The Book Of Jonah. Day 5, Jonah's Prayer, Part Two

Today we will be looking at the remainder of Chapter 2 as we study the second half of Jonah's prayer.

He has been swallowed by the huge fish that the Lord "prepared" for him. (Jonah 1:17) We don't often think of adversity as being something the Lord "prepared" for us but there's always a purpose for any adversity that comes into the life of a child of God. In Jonah's case, he's in unpleasant circumstances because he disobeyed the Lord, but the Lord lovingly provided the fish to cause Jonah to repent and get back on track. As we closed yesterday's study we found him responding appropriately to the Lord's corrective action by calling out to Him. Now we continue on with the remainder of his prayer.

He says to the Lord, "You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all Your waves and breakers swept over me." (Jonah 2:3) He recognizes that his current predicament is from the hand of the Lord due to his rebellious spirit. Jonah doesn't believe that anything that's happened to him has been a coincidence. The violent storm arose and he was cast into the sea by the ship's sailors and the fish swallowed him because he ran from his calling in the Lord. 

Jonah doesn't want to be in the belly of the fish but he acknowledges the sovereignty of God over his life. He needs to be in the belly of the fish, which is why the Lord placed him there. Jonah wanted to flee from the work the Lord commanded him to do, and in that sense he thought he could hide from the Lord, but now that he's in the belly of the fish he almost believes he's in a place where the Lord really can't see him. This causes him to see that he doesn't actually want to hide from the Lord at all. He never wants to be where the Lord can't see him. The very thought of such a thing is horrifying, for if he is where the Lord can't see him, he is where the Lord can't help him. But since there isn't anyone or anything that is hidden from our Almighty Creator, Jonah makes a statement of faith that he is going to continue looking toward the Lord for help even though in this moment he feels forsaken. "I said, 'I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.'" (Jonah 2:4) The temple within the midst of the people signified the Lord's presence in their midst. Jonah casts his mind toward the temple as he prays. Also I think perhaps he is saying that he believes he will see the temple again in person---that the Lord will deliver him from his predicament.

Jonah's next words do seem to indicate that he anticipates being rescued. "The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But You, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit." (Jonah 2:5-6)

Jonah disobeyed the Lord but he didn't renounce the Lord. He wasn't in danger of losing his salvation but he was in danger of losing his calling as a prophet and in danger of losing his life. It's possible to be saved but to get out of the will of God and, (if we continue living lives of spiritual mediocrity), to lose our ability to give effective testimonies about the Lord and to miss out on some wonderful blessings. The Lord called Jonah to do a great thing when He commanded him to go and preach to the heathen people of the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh. But Jonah, who was already serving as a prophet to his own people of Israel, refused and ran in the opposite direction from Nineveh. He could have forfeited his calling as a prophet altogether by doing this. He could have lost his life in the storm or in the fish's belly. He could have missed out on being instrumental in the salvation of an untold number of people at Nineveh, for he will witness an astonishing event there when many people repent of their sinful, idolatrous ways. 

Jonah rebelled against the Lord and as a result has found himself brought just about as low as a person can go. Sometimes the Lord has to allow a person to hit bottom before they will look up to Him and acknowledge their waywardness. That's what it took to get Jonah to stop thinking about running away and to commit himself to doing what the Lord commanded him to do. "When my life was ebbing away, I remembered You, Lord, and my prayer rose to You, to Your holy temple." (Jonah 2:7)

Jonah, in thankfulness, promises to keep the vows he made to Him while he was in the belly of the fish. "Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to You. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, 'Salvation comes from the Lord.'" (Jonah 2:8-9) He is saying something similar to what David said in Psalm 66. David understood the importance of fulfilling vows made to the Lord because it can be easy to forget promises made during hard times after we have been restored to prosperity. David declared to the Lord, "I will come to Your temple with burnt offerings and fulfill my vows to you---vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble." (Psalm 66:13-14)

Now that Jonah has acknowledged his rebellion and has repented of it and has announced his intention to obey the Lord, the Lord releases him from his current season of hardship. "And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land." (Jonah 2:10) As we close our study today, we remind ourselves that the natural world obeys the word of its Creator. It is only mankind who rebels against Him. The people of Nineveh were living in rebellion toward the Lord. Jonah rebelled against the Lord when He told him to go and preach to the people of Nineveh. But the fish did exactly what the Lord told it to do. The Lord commanded the fish to be on standby for Jonah to be thrown out of the ship and the fish was there waiting. The Lord commanded the fish to swallow Jonah and the fish did so. The Lord commanded the fish to regurgitate Jonah from its stomach and the fish came close enough to the shore to forcefully eject Jonah safely onto dry land. It's only mankind, out of everything the Lord created, who ever says "no" to God. But thanks be to God, He didn't reject us for rejecting Him. He didn't wipe us off the face of the earth and put an end to the human race. He made a way for us to repent and be saved from our sinful waywardness. As we move on to Chapter 3 tomorrow we are going to find the Lord mercifully sending this message of hope to the heathen Gentiles of Nineveh so that they have the opportunity to repent and be saved.

