Fellowship Around the Table
Great conversations about life, faith, and the Bible from Fellowship Bible Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma (www.fbctulsa.org).
Fellowship Around the Table
The Reluctant Prophet: Jonah w/ Scott L. Johnson (Part 2 of 2)
Dive deep into the turbulent waves of human nature and divine intervention with us, as my good friend Scott sheds light on Jonah. Amidst a sea of defiance and a literal sea storm, we uncover the perennial struggle between a prophet's will and the unyielding divine decree. This episode isn't just a retelling of Jonah's famed reluctance; it's an expedition to the heart of his profound resistance against aiding an enemy nation during Assyrian ascendancy. Join us for a discourse that transcends mere biblical recounting to probe the intricate tapestry of personal ethics, national allegiance, and the unstoppable current of God's purposes.
Wrapping up our exploration, we reflect on the moments of despair and hope etched in Jonah's prayer, and the narrative's emphasis on the 'great'—from the vast city of Nineveh to the formidable tempest and the capacious fish. With an eye on the historical footprint of Jonah's account, we venture into the realms of archaeology and cultural impact, affirming the veracity of the story through biblical cross-references and its ripples in Middle Eastern traditions. So set sail with us on this voyage through a narrative that stitches together the fabric of human will with the omnipotent thread of divine sovereignty.
You are listening to Fellowship Around the Table.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to another week of Fellowship Around the Table. This is week two. We are swimming in the book of Jonah.
Speaker 3:We were diving last time Now we're swimming.
Speaker 2:This is great.
Speaker 3:That's great, I'll be here all week. We can say we're jumping into it, jumping into it.
Speaker 2:I got my good friend here, Scott.
Speaker 3:We're throwing ourselves into it.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:Scott, catch us up a little bit from last week and let's continue on in the book of Jonah.
Speaker 1:You bet, Okay, so we have a cast of characters,000 or 3,000 years ago.
Speaker 3:These were the guys battling the wind and the waves and the forces of nature. We have Nineveh, which was a drunken, violent, perverse city, and Jonah is instructed by God to go to Nineveh. Jonah cannot agree. He feels ethically and morally challenged and he just refuses to go. Of course he knows he can't tell God no, so he just turns around and takes off and gets on this ship. The ship is cornered, god sends a storm and, by the way, the word for that is like thrown or hurled. God hurls this storm down toward the ship and it basically surrounds the ship. There's no way out.
Speaker 3:These manly men by chapter one, verse five, have thrown the cargo overboard. They've effectively thrown their paychecks over the edge of the ship. And they wake Jonah up, who's sleeping. They cast lots and the lot identifies that Jonah is the cause of this. And they ask him what on earth is going on? And he tells them I'm a prophet of the one true God and he made the sea and the of this. And they ask him what on earth is going on? And he tells them I'm a prophet of the one true God and he made the sea and the dry land.
Speaker 3:And they're really terrified now because they really believe they're talking about the one true God who has put them in this predicament. It's Jonah's fault. They ask him what should we do? And he says throw me overboard, because I know it's my fault, and then the storm will stop. And effectively he's telling them throw me overboard because I know it's my fault, and then the storm will stop.
Speaker 3:And effectively he's telling them throw me overboard. I know I'm going to drown and that's okay. He doesn't want to go to Nineveh, he won't have to go. He'll save the men who are not their fault that they're in this predicament. And he knows and I'm going to use air quotes, but all of us would know if we were thrown overboard in that condition, we would drown. There's no other reasonable assumption to make about what he was thinking at the time. And so they try not to. They try to row harder and harder, but they just can't. The ship is threatening to break up, it's sounding worse and worse, the storm's getting worse and worse. So they do finally throw him in. The sea calms down at once. He's in the belly of a fish not a whale for three days and three nights and then he is spit out onto dry land and we talked about that before. What does he smell? Like Fish barf.
Speaker 3:You said it he go barf, can we say that on the podcast?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess, so I'll add a beep. People will really wonder what it is that's right.
