How to develop godly discernment (1 Sam 16:1-13)
1 Sam 16:1-13 In my gap year I worked as a volunteer in a hostel in Israel, and one of the guests we got to know started to come along to church with us. To our delight, he also came…
What happens when we exclude God from our life?
Psalm 53:1-6 In the early days of their marriage, a dear friend’s husband went off to a two-day conference to another city without telling his wife. He had been a bachelor for so long that he simply forgot he was…
How we really learn from God (Jonah 4)
Jonah 4:3-11 When I came to faith at the end of a summer church retreat, I finally admitted that I did not have a relationship with God but desired it. However, could I make that commitment to follow Him wholeheartedly?…
What is so offensive about grace? (Jonah 4:1-2)
Jonah 4:1-2 Reading commentaries or sermons on Jonah can be dismaying. Interpreters are inclined to ridicule Jonah so much that no one in their right mind could identify with his complaint. Discussions are often framed in such a way that…
God gives a second chance (Jonah 3)
Jonah 3:1-10 When I was a teenager, our godparents, who left Hungary to live in the US shortly after I was born, invited my brother and me to spend a summer month with them in Miami. I can imagine that…
Jonah and Historicity III – The Fish, Literary Features, and the NT
In my previous two posts, I dealt with some preliminaries (Jonah and Historicity I) and the historical issues proper (Jonah and Historicity II). In this final post, I want to address some remaining questions such as the fish that swallowed…
Jonah and Historicity II – The Historical Issues
In today’s post, I continue the topic of Jonah’s historicity. In my initial post, I reflected on why the debate is so heated and discussed underlying assumptions about the nature