The Book Of Jonah. Day 4, Jonah's Prayer, Part One

The sailors have cast Jonah into the sea and it immediately calms. He does not drown after being thrown overboard, which is likely what he expected, but an altogether different experience awaits him. "Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights." (Jonah 1:17) This fish has typically been referred to as a whale but the Bible does not specify the type of fish. It just states that the Lord "provided" it; in some translations it says the Lord "prepared" it. Either way, the text indicates that the Lord had the fish ready and waiting for Jonah to be thrown overboard. 

Jonah spends a period of time inside the fish without his body being broken down and destroyed by the fish's digestive system. The Bible states that he spent three days and three nights inside it; however, it's important to note that this was a figure of speech. That's because the ancient Jews counted any portion of a day as a day and their days began at 6pm in the evening and went until 6pm the next evening. For example, it is said of Jesus that He spent three days and nights in the tomb. But in actuality He was placed in the tomb somewhere between 3pm and 6pm on Friday (having perished on the cross at 3pm) and since 6pm was considered the beginning of a new day, He was in the tomb late on Friday and then Saturday began at 6pm so He was in the tomb all of Saturday, then Sunday would have begun at 6pm on Saturday and He arose sometime early the next morning. This means that instead of spending seventy-two hours in the tomb He spent only two to three hours in the tomb on Friday afternoon, then He was in the tomb all of Saturday (from 6pm on Friday until 6pm on Saturday), and then for perhaps around twelve hours or less on Sunday (from 6pm on Saturday until sometime before dawn on Sunday morning). This means that the total number of hours spent in the tomb was probably forty or less. This in no way contradicts the Bible due to the way the people of Jesus' era counted the days. 

Some scholars have speculated that Jonah was in the belly of the fish for exactly the same amount of time that Jesus was in the tomb because Jesus made reference to Jonah when speaking of His own coming death and interment, saying, "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." (Matthew 12:40) It could be that Jonah was swallowed by the fish late in the afternoon on Friday and was spit out by the fish early on Sunday morning, but of course this is speculative because the Bible doesn't not say. All we will be told for certain is that after Jonah repents of running from the Lord, the Lord commands the fish to expel him onto dry land. 

Along with not knowing the type of fish that swallowed Jonah and with not knowing the precise number of hours he was imprisoned inside of it, we also do not know whether Jonah was alive or dead inside the fish. There is a good argument to be made for either theory! In his prayer to the Lord he will refer to himself as being "deep in the realm of the dead"---he uses the Hebrew word "sheol" which was a word for the place where the spirits of the dead reside. His use of this word may be literal or it may be metaphoric. If metaphoric, he may consider his life to be over while he is inside the fish; he considers himself as good as dead. Another clue that perhaps he died and then was resurrected when the fish later coughs him out is that the Lord Jesus told His detractors that the sign that He is the Son of God would be the "sign of Jonah". He said He would be resurrected from the tomb after three days inside the earth, just as Jonah emerged alive after three days inside the fish. (Matthew 12:38-40) This has led some scholars to conclude that Jonah died when swallowed by the fish, that his prayer was indeed prayed from the realm of the dead, and that when the fish spewed him out onto dry land he came back to life. I don't believe we will know the answer to this until the day we are in the presence of the Lord and can perhaps hear the story from Jonah himself. But it's an interesting puzzle and was worth briefly discussing here.

Now we will move on to begin studying Jonah's prayer. "From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: 'In my distress I called to the Lord, and He listened to me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and You listened to my cry.'" (Jonah 2:1-2) The words "in my distress" are used a number of times in the psalms. For example, David said, "In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice; my cry came before Him, into His ears." (Psalm 18:6) He also said in another psalm: "I call on the Lord in my distress, and He answers me." (Psalm 120:1) It's important to note that there are three different types of occasions going on with these three different segments.

In Jonah 2:1-2 the Lord hears his cry even though Jonah is responsible for his own troubles. But Jonah calls out to the Lord in a humble spirit, repenting of his wrongdoing. Jonah is still a child of God even though he has made a mistake, for it is clear that he never repudiated the Lord since the Bible refers to the Lord as "the Lord his God". So we see that the Lord mercifully helps us even when we've brought about our own hardships by our own sin. 

But the Lord also helps us when our troubles are the result of someone else's sin. David wrote Psalm 18 to give thanks to the Lord for delivering him from the murderous intentions of the evil King Saul. The king hated David through no fault of David's own. Saul was a very powerful adversary and it must have looked at times as if there would be no way of ever being free of his threats or of ever ascending to the throne of Israel in Saul's place. Yet the Lord caused all of this to come about, so we see that the Lord delivers us from our enemies as well as from the consequences of our own mistakes. 

And thirdly, it appears as if David wrote Psalm 120 after he became king of Israel, but finally receiving this promise of God doesn't mean his troubles were over. As long as we live in this fallen world we will be faced with troubles, so David lumps them all together by saying in one sentence, "I call on the Lord in my distress, and He answers me." Whatever may be the cause of our distress---whether it's the result of our own mistakes, whether it's the result of someone else's mistakes, or whether it's the result of the bad things that naturally occur in a sin-polluted world---the child of God can call on Him at any time and from any place! The child of God can call on Him in the confidence that He cares. The child of God can call on Him knowing that His ears are open and that His heart is filled with mercy and compassion.