Speaker 3:That's right. And he smells like fish barf, because he is what? Fish barf? He is fish barf. He's just been thrown up by a fish. He's been in there three days, I think. We have to imagine his clothes are in tatters, his skin is in tatters. It's blotchy and red and burnt by the acid. His hair's got to be a mess and he's got to stink. He's just got to smell something terrible.
Speaker 2:Scott, I love that. I wanted to stop a little bit. I looked into the minor prophets a lot and kind of where we're at in this history. This is kind of early on after the kingdom split. So after Solomon, the kingdom is going to split into a Northern and Southern kingdom and Jonah is a prophet in the Northern kingdom and this is kind of early on. So we're probably I don't remember exactly 150, 200 years post Solomon, david rain and all of that. And Jonah's actually mentioned in second King, so he's a well-known figure. Yeah, he's not a person that becomes famous, he's known.
Speaker 3:He's not an obscure.
Speaker 2:He's not an obscure figure in the Northern kingdom and the Northern kingdom's greatest threat is the Assyrians and their capital is Nineveh and they're almost neighboring nation and they're the growing world power at the time and the Northern kingdom's greatest threat. And so I think a lot of people do wonder why Jonah didn't want this mission and you you talked about. He didn't want to go to the city, but this is their great threat enemy that hey, spoiler alert is going to conquer the northern nation of Israel in a few generations.
Speaker 2:But you can kind of get a feel for why Jonah, who I think is a patriot, and I don't mean that in a negative way I think patriotism can be a great thing.
Speaker 1:No, that's perfect.
Speaker 2:But there's a sense of I don't want to go help our enemy layer upon layer of reason, why not? Yeah, and I think there's a pressure of being a well-known figure that even adds a layer of wow. What is everybody going to think of me if I go and help? I love this enemy that we hate.
Speaker 3:And what I hear you saying is, if there was a list of all the places God could send, jonah Nineveh would be at the bottom of the list of places he'd want to go. Absolutely, he'd put it in order at the bottom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he clearly acted upon that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he sure did, he sure did.
Speaker 2:But this boss is not deterred.
Speaker 3:His boss is not deterred, correct and his boss is very powerful and he has eyes and ears everywhere, as we talked about last time.
Speaker 2:He can corner somebody in an open sea.
Speaker 3:He can corner, somebody where there ain't no corner, and they were hemmed in we talked last time about. We have this expression. You don't have to ask me twice, would you like a piece of cheesecake.
Speaker 3:You bet you don't have to ask me twice. Well, god did have to ask Jonah twice, he won't have to ask him a third time. So he gets spit out of the fish and the word of the Lord came to Jonah again and says go to Nineveh. So chapter 3, verse 3, jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city. It took three days to go through it. I've read a couple different versions of what that might mean. It could have been three days to get around it, like the circumference around it. It seems, from the context, more likely it took three days to crisscross the city and go back and forth in it.
Speaker 1:And shout this message.
Speaker 3:So he spends three days shouting this message and here's what it says. It says he proclaimed 40 more days and Nineveh will be overthrown. All the text tells us that he said is that he doesn't say who sent him. He doesn't say who's going to overthrow it. He doesn't say why. He doesn't say what they need to do. He just appears to do the bare minimum assignment from God 40 more days and Nineveh will be overthrown. Now let me ask you this question, heath. Let's suppose your boss gives you a really tough assignment and you think, wow, you know I'm really in a bad spot here because this is really going to be difficult, but you achieve amazing success with your assignment. How would you feel about that? I mean great. You'd feel great, like you'd go home and tell your wife hey.
Speaker 3:I got it done. You know this thing that the boss gave me. I wasn't sure how it was going to go. I was worried about my job. It's done. I mean, amazingly, I got it done. It's working. So we have in chapter 3, verse 5, the Ninevites believed God. Capital G, god A fast was proclaimed and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. Get this in verse 6, when Jonah's warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. So you have from the top to the bottom. Everybody basically repents. They put on sackcloth and ashes and they sit and they pray.
Speaker 2:When you first read this, scott, it's unbelievable. It is, it's just like Wow.
