Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

Congratulations!

Today we finished our 18th book of the Bible, so let's talk about it.

Shono was a prophet who lived during the time of King Jerry II, a king in the Northern

Kingdom of Israel.

This is around 750 BC.

Some people regard this book as allegory and not as historical fact, but one important

thing to note, it's almost certainly not a parable, because one of the characteristics

of parables is that they have anonymous characters, not real humans with names, whereas Jonah

is mentioned by name in both the book of Second Kings and by Christ himself in Matthew 12.

And on top of that, it's far more complex than any other parables we have in Scripture.

Regardless whether you view it as allegory or history, the things it reveals to us about

God remain the same.

He shows love and mercy to many of his enemies, choosing to adopt them into his family.

Jonah is probably the author of this book because it includes details only he would know.

And since a lot of the book shows how foolish and selfish Jonah was, it probably serves

as evidence that he was able to look back on things with the healthy dose of humility

and humor.

It seems like he eventually learned not to take himself too seriously, hopefully, but

that's definitely not how he started out.

When God first commissioned Jonah to go rebuke the Ninevites for their wicked ways, Jonah

balks at the idea.

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