Dr Paul Allen

Was Jonah swallowed by a fish or a whale?  As far as the sailors were concerned, Jonah had drowned. For the narrator, however, it is the drowned man who remains the chief interest. So he leaves the mariners to worship—not their old gods which had proved helpless, but Yahweh, the God of the prophet who had saved them—and turns our attention back to Jonah. And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. (v. 17) In the same way that human beings designate people for particular tasks, so the Lord is said to ‘designate’ or ‘appoint’ a great fish to swallow Jonah. Yahweh as king deploys a creature which obeys him unquestioningly in order to save a rebellious man from drowning. This same word, ‘appoint’, which could equally be translated ‘employ’ or ‘nominate’, is found also in 4:6, referring to the plant, in 4:7, referring to the worm, and in 4:8, referring to the sultry east wind. On each occasion, the c

English: Baptism of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) It all depends. If He has decreed a certain course of action or outcome, then He will not retract a statement or relent from a declared course of action. Verses stating or illustrating this truth must not be overextended, however.  Statements about God not changing His mind serve to mark specific declarations as decrees . They should not be used as proof texts of God’s immutability, nor should they be applied generally to every divine forward-looking statement. If God has not decreed a course of action, then He may very well retract an an nouncement of blessing or judgment. In these cases the human response to His announcement determines what He will do.  Passages declaring that God typically changes His mind as an expression of His love and mercy demonstrate that statements describing God as relenting should not be dismissed as anthropomorphic. At the same time such passages should not be overextended. God can

Image via Wikipedia Ever feel like your attempts to share the gospel are feeble and impotent?   God can do far more than we think, ask or imagine. In the book of Jonah , God not only uses Jonah’s eventual obedience to spare the great city of Ninevah , but chapter 1 shows how he uses Jonah’s disobedience to save a shipful of pagan sailors. First God commands Jonah to head 500 miles northeast by land to warn Ninevah of impending judgment on their sins.  But Jonah disobeys, flees the opposite direction, books passage on a ship and heads west on the Mediterranean .  So God hurls a storm on the ship. When the tempest first strikes, the sailors fear for their lives.  As it worsens, and they discover Jonah’s at the vortex, they begin to fear God when the prophet says: “I am a Hebrew , and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from