Speaker 3:Really, it's unbelievable success. Yeah, and you want to go why? Because all Jonah did was 40 more days and then it will be overthrown.
Speaker 1:That's all he said.
Speaker 3:And the king issues this proclamation and it says by the decree of the king and his nobles, do not let people or animals, herds or flocks taste anything, do not let them eat or drink, but let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on Wow. When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. Now, if we had that kind of success, you're going into the last place on earth you'd want to go. If you made a list of all the places, this is last on the list you go, you give them the bare minimum message and they turn and repent and turn toward God in fasting and in traditional signs of morning sackcloth and ashes. This is a tremendously successful mission that Jonah has been on. Tremendously successful Chapter 4, yes, verse 1.
Speaker 2:There's a great quote and I'm not going to remember who said it. Something makes me think it was wesley. But somebody in church history said when you read about jonah's account through chapter three, you would have to conclude that he was the most successful, greatest evangelist preacher in the history of the world.
Speaker 3:Yet yeah, jonah, chapter four right right and I've got the nib here I'm working from. So it's but the same thing because that word but just sort of erases everything that happened right.
Speaker 3:It just says, or like even so, yeah, even so. I love this To Jonah. It says in chapter 4, verse 1, but to Jonah this seemed very wrong and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord. Isn't this what I said, lord, when I was still at home? This is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. Now let's go back for a second. He says to God isn't this what I said when I was at home? How would you paraphrase that in contemporary English? I told you this would happen, I told you so. I told you so. I told you so, spot on. Who says I told you so, I told you so, Spot on. Who says I told you so to God? Jonah, jonah said it. I just find this fascinating. Jonah says to God I told you so, and he's also telling him what he was going to do, like it wasn't. I told you that was going to happen.
Speaker 3:I told you you would do this, but let's look and see what he says. Would do this, but let's look and see what he says. I knew that you're a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
Speaker 1:He knew God was, he knew.
Speaker 3:God. He knew God. I mean you could put that right in or take it right out of the Psalms, so he really knew God. What you said there is perfectly stated Heath. Then he says in chapter 4, verse 3, now, lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live. But the Lord replied is it right for you to be angry? In other words, are you really in the right to be so angry with what's happening here? So, chapter 4, verse five, jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. I picture this. I doesn't say this, but I picture this maybe being on a little bit of a hill, and if you think about going to a football game or a soccer game as you know, that's not really my thing, but if you're going to go to one, don't you want to be kind of at the midpoint of the field, the 50 yard line line or around the 40-yard line, something like that.
Speaker 2:The 50-yard line is the high-priced ticket.
Speaker 3:It's the high-priced tickets.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And this is how I picture Jonah. He goes away and he goes up on a hill. It doesn't say that, but I picture him going up on a little hill.
Speaker 1:Yep and he makes a little spot and so he's just going to wait up there.
Speaker 3:And it says he made himself a shelter. He sat in its shade and he waited to see what would happen to the city. Now we get to chapter 4, verse 6.
Speaker 3:The Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head, to ease his discomfort. And Jonah was very happy about the plant. Wow, verse 7,. At dawn the next day, god provided a worm which chewed the plant so it withered. And then the next verse 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 he said it would be better for me to die than live.
Speaker 3:Jonah is just so angry with God, he is ticked off at God. It's pretty fascinating. So then we go on. In chapter four, verse nine, god said to Jonah is it right for you to be so angry about the plant? It is, jonah said, and I'm so angry I wish I were dead. But the Lord said You've been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and also many animals? Wow, now the right hand from left thing is the subject of a little bit of speculation. It could be the God saying they don't have a moral code, they don't have a moral compass. Yeah, but the and I, you know, as you know, I don't know any Hebrew, but in this passage I've looked up the meaning of this and the context in the Hebrew is somebody facing east and it's saying they don't know north from south.
Speaker 1:If you're facing east.
Speaker 3:You don't know your left, the north hand from the south hand, basically the left hand from the right hand. So that's the idea of it. I think the most common scholarly interpretation is these are children. Okay who don't know one hand from another. They don't know their left from their right yet. And those are pretty young kids, because kids aren't four or five, six years old right Before they know left from right.
