Tag Archive | jonah

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Days 187 & 188

Jul7

Day 187 – Reading – 2 Kings 14, and 2 Chronicles 25

Day 188 – Reading Jonah 1 – 4

Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see connections?

2 Kings 14 & 2 Chronicles 25.

These two chapters essentially tell the same story, but with a few different details.  It’s a bit confusing because BOTH the King of Israel and the King of Judah are named Joash! It would be like the President of the United States and the President of Russia BOTH named Trump.  Can you imagine the confusion in the press!!

Then, the southern kingdom of Judah’s King Joash was assassinated by his own servants, and his son, Amaziah, succeeded him as king.  Amaziah was a semi-good king, at least at first, doing what was “mostly right in the sight of the LORD,” but not quite as well as David.  The first thing Amaziah did was to kill the servants who had killed his father, Joash. (Remember, Joash killed Zechariah, the priest, the son of the priest who’d raised him. Two servants then conspired to kill  him.) Now the new king killed those servants. What a chain of cruelty and death! Will it stop there?

Amaziah mustered an army in Judah (along with 100K paid mercenaries from Israel) to fight against the men of Mt. Seir (Edom).  But God told him NOT to use soldiers from Israel.  God was NOT with them, but God WOULD help Judah alone to defeat Edom.  Amaziah sent the Israeli soldiers home (which made them mad), and went on to defeat Edom.

But, those 100K mercenaries, angry at not being able to go to war (and get loot), attacked and looted cities in Judah and Jerusalem!!

And then, Amaziah came back with – get this – some idols of the Edomites. And he started worshiping THEM!!  Can you believe it??  God sent a prophet to reprimand the king, but Amaziah made him stop.

Feeling emboldened, Amaziah sent to Israel and challenged King Joash of Israel to fight him. WHAT??  King Joash told King Amaziah to “Stay home, you little weed (thistle)!”  But Amaziah would not listen.  Why?  GOD HAD ORDAINED HIS DOWNFALL because of the idols from Edom.

The two kings, with their armies, fought at Beth-Shemesh in Judah’s territory, and Judah was defeated.  The southern army ran away, and King Amaziah was captured. The northern king then went to Jerusalem and seized all the gold, silver, and all the vessels that were in the Temple and the king’s own house, and even broke down part of Jerusalem’s wall!  He took hostages (but left King Amaziah there) and returned to Samaria, with a smug smirk on his lips. Thistle indeed!

Amaziah lived 15 more years, but a conspiracy against him made him flee to Lachish (a fortified city about 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem). But the angry people went after him and killed him there.  The people then put his son, the sixteen-year-old Azariah, in his place as king.  (Azariah did right in God’s sight and reigned 52 years!)

Meanwhile, back in Israel, King Joash also died and was buried in Samaria.  His son Jeroboam II succeeded him.  Unsurprisingly, he did what was “EVIL in the sight of the LORD.”

Now, here is an interesting fact.  The LORD used Jeroboam to “restore some of the borders of Israel, east of the Jordan River.  Why?  “The LORD saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there was none left, bond or free, none to help Israel. The LORD had not said that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam.”  WHAT MERCY!

And, according to (2 Kings 14:25), who told Jeroboam to go and do that? 

NONE OTHER THAN THE PROPHET OF GOD — JONAH!!   

But we are much more familiar with the prophet’s other story.

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Jonah 1 – 4.

We’ve all heard about “Jonah and the whale” from Sunday School stories and children’s books. Those stories usually tell how Jonah was thrown overboard in a storm and was swallowed by a whale. Then God made the critter spit him out on the shore three days later, after he prayed.

All true.

But much more.

First, his name means “Dove.”  Today, we would think of “peace,” or someone who is anti-war.  Well, Jonah WAS a rebel, for sure, but not anti-war.  Earlier, God had used Jonah to encourage Jeroboam II to push back against the Syrians, which he did, and gained back almost as much land for Israel as in the days of David and Solomon. 

But the Syrians had grown weak.  Soon, a greater, fiercer, and crueler nation would swallow them up, and then look toward Israel.  Who? The Assyrians. Whereas Syria’s capital was Damascus, the capital of Assyria was Nineveh, WAY to the North-East, over 500 miles away.

“Go to that wicked city, Nineveh, and tell them to repent,” God told Jonah.

“No way!” said the prophet of God, who was all for defeating Israel’s enemies.  Jonah promptly went down to Joppa and bought a ticket on a boat to Tarshish. (Modern Spain, which is WAY to the West.) 

  • Verse 3 states twice that Jonah was “fleeing the presence of the LORD.”  Is that possible?  We may think so, but remember God is “omnipresent,” which means everywhere at once. 
  • Check out Psalm 139:7-10, where David asks the question, “Where shall I flee from Your presence?  Heaven? You are there. The grave? You are there. The uttermost parts of the sea?  Even there, Your hand shall hold me.”  I guess Jonah never read that psalm.