Join us tomorrow as we study the remainder of Jonah's prayer. 

The Book Of Jonah. Day 3, Man Overboard

In Sunday's study Jonah's shipmates came to the realization that someone onboard must have offended the gods or else they wouldn't be facing such a violent storm. The men he's sailing with are not worshipers of the God of Israel and have been calling upon their various gods to put an end to the storm, but to no avail. In desperation, because no one would admit to any wrongdoing, they decided to cast lots to see who the guilty party might be. As we concluded yesterday's study we were told that, "The lot fell on Jonah."

They demand an answer from him. "So they asked him, 'Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?'" (Jonah 1:8) They weren't concerned about any of these things when he paid them the fare for a ride from Joppa to Tarshish. But now that the lot has fallen on him (by the hand of the Lord and not by any power of any of their false deities), they are trying to figure out if perhaps he's a fugitive from justice. They suspect he's committed a serious crime and that, although he may have eluded human authorities, "the gods" aren't going to let him get away so easily. 

"He answered, 'I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.'" (Jonah 1:9) His answer seems somewhat evasive. He reveals his nationality and his religion but doesn't explain that he's disobeyed God in a big way. He does, however, give testimony to his belief in the Lord as the one and only God who is the maker of everything that exists. Upon hearing that he serves the God who "made the sea", the men realize that Jonah's God has stirred up the sea in response to something Jonah has done. So they question him further since he is not being entirely transparent. It appears, from our next verse, that he has admitted to being on the run from God but that he hasn't explained what he means by that. 

"This terrified them and they asked, 'What have you done?' (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)" (Jonah 1:10) They must be imagining some sort of capital crime he's committed. I am not sure how well they would have understood how serious a matter it is that Jonah is refusing the Lord's command to go to a Gentile city to confront the citizens of that city with their sins. These men are evidently Gentiles themselves and are not familiar with the Lord's laws or with the way He uses prophets in His efforts to encourage men and women to repent. The author of the book of Jonah does not describe for us the way he explains his calling of God or his refusal to go to Nineveh but, after hearing his explanation, they want to know how to remedy the dire circumstances in which they find themselves. They ask him---the person responsible for their predicament---what to do. He would be in the best position to know what his God requires of him. 

"The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, 'What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?'" (Jonah 1:11) Jonah's confession has not brought about a cessation of the storm. On the contrary, the storm has grown more violent. The men don't know what to do except try to appease Jonah's God by administering justice on behalf of God. Not knowing much about Him, they have no idea what the penalty for Jonah's disobedience should be. They ask Jonah himself, who has stated that he is a follower of the Lord, and to his credit Jonah provides an unselfish solution.

"'Pick me up and throw me into the sea,' he replied, 'and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.'" (Jonah 1:12) He expects to perish in the sea but he does not want to be responsible for the deaths of all these men. The storm is going to assault the ship until it is broken up if he remains on it. That would result in everyone on board ending up in the sea and likely meeting their deaths there. 

Throwing Jonah overboard to his doom is not something the sailors want to do. "Instead, the men did their best to row back to land." (Jonah 1:13a) They've heard his confession but his confession doesn't sound worthy of the death penalty to them. He hasn't taken anyone's life and they are reluctant to let him lose his life for having refused a job his God ordered him to perform in a foreign country. Refusing to preach to people who will listen and repent (for the Lord already knows the people of Nineveh will repent) actually is a capital crime to the Lord because eternal souls are at stake here. Later in the book of Jonah we will find Nineveh's king and a large number of the citizens taking Jonah's words to heart and repenting of their sins. If Jonah does not go to Nineveh, these people could die in their sins. Taking a human life is the worst crime a person can commit against a person's earthly body but hindering someone from coming to salvation in the Lord is the worst crime a person can commit against a human soul. The Lord causes the storm to grow even fiercer while the sailors are trying to avoid throwing Jonah overboard.

They are desperately trying to row for shore but it doesn't work because the Lord intends for Jonah to be cast into the sea. "But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before." (Jonah 1:13b) The sailors don't know the Lord and they can't be certain whether Jonah is correct that throwing him off the ship is the right thing to do. They don't want to be responsible for a man's death and they don't want to offend that man's God, so they cry out to Jonah's God for forgiveness in case they are doing the wrong thing. "Then they cried out to the Lord, 'Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for You, Lord, have done as You pleased.' Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm." (Jonah 1:14-15) 

They refer to him as an "innocent man" because he has not broken any laws that any governments of the world would consider a capital crime. They don't want to be guilty of his death but, on the other hand, it appears as if throwing him overboard is what his God wants, which is why they say to the Lord, "You have done as You pleased." They do what they believe God wants but it goes against what feels right to them. They do not know the Lord and do not understand what a bad thing it was for Jonah to refuse to preach to the people of Nineveh.