Speaker 2:Because you tend to read it like they don't have a moral compass. But this could be. There's 120,000 who haven't, what we would say, reached the age of accountability.
Speaker 3:That's right, wow, that's right, in which case there could be hundreds of thousands, upwards of a million, people.
Speaker 1:that we could be talking about Right.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:So God basically says should I not be concerned about 120,000 people who can't tell their right hand from their left, and also many animals who would of course be innocent quote unquote just by the nature of they're not people. So the book ends there. Let me ask you a question, heath. If you were reading a short story and the author ended the story right here. How satisfactory would you find that ending? I would not like it. It's abrupt.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:It's really utterly unsatisfying as a short story. It's curious. It's curious, it's almost conspicuous, by its absence of anything more interesting to close it out and you know what's unique about it.
Speaker 2:There's only one other book in the Bible that ends this way. What does it end with I don't remember about is only one other book in the bible that ends this way?
Speaker 3:how? What does it end with?
Speaker 2:I don't remember what's the last part on the page, and also many animals and what's after the s a question mark a question mark. What book is that?
Speaker 3:the other one yeah jonah part two nahum oh, how fun I love. So you put me on the spot this time, but really it's about time. You still owe me a lot more of those two minor prophets in.
Speaker 2:They're the only two books in the Bible the end and the question.
Speaker 3:Question mark. How cool is that? How cool is that?
Speaker 2:You can really get somebody with some Bible trivia there you can.
Speaker 3:Okay, so that dovetails into this question of who wrote the book, because we just don't know who wrote it.
Speaker 3:One of the speculations is that Jonah wrote it, and so I'm going to give you my thought on this, which is only worth what you and all of our listeners are paying for it, which is zero. I think maybe Jonah wrote the book, maybe, and I think by the time he wrote the book, he felt very contrite about the story, and he knows the story isn't about him. Right, the book bears his name, but it's really a story about God, as is everything in the Bible. But I think, if Jonah wrote it, he was happy to end it there, because, let's face it, how does the whole book paint Jonah?
Speaker 2:Not in a high.
Speaker 3:Not in a favorable light.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and even like the great success that he had. I mean in a sense him. But you know, when he goes and actually does preach it's really quick and just kind of highlighted real quick and not like in great detail of what happens.
Speaker 3:And his success, he's still a sourpuss. He's still ticked off at God. He's even more ticked off because it was successful, because these people don't deserve to live, right. So the whole book paints him as a sourp, except chapter two, which we're going to go back to. And the cool thing about it, I think, is that if Jonah is the author, I think he's very contrite. He paints himself as a sauropus, except for this prayer that he prays from the belly of the fish, and he just leaves it abruptly. We don't know. Did he get married? Did he have kids? Where was he buried? You know what was the circumstances of death.
Speaker 3:We don't know any of that. We're not told anything else about him at the end of the book other than that God speaks last and God sort of sets him straight. We don't even know if he was happy with God's answer. That's all we know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So, as a literary work, it's not particularly satisfying to read the ending of the book, which I think suggests he may have been the author. So let's go back to this idea and this is the reason, Heath, that I love teaching the book of Jonah, because I find this completely counterintuitive what I'm about to share with you. We said when you think of God's provision, what kind of things come to mind?
Speaker 1:Food.
Speaker 2:Water Clothing Shelter.
Speaker 3:Sure Right Heat in the wintertime.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Cool in the summertime and we agreed. Those things are good things, yes, when we think of God's provision we think of good things.
Speaker 3:Well, god provides five things in this book and I want us to break down these five things. Five things in this book, and I want us to break down these five things Now. Four of them. The Hebrew word for provide is sometimes translated appointed and sometimes provided. I like the word provided, and provided is what particularly intrigues me here, because these are the five things Now. The first one is the great wind and the great storm, and the verb for that one is different. It doesn't say provided, it says he hurled it, like he threw it on the ocean at this ship that was headed for Tarshi, so he hurled it down, but still we know that if God hurled it, he also sent it or he provided it.
