Nineveh mentioned above was founded by nimrod, whose ancestors were Kush, then Heim and Noah. Nineveh is the capital of Assyria. Prophet Nahong once described the city as cruel and evil. In the era of Jonah, Nineveh was a powerful enemy of Israel, where evil foreigners lived. It is considered an abomination to God. In the eyes of Israelis at that time, the leader of Nineveh was like Gaddafi or Saddam Hussien today.
Jonah's family was very rich when he was a child, and he even went to court often. He belongs to an extremely conservative, chauvinistic and supportive Israeli leader, and he is also a person who is biased against non-Jews. They don't allow people to resist Jewish teachings and their extended inferences. In many comments, Jonah is described as a fool, belonging to the most stupid and stubborn figure in the Bible.
Now let's go back to the above quotation. God seems to want to give Nineveh a chance to repent and turn over a new leaf. How could Jonah betray his countrymen and send such a message to his hated enemy? Understandably, Jonah rejected the task entrusted to him by God, and he would rather all people in Nineveh go to hell.
Jonah has three choices at this time: either follow the instructions; Either ignore this instruction and do what you want; Or run and hide. He chose the last one. Tash is located at the southernmost tip of Spain. At that time, it was almost to the ends of the earth. At that time, people did not have the concept of the earth. They think that if they go any further, they may fall off the edge of the mainland and never come back. Tash's boat and sailors were considered the best at that time.
The ship carrying Jonah was soon caught in a storm and was about to sink. Sailors know that this abnormal weather must be to punish someone. The sailors drew lots and finally confirmed that Jonah was the sinner who caused the storm. They found Jonah sleeping in a cabin, and Jonah admitted that he was escaping from God's will. From this passage, we also know that Jonah was the only one on board who didn't pray in the storm. He said that he was a Hebrew and only recognized the God who created the sea and the land.
The typical feature of Jonah is that he understands the power and omnipresence of God, but he refuses to pray, repent and obey God's commands. He even preferred to commit suicide and let the sailors throw themselves into the sea. The sailors did throw him out, so the storm subsided and our Jonah finally got into the fish's stomach.
Later, Jonah was spit out by a big fish and returned to land. This time, he finally agreed to go to Nineveh. As we have noticed, both Jonah, who disobeyed God's instructions, and Nineveh, who committed a felony, will in fact be pardoned. "Nineveh people believe in God and declare fasting. . . God saw their efforts and knew that they had repented and turned over a new leaf, so God never destroyed the city again. " Jonah found that God did not destroy Nineveh as scheduled. He was quite indignant at God's kindness to the enemy, but the story ended here. No one knows what happened to the hateful prophet.
The main meaning of Jonah is that the message of promoting people to be good, the blessing and love from the gods are for all. It's not only those lucky people who have been selected who can have this kind of blessing. God wants everyone to turn over a new leaf. He is always looking forward to forgiving us. For us ordinary people, our arrogance and prejudice against others is wrong and should be condemned. This story also tells us that since God's love and care for us are so profound, our neighbors and people we love have caused us some insignificant grievances, which is also forgivable.
For Christians, Jesus' words and deeds are full of clear enough commandments. We should follow these principles wholeheartedly. Once we, like Jonah, try to escape from what these objective laws and spirituality remind us to do, this escape will isolate us from the emotions of joy and comfort.