Book of Jonah

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Paraphrase of Jonah

In a far away land of Gath Hepher lived a man named Jonah . One day the word of the Lord came to Jonah and demanded him to take a journey to the land of Nineveh. Jonah was sentenced to preach against the evil and wickedness that had corrupted the city. Jonah was a known coward, and telling him to do something was like pulling teeth. He made the decision to disobey God’s order, so he fled to Tarshish. While Jonah was on his adventure God concocted a violent storm across the sea. The Lord threatened to make the ocean swallow the ship and spit it into pieces, destroying everything. This caused the sailors to cry out to each of their own gods and pray for help. The sailors anxiously lightened the load of the ship, every last piece of cargo was thrown over, and they watched it faint into the sea. While this was happening Jonah was below deck in a deep sleep. The Captain spoke to Jonah in an angry roar and demanded that Jonah call to his Lord in hope of saving the ship and its sailors of a terrifying death.

The evil being that caused these discrepancies desperately needed to be found. Tension was in the midst of the ship, and Jonah became weary of what would become of him. The sailors came to the conclusion that lots were needed to be cast. Jonah waited, but the time ticked as his blood rushed through his veins. When drawing for lots, a single unknown pebble is marked and jumbled together with other unmarked pebbles, but whoever is tainted with the marked pebble is the chosen one. The lot was drawn by Jonah, and the sailors became in awe. Jonah is bombarded and becomes flustered with questions of his self being, and who the God of his prayers is. As terrified as the sailors were of Jonah, they were in dire need of answers to their own prayers. The sea was at its highest roar, not one dry spot was spread about the ship, and everything in site was in desperate need of help. The sea grew powerful as the rain stabbed into the water like thousands of needles being poked into your pores. As the waves grew higher Jonah said to abandon him and dump his body into the sea to redeem the ship of destruction. Jonah realized the waves grew greater in danger the longer he strayed from the path of God’s word.

The sailors gave their all to try and row back to land, but the waves grew like wild flowers and the sea became mightier than ever. The sailors then confessed to the Lord their plan to banish Jonah from the ship, and tossed him into the raging sea. The moment Jonah flew overboard the waters vividly changed from nightmare hallucinations to tranquility. They were frightened by the sudden change and feared the Lord, so sacrifices were offered to him, and the sailors made vows. The men did not want to be held accountable for killing an innocent man, and were deathly afraid of what God would do. God was not out to get anyone, he was only testing Jonahs senses of judgment. Jonah was in no position to just disobey the Lord and get away with fleeing from his Calling. The Lord provided a” Monster of the deep” to swallow Jonah whole. Jonah was suddenly vanished, however the monster the Lord provided gulped him up and Jonah sat suffering in his stomach. The Lord knew Jonah had a lot of thinking to do, so time is what the Lord would give him to rethink his priorities. Jonah began to repent of his sins. He confessed that he had been drawn from the Lord’s word and worshiped to be put back on the pathway to heaven. Jonah soaked in His word like the beating sun and promised to become new again through the Lord’s salvation. Jonah tells the Lord that he had been to hell and back through the dangers of the sea, and he would give his all the Lord only. The Lord commanded the Monster and it vomited Jonah onto land of hope and prosperity. Jonah finally agreed to spread the Lord’s word and was willing to obey the Lord’s second sentence to Nineveh for three days. Nineveh was a city of a lot of land. The city outstretched for sixty miles and three days was just enough for Jonah to travel and be able to make it through the humongous place of life. Jonah obeys God’s word and travels to the great city in hopes of them wanting to devour the Lord’s message He is sent to teach.

Ninevites believed God and took His word seriously despite of their personal beliefs, so the Ninevites began a fast and every last one of them drowned in sack-Cloth. The city issued a proclamation to the King of Nineveh and he took this into great consideration. The Kings calls to this with an open mind in great concern. The King directs the Ninevites to not let anyone have a single taste and everyone must salivate with nothing to eat or drink. The king demands many things and says to soak in sack- cloth and diminish all evil ways and with this God will turn his fierce anger into sweet compassion and we will not abolish. When the Ninevites flushed themselves of their depraved ways and God sulked in with compassion and the city was washed clean without destruction Jonah was not pleased with God’s decision and he grew in annoyance and his anger burst in flames. Jonah Knew that God would be so loving to let the Ninevites free of punishment, and Jonah tells the Lord to relieve him of this fury and kill him with no intentions to rekindle.

So Jonah fled east of the city in hopes of disconfirmation of the Ninevites. He then makes a shelter while awaiting the Lord’s decision, but the suns beaming rays become of great discomfort to his skin, and he became in desperate need of shelter. The good Lord that He is decides to relieve Jonah of the burning sensation by casting a vine over his head to house him. The Lord’s gratitude put Jonah at ease, however Jonah was still unable to come to his senses. The Lord then removes the vine at dawn the next day. The Lord also provides a worm that withers the vine into little pieces like leaves in the fall. At dawn when the scorching sun rose the Lord proved to Jonah again that He is the creator and redeemer. The Lord did this by providing an east wind to let Jonah roast in the blazing beams once more, but this time Jonah grew faint.

The Lord compares the vine to Nineveh and explains to Jonah that He provided him with this sheltering vine, and he did not even think to give back to the vine in return. The vine was in for one whole day with no tending or water for growth. The Lord then says Nineveh too has people in need, that cannot even tell there right from there left, so should I as well leave them with no concern about that great city.

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