Jonah

[TrueChild]

:hug

[Tio-Peregrino]

:hug

No issues...but thanks for the hug anyway.:heythere

[Joel]

I'm scratching my head here.

If a 'type' is prophetic and the 'anti-type' is the fulfillment, does that mean Christ is prophetic and the Anti-Christ the fulfillment?

Not terribly funny.

Keep the side-tracks out of here (again), please. :hug

[lisa]

Somebody is ultra-sensitive this evening. It was meant as a play on words.

True Child,

While I can appreciate a sense of humor, your sarcastic and rhetorical posts about type/anti-type are derailing this thread. If you would be so kind, please stick to the topic.

[OCSANDLOVER]

Jonah didn't like the people of ninevah but God loved them and then Jonah became angry after they repented.great message there for us about our enimies or when and if we choose who will and won't love or minister to!

[Emily Ruth]

I pulled this together from various sources and added my thoughts a few years ago and thought it might add something to the thread.

Jonah has to be my favorite 'human' character because he acted as we all would have and also no one could blame him. Even God showed His understanding for Jonah's hatred of them but wanted Jonah to see it from God's view point. I see it as a similarity between the Jews accepting the gentiles as people that God loved too.

To me, the book is all about forgiveness.

The people of Ninevah had been persecuting Jonah's people all of his life.

Nineveh was established by Nimrod, "the mighty hunter" (Gen. 10:8-10). It served as the capitol of the Assyrian Empire for many years.
The Assyrian Empire began a quest for world domination under Tiglath-pileser III in 745 B.C. He invaded northern Israel and deported some of the inhabitants to the region around Nineveh. Sargon II completed the siege of Samaria that had been started by Shalmaneser V in 722 B.C. Later, Sennacherib shut up King Hezekiah in Jerusalem "as a bird in a cage." Ashurbanipal led a campaign into Egypt and caused the downfall of Thebes (called No-amon in Nahum 3: .
The Assyrian Empire was known for its cruelty. "Judged from the vaunting inscriptions of her kings, no power more useless, more savage, more terrible, ever cast its gigantic shadow on the page of history as it passed on the way to ruin. The kings of Assyria tormented the miserable world. They exult to record how 'space failed for corpses'; how unsparing a destroyer is their goddess Ishtar; how they flung away the bodies of soldiers like so much clay; how they made pyramids of human heads; how they burned cities; how they filled populous lands with death and devastation; how they reddened broad deserts with carnage of warriors; how they scattered whole countries with the corpses of their defenders as with chaff; how they impaled 'heaps of men' on stakes, and strewed the mountains and choked rivers with dead bones; how they cut off the hands of kings and nailed them on the walls, and left their bodies to rot with bears and dogs on the entrance gates of cities; how they employed nations of captives in making brick in fetters; how they cut down warriors like weeds, or smote them like wild beasts in the forests, and covered pillars with the flayed skins of rival monarchs." (Farrar, The Minor Prophets, pp. 147,148).

So, it doesn’t take a bible scholar to realize that Jonah did NOT want to go to Nineveh let alone preach repentance to them to save them from God’s wrath.

He, like all of us would be too, was WISHING it on them. So, when God asked Jonah to make this little trip to Ninevah Jonah was thinking
1. They are going to kill me and
2. I don’t want them to repent – they deserve to die.
So, the first thing Jonah thinks about doing was running away.
He is given aid by some sailors unbeknown to them who they were giving a lift to. When their boat suffers a terrible storm Jonah confesses that it is because of him and asks they throw him overboard. The sailors, not wanting to anger his God, are leary but Jonah assures them it is okay.

When Jonah is thrown overboard, he is swallowed by a whale. This is God’s version of a ‘time out.’