As soon as they cast Jonah into the raging sea, the Lord makes it clear to them that they have done as He wished. In verse 15 above the sea immediately grows calm and the sailors are convinced by everything that's happened that the God of Israel is real. "At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to Him." (Jonah 1:16)

The Lord can turn any circumstance into something good. Jonah's disobedience to the Lord resulted in these men coming to faith in the Lord. That doesn't mean it's okay to sin against the Lord! To quote the Apostle Paul: "Shall we go on sinning that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" (Romans 6:1b-2) Jonah has no excuse for sinning against the Lord even though the Lord used this opportunity to reach the heathen Gentiles on the ship. This is simply an example of God's love for mankind in spite of mankind's sin. This is an example of His ability to work all things together according to His plan---to use even our faults and failures as threads in His finished tapestry of our lives. If Jonah had not disobeyed the Lord, he would never have been on this particular ship, and if he had not been on this particular ship, the men aboard this ship would not have witnessed the proof of God's existence and sovereign power over all creation. In this same way, if Jonah had not been on this particular ship, and if he had not been cast into the sea, a miracle would not be able to occur further on in the book. This miracle will convince the people of Nineveh that God exists and that He is the creator of all things and that salvation can be found only in Him.

As we close Chapter 1 we find Jonah thrown overboard and I am sure that both he and the sailors thought this was the end for him. But with God, what appears to be an ending is usually just the beginning.

The Book Of Jonah. Day 2, A Violent Storm

As the book of Jonah opened we found the Lord calling this prophet of Israel to go to the heathen Gentile people of Nineveh to prophecy about the imminent destruction of the city if they do not repent. Jonah didn't want to go and we discussed some reasons for this. One reason is likely that he felt some prejudice toward these pagan people and thought that his time was better spent ministering to his own people of Israel, for a great deal of idolatry was taking place in Israel that needed to be addressed. Another reason is probably that he was afraid of the Ninevites, as their acts of barbarity against foreigners was well known. But a third reason---and a reason that the Bible will plainly demonstrate when we arrive at Chapter 4---is that Jonah felt the Ninevites deserved whatever was coming to them. He didn't want to see the wrath of the Lord turned away from them. 

While his opinion that their ungodly acts deserve judgment is understandable, it's also understandable that the Lord would rather a person repent and be saved than that the person continue living in sin and have to face the judgment. We all have sinned and therefore we all deserve judgment but the Lord would far rather we accept the forgiveness and mercy He's offering to us. 

But Jonah is on the run and he has boarded a ship going in the opposite direction from the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. The ship is headed westward, to Tarshish, whereas Nineveh lay to the east. But there is no hiding from God! Jonah could travel to the ends of the earth and the Lord would still have His eyes on him. 

King David spoke on this very subject, saying to the Lord, "Where can I go from Your spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, 'Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,' even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You." (Psalm 139:7-12) There were times when David regarded the Lord's constant ability to see him as a blessing; the Lord was with him wherever he went when he was on the run from the murderous King Saul. There were times when David was dismayed by the fact that nothing he did or said was hidden from the Lord, but even this was a blessing because being confronted with his sins caused him to repent of them. Jonah is about to be confronted with the fact that he cannot hide from God and that the best thing he can do is obey Him.

Right now, though, Jonah thinks he's made his escape. The boat has sailed away from the port. But a violent storm, sent by the Lord, arises. "Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship." (Jonah 1:4-5a) These men are experienced sailors, so we know the storm was indeed life threatening by their reaction to it. They pray to their various gods, for these men are not worshipers of the God of Israel, and when their gods don't answer they begin to jettison the cargo in hopes that lightening the load will help them to ride out the storm. They would never dream of parting with the cargo if it were not a life and death situation because if they do not deliver the cargo safely to port they will not get paid. 

Where is Jonah while this is taking place? Is he crying out to his God too? No, he is sleeping in a lower chamber. "But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep." (Jonah 1:5b) I believe he probably went to sleep not long before getting on board and that he's in such a "deep sleep" that he's completely unaware of the storm. How is he able to sleep so deeply? It may be that he hasn't slept for days while he wrestled with his conscience and while he tried to decide what to do instead of going to Nineveh. Another reason he's sleeping may be to avoid feelings of guilt or depression; if he's asleep he doesn't have to think about the way he's disobeying the Lord and he doesn't have to be aware of the distance this is creating between him and the Lord. Or another reason might be that his sense of relief was so great when the ship set sail---when he thought he had gotten away with running from God---that exhaustion immediately set in. 

The heathen men's gods have not answered their pleas to calm the storm. The captain realizes Jonah is not on deck and that whichever god Jonah serves has not been called upon yet. In desperation he rushes to his bunk and wakes the sleeping man and commands him to begin praying. "The captain went to him and said, 'How can you sleep? Get up and call on your God! Maybe He will take notice of us so that we will not perish.'" (Jonah 1:6)

Jonah goes up on deck with the rest of the men but the Bible doesn't say that he cries out to God. He is living in disobedience to the Lord and it may be that he feels he cannot, in good conscience, ask the Lord for help without also repenting and doing what the Lord has told him to do. I think he is standing on the tossing ship, holding onto something for support, while still harboring a rebellious attitude. The situation with the storm is looking more hopeless by the minute and the sailors begin to suspect that somebody's deity is unhappy with something somebody on board has done. Since no one is speaking up and confessing that he's offended his god, they decide to perform a ritual to reveal the person's identity.

