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 2, 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 idea. But we don't find out why

until later. The reason is, Jonah hates the Ninevites. He doesn't want them to repent, and he knows

that if he goes and rebukes them, that's what they'll do.

Is there someone like this for you? Someone you hope doesn't get to experience God's mercy?

I remember having a conversation with someone once mentioning a death row conversion, and the person I was talking to said, I don't believe that. There's no way God would save that person,

not after all they've done.

That's Jonah's attitude, too. He seems to have a real us versus them mentality. We're all

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