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.

Jonah 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 a 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 commissions Jonah to go rebuke the Ninevites for their wicked ways, Jonah balks at the

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