The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1933-09-14
THE MARYLAND BIBLE SOCIETY'S CORNER
''The Word of Our God Shall Stand Forever"

mercy, and to walk humbly with thy
God" A simple formula for bring
ing in the Kingdom of God, but Oh,
how difficult to practice!
JONAH.
Jonah's prophecy marks departure
in the method of divine revelation. 1t
is more than a hint to Israel, who had
refused to have Jehovah as their God,
that he was interested in other ma
tions. Jonah's mission to Ninevah,
the capital of Assyria-soon to be-
come the scourge of Israel-lifted the
God of Israel to a position far above
that of tribal deity, and pointed to
his exalted place as the God of all ma
tons, kindreds, peoples and tongues.
There are other striking incidents of
this broad teaching Of Jehovah's uni
versal dominion over human hearts, as
that of Elijah sent to the Sidonian
woman and Elisha to Naaman the
Syrian. All of them are indications
to the Jews of Gods interest in others
besides themselves.
Jonah lived in the reign of Jero-
beam II, 800-760 B. C. He was ma
tive of Gathhepher, a town about two
miles northeast of Nazareth. Jonah
was contemporary with Amos, and
may have been one of the young stu
dents in Elisha's school of the proph-
cts.
Ninevah is spoken of as great
city, as indeed it was for that day.
It's central portion was approximately
three miles long and mile and half
wide. Greater Ninevah was about 60
miles in circumference.
The prophecy begins thus: "Now
the word of the Lord came to 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, however,
had no relish for this task, and in
stead of obeying the word of the Lord
he rose up and fed to Tarshish, by
ship from the seaport of Joppa. 1t
is amazing that a prophet should i'm
agine that flight in any direction could
remove him from the presence of the
Lord. David said in one of his
Psalms: "Whither shall l go from
thy spirit, or whittier shall 1 flee
from thy presence? If ascend to
heaven, thou are there; if / make my
bed in hell, behold thou are there. Ii
I take the wings of the morning and
dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea, even there shall thy hand lead
me and thy right hand shall hold me.
If 1 say, surely the darkness shall
cover me, even the night shall be light
about me. Yea, the darkness hideth
not from this; but the night shineth
as the day: the darkness and the light
are both alike to thee"
So found Jonah, to his great dis
comfiture. Strange as it may seem,
and yet many truly religious persons
have inexplicable and irreconsilable
notions about divine love and mercy
Jonah's reason for not wishing to be
missionary to Ninevah was that he
was sure they would repent, and God
would promptly forgive them and re-
store them to his favor.
Jehovah raised mighty storm, the
superstitious sailors believed that the
wrath of God was being poured upon
their devoted ship, and being con-
| firmed in this conviction cast lots to
determine the guilty person for whose
sake the storm had visited them. The
lot fell upon Jonah. He was cast into
the sea, but was miraculously pre-
served in the belly of a great fish.
When after three days the fish dis
gorged Jonah, he obediently fulfilled
his mission to Ninevah, and saw, as he
had anticipated, their repentance and
salvation.
God reproved Jonah's hardness of
heart by the type of a gourd, which
matured and was Immediately blasted,
to Jonah's great discomfort and even