Book Of Jonah

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The book of Jonah tells the story of Jonah’s internal journey.
The LORD told Jonah to go to Nin’eveh and cry against it, but Jonah escaped and took a ship to the opposite direction. During the trip, a huge wind occurred and everyone was so afraid. Jonah realized the wind was caused because of him so he decided to sacrifice himself and let others throw him into the sea. Jonah was then swallowed by a fish and stayed in the belly for three days and three nights. During that time, he prayed to the LORD and eventually, got excused from the LORD. Jonah followed instruction and went to the Nin’eveh. However, the LORD did not punish people in that city since they immediately repented for what they have done. Jonah did not understand so he was really angry and ask to die. The LORD, in the end, explained to him with patience.
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First is the sailors’ reaction. When they heard the only way to cease the wind is to throw Jonah to the sea, they hesitated and tried to row harder. When I read this, my first impression is that sailors didn’t want anyone sacrifice, although Jonah said he should be responsible for the wind. After trying their best but failed to bring the ship back to land, sailors then had to sacrifice Jonah. However later in the article Rethinking Jonah, the author states that Jonah’s story really wants to express that those sailors did not believe Jonah’s words and did not believe in God at first, so they did not follow immediately. They work against the God’s will and eventually failed. This is something I didn’t realize when I was

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