"Then the sailors said to each other, 'Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.' They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah." (Jonah 1:7) I presume that each of these men called upon his god to cause the lot to fall upon the person who has displeased the god. The God of Israel is the only one who answers. Jonah, of all the men present, is the only one not praying for this outcome. He knows he's the cause of this calamity and in tomorrow's passage we will find him confessing this and telling them that the only way to save themselves from the storm is to cast him out of the boat and into the sea. We will find the men reluctantly doing so, expecting his life to end in the sea. I think Jonah also believes this is the end for him. But the Lord will have mercy on him---and not only on him, but on the people of Nineveh as well.

While we are still living in this fallen world, storms are going to come into our lives. Some of those storms are going to be of our own making. Like Jonah, we mess up and disobey the Lord. We make a wrong choice and find ourselves facing the unpleasant consequences of that choice. But the Lord has been merciful to us too! He has forgiven us when we've repented. He has helped us to clean up many of the messes that we've made. Sometimes the consequences resolve swiftly because we learn the lesson quickly. Other times, for our own good, He has to allow the consequences to linger for a while to make certain the lesson has imprinted on us deeply enough for us to never want to make the same mistake again. And, unfortunately, there are some mistakes that can never be fully undone in this imperfect world because a person we have wronged may want nothing else to do with us or we may have messed up too badly at school to remedy our grades or we may have disobeyed our employer too severely to be allowed to keep our job. But even when these things happen and our fellow man doesn't forgive us, it's not an indication that God hasn't forgiven us and it doesn't mean He doesn't still have good plans for us or that He can't use us for His kingdom work. 

Jonah has made a mistake but the Lord still has plans for him. The Lord still intends to use him to lead the soul of the king of Nineveh to salvation and the souls of countless citizens of that heathen city to salvation. If the Lord can still use the rebellious Jonah to accomplish great things for His kingdom, what might He be able to do through you and me?

The Book Of Jonah. Day 1, Fleeing From The Lord

We have arrived at our study of the prophets and rather than studying them in the order in which they appear in the Bible, we are going to do something different by studying them in chronological order. They are not arranged in the Bible in chronological order but, after just having finished our study of the kings of Israel and Judah and the fall of Israel and Judah, I thought it over and decided that while that material was fresh on our minds it might be helpful to study the prophets in chronological order so we could go back and see what the prophets were saying during the era of the kings. If we were to go on and study the books in the order in which they appear in the Bible, the next book would be Ezra, which deals with Cyrus of Persia setting free from Babylon the captive people of Judah.

Backing up in time means looking in more detail at the reasons for the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel and for the fall of the southern kingdom of Judah. It seems good to do this right after we have completed our look at the kings of Israel and Judah. On the chronological time chart of the prophets, there is some slight disagreement among exactly which came first, but the majority of charts list the book of Jonah as the oldest. He was called by the Lord to be a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel. His tenure as a prophet coincides with the reigns of King Jehoash of Israel and King Jeroboam II (formerly known as Amaziah) of Israel.

As the book of Jonah opens, the Lord is calling him to leave Israel and go to the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh to call the people out on the sins being committed there. You'll recall from our study of the kings that Assyria is the nation that eventually conquers the northern kingdom of Israel. If the Lord had not called Jonah to go to Nineveh, and if the people of Nineveh had not repented, Assyria would have fallen as a nation before it could ever have conquered Israel. But the Lord is working these things together according to His will. He intends to allow the northern kingdom to fall due to the rampant idolatry of the people, for the majority of them have turned away from Him to serve pagan gods. He intends to use Assyria as the instrument of discipline for Israel's idolatry. But as the book of Jonah opens, the sins of the people of the city of Nineveh have become so atrocious that the Lord can no longer tolerate them. If something does not change, He will have to destroy the city now rather than later. He commands the prophet Jonah to go there to speak out against the people's sins. But Jonah is unwilling to go.

"The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 'Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.' But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord." (Jonah 1:1-3) We don't know much about Jonah prior to his being commanded to speak to the heathen Gentiles of Nineveh. He was mentioned once before in the Bible, in 2 Kings 14:25, when we were told he had predicted that King Jeroboam II would restore the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Dead Sea. This passage states that the prediction came true "in accordance with the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, spoken through His servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher". So we see that, before the Lord sent him to prophesy against the Ninevites, He had been using him as a prophet to His people Israel.

