Today, I am reading and commenting on Jonah and Micah 1-2.

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When God called Jonah to prophesy in Nineveh, he didn’t just say “No.”  He went and got on a ship going the opposite direction, trying to get as far from Nineveh as possible.  Jonah knew that if he stayed where he was he was going to find himself in Nineveh.  And he knew that if he found himself in Nineveh he would begin conveying God’s message to the people of Nineveh.  And if he did that, he knew that the people of Nineveh might repent, and if they repented, God would withhold the punishment He had planned for them.  So, as I said, Jonah tried to put as much distance between himself and Nineveh as possible.  Jonah was right.  God did not allow him to avoid the mission to which He had called him.  However, we often overlook what else God did with Jonah’s disobedience.  God used it to bring the men on the ship Jonah sailed on to Him.  They began to sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to Him.  They learned about the true God and began to worship Him.  God will use us to serve His purposes, even when we try to run from Him, but we will suffer more if we try to do so.  One last point on this.  God is gracious and will give us the opportunity to voluntarily choose to do His will, even when we are at our lowest, if we, as Jonah did, utterly repent and turn back to Him.

Micah prophesies against those who take property from others by deceit or by twisting the law in their favor and against those who oppress others by going after their families.  He goes on to prophesy against those who tell God’s prophets not to preach God’s message.  He suggests that they seek prophets who will only preach good news, who will encourage them to do wrong rather than warn them of their sin.  And all through this, Micah threads God’s warnings to those who oppress their neighbor or others.  One might think Micah was saying that those who oppress others tell God’s prophets not to prophesy God’s warnings, and one would be right.  But in thinking that one might overlook that he is also saying that those who tell God’s prophets to change their message are likely guilty of oppressing others.  If you have found yourself thinking that someone preaching an uncomfortable message should change what they preach, perhaps you need to examine your own life to see what you need to change.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jonah 1-4 and Micah 1-2.

When God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach against it, Jonah instead went in the opposite direction.  Later, after the people of Nineveh repented and God relented of bringing the destruction which He had threatened, Jonah explained that he had headed for Tarshish because he did not want God to relent.  Jonah knew that the wickedness of the people of Nineveh would provoke God’s wrath and did not want to warn them because he wanted them to experience God’s wrath.  As a result, he fled and God brought him into the belly of a fish, where he cried out to God.  We need to take a lesson from Jonah and be sure that we do not strive to flee from going to those whom God has called us.  Let us not refuse to say to our enemies and to those who turn away from God’s love for them that salvation comes from the Lord.  Jonah knew that if the people of Nineveh heard God’s message they might turn to God and that if they did God would relent.  We should have the same confidence, but we should also have God’s love for them so that we do not turn from preaching God’s message.

Which brings me to the beginning of Micah’s message.  Micah speaks out against those who plan and plot evil.  He warns them that God is going to bring a disaster upon them that they will be unable to save themselves from.  Micah was prophesying against the people of Israel and Judah.  Unlike the people of Nineveh to whom Jonah prophesied, the prophets of Israel and Judah, who should have been speaking similar words to those of Micah, told him not to prophesy.  Let us be more like the Ninevites than the false prophets of Israel.  Let us turn from our sins and encourage our fellows to do likewise, rather than claim that God will bless us in our sins.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jonah 1-4 and Micah 1-2.

Reading Jonah’s story today reminds me of a video I watched a few weeks ago where Jordan Peterson talked with Bill Maher about the story of Jonah.  What Jordan Peterson said gave me new insight into the message of Jonah.  He said that the first part of the Book of Jonah tells us what happens to us if we see others doing things which will lead to their suffering and we refuse to speak to them about it.  Jonah didn’t want to tell the people of Nineveh that their actions would lead to bad consequences.  He recognized that if he stayed where he was, someone might hear him speaking God’s message about Nineveh and take it to them, even though he himself did not go there.  So, he got on a ship and tried to go as far from Nineveh as he could imagine being.  Jordan Peterson points out that by trying to avoid letting God’s message getting to Nineveh, Jonah put not just himself in danger, but everyone around him in danger.  At that point, Jonah had a choice, he could allow everyone around him to suffer along with himself, or he could sacrifice himself for them.  Jonah chose to sacrifice himself, and ended up in the worst place he could imagine, a place that was far from God, and from all human interaction.  Only when Jonah surrendered to God and resolved in his mind to do as God had instructed him,  had decided that he would take God’s message to Nineveh, did Jonah come back from that place of torment.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to write anything about Micah, but after I read these first two chapters I felt like I should add a comment on them.  First, Micah tells the people of Israel and Judah the Lord is coming to judge them for their rebelliousness.  He writes that sorrow awaits those who think that because they have the power to do something they have the right to do so.  Then he writes about those who tell him not to make such prophecies.  In Jonah we learned that if we do not speak the message God gives us, we will suffer, as will all of those around us.  In Jonah, the people of Nineveh were receptive to God’s message.  Here, the people do not want to hear it.  Nevertheless, Micah spoke God’s message, and despite most of his audience not wanting to hear the message a few listened.  Micah assured those who listened that God would redeem them in His time.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jonah 1-4 and Micah 1-2.

