Shade Hand Thrown

5 Apr, 2009 in art pottery by admin

Shade Hand Thrown

Jonah and the Jewish Boy

Jonah was told by God to go to the people of Ninveh and proclaim that their wickedness had got God's attention. But as we all know the story, Jonah fled to Tarshish and refused to go and do his task.

All these years, I was told that Jonah didn't want to go to Ninveh because he was afraid to go there. Ninveh was a great city of Jonah's enemy, Asshur. When God had wanted to punish Israel for their evil ways, God had used the great nation of Asshur to conquer Israel and bring suffering and sorrow from loosing the war with them. Jonah was an Israelite. Hearing the name 'Asshur' gives him the chill down his spine. The name was so heavy-loaded that they probably never say it in Israel. Just like you wouldn't really mention the name 'Hitler' in Germany... or traumatizing words like Nazi or swastika or holocaust among the Jews.

If Jonah could have had one wish from God, he probably would have wished that his enemy, the great Asshur, could perish from the surface of this earth. When God came to him and told him to go to Ninveh, a city in Asshur, to tell them that their wickedness had come to His attention, Jonah was upset.

God only told him to, "Proclaim to [them] that their wickedness has come to my attention." (Complete Jewish Bible) God didn't tell him the other part of the sentence that he wished to hear, the part where the 'wonderful' threat was made, "...otherwise, they will perish." No. God did not tell him to tell them that there was a threat involved in the message Jonah had for Ninveh. That part would have been the sweetest sound in Jonah's ears.

By this, Jonah knew, that God, being so forgiving and merciful as He was, would eventually come around and let them, the Asshur people, his enemy, live. He knew his God. God would be too merciful to kill them all off. For Jonah, this was upsetting.

Oh no, he probably thought, what are you going to do now, God? If I warn them and they believe me, they will repent and You will never gonna swipe them off this planet! "Our nation had been suffering because of Asshur, and now that their wickedness has come to Your attention, You are going to let them go and forgive them?" This was why Jonah fled to Tarshish. He didn't flee because he was afraid. He fled because he knew that if he went and warned Asshur, they might repent and ask for God's forgiveness, and then God would let them live.

In Jonah's eyes, Asshur did not deserve to live. For all the pain and suffering that they have caused his people, Asshur should be punished.

We can see this later in his own words, when at the end of the story, Jonah proved to be right and God actually forgave Asshur.

Jonah, on his way to Tarshish, was thrown off the ship that was going to sink because of the storm. The sailors had asked Jonah to wake up and call on his God so their lives might be spared. Then they drew lots to find out who was to blame for the storm and Jonah was singled out. When Jonah was asked what he had done that the storm was bestowed on them, Jonah recognised, that it was indeed God, who was angry at him.

Jonah suggested that he be thrown over board to calm the storms. After hestitating in the beginning, the sailors agreed. God prepared a huge fish to swallow Jonah. And the minute Jonah touched the water, the storm calmed down and the fish swallowed him. For 3 days he stayed in the belly of the fish until God commanded the fish to spit him out.

When Jonah came out of the belly of the fish, his skin had open wounds all over his body from the effect of the stomach acid of the fish. It looked as if he had been skinned and had died, just like the victims of Asshur. When Asshur caught the people of Israel in war, they would skin and behead them. When Jonah walked into the city proclaiming God's message to the people, the people of Asshur thought that an Israelite who had been their victim of war, had just come out of the grave. Of course they had no idea that Jonah wasn't actually dead, he was swallowed by a big fish.

Witnessing this miraculous 'resurrection' of an Israelite, the people were amazed and feared the God of Israel. This brought them to repent from their evil ways. What they thought they saw (a resurrection from the dead), was foreshadowing the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. It was this part that Jesus meant when he talked to some teachers in Matthew.

At this some of the Torah-teachers said, "Rabbi, we want to see a miraculous sign from you." He replied, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign? No! None will be given to it but the sign of the prophet Yonah. For just as Yonah was 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the sea-monster, so will the Son of Man be 3 days and 3 nights in the depths of the earth..." (Matthew 12:38-40)

Ninveh thought they saw somebody 'rising from the dead', feared the God of Israel and turned from their sins. This time, Jesus actually died and rose again, but unlike Ninveh, those who witnessed this greater event, did not believe. What was there in front of the teachers was greater than what was there before Ninveh, but it did not touch their hearts.

