Welcome back to the Jesse Tree on the Catholic Sprouts podcast.

Today is Tuesday of the third week of Advent.

As the years passed, Israel's enemies became stronger.

About 50 years after the prophet Elijah was taken to heaven in a fiery chariot, parts of the northern kingdom were conquered

by the Assyrian Empire, and the Jews living there now lived under Assyrian rule. Jews living

in the city of Nineveh, located in that region, soon forgot about God. They no longer followed his commandments. Instead, they began to live

as Assyrians and practiced their cruel pagan religion. Even then, God did not forget his people.

Instead, he called up a reluctant prophet to go and preach repentance.

Listen now to the story of Jonah, found in the book of Jonah.

Jonah 1.1 through 4, 7 through 10, 15 through 17.

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amite, saying,

Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.

But Jonah set out to flee to Tarsius from the presence of the Lord.

He found a ship going to Tarsus, so he paid his fare and went on board.

But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the

ship threatened to break up. The sailors said to one another, come, let us cast lots, so that we may

know on whose account this calamity has come upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.

Then they said to him, tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from?

What is your country? And of what people are you? I am a Hebrew, he replied. I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea in the dry land.

Then the men were even more afraid and said to him,

What is this that you have done? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he had told him so.

So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.

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