God calls, No options

When God calls you, listen, respond and obey! For your faithfulness is a delight to God and a testimony to the nations! Disobedience only incurs the righteous wrath of God. Nevertheless, God will use both your obedience and disobedience to bring about His glory and worship.

Arc

editing

Jonah 1:1-17

esv

mine

Now the word of the Lord came to a Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

God spoke to Jonah,

“ Arise ,

HE SAID, "Get up

go to b Nineveh,

IN ORDER TO travel to Nineveh

actionpurpose

that c great city,

TO EXPLAIN, it is a great city

ideaexplanation

and call out against it,

THEN tell them they are sinful

progression

d for their evil 1 has come up before me.”

BECAUSE their sin offends me"

ground

But Jonah e rose to flee to f Tarshish

INSTEAD, Jonah decided to run away

from the presence of the Lord .

IN ORDER TO escape God's presence/the spirit of prophesy/the call of God to cry out against evil.

He went down to g Joppa

THUS, He went to Joppa

and found a ship going to f Tarshish.

THEN found a Tarshish ship

So he paid the fare

THEN paid the fare

and went down into it,

THEN went into the boat

to go with them to f Tarshish,

IN ORDER TO go to Tarshish

h away from the presence of the Lord .

AND flee from God's presence/spirit of prophesy (in Israel)/his responsibilities and obligations as a prophet

series

inference

But i the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea,

AS A RESULT OF JONAH'S DISOBEDIENCE, God created a storm

and there was a mighty tempest on the sea,

TO EXPLAIN, this storm was fierce

so that the ship threatened j to break up.

AND AS A RESULT, the storm threatened to destroy Jonah's boat

Then the mariners were afraid,

THEN the seafarers were afraid

and k each cried out to his god.

THEN they prayed to their idols

And l they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea

THEN they threw the heavy things in the sea

to lighten it for them.

IN ORDER TO help them float

actionresult

But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship

SURPRISINGLY, Jonah was doing none of these things, because he'd gone down into the ship

and had lain down

THEN he lied down

and was fast asleep.

AS A RESULT, he fell asleep

So the captain came and said to him,

THEN, the captain came down SURPRISED at Jonah, and said

“What do you mean, you sleeper?

“How can you not be awake right now?!

Arise ,

Wake up!

negativepositive

k call out to your god!

THEN pray to your God

m Perhaps the god will give a thought to us,

AS A RESULT he might have mercy on us

that we may not perish.”

IN ORDER THAT we do not die"

situationresponse

And they said to one another,

AFTER WAKING JONAH UP, they said

“Come, let us n cast lots,

"Let's cast lots

that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.”

IN ORDER TO know who is responsible for our horrible circumstance"

So they cast lots,

AS A RESULT, they did cast lots

and the lot fell on Jonah.

WHICH RESULTED in the lots pointing to Jonah

Then they said to him,

THEN they asked

“Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us.

SAYING, "WHY are we suffering this way?

What is your occupation?

WHAT do you do?

And where do you come from?

WHERE is do you originate?

What is your country?

WHERE is your home?

And of what people are you?”

WHAT nation are you a part of?"

And he said to them,

HE ANSWERED

“I am a Hebrew,

SAYING, "I am a Hebrew

and I fear o the Lord ,

AND I fear God

the God of heaven,

MEANING the real God

p who made the sea and the dry land.”

AND MEANING the God who created the very thing that you are afraid of."

questionanswer

Then the men were exceedingly afraid

AS A RESULT of Jonah being a Hebrew/fearful of God, they became afraid

and said to him,

AND they said,

“What is this that you have done!”

"Are you crazy?!"

For the men knew that h he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord ,

BECAUSE they knew Jonah was running from the presence of God/the spirit of prophesy/the fellowship of God

because he had told them.

He told them he was running, and the consequences of doing so.

Then they said to him,

AS A RESULT OF HIS TELLING THEM, they responded,

“What shall we do to you,

QUESTION: "What do we do now?

that the sea may quiet down for us?”

SO THAT we might live?"

For the sea grew more and more tempestuous.

BECAUSE the storm was getting worse.