Why does Jonah disobey the Lord? Is it because he feels speaking to sinful Gentiles is beneath him when instead he could be putting all his time toward urging his fellow Israelites to repent? Is he afraid of the Assyrians, who were well known throughout the ancient world for their atrocities against their fellow man? Is it because he thinks they will mock him, or imprison him, or torture him, or kill him? He knows he cannot expect them to welcome him with open arms; the prophet Nahum spoke out against the city of Nineveh, referring to it as "the city of blood" with bodies lying in the streets, also saying it was full of violence, lies, prostitution, sorcery, and witchcraft. (Nahum 3:1-4) This is not a city that any godly person would voluntarily choose to visit. Jonah, prophet of the Lord, does not want to visit it. 

I do think that he feels the people of Nineveh are not worthy of the Lord's concerns or his own efforts, and I do think that he's apprehensive about his own safety, but at the end of the short book of Jonah we will be provided with his primary motive in trying to run away. His reason for trying to get out of preaching to the people of Nineveh is because he does not want the Lord to forgive them! He couldn't know beforehand, of course, whether charging these people with their long lists of sins would cause them to repent, but he knows that if they do repent, the Lord will be "a gracious and compassionate God" toward them, as he states in Chapter 4. As we move on through the book we will discuss his prejudices against Gentiles in general and his outrage toward the Ninevites in particular. We will talk about why it offends his sense of justice that anyone there might escape the wrath of God. But for now he is trying to get as far away from Nineveh as possible. He cannot hide from the Lord, however. He will indeed go to Nineveh, but not in a manner he could ever have expected or predicted. He will speak the word of God to people he never imagined would take to heart what the God of Israel says. Souls will be saved because he ends up in a city he never wanted to step foot in or lay his eyes on. The Lord is merciful---even to the heathen sinners of Jonah's day---and Jonah is going to witness the miraculous saving power of a compassionate God.

The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 140, The Fall Of Jerusalem, Part Four

In Wednesday's study we found the king of Babylon ordering the top officials of King Zedekiah put to death. We found the king of Babylon carrying away, on a third occasion, all but the poorest of the citizens of Judah. Today's text picks up the narrative by saying, "So Judah went into captivity, away from her land." (2 Kings 25:21b) 

Now that Nebuchadnezzar has both King Zedekiah (the man he placed on the throne) and the deposed King Jehoiachin in his custody in Babylon, and now that he has executed Zedekiah's primary advisers, and now that he has carried off to Babylon almost everybody who is anybody of any means or who is a skilled worker, he must appoint someone to watch over his newly acquired territory of Judah. It was a common practice of many ancient kings to place over a conquered people one of their own citizens as governor. The governor would be subject to the conquering king, of course, but having one of their own people over them helped to prevent revolts because their governor would understand their ways, especially in regard to religious matters. "Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to be over the people he had left behind in Judah." (2 Kings 25:22)

Gedaliah's father, Ahikam, was a supporter of the prophet Jeremiah. (Jeremiah 26:24) When King Nebuchadnezzar ordered that Jeremiah be placed in custody but that he also be treated well, Jeremiah was housed in Gedaliah's home where he was treated well. (Jeremiah 39:14) From all appearances in the Scriptures, Gedaliah was a godly man and a good choice for governor over the remnant of the people who remained in Judah. When King Zedekiah's officers (the ones who deserted him when he escaped Jerusalem and was pursued by the Babylonian soldiers) hear that Gedaliah has been made governor, they come to meet with him at his headquarters. "When all the army officers and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah---Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Natophathite, Jaazaniah the son of the Maakathite, and their men." (2 Kings 25:23) In the book of Jeremiah we will be told that these men have been out in the open country since their escape from Jerusalem but that, upon hearing Gedaliah has been appointed over them, they go to see what his plan is. They wonder whether he intends to mount a resistance against the Babylonians, as Zedekiah did, or whether he intends to serve the Babylonians without protest.

Gedaliah tells these men the same thing that prophets of the Lord have been saying to all the people for some time. Jeremiah had advised the king and the people that it was the Lord's will for Babylon to rise to world dominance at this time and that their only hope of saving Jerusalem and remaining in the nation was to submit to the Lord's will by submitting to Babylon. But instead Zedekiah followed the advice of his own chosen officials, some wayward priests, and some false prophets. This is why the city has fallen and so many citizens have been carried away into captivity. If the remnant wants to live in the nation in peace, submitting to the Babylonians is the only way, and Gedaliah makes it clear to the officers that this is what he plans to do. This is what he advises everyone in Judah to do. Apparently this is what the officers want to hear (all except one, as we will learn shortly), because the Bible says Gedaliah's words "reassure" them. 

"Gedaliah took an oath to reassure them and their men. 'Do not be afraid of the Babylonian officials,' he said. 'Settle down in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you.'" (2 Kings 25:24) In the book of Jeremiah we find him also saying this: "I myself will stay at Mizpah to represent you before the Babylonians who come to us, but you are to harvest the wine, summer fruit and olive oil, and put them in your storage jars, and live in the towns you have taken over." (Jeremiah 40:10) The Babylonians require tribute to be paid, and much of that tribute is to be paid with goods which are produced by the land. Gedaliah tells the men that if everyone will settle down and do what is asked of them, they will be allowed to live in peace. In the book of Jeremiah we will find that many Jews who escaped the land of Judah during the three invasions of the Babylonians now return and do exactly what Gedaliah is advising. 

