine write articles revolving around such disaster. Such as, linking the upcoming apocalypse to the Dead Sea Scrolls. But what do we really know about the Dead Sea Scrolls?…
In addition, the Bewer understood that the Jonah salvation of fish belly already acquired, Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, it does not fit the context, to the praise of poetry. This is the salvation that instantly put in the fish's belly but it may be, the author of the book of Jonah is that it does not indicate anywhere that the body of Jonah to accept it. In particular, the complete salvation come true,when the fish is able to spit out Jonah on the land(2:10), he is using the completion type of verb (qtl) salvation in the poetry, he thinks that contrary to the time of the flow of the incident. Therefore, they argue is the poetry of Jonah will be position after 2:10.…