So, when Jonah finally agrees to see it God’s way and go to Ninevah, he is released from the whale and set near dry land.
Jonah goes to Nineveh and preaches to them to repent and they do and they receive a reprieve from destruction (it turns out it was somewhat temporary but God got His point across to Jonah and accomplished what God wanted)
The last segment of Jonah is priceless and we learn so much about God’s nature:
Jonah 3:10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.
Jonah 4
Jonah's Anger at the Lord 's Compassion
1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live."
4 But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?"
5 Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live."
9 But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?"
"I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die."
10 But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"

Isn’t that just the best story!
And you thought it was all about a man who was swallowed by a whale.

[Joel]

Wonderful insights, everyone. I love them~!

For those interested, a compelling discussion (also on Jonah) happens to be occurring here in the End Times forum:

Jonah's Gourd (http://www.rr-bb.com/showthread.php?t=938)

enjoy!

[Joel]

Jonah is not a type of Christ

He was to be a messenger of God, and rather than obey- he disobeyed.

He finally brought a message of repentance (and the people repented)
rather than rejoice ... He lamented

The only analogy of Jonah that fits Christ (and the reason Christ raised it)
was that just as Jonah was 'dead' in the whale 3 days ... so too would Christ be 'dead' in the earth 3 days ... only to be 'reborn'

Jonah ain't no Jesus!

IMHO, Jonah is both a type of Christ (and of Israel) -- as I somewhat touched upon in the "Jonah's Gourd" thread.

But the thing about "types" and "shadows" is that they are inherently not the express manifestation of that which it predicts. They are mere outlines, and sketches... available for those with discerning eyes.

They are not the "real thing". No one is comparable to Christ, for He was the only perfect Man... but God seen fit to use imperfect men to illustrate and prophesy of truths concerning His son and His son's redemptive ministry... a ministry which would redeem the entire cosmos and all of creation back to Himself.

Think of your own shadow. Does your shadow constitute all of you? Is that really "you"?

Yes, and no. So it is with shadows and 'types' in Scripture. They give the outline of you... but they are not the full expression of who you are. They just "point" to you.

Types and Shadows "point" to Christ, or His ministry. God will take that which is imperfect, or evil.. and turn it around for Good, and use it. He is not restricted, His hands are not tied up.... He has seen it fit to employ many patterns of truth within his word which ultimately Glorify and bring attention to His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

David is seen as a strong type of Christ... but we ALSO know he was an adulterer, and a murderer at one point.

Do we forget this? No. But it does not negate how he foreshadowed Christ... to the point where God called David a "man after His own heart".

[jelaine]

I can relate to Jonah a lot (Thats probably not a good thing) I think Jonah and Elijah had a lot in common, manic depressive and cracked under pressure, but something kinda silly that I never got until I watched Veggie tales (Laugh all you want but God uses EVERYTHING) Is that Jonah went up on a hill to watch the city burn .... remember Jonah said "Yet forty days and Ninevah shall be overthrown" .... well they did repent but I think Jonah hated them so much he really expect for God to hit the smite button on them... he went and waited up on a hill for them to get smited I think and then got ROYALLY depressed because God didn't do it .... can anyone relate?

"It is better for me to die than to live"

[jelaine]

I was skimming through Jonah, and realized

Jonah knew they would repent and he knew God would forgive them. He hated them so much, he didn't want to see God forgive them...Jonah 4:2

I think Emily Ruth had some excellent insites to the story, I think a close 'antitype' (trying to be punny) would be if God asked one of us to go a Klu Klux Klan warehouse in Idaho and tell them to repent. Look at what they are doing in the name of Christ, white pride etc, how many of us would be quick to jump on a greyhound and tell them people the 'good news' and if they did repent and God did forgive them, how unhappy would any of us be ....

I just found really facinating that Jonah said "Ah Lord God is this not what I said while I was still in Tarshish" He knew they would repent and God would forgive them remember he was a holy prophet, those guys were perty close to God, He was mad he could forsee what would happen and when it did, was even madder, the only was I can describe it, is a kkk repentence. Know what I mean?