But Ishmael, who was mentioned in 2 Kings 25:23, is not at all happy with Gedaliah's advice. Ishmael is related to the royal family and he has other ideas about how things should go. He probably thinks he should have been appointed governor rather than Gedaliah. And he certainly does not believe in submitting to Babylonian authority. Like his kinsman Zedekiah, he wants to resist. He intends to stage a coup in which he assassinates Gedaliah. In Jeremiah 40 the news of his plot to assassinate the governor is brought to Gedaliah, with the officer named Johanan offering to kill Ishmael before he has a chance to carry out his plan, but Gedaliah does not believe Ishmael would do such a thing. We are not told the reason for Gedaliah's confidence in Ishmael but apparently the governor's enemy has thoroughly convinced him he is his friend. So Gedaliah makes an error in judgment and refuses to hear anything bad said about the man, choosing instead in Jeremiah 41 to host Ishmael and several other men who come to him at Mizpah. While they are all dining together, Ishmael rises up and strikes Gedaliah down with the sword. Jeremiah will provide us with far more details of this incident than does the author of 2 Kings, but the author of 2 Kings condenses the information for us like this: "In the seventh month, however, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was of royal blood, came with ten men and assassinated Gedaliah and also the men of Judah and the Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah." (2 Kings 25:25)

Ishmael and his men kill Gedaliah and several more of their fellow citizens, who were probably men on Gedaliah's administrative staff, his personal guards, and his household servants. They also kill some of the Babylonians. These Babylonians may be the top officials to whom Gedaliah promised to represent his people or they may be guards whom Nebuchadnezzar has appointed to keep an eye on the Jewish governor and the people of Judah. The army officers who are loyal to Gedaliah and a large number of the people of Judah are struck with fear by the thought of what the Babylonians might do in response to the violence that has taken place. "At this, all the people from the least to the greatest, together with the army officers, fled to Egypt for fear of the Babylonians." (2 Kings 25:26) 

We do not know exactly how many citizens of the land of Judah are still present now that this has happened. Nebuchadnezzar has taken Jews captive to Babylon on three separate occasions. Now many more, who were attempting to live peacefully in the land, have fled to Egypt for asylum because they expect Nebuchadnezzar to blame everyone for the deaths of his men and of the assassination of his appointed governor. When the author of 2 Kings states that "all the people from the least to the greatest" fled the land, I don't know whether he means people throughout the entire nation or whether he means the people who were residing at Mizpah where the crime took place. But the Elephantine Papyri of Egypt proves that there were Jews living in Egypt during this time, so the number of people fleeing the expected wrath of Nebuchadnezzar was significant enough for their arrival to have been recorded in an official document. 

A postscript has been added at the end of the book of 2 Kings describing the release from prison of King Jehoaichin of Judah, who was deposed by Nebuchadnezzar. "In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoaichin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. He did this on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month. He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king's table. Day by day the king gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived." (2 Kings 25:27-30) Awel-Marduk also released Zedekiah and the kings of the other nations defeated by Babylon but this is not recorded in the Bible. Jeremiah had prophesied that Zedekiah would die in peace (of natural causes) in Babylon and ancient tradition has it that he passed away just one month after being let out of prison. The kings were released from prison but were not free to return to their own lands. 

The author of 2 Kings appears to regard Jehoaichin as the rightful king of Judah and not Zedekiah (for it was Nebuchadnezzar who placed Zedekiah, the uncle of Jehoiachin, on the throne), since he is still counting the years of Jehoiachin's reign as if it was never interrupted. Jehoiachin is living in exile and will remain in exile for the remainder of his life but the author of 2 Kings is still counting the years from his coronation day up until now. The Davidic dynasty is still alive and well in King Jehoiachin and his sons; by contrast, Zedekiah's sons were executed before he was taken captive to Babylon and his branch of the family tree ends when he dies.

Why does Awel-Marduk show favoritism to Jehoiachin above all the other kings whose lands the Babylonians defeated? Some historians and Bible scholars believe it's because Jehoiachin comes from an older and more powerful lineage than the other kings who are in exile in Babylon. This may have caused Awel-Marduk to consider him the closest man equal to himself in pedigree and stature in the land. Some Bible scholars believe (and I think this theory is the most likely) that it's the grace of God---that He caused the king of Babylon to show special favor to the man the Jews consider their king as a sign that everything He has been promising through the prophets will come true: the people will indeed return to the land of Judah to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. Keeping the Davidic dynasty alive gives the people hope that their nation is not destroyed forever. 

The book of 2 Chronicles ends its account of the era of the kings with an even later postscript than that which has been added to 2 Kings. In it we find the announcement that the prophecy spoken by Jeremiah (that the Jews would be captive in Babylon for seventy years and then released) came true. "In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing: 'This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build a temple for Him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of His people among you may go up, and may the Lord their God be with them.'" (2 Chronicles 36:22-23)

Thank you for spending 140 days in the study of the kings with me! Next we will move on to study the books of the prophets. 