Speaker 2:What's the second thing that he?
Speaker 1:provides. I got the fish, the fish he provides, the great fish.
Speaker 3:Now, the third thing is Boy, the third thing is you love this.
Speaker 1:It's an open book test, so you've got it there.
Speaker 3:The leafy plant. He provides it. So let's go back and do the other one, okay, so the third thing is the leafy plant. The leafy plant that he provides when Jonah's off to the east, on the 50-yard line waiting to see what happens to the city, and God provides this leafy plant that springs up very quickly. What's the fourth thing he provides? Wow, he provides the worm, the worm that chews through the plant and makes it wither and die. And what's the fifth thing? He provides the hot East wind. All of those the first one is is sent or hurled or thrown down, but the other four, the verb is provides. God provided the great fish, he provided the leafy plant, he provided the worm and he provides the hot east wind. Provided, provided. Now we think of God's provision as being good things. Let's break this down. Do you think Jonah was happy about the storm? No, I'm sure he was not happy about the storm. He knows he's going to drown when they throw him in the water.
Speaker 3:We covered that before. Instead, inexplicably from his perspective, he's swallowed up by this thing. He probably doesn't even know what it is until it spits him out three days later. Is he happy about the fish?
Speaker 1:I don't know, I don't think so I don't think so either.
Speaker 3:Now, when I teach this, that's the one I get the most pushback. Well, sure he's happy about it because it saved his life. I don't think he's as interested in his life being saved, and he doesn't want to go to Nineveh. He's not interested in his life at the end? He's not. He says I'm angry enough to die. I'd rather die than live. So my answer is I don't think so. So, since it's my teaching, we're going to go with no.
Speaker 3:But, I'll grant that there are some people that think, well, maybe he was. How about the leafy plant? Is he happy about that? Yeah, Very happy it says he's ecstatic about the leafy plant. How about the worm? No, not happy about the worm. And how about the hot east wind?
Speaker 3:Not at all. Definitely not happy about that. You got five things God provided. The first one is sent. The others are specifically provided. But let's just say five things that God provided. How many of them is Jonah happy about? One? What percent is that? Heath 20. 20% Of the five things, only one of them is recognized as good by Jonah in the moment. Only one of them is seen as good provision from God.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:The other four constitute what percent? 80. 80% of what God provides in this book is unwelcome by Jonah. It's not well received, it's not good news from where he sits and it's not considered something good, even though it is God's provision for him. And I think there's a very real and important lesson for us as believers in the same God that sometimes what he provides isn't what we want, it's not what we think would be good in the moment, but it's what we need. And God provided things that centered Jonah in God's will for his life in this story, even though they weren't things that Jonah welcomed or thought were good at the point that he received them. That's why I love teaching this book. Now let's go back to chapter two. Chapter two, honestly, is kind of an anomaly in the book because he's a sourpuss almost the entire time. Yeah, but chapter two, he prays this beautiful prayer. You could cut and paste this out into the Psalms and it would fit right into the book.
Speaker 2:So what I have on the outline here Go ahead. Well, I've researched that and I was looking it up because I looked up how many times he quotes from Psalms or something, or you could paraphrase it's very congruous with Psalms.
Speaker 3:What'd you find?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've looked into this and I mean it's not like you know, he quotes a whole verse like we think about a reference. But I think especially some Jewish scholars think that you can comprise 15 different Psalms From his content, from his content in chapter two.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and let's remember this timeline. We don't know exactly, but a lot of people place Jonah in that 800 to 750 BC. Right, you're just a couple hundred years out from these Psalms being published. Yes, yeah, and they've already been canonized, yep, and Jonah knows them. Isn't that great, deeply by that time Isn't that great.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so there's clearly he's drawing from that repository. That's right Of scripture.
