Personal Essay In 'The Book Of Nineveh's Jonah'

Personal Essay Have you ever been to a place that you know is just not safe? Or have you ever been put in a position to do something that you had no desire to do? Well I have, and from personal experience I know it can be very uncomfortable. In The book of Jonah, Jonah is faced with similar circumstances. Jonah prayed to God for a message to give to a city. God answered and told Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the people to repent for all of their sins or their city would be destroyed by God. Nineveh was a very unsafe and dangerous city. The word that the bible used to describe nineveh was ra’ah which means wickedness. Jonah did not listen to God because he feared for his life. Jonah knew that in the lawless city of Nineveh, he would surely …show more content…
It was used a total of ten times in the book of Jonah. It was used to describe how bad of a city that Nineveh really was. Nineveh’s sinfulness, complete with evil kings, usurers, demons, murderers, and forced incest, was what made the city so evil. I completely understand why Jonah was scared and ran from this city. He feared that if he told them that their city would be destroyed in forty days if they did not repent for their sin, that they would kill him. Instead of him following the call of God on his life he ran in the opposite direction and got on a ship and he sailed away. His ship was struck by a ra’ah storm and this storm almost destroyed their ship. They learned that Jonah's disobedience was the cause of this ra’ah storm. They quickly tossed him into the sea and he was swallowed up by a large fish. The bible does not specify if it is a big fish or a whale but most people assume it is a whale. In the fish's stomach Jonah repents for his sin. God commands the fish to throw up and Jonah is cast onto land and he walks to the ra’ah city of Nineveh to deliver his message. He delivers his message and the people actually repent from their ra’ah sins and are saved. This story shows God's perfect grace that he gives to everyone. I love that is serve a God who gives me second and third chances even when I don't deserve them. God gave Jonah and all of the thousands of people in that city a second chance. Because of their repentance the people of Nineveh were all spared and God did not destroy the city. Jonah thought he was going to be murdered, but he actually was celebrated among the people of the city of Nineveh. The people were so happy that he saved them from sure (ra’ah)