The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 139, The Fall Of Jerusalem, Part Three

King Zedekiah has been captured and Jerusalem has fallen to the Babylonian army. The Babylonians have broken down the walls. They have burned the palace, every home, and every public building of any governmental significance. They rounded up and took captive to Babylon a large number of the citizens of Jerusalem and Judah, all except the poorest of workers to maintain the fields and vineyards. They killed anyone who fought back or who tried to protect the city or the temple. They burned the temple too, but first they looted it.

"The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the movable stands and the bronze Sea that were at the temple of the Lord and they carried the bronze to Babylon. They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. The commander of the imperial guard took away the censers and sprinkling bowls---all that were made of pure gold or silver." (2 Kings 25:13-15) There is an ancient legend that the Babylonian soldiers partied inside the temple for three days before they destroyed it and that they used the containers listed here for their food and drink. If it's true that they held a celebration, they probably made drunken toasts to their pagan gods and they probably ate and drank things that were non-kosher, thus defiling not only the temple but all the vessels inside the temple.

"The bronze from the two pillars, the Sea and the movable stands, which Solomon had made for the temple of the Lord, was more than could be weighed. Each pillar was eighteen cubits high. The bronze capital on top of one pillar was three cubits high and was decorated with a network and pomegranates of bronze all around. The other pillar, with its network, was similar." (2 Kings 25:16-17) Conquering kings liked to make a detailed inventory of everything they took from another nation, including noting the weight of all the precious metals, but in the case of the pillars they were too large to weigh on any scales that existed in the ancient world. 

It's important to note that neither in the Bible nor in the chronicles of the Babylonians is the Ark of the Covenant mentioned as being taken from the temple. We know it was in the temple during the reign of King Josiah but nothing has been said about it since then and it will never again be mentioned as being present and accounted for. This has led to the theory---which I think is very likely---that it was hidden before the city fell to the Babylonians. Hiding it is not without precedent because it was apparently hidden during the reign of King Rehoboam when the nation was being attacked by Pharaoh Shishak; later Rehoboam ordered the Levites to return it to its proper place. So I can well imagine that it would have been hidden at some point during the era when Nebuchadnezzar came against the nation of Judah.  After all, this was the most important religious object of the nation and there were still some people there who were faithful to the Lord, though they might have been in the minority at the time. I cannot imagine Nebuchadnezzar not bragging about having captured this highly revered object, especially since the object symbolized the Lord's presence among His people. Nebuchadnezzar would have taken the capturing of the ark as a sign that his gods were more powerful than Israel's God and I do not believe he would have missed the opportunity to let everyone know he had the ark in his possession. We know, of course, that Nebuchadnezzar was able to conquer Judah only because the Lord allowed it due to Judah's idolatry, but the king of Babylon would have believed his victory was due to his gods being more powerful and he would have set the ark up in the temple of his gods where he placed the other items his men took from the temple of the Lord.

Since the location of the ark is a mystery we cannot solve at this time, we will move on. "The commander of the guard took as prisoners Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank and the three doorkeepers. Of those still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men, and five royal advisers. He also took the secretary who was chief officer in charge of conscripting the people of the land and sixty of the conscripts who were found in the city. Nebuzaradan the commander took them all and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. There at Riblah, in the hand of Hamath, the king had them executed." (2 Kings 25:18-21a) Ancient tradition has it that Nebuchadnezzar set up his headquarters at Riblah, instead of at Jerusalem or just outside of Jerusalem, and sent his army commander to Jerusalem instead of going himself because he was afraid his army might be struck with a plague like the Assyrian army was when it came out intending to attack Jerusalem earlier in the Bible. In 2 Kings 19 the angel of the Lord struck 185,000 Assyrian soldiers dead during the night, without the people of Jerusalem having to fire a single arrow, and the Lord saved the city from the enemy by His own power. It is said that Nebuchadnezzar feared being struck down by plague if it was not the Lord's will to give His people over to the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar was not a follower of the Lord but he did believe He existed and that He might again defend His people. 

Many Bible scholars have made comparisons between the Assyrians and the Babylonians by saying that the Babylonians were far more merciful upon the nations they conquered. The Assyrians were well known for their extreme acts of cruelty upon anyone who refused to pay them tribute, whereas the Babylonians did not kill King Jehoiachin (taking him and his royal household into captivity instead) and did not even kill King Zedekiah after he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, who was the man who placed him on the throne of Judah, but instead took him captive as well (although he blinded him first). The Babylonians also did not kill all the officials and all the priests but only the top-ranking ones, perhaps because they blamed them for advising Zedekiah to revolt. When we arrive at the books of the prophets we will see that Zedekiah preferred to follow the advice of his handpicked officials, the advice of wayward priests, and the advice of false prophets rather than listening to and obeying the word of God spoken through His prophets. 

In our next study session we will look at the remaining verses of 2 Kings 25 and then we will begin our study of the books of the prophets which will provide us with far more details of the spiritual downfall and the political downfall of the nation. But those books also contain some beautiful promises the Lord made to His people regarding their return to the land, the reestablishing of Israel as a nation, and the coming Redeemer.