Speaker 3:Yes, as he would have known it, clearly known and being it's out there within the Jewish people and on top of that, we know that he knows God Because at the end, when he says I told you so, he accuses God of being gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. I mean, he basically says I told you you were going to do this. So, heath, I'd like you to read if we go to chapter two, verse one says from inside the fish, jonah prayed to the Lord, his God. He said, once you read the prayer, which comprises several verses after that, until through verse nine, Okay.
Speaker 2:In my distress I called to the Lord and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help and you listened to my cry. 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. I said I have been banished from your sight. Yet I will look again toward your holy temple. The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me. Seaweed was wrapped around my head To the roots of the mountain. I sank down. The earth barred me in forever. But you, Lord, my God, brought my life up from the pit. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them. But I Isn't that beautiful, Wow.
Speaker 3:That's a beautiful prayer. It's amazing and he says it from what arguably would have been the worst condition he's been in in his life, Right Trapped by all these digestive juices that are working on him. No doubt. And yet he prays this beautiful prayer and somehow, inexplicably, after he's vomited out, he is back to being a sourpuss again. But I think there are two verses.
Speaker 2:I've never been like that.
Speaker 1:Of course, after he's vomited out, he is back to being a sourpuss again, but I think there are two verses.
Speaker 2:I've never been like that, of course I've never. No, we wouldn't do that.
Speaker 3:Had, just you know, ecstatic worship and intimacy and a week later be a sourpuss, Don't you think? Don't you love how we see the humanity? Of all of these people chosen by God for these assignments all through the scriptures.
Speaker 3:Their imperfection, their fallibility, and yet how God uses them over and over again, Over and over again. There's nothing. We have no excuse. Right, there's nobody else. You know we're no different or no worse than anybody else. In the scriptures, God has, as we've talked before, he's got stuff for us to do. I want us to read two of these verses together because I think, as I look at this, I think verses 2 and 6 form a prayer that anybody could pray in any circumstance, good or especially something that's really adverse, and all of us have some kind of an adverse thing happening in our lives our extended family or a close friend or something at work.
Speaker 3:We all have something going on, I think just about all the time. Two and six. So we're going to read just two and six. Are you ready? We'll try to do this together.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay.
Speaker 3:In my distress.
Speaker 1:I called to the Lord and he answered me.
Speaker 3:From deep in the realm of the dead.
Speaker 1:I called for help and you listened to my cry To the roots of the mountains I sank down.
Speaker 3:The earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, Lord, my God brought my life up from the pit. And I think that's where I like to end when I teach this book is those two verses.
Speaker 2:You know I really love verse 4 too of that.
Speaker 1:Read it.
Speaker 2:Well, okay, I'm going to read it.
Speaker 1:It's fantastic.
Speaker 2:I said I have been banished from your sight yet I will look again toward your holy temple yep and I think you can. You can interpret that two ways. One he had become convinced he's going to survive this. I don't think so.
Speaker 2:I think he believed in resurrection, like he knew life after a life after, and he was going to be in the presence lord, which is to me the idea of the holy temple At his time, before he didn't understand, the new covenant was coming. That was going to open up the way, but in his context there was one holy temple where the Lord resided Right.
Speaker 3:And he was going to be back in that presence again. That's a great, that's a wonderful, a wonderful thought. I love that again.
Speaker 2:That's a great. That's a wonderful, a wonderful thought. I love that. I love too. You talked about the word use of the word great. And if I could put you on the spot. In general, Christian or not, this story is widely known around the world. What do most people know about this story.
Speaker 3:What's the most famous part?
Speaker 1:Well, obviously, jonah getting swallowed by the, by the fish, the fish yeah.
Speaker 2:And so that use of great four times. The great fishes mentioned two times. The great storm is mentioned nine times. The great city is mentioned, Jonah is mentioned 18 times, but God by his name, 38 times in the scriptures in Jonah chapter, chapter one through four, 38 times very interesting.
Speaker 3:This book is about god yeah, there's no question about that and I had never made those accounts, so I love that you brought that yeah, I love that you brought that to this study we're talking about and then, lastly, you hit on it in all of our later wisdom we're so smart today in our time, right, aren't we?
