Jonah 1-4 ; Micah 2 ; Micah 4-7

Who doesn’t know the story of Jonah and the whale? I know, I know; it doesn’t say anything about a whale in the actual book. But that is the traditional way we teach it to children, and old images stay with us.

Jonah 1:1–2 sets the stage: “Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Ninevah, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”

Jonah doesn’t want to go, so he runs away on a ship going to Tarshish (verse 3). A storm comes up; the people on the ship decide divine wrath must be involved somehow; and Jonah confesses that he is the reason for the storm (verses 4–10). Jonah tells them to toss him overboard (verse 12), but they don’t want to do that; they want to row him to shore. When that fails because of the intensity of the storm, they pray to God first and then they “cast him forth into the sea” (verses 13–15). The storm stops, and Jonah is swallowed by a “great fish” (verses 16–17).

Chapter 2 is Jonah’s prayer within the belly of the fish, which reads like something in Psalms. In Jonah 2:10, it reads, “And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.”

At the beginning of Chapter 3, the Lord asks Jonah again to go to Ninevah and preach. He does, with dramatic results: in verse 5, it reads, “So the people of Ninevah believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.” Even the king gets involved, starting in verse 6: “…he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.”

The Joseph Smith translation has changes for verses 9 and 10. Essentially, the people are hopeful that if they repent they won’t be destroyed. And they aren’t.

Jonah 4:1 reads, “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.” He appears to have thought that he was disgraced because the destruction he promised did not come to pass. So the Lord gives him a little object lesson: the Lord causes a gourd to grow and give Jonah shade, and then the Lord destroys the gourd. When Jonah complains, the Lord teaches him in verses 10 and 11: “Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night; And should I not spare Ninevah, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand and also much cattle?”

I really liked the Bible Dictionary entry for Jonah, on p. 716. In particular, it reads, “The writer is opposing a narrowmindedness that would confine the love of God to a single nation.” However, the entire entry is excellent and does a good job of putting Jonah in a historical context.

The study guide has an interesting question on p. 23. “What can we learn from the story of Jonah that can help us be more valiant in obeying the Lord and sharing the gospel?” Consider the context of this question for a moment. Why did Jonah not want to prophesy? It was because he didn’t want to tell the people that they were going to be destroyed and then have that prophecy not be fulfilled. In other words, he knew that if they repented, their destruction wouldn’t happen the way that he said it would happen, and he thought he would look like a fool. What was it that the Lord identified as Jonah’s real shortcoming in Jonah 4:10? It was a lack of pity.

Do we lack pity? Do we hope to see the destruction of people whose values and lifestyles differ from ours? Compare that with the great missionary effort of the sons of Mosiah; for example, look at Alma 17 and in particular Alma 17:9. (There’s a lot more, but this is what I could find quickly.) Jonah often appears in an unflattering light, but would we be kinder and more compassionate than he was?

The lesson turns from Jonah to Micah at this point. The dictionary entry for Micah is also good, starting at the bottom of the page on p. 731 and continuing on p. 732. Micah 2 begins with a lament in verses 1 and 2: “Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand. And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.” Do these verses seem as relevant (and current) to you as they do to me?

Micah 4 starts with the following verses: “But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” The study guide question on p. 23 is, “What did Micah prophesy about the latter-day temple?” I’ve been taught that this refers specifically to the Salt Lake temple and the fact that LDS church headquarters are in Salt Lake City, which of course is located by the Wasatch mountains.

The rest of the book consists of additional prophecy. I really like Micah 6:8: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” That is a great verse.

I don’t feel qualified to write more about Micah without a great deal more study; and frankly, that’s study you can do yourself, too. It is interesting reading, though.

 

Sunday School Notebook - Aug 2006 - Susan Morgan