God called Jonah to go to Nineveh and prophesy that it would soon be destroyed.  However, Jonah did not want to preach this message to the people of Nineveh because he wanted them to be destroyed and was afraid that they would listen to his prophecy and repent.  So, in order to avoid inadvertently delivering God’s message to the Ninevites, Jonah decided he would go in the opposite direction.  However, when God brought misfortune upon Jonah, Jonah surrendered and agreed to deliver God’s message.  When the Ninevites repented, Jonah was angry that God chose to withhold the destruction He had Jonah prophesy.  Finally, Jonah gets angry because a vine which had grown up to give him shade died.  God uses the death of this vine to point out to Jonah that he was more concerned with his own comfort than the lives of thousands of people.  Ultimately, the Book of Jonah has two vitally important messages for us:

1. There is no place to which we can run to escape God’s plans for us
2. We should value others more than we value our comfort

I was not sure I was going to write about Micah, but after reading it I had some thoughts I wanted to write down.   Micah prophesies that God’s judgement is about to pour out against Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and against Judah, the Southern Kingdom.  The sins of the people of both kingdoms will result in terrible destruction for them.  Micah tells us that the sins of these nations spread out from their capitals.  Samaria and Jerusalem were to blame for the people of Israel and of Judah sinning in ways which led to invasion and desolation.  As we read on into chapter two we realize that Micah’s prophecy against Samaria and Jerusalem is not specific to those geographic locations.  Instead, Micah tells us that the leaders of the people were responsible for their sins.  Micah’s message here is twofold.  First, the rich and powerful will suffer the same desolation from their sins that the common people will experience.  Second, if we allow our leaders to lead us into sin, we will suffer the consequences.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jonah 1-4 and Micah 1-2.

I had a couple of different thoughts about the Book of Jonah today.  As I started to try to put those thoughts into words a question occurred to me: why does God seem to hound certain people until they, like Jonah, stop running from His will and consent to fulfill it?  And I think Jonah illustrates at least part of the answer to that question.  Jonah ran from God’s will, but when the judgement God brought down upon him threatened to fall upon those around him, Jonah offered himself up as a sacrifice to turn God’s wrath aside from them.  And that seems to offer up the difference between Jonah and those whom God allows to run away from Him.  God sent destruction in the form of a storm upon the ship Jonah was on until He got Jonah’s attention.  Then, when the people around him, had done everything in their power to escape the storm, only then did they allow Jonah to “take the fall”.  Perhaps, if Jonah had continued to deny God, God would have allowed everyone on board to go on their way, even Jonah.  We do not know, but I have seen people who have turned from God suffer many things until a time comes when God seems to give up on them and allows them to live in peace.  On the other hand, I have seen people who have turned from God suffer one thing after another year after year, until finally they give up and acknowledge God.  One other point, Jonah denied God because he was afraid that the people of Nineveh would turn from their sin and God would forgive them: he wanted them to suffer.  However, Jonah was unwilling for the people on the ship with him to suffer for his sins.  That also plays a roll in why God went so far to bring Jonah back to Him.

I want to contrast the way the people of Nineveh responded to Jonah’s prophecy of destruction to the way the people of Israel responded to Micah’s prophecy (or, at least the way that their response is recorded in today’s passages).  When Jonah prophesied to the people of Nineveh that God would destroy the city in 40 days because of their wickedness, they repented of their evil and began to fast and pray.  On the other hand, Micah tells us that when he told the people of Israel that God was going to destroy Samaria and Jerusalem, they told him to shut up.  When a prophet of God speaks to us, let us respond like the people of Nineveh did here, not the way the people of Israel did.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.