Speaker 2:aren't we? We're so smart that a lot of people do look and think, oh, this couldn't have happened. This is an allegory of some sorts. There's meaning here, but this is a poetic story. But Jesus refers to Jonah. I would encourage anybody that struggled with this story and the historicity to go dig a little. You would be shocked what God has left behind in history and archeology and all of that about this person. That's not widely known, it's not widely taught. You got to dig a little but you'll be shocked about the city, about what they found. So what most people don't know is the Assyrians are going to be defeated by the Babylonians. This is seven 800 years before Christ. The city of Nineveh basically disappears from the records.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is going to be destroyed later.
Speaker 2:It's going to be destroyed, but I mean, this is a massive city that would have something left behind, but it disappears to the point that by the middle ages, most people believed that the city was never real because, they couldn't find it. It was discovered in 1842 by a british. How cool is archaeologist? And what they found matched the biblical description how cool is that?
Speaker 2:and in fact, if you want to get online, it would be amazing. You go there in person. But if you go to the British Museum, they have amazing artifacts from the city of Nineveh, from this explorer and the archaeologists.
Speaker 3:That they dug up, literally dug up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you'll be amazed at the information about fish.
Speaker 3:What would you so Heath for? The listener who wants to follow up on that. What search terms would you encourage them to look up?
Speaker 2:I would start with the British Museum in Nineveh. I think people would be surprised, too, just how much more known and revered Jonah is in the Middle East. I mean, there's still shrines of him in the Middle East, in fact-.
Speaker 3:I didn't know that. That's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in fact, with ISIS and all those wars, one of those was blown up. It was a big story that had been there for centuries. And what's so cool is, you know, there's geographical formations and things and they get names, and where Nineveh was found, there was these big mounds, and one of the mounds was named after Jonah, where they found Nineveh.
Speaker 2:It just goes on and on and on just how impactful this man is. And what most Christians don't know is there is a chapter I don't know if it's chapter or book I think it's a chapter in the Quran named after Jonah, I did not know that either. That's really cool.
Speaker 3:He's in that text as well, I love your interest in ferreting out what we know about the history of all these different things. You really have the mind for that and I love that.
Speaker 2:All that to say, 2 Kings 14.27 also identifies Jonah as a real person. That's the historical chronological section of the Hebrew Bible, and in Matthew 12, 39 through 41, jesus considered Jonah a historic person.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and Jesus compares his three days in the belly of the fish to the three days Jesus would spend between crucifixion and resurrection, which we know in the Hebrew was any part of a day, yeah.
Speaker 2:And whether it's the 10 plagues and the miracles that came out of that little episode. I think this is one of those supernatural miracles that the reason we still talk about it today, the reason that still seems to be known around the world, is God showed up in the supernatural way. That's just not forgotten by humanity.
Speaker 3:Yes, and to your earlier point, like what everybody knows about, it is Jonah gets swallowed by the fish or he ran from God and then he gets swallowed by the fish. But to your point, and I love the ways that the book is about God, yeah, and I think that's why it ends so abruptly and it's so unsatisfying about, well, what happened to Jonah we don't know, because it doesn't matter to the story. The story is about God, yeah.
Speaker 2:I love it All, right, well, yeah, well, I'm going to keep having you come in here.
Speaker 3:I'll keep coming back. It sounds great. I love it All right.
Speaker 2:Thank you, scott, loved this Love. Jonah, I hope listeners please enjoy it and share it with somebody that you love. Thank you all and we'll see you next.
Speaker 1:Thanks for joining Fellowship Around the Table. If you would like to learn more, go to fbctulsaorg.
Speaker 3:So we're going to read just two and six. Are you ready? We'll try to do this together.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:In my distress.
Speaker 1:I called to the Lord and he answered me.
Speaker 3:From deep in the realm of the dead. I called for help. You want to go back and do that again. Did you say six?
Speaker 1:We weren't finished with two. That's what I did, wrong.
Speaker 2:Yeah, two goes on the next page.
Speaker 1:Okay, All right. I was like what are you?
Speaker 2:reading the second half of two. I thought we were skipping to b. That would be to b okay.
