Jonah gets swallowed

You know people say that when you come to these familiar stories it gets easier to teach on them but that's not true its actually harder.

Today we study the familiar story of Jonah (which means a dove)

Many people including Christians say the story of Jonah is an allegory and never happened but what they miss is in 2 kings 14:25

 He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher.

So from this verse i gather Jonah was a real person.  A very many people know story but they don't know why Jonah didn't got to Ninevehh.  Jonah didn't want Nineveh to be saved as he reveals in Jonah 4:1-4

¹But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. ²And he prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. ³ Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." ⁴And the LORD said, "Do you do well to be angry?"

You see he knew God was gracious and would spare Nineveh

One other thing people forget is how bad Nineveh was.  Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire which would later conquer the northern kingdom of Israel.  the Assyrian empire was brutal to their captives.
So you can see they was saved from a whole slop of sins just like we are

what we learn from this book is that God loves everyone not just us and he wants to extend grace to everyone which is proved by him delaying his return to judge as 2 peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

obadiah



Map of holy land Edom is in red

 Today we study Obadiah whose name means "servant of the Lord".

He gives a prophecy against the kingdom of Edom who have treated Israel or Judah badly, which is strange because Jacob who fathered the Jews and Esau who fathered the Edomites were brothers.  there first offense was in the book of Numbers when they wouldn't let the Israelites pass but the worst offense was gloating over her brother nation's defeat at the hands of the Babylonians but Obadiah says they will be uprooted and the people of God will triumph which was news to them because their defense was the mountainous region where they settled

I would say don't gloat over people's downfall especially the of God which is anyone who put there faith in Jesus Christ.  But i think there greatest offense was pride.  Now i should reiterate i believe there is a difference between pride a self-esteem.  Self-esteem is seeing the value of you in light of what Christ has done.  Pride is seeing your apart from or not needing Christ or God.  So value yourself as a person made in God's image but not above God which was Satan's downfall

Amos (the shephard turned prophet)

Now we finally move to Amos (whose name means borne; a burden.)

Amos i have noticed focuses on the social injustice across the land.  This provides a look that God doesn't just care about our relationship with him but our relationship with other humans as well. Take a cross their is a vertical and horizontal you have to have both or its not a cross its just a stick.

In the Gospel of Matthew a scribe asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was Jesus answered in chapter 22

³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵ And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" ³⁷And he said to him,  "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

Look at the ten commandments in Exodus 20  the first 4 is about the vertical,  the remaining 6 are about horizontal.  So what do we take from this,  I think we should remember we should show justice and mercy to others especially if we profess Jesus Christ as savior we should act like him showing mercy and justice to others