He said to them,

ANSWER: He answered

“Pick me up

"Pick me up

and hurl me into the sea;

THEN throw me into the sea

then the sea will quiet down for you,

AND AS A RESULT, the sea will be still

q for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”

BECAUSE I know my sins are the cause of this storm"

Nevertheless, the men rowed hard 1

DESPITE JONAH'S WARNING, the men rowed

to get back to dry land,

IN ORDER TO return to land

but they could not,

BUT they were unsuccessful

for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

BECAUSE the storm was getting worse.

concessive

Therefore they called out to the Lord ,

THEREFORE, they cried desperately,

“O Lord , let us not perish for this man’s life,

SAYING, "Don't kill us because we're killing Jonah

and r lay not on us innocent blood,

AND don't punish us because we're innocent

s for you, O Lord , have done as it pleased you.”

BECAUSE we are doing what delights you"

So they picked up Jonah

THEN they picked up Jonah

and hurled him into the sea,

THEN threw him into the sea

t and the sea ceased from its raging.

AND AS A RESULT, the storm ceased

Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly,

AND AS A RESULT OF THE STORM CEASING, they men were fearful of God's power

u and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord

THEN they worshiped Him

v and made vows.

THEN they worshiped Him some more.

1 And the Lord appointed 2 a great fish to swallow up Jonah.

THEN the Lord caused a fish to swallow Jonah

w And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

AS A RESULT OF BEING SWALLOWED, Jonah was in the fish 3 days/nights.

As an Israelite, Jonah would have known that it was impossible to escape "God's eye", but it seems Jonah wanted to be left alone, to be able to decide what he can and cannot do on his own without the direction or sovereignty of God.

discourse

Comments

rsyc

Probably, this is where word study becomes most helpful. A survey of other places in the OT where "presence of the Lord" occurs shows different uses of the phrase. In some contexts, it means God's omnipresence, but in other places, especially in the accounts of Samuel, "presence of the Lord" seems to refer in particular to the place/purview/work of Samuel's ministry - e.g. 1 Sam 2:21. If this understanding is what is meant by "presence of the Lord" in Jonah, then it is saying that Jonah is trying to flee from the place and purview of ministry to which God has called him. God called him to preach against Nineveh in Nineveh - so that is where the "presence of the Lord" (place and prophetic purview/responsibility) is for Jonah. Suddenly, we understand that Jonah is not trying to flee God's omnipresence, which he would know is impossible. He was trying to escape what God had called him to do - call out against Nineveh - both the location and the responsibility being Jonah's specific "presence of the Lord." We also understand why he tried to escape to Tarshish. It was the farthest known point in the opposite direction from Jonah's specific "presence of the Lord."

Stephen.Choy

Yes, the word study (which I did with biblearc and with commentary) also seems to suggest that some people in Israel believed that there was a specific presence of the Lord within Israel itself, and not just with specific prophets (alluding to your point on geographical location), which may, again, have been the motivation for Jonah's fleeing to Tarshish (far and not within the confines of Israel).

I think the arc, despite my own initial interpretation, conveys this fairly well, and such inferences can be made from the text itself for the possible multiple interpretations of "presence of the Lord". Nevertheless, I agree, that word studies, and even manuscript studies, in this context help to understand exactly what the writer was referring to.

rsyc

For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord,BECAUSE they knew Jonah was running from God

Your arc of this passage of Jonah really helps to understand how the thoughts in this passage connect. Regarding "running from God" - surely Jonah, who preached to the pagans sailors in spite of himself, would have known that he could not run away from God (cf. Psalm 139:7-10, which the prophet must have known and believed). So if it is not running from God, which Jonah knew was impossible to do, what precisely was Jonah running from?

Stephen.Choy

corrected it. "Flee from the presence of the Lord" is probably referring to Jonah's attempt to escape God's obligations of him as a prophet/find a way to avoid being commanded by God, or to find a way to stop being a prophet for reasons unstated, but possibly because Assyria was too great of a nation, and he coveted their power for Israel, or because going to Nineveh as an Israelite, or in general, was too dangerous.

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