Well, we came to the conclusion of the Book of Jonah today. When we last left our hero he was sitting outside Nineveh waiting for God to send the mushroom cloud, which of course didn't happen because the entire city repented. Other than everyone fasting and putting on sackcloth and ashes, I am not sure what that repentance meant; as I said previously it didn't last very long because it wasn't too long before Nineveh was back to its old tricks.
Anyway, Jonah is kicking back waiting for Armageddon and when it is obvious nothing is going to happen, he's pretty ticked off about the whole scene. He tells God, "I knew this was going to happen, that's why I took off and ran the other way." He feels, not without reason, that he's been made a fool of. He's mad at God for showing mercy, because in his opinion this mercy is going to end up biting the Israelites in the back (and he's right). But Pastor didn't say that; instead he talked about Jonah's statement that the Lord is merciful and slow to anger, etc., etc., and how ironic it was that this was the very thing that Jonah was angry about. Because God is giving Nineveh a second chance.
Well, this is all very beautiful if one didn't know much about the Bible. Pastor is always talking about how the Bible reveals who God is and how we should turn to it to know God better. But I am thinking that the people of Noah's time (in Genesis), the Egyptians (in Exodus), and the Caananites and others who inhabited the Promised Land at the time of the conquest (Joshua), just to name a few, might have something to say about this "Lord is merciful and slow to anger" stuff. Because there sure wasn't much mercy and slowness to anger there. King Saul, the first king of the Israelites, lost his throne, we are told, because he showed mercy to a bunch of people that the prophet Samuel told him God wanted him to annihilate. And now, we are to turn around and say, oh, this is wonderful that Nineveh was spared? It seems that there is a certain inconsistency in this God character, at least at the beginning. He didn't give Adam and Eve much of a chance to repent; instead condemning the entire human race to Hell by default just because they went and ate something they shouldn't have.
You see, it is precisely because I have spent a lot of time in the Bible and know my way around it (both the good and the bad parts), that I can't totally accept what he is saying. There's just too many things that don't add up. The image of God at the end of Jonah is beautiful and touching. Jonah is mad because the plant that shaded him has died and God says to him, you are upset about this plant, so upset you want to die (really!), yet what about all those people over there, many who don't know their right hand from their left (a phrase either meaning infants and others who haven't reached the age of reason, or people who are ignorant of the moral law), not to mention all the animals there? He tells Jonah that he cares for those people just as much as Jonah cared for the plant. That Jonah shouldn't be so eager to see others suffer. And I agree with that. We should never make God or anything so much a priority that we forget about other people or worse yet wish them ill in the name of God. But if we are going to look at the Bible to find out who and what God is we can't just look at the pretty parts. We need to look at the ugly parts and question them too. Jonah liked the ugly parts. He relished the ugly parts. He didn't like the pretty parts, and he was honest about it. What happened to him afterwards, did he change his ways and stop being so bigoted? We don't know.
Anyway, Jonah is kicking back waiting for Armageddon and when it is obvious nothing is going to happen, he's pretty ticked off about the whole scene. He tells God, "I knew this was going to happen, that's why I took off and ran the other way." He feels, not without reason, that he's been made a fool of. He's mad at God for showing mercy, because in his opinion this mercy is going to end up biting the Israelites in the back (and he's right). But Pastor didn't say that; instead he talked about Jonah's statement that the Lord is merciful and slow to anger, etc., etc., and how ironic it was that this was the very thing that Jonah was angry about. Because God is giving Nineveh a second chance.
Well, this is all very beautiful if one didn't know much about the Bible. Pastor is always talking about how the Bible reveals who God is and how we should turn to it to know God better. But I am thinking that the people of Noah's time (in Genesis), the Egyptians (in Exodus), and the Caananites and others who inhabited the Promised Land at the time of the conquest (Joshua), just to name a few, might have something to say about this "Lord is merciful and slow to anger" stuff. Because there sure wasn't much mercy and slowness to anger there. King Saul, the first king of the Israelites, lost his throne, we are told, because he showed mercy to a bunch of people that the prophet Samuel told him God wanted him to annihilate. And now, we are to turn around and say, oh, this is wonderful that Nineveh was spared? It seems that there is a certain inconsistency in this God character, at least at the beginning. He didn't give Adam and Eve much of a chance to repent; instead condemning the entire human race to Hell by default just because they went and ate something they shouldn't have.
You see, it is precisely because I have spent a lot of time in the Bible and know my way around it (both the good and the bad parts), that I can't totally accept what he is saying. There's just too many things that don't add up. The image of God at the end of Jonah is beautiful and touching. Jonah is mad because the plant that shaded him has died and God says to him, you are upset about this plant, so upset you want to die (really!), yet what about all those people over there, many who don't know their right hand from their left (a phrase either meaning infants and others who haven't reached the age of reason, or people who are ignorant of the moral law), not to mention all the animals there? He tells Jonah that he cares for those people just as much as Jonah cared for the plant. That Jonah shouldn't be so eager to see others suffer. And I agree with that. We should never make God or anything so much a priority that we forget about other people or worse yet wish them ill in the name of God. But if we are going to look at the Bible to find out who and what God is we can't just look at the pretty parts. We need to look at the ugly parts and question them too. Jonah liked the ugly parts. He relished the ugly parts. He didn't like the pretty parts, and he was honest about it. What happened to him afterwards, did he change his ways and stop being so bigoted? We don't know.
