Jonah

Book of Jonah “Us and Them” His people, and non-believers too.

Author: Scholars feel the book is anonymous but is named after the main character of Jonah, ( יוֹנָה , yo-nah)

Date: Jonah was prophesying during the reign of King Jeroboam II (782-753 bc.) Scholars write the book was written between mid-eighth and late third century.

Main Theme: Showing God’s compassion for not only for His people but non-believers too.

Jonah 1:1–3 “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.”

Notice in V:1, our book starts off with God speaking. Just as it ends in 4:11.

Jonah, son of Amittai 2 Kings 14:25 is where we can see this proven.

God, speaking to Jonah, who likely gets the vision as a dream. “Arise”

Go to Nineveh, “great city”, was one of the greatest cities as a capital of the Assyrian Empire from 800-612BC.

Their “evil” has come up before me, or brought to my attention.

V:3, what does our pal Jonah do? Goes to Tarshish/Gibraltar!! Fleeing from the Lord. 2,675 miles apart from Tarshish to Nineveh.

Modern day Mosul, Iraq along the eastern Shore of the Tigres River as it flows through Mosul. Tarshish being the Southern most tip of modern day Gibraltar, Spain.

Do y’all think this is far enough ?

Pays for, and takes a ship from Joppa, straight west of Jerusalem on the Mediterranean Sea. Well, if the Lord God is Omnipresent can Jonah really get anywhere God cant see or find him?