Unlike the Torah-teachers in Jesus' time, Ninveh believed and turned to the God of Israel. When Jonah learned that his God forgave them, it completely upset him. He said to God,

"Now, ADONAI, didn't I say this would happen, when I was still in my own country? That's why I tried to get away to Tarshish ahead of time! I KNEW You were a God who is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in grace... Therefore,... just take my life away; it's better for me to be dead than alive!" (Complete Jewish Bible)

Jonah was angry and frustrated. There he was proclaiming God's message to the people of his enemy and in a few days, they all repented and his God... HIS GOD!... spared their lives!

Did Asshur not take my people from our country and make them slaves? Did they not cause so much suffering to my family and friends? Did they not behead the heroes of Israel? Did they not skin our loved ones before our very eyes? And now, when there is a chance to avenge the death of my people, God sent me to save them?! My God, how can I go back to my country and let them find out that I just saved Ninveh, the great city of Asshur, our enemy?... I'd rather die!

Hearing this in my spiritual and natural ears, I was immediately reminded on God's voice the other day when I had the vision of the Jewish boy.

"Love the boy's enemy as you love him and his people."

In the vision, I saw a boy with the star of David on his chest, whom I was supposed to be close with. I do not understand what my relationship with the boy is going to be. But the boy would be emotionally connected with me and God would only let him live for a short time.

I was to make sure that in the future, I took care of the boy and consider him as my own flesh and blood. I was to see to it that the boy would know the Messiah personally. When this is done, at his early age of 3-4 years, God would take his life!

Horrible as it sounds... but the reason for this is that it was going to be for his own good. The life that he would have if he lived longer would be a life in a war and full of bitterness, hatred and anger. God will have to spare him from his dark future life.

Emi saw me become histerical as I watched the bomb tearing his little body in the air and his flesh and blood splashing all over my face. He was going to be like a son to me. The pain of watching him die was going to be as intense as Jonah's pain when Asshur destroyed his country and killed his family.

Despite all the pain, anger and revenge that would build in my heart and soul, like Jonah, I had to learn to love the enemy, the killers of the boy, just like Jonah had to learn to love Asshur, the killer of his family and nation.

At the end of the story of Jonah, God asked Jonah, "Is it right for you to be so angry?"

God prepared a casto-bean plant and made it grow over Jonah to shade his head and relieve his discomfort. His red and wounded skin must have given him a hard time under the hot sun. So Jonah rejoiced over the plant. But the next day, the plant dried up and when the sun rose, the sun beat down on Jonah's head so hard that he grew faint.

When Jonah was so upset over the plant that had died, God asked again, "Is it right for you to be so angry?"

"You're concerned over the casto-bean plant, which cost you no effort; you didn't make it grow; it came up in a night and perished in a night. So shouldn't I be concerned about the great city of Ninveh, in which there are more than 120,000 people who don't know their right hand from their left?" (Complete Jewish Bible)

Jonah had to learn the shocking truth of how God was actually feeling towards Ninveh, Asshur, the enemy of his country -- God loved them just as much as He loved Jonah and his people! In God's eyes, Asshur was only like a little child who had no idea what he was doing... like an innocent child who did not know his right hand from his left!

As evil as they are to have the heart to attack, skin and behead his people, Jonah's God loves the attacker just as much. And as evil as the boy's killers were going to be to attack a young boy with a bomb, I have to learn to love the attackers just as much...

About the Author

(c) Dinar P. Wiria-Atmadja, a writer and lover of ADONAI Tzva'ot. To contact the writer send an email to dinarpw@gmail.com

can you finish these lyrics with out cheating?

its hard to wake up when the shades.....

shot threw the heart and your to blame darling.....

ive been roaming around always looking down at all i see painted faces.....

i dont feel the way ive ever felt i know im gonna......

can we forget the things i said when i was drunk i....

polly wants a cracker think i should get off her first think....

i not a perfect person theres many things.....

here we go for the 100th time hand....

i get knocked down but....

when the shades have been pulled shut. -stay together for the kids-blink182

you give love a bad name

i can remember that one... but i know it lol

didnt mean to call you that. -my own worst enemy-lit

i wish i didnt do

granade pins in every line? -bleed it out-linkin park

i get up again

(good taste in music by the way )