Jonah - Amos

Jonah shows God's mercy toward Nineveh while Amos lists places God will not absolve.

Mercy

Jonah goes to Nineveh, they listen to him, repent and God does not overthrow the city as he had threatened. In contrast, Amos opens with a message for a number of places where God says he will not turn away from punishing (as he did with Nineveh).

Jonah	Amos
21 Jonah 3:10-4:0 ¹⁰And god saw their works, that they turned from their evil ways; he turned his fierce anger away from them, and he did not destroy them.	22 Amos 1:3 ³Yahvah says, For 3 transgressions of Damascus, and for 4, I will not turn away its punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron;

God turned his anger away from Nineveh, but Damascus and the other places in the list at the beginning of Amos are told that God will not "turn away their punishment." Why would Amos have this odd phraseology? Do people think God won't follow through? If they've just read Jonah, the preceeding book, they might think so. After all, God did stand down when the people of Nineveh repented. Given the way he softened towards Nineveh, in fairness, he is forced to say, explicitly, that the results will not be the same this time.

Call

When Jonah heard the call to go warn Nineveh he fled in the opposit direction. Amos, however, just went when called.

Jonah	Amos
21 Jonah 1:1-3 ¹Now the word of Yahvah came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, ²Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it; for their wickedness has come up before me. ³But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish, from the presence of Yahvah, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare and went on board to go with them to Tarshish to flee from the presence of Yahvah.	22 Amos 7:14-15 ¹⁴Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, I am not a prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I was a shepherd and a gatherer of wild figs; ¹⁵and Yahvah took me as I followed the flock, and Yahvah said to me, Go, prophesy against my people Israel.

Jonah

Amos

21 Jonah 1:1-3
¹Now the word of Yahvah came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying,
²Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.
³But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish, from the presence of Yahvah, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare and went on board to go with them to Tarshish to flee from the presence of Yahvah.

22 Amos 7:14-15
¹⁴Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, I am not a prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I was a shepherd and a gatherer of wild figs;
¹⁵and Yahvah took me as I followed the flock, and Yahvah said to me, Go, prophesy against my people Israel.

Jesus says a prophet is without honor in their home town. Jonah, fortunately, wasn't called to his home town, but to Nineveh, essentially a group of strangers. Amos on the other hand is called to go warn his neighbors, Israel. Nineveh hears Jonah, the stranger, but Israel does not hear Amos. Despite having the harder assignment due to the "home town" principle, Amos goes.

Secrets

Jonah had a reason to run, though. He knew that God would relent in the end and he would look like a false prophet. Imagine, go deliver this message so they will repent and I don't have to destroy them. God gets what he wants, the people are not destroyed and have a better quality of life for their repentance and Jonah, well, he looks false to those who don't understand what happened. No wonder he goes off and sits alone on a distant hill.

Jonah	Amos
21 Jonah 4:1-2 ¹But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was greatly grieved. ²And he prayed to Yahvah and said, I ask, Yahvah, was this not what I said, when I was yet in my country? That is why I fled before, to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious and merciful god, patient and of great kindness, and you are ready to turn away calamity.	22 Amos 3:7-8 ⁷Surely, Master Yahvah does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. ⁸The lion has roared, who will not fear? Master Yahvah has spoken, who can but prophesy?

Jonah knew God was going to show compassion, so he didn't want to go. He was more concerned with his appearance or what they might to do him if they thought he was a false prophet then saving Nineveh from destruction. Amos says God does nothing without first revealing his secrets to his servants the prophets. Jonah was savvy to what God was doing, he knew the secret that God's threat to destroy Nineveh was designed to bring repentance and would not happen. He runs to Tarshish to avoid the whole thing, but God causes storms and whales and humbling circumstances to bring Jonah back to the original call. As Amos says, Master has spoken, who can but prophesy. Even fleeing to Tarshish doesn't stop the reluctant prophet from delivering God's message.

By Ryan Eaton
Posted Thursday, Issachar 15, 13001