Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-03-02
By DIR. MARION M'HULL

BY DIR. MARION M'HULL .
! Golden Text: Let the wicked for
sake his way and the unrighteous
man his thoughts; and let him re-
turn unto Jehovah, and He will have
mercy upon him; and to our God, for
He will abundantly pardon. lisa.
55:7.
Instead of combining ourselves to
the verses selected we shall include
| the whole book of Jonah. There are
| only 4S verses in it, and"it can be
read in less than five minutes. 1t
! offers us an unusual opportunity
| therefore for a book study; and it is
| hoped that the plan here followed
may prove helpful to many as a
| plan for the study Of other books in
| the Bible, particularly the shorter
| ones, if you have no definite plan
now.
| 1: Introduction:
1. Author and Date-Jonah, the
son of Amittai, a native of Gath
! hepher, is the author Of this little
gem. Gath-hepher was north Of
| Capernaum about three miles, so
Jonah had grown up near the water
and was therefore familiar with
|
| the reign of Jereboam II, and it was
under the inspiration of his preach
! ing that Jereboam brought the
kingdom from the lowest ebb< Of ITS
4 national existence up to it's highest
political attainments e Kings 1925.
Jonah was an intense patriot. He
loved his country better than his
| own life; and his heart was sick as
he saw the condition of his people;
| for the affliction of Israel was very
| bitter, for there were no defenses
g. left, nor any helper for Israel. God,
| therefore, raised up Jonah as His
| spokesman, and under his inspiring
| messages, Jereboam restored the
I coast of Israel from the entering Of
| Klamath to the sea of the plain.
! This book is in complete accord
with this historical setting, which
explains some things in it otherwise
misunderstood. 1t is the earliest
prophecy of which we have written
| record. Jonah is therefore the first
| Of the minor prophets. Some would
assign = much later date to it on
account of some Aramaic words
found in it, but living as far north
as he did Jonah was necessarily
thrown in contact with foreign pc J.
pie, from whom he could have
gotten these words. 1t would not
be unusual to find people living n
] the extreme south Of England using
a Welsh word occasionally.
2. Persons and Places.-Besides
| Jonah, we have mention or the
mariners, the shipmaster and the
people of Nineveh, their king and
| mobiles. These sailors were ALI idola.
| ters; they were accustomed to
storms but the one that struck them,
! then frightened them so that every
one cried unto his god. They were
a magnanimous lot; they did every
| thing they could to keep from chunk
! ing Jonah overheard. They were an
| honest lot, for when they saw the
| sea become calm and realized they
| were safe, they offered a sacrifice
Ito God as a thank offering for their
preservation. TOO many folks would
have accepted it as a matter Of
course and neglected to give God
! thanks, after danger was over.
The Ninevites were numerous and
wicked. There were 100000 of
them so young they could not tell
| the difference between their right
and left hands. That means there
were about million in the city.
| NineVeh was the capital of Assyria.
A few years ago its site even had
become unknown. An archaeologist,
| however, began to dig in a mound
| called Yunas because Of it's similar
| ity to Jonas, and finally his spade
| unearthed the palace of the king.
Further explorations have found li4at
the city in Jonah's time consisted of
a parallelogram, whose sides were
great walls 100 feet high and broad
enough to accommodate three char
lots abreast. The side walls were
each Is miles long and the end walls
IA miles, making the perimeter ga
miles. Upon these walls were 200
towers, and within them the million
inhabitants could be sustained al
most indefinitely. The palace was
in the group of buildings at one cor
ner, and here were found great
water systems, magnificent architec-
tural structures and gardens that for
beauty and splendor were unsur-
| passed anywhere. Nineveh then was
in the height OF it's power, and Israel
was at its lowest ebb.
3. Literary Character and Pur-
pose: The book of Jonah, the book of
John have been, and still are, the
storm centerS of destructive critic
ism. There is a reason. Deuter-
onomy was quoted most frequently
by Jesus, particularly in the tempta-
tons; Johns gospel purposely de-
clares the essential deity of Jesus;
and the book of. Jonah is SO closely
linked with the bodily resurrection
of Jesus that/to accept it literally is
to acknowledge the fact. The critics
therefore, have tried to make us be-
lieve it is anything else than what it
is on it's face-a simple narrative of
historical fact. They insist that
it is a parable or an allegory, and
deny it's historicity. But if it were
La parable it would do what no other
parable does-name the characters.
If a parable or an allegory, it would
make an imaginative prophet who
actually existed, go to an imaginary
place whic hactually existed and
preach against imaginary sins which
actually existed, and have an imagl-
nary repentance which was gra-
ciously dealt with by an imaginary
God!
The question of it's historicity is
settled once for all by our Lord s
historical reference to it. In Matt.
12:39-40 He referred to Jonah as a
historical person just as He did to
Moses in Jno. 6:32, and to Abraham
in John S:56. And He spoke of
Johnah's preservation in the belly
of the sea monster as a Sign" of His
own ,entombment and resurrection;
land of the repentance and belief of
49, AY;oox,i+oe INDIAN Tona he nreooh