The boat sailed. Jonah went below deck for a nap. God “HURLED” a great wind on the sea, which whipped up into a horrible tempest!  The ship started to break up!  The sailors were terrified and began to pray to their god (Poseidon?).  They hurled the cargo into the sea (There goes their profit!)  Then, at his request, they hurled the prophet into the sea as well.

(Jonah had told them the true God of Heaven was angry with him. They got REALLY afraid – that’s why they obeyed and tossed him overboard.)

Immediately, no wind and placid seas.

That terrified the sailors even more, and they WORSHIPPED the LORD.  (A foretaste of Nineveh?)

Down, down, down went Jonah. Right into the mouth of a great fish that God had prepared. (Like Moby Dick??)

AND JONAH PRAYED TO THE LORD FROM THE BELLY OF THE FISH!

Not exactly repentance, but an acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty.  The “vow” in verse 9 could have been a vow to carry out God’s call to preach in Nineveh.

And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited (Yuck!) Jonah on dry land.  “Terra firma, Hooray!”  Good to be there.  Then…

Again came God’s message, “Go to Nineveh. Call out against it with the message I will give you.”

“Yeah, yeah. I KNOW, God.”

So, after a “swish-off” in the Mediterranean, Jonah set off, Eastward.

How long it took him, we don’t know.  Did he catch a ride with a caravan, or hot-foot it all the way?  Regardless, Jonah finally arrived at that great city (in modern-day Iraq).  The city was HUGE!  It would take a person THREE DAYS to walk across it. (Like Los Angeles??)

Jonah went halfway in and cried, “IN 40 DAYS, NINEVEH WILL BE OVERTHROWN!” And then he left, went outside the city to a hill, and sat down to watch the “holy fireworks.”

They didn’t come.

Instead, the whole city repented. (FROM ONE 7-WORD SERMON!!)  The people believed God. They put on sackcloth in mourning for their sin, the king too, and all his court.

He proclaimed a fast from all food and water (for the animals as well!) and told the people to “Call out mightily to God. Turn everyone from his evil ways and the violence he’s done. For who knows?  God may turn and relent from His fierce anger, and we may not perish.”

And when God saw their hearts, He relented of the disaster that He said he would do to them.  (At least for a while.)

Not what Jonah imagined, or wanted. He was furious! 

  • “SEE!!!  This is what I said would happen when I was back home!
  • This is why I fled to Tarshish! 
  • I KNEW You were a gracious God, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in mercy, and relenting from disaster!    (He was quoting Psalm 103, now, so I guess he did read God’s word.)

JONAH SHOULD HAVE BEEN THANKFUL that God was merciful… a God of second chances. Or else, he might have still been in that fish’s belly, rotting away!

  • Oh, please just kill me, for that is better than living (and seeing this!)

It got very hot.  Jonah put up a lean-to to shade himself while he watched. And the good and kind LORD caused a vine to grow up over the lean-to, which added more shade and a sweet fragrance.

Nice. 

Jonah settled back.

Then the good and kind LORD caused a worm to kill the plant.  And the next day, a scorching east wind blew, and the sun beat down. 

Jonah was angry that the plant died.  “It’s better for me to die than to live,” he moaned.

“You are angry and pity a vine that you did not plant or cause to grow, that came into being in a night and  perished in a night?”

“YES!“

And the good and kind LORD said, “And should I not pity Nineveh, a great city, in which there are more than 120K small children?”

No answer.

Silence.

About 40 years later, the NEXT generation of Assyrians reverted to their evil, violent ways. They came down on Israel, destroyed the kings, and carried the people away into captivity, never to return. 

End of the northern kingdom. 

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(**** Ah, LORD, You are faithful to save, when people turn their hearts from sin and trust in You…. at the preaching of Your Word.  

"For the scripture says, Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame. 
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. 
For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on ALL who call on Him. 
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
And how are they to preach unless they are sent?"
Romans 10:11-15.






			


	



			
				


	

		
2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 188


					
Jul6
			


	

		
    Day 188—We are in the seventh month of Bible reading. Praise God!  We are reading the second minor prophet today.


    Day 188 – Jonah 1 – 4. (God’s rebellious prophet)


From 2 Kings 14:25-27, we know that Jonah (from a town in Zebulun) lived and prophesied in the time of Jeroboam 2nd in the northern kingdom of Israel. He had said that that king would restore much of Israel’s land taken by Syria BECAUSE the LORD had mercy on the people. Even though Jonah knew that God was merciful (Jonah 4:2), he hated that God’s mercy would be shown to the cruel Assyrians.


“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message I will tell you.”


When God told his prophet to preach to Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, Jonah went in the opposite direction.  Instead of traveling east (toward modern-day Iraq), he hopped aboard a boat bound west for Tarshish (Spain).


He immediately went to sleep. Above him, a storm raged, and the sailors panicked. They prayed to their gods. They tossed the cargo overboard. Finally, they woke Jonah and discovered the real reason for their predicament. He worshipped God, the creator of the land and SEA, and he was running away in disobedience to that God.  “Toss me overboard, and you’ll be okay,” he suggested. They didn’t want to but eventually did what he said. And the storm was immediately calmed….and they praised God.


Jonah preferred death to preaching to the Assyrians. But God did not let him “off the hook.” A specially prepared fish swam by and gobbled up the sinking prophet. Inside that icky fish stomach, the prophet remained for three days. He prayed while the fish swam east, where it finally vomited Jonah onto dry land.


Like an echo, the word of the LORD to Jonah came again, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I will tell you.”


Can you imagine Jonah’s great sigh as he brushed the sand off and stomped toward Nineveh?  He finally arrived at this massive city (It took three days to walk across it!), walked a third of the way in, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh shall be overthrown!”  


And miracle upon miracle, Nineveh truly repented. From the king down to the cattle, they removed their robes, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes.  And God relented, just as Jonah knew He would. (Psalm 86:15, 103:8)  (Nineveh was eventually destroyed, but they were given a merciful reprieve here.) 


Meanwhile, Jonah leaves the city, climbs a hill, and waits for the fiery destruction, perhaps like Sodom and Gomorrah?  But inside, he knows it wouldn’t happen. And that angers him. Just like the plant angered him, the one God caused to grow over him for shade, and then it died because a little worm killed it, allowing the burning sun to scorch his head. Nothing, it seems can make Jonah happy.  Jonah even prays to die. 


God chides him for thinking more of a plant than a city full of children and repentant adults. But Jonah remains silent in his gloom. 


 


You might think this was an allegory and not about a real person, except Jeroboam 2nd knew him, and Jesus mentioned him in Matthew 12:39-41 when the Pharisees asked him for a sign. 


“But He answered them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.  The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with THIS generation and condemn it, for THEY repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”




By the way, the Pharisees were also wrong when they said to Nicodemus that no prophet comes from Galilee.  Did they forget Jonah?  John 7:50-52.






			


	



			
				


	

		
2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 187


					
Jul5
			


	

		
    Day 187—We are in the seventh month of Bible reading, continuing with the history of Israel (North and South)


    Day 187 – 2 Kings 14, 2 Chronicles 25. (the southern king, Amaziah)


Both chapters today are mostly about Amaziah, the king of Judah in the south. His father, Joash, had been killed by his servants, so Amaziah killed them, but not their sons, according to God’s law in Deuteronomy 24:16. He was kind of a good king, but his heart was not wholly the LORD’s.


Amaziah assembled an army to attack Edom in the south. He didn’t think he had enough men, so he hired 100K from the northern kingdom for a huge price.  However, a man of God came to him, saying the LORD was not with Israel and Judah could be strong on their own. ‘Send the soldiers of Israel home.”


Amaziah obeyed, although he wasn’t happy about the money he’d spent. But God gave them the victory over Edom.  However, those disgruntled northern soldiers raided the cities of Judah on the way home, killed 3K people, and also took spoils (what they thought they’d have reaped in a war).


Meanwhile, Amaziah FOOLISHLY brought back some of the gods from Edom, set them up, and worshipped them with offerings.  (WHAT??)  Of course, the LORD was angry with him and sent a prophet to rebuke him. Amaziah was NOT happy with that and interrupted the prophet with “Stop with that. Who made you a royal counselor? Do you want me to kill you?” 


But the prophet got in a few last words. “God has determined to destroy you because you have done this (the Edomite idols) and not listened to my counsel.”


Sure enough, when Amaziah picked a fight with King Jehoash/Joash in the north and went to war with them, he was soundly defeated.  The king of Israel captured Amaziah and brought him back to Jerusalem. While there, he broke down 60 feet of the city’s wall and seized all the gold and silver and vessels in the temple and the king’s treasuries. He also took hostages back to Samaria.


Then, there was a conspiracy against Amaziah in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. They chased him there and killed him. He was brought back and buried in the City of David.  The people then took his son, the 16-year-old Azariah/Uzziah, and made him king.


Meanwhile, the northern king Jehoash/Joash died, and his son, Jeroboam 2nd, became king. He reigned 41 years and did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. But BECAUSE the LORD saw Israel’s affliction was very bitter, and because he had NOT said He would blot out their names forever, He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam 2nd. Jeroboam restored the border of Israel to approximately its extent in Solomon’s time. He controlled Damascus, Syria, and Moab.  (The Syrians were weak at that time because of attacks by the Assyrians.)


Were you surprised to see Jonah’s name here?  He was the prophet who didn’t want to preach to the Assyrians, so he ran away (but eventually obeyed, and the Assyrians repented).  But Jeroboam’s expansion north was “according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel which He spoke by his servant Jonah.”


When Jeroboam died, his son Zechariah reigned…. for six months.