Welcome back to Daily Bread and
another book of the Old Testament called The Book of Jonah. You may think
of the story of Jonah as a children's story, but this little tale has some
important lessons for folks of all ages. It's very easy to picture this
story in your mind's eye, so dust off your imagination and let's go fishing
for the story of Jonah.
The year was about 775 B.C. and in a
city called Nineveh, located in Assyria, they were practicing evil that the
Lord didn't like. The Lord would always warn the people
before
by way of
His prophets before He would ever do anything like destroy a city, as it is
written. Sooooo, the Lord spoke to Jonah saying, Get up and go to the great
city of Nineveh and warn them because their wickedness has come to my
attention.
Now Jonah was from Gath-hepher and
Nineveh was about 500 miles or so, east from there. Well, Jonah didn't wanna go to Nineveh because, he knew that God was known for extending mercy
and that was a long way to travel and frightening to him. Jonah decided to
run away from God, so he went down to Joppa, about 25 miles away and found a
ship heading west for Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into the
ship thinking he was escaping the presence of the Lord.
JONAH AND THE WHALE BIBLE VERSE LESSON WITH JONAH AND THE WHALE BIBLE VERSE EXPLANATION
AND JONAH AND THE WHALE BIBLE VERSE SUMMARY
However, the Lord hurled a strong wind
on the sea and created a huge storm, so strong that the ship was in danger
of being destroyed. The sailors were afraid and they all cried to their
gods and threw all the cargo of the ship into the sea to lighten it.
Meanwhile, Jonah was down in the side of the ship, fast asleep.
The shipmaster went down to Jonah and
said to him, What do you think you're doing, O sleeper? Get up and call on
your God and ask Him to consider us, so we don't die. The people on the
ship decided to cast lots to find out whose fault all this trouble was.
When they cast their lots, the lot fell upon Jonah. They asked him, What's
the reason for all this evil and where do you come from? What's your
country and who are your people?
Jonah said, I'm an Hebrew and I fear
the Lord God of Heaven, that made the sea and the dry land. Jonah told them
that he was hiding from the Lord and this scared the people. They asked
Jonah, Why did you do this? The storm was growing more and more furious and
the people said What should we do to you so the sea will calm down for us?
Jonah said, Throw me overboard into
the sea and it will be calm afterward because I know it's my fault that this
tempest is upon you. They were afraid to throw Jonah in the water, because
they didn't wanna make God more angry than He already was. They rowed hard
trying to bring the ship to land, but they couldn't. The sea was stirred up
and violently against them. They cried to God and said, We beg you, O Lord,
we beg you, don't let us die for this man's life and don't blame us for
innocent blood because you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you. So they
picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped her raging.
Then the men respected the Lord greatly. They offered a sacrifice and made
vows.
JONAH AND THE WHALE BIBLE VERSE INFORMATION WITH JONAH AND
THE WHALE BIBLE VERSE MEANING AND JONAH AND THE WHALE BIBLE VERSE DISCUSSION
Now, the Lord had prepared a great fish to
swallow up Jonah. Let's have a
lil bread crumb at this point, shall we ... We were taught as children when
we heard this story that is was a whale that Jonah was swallowed by.
However, it does not say that it was a whale, it just says GREAT FISH. But
Jesus clarifies that it was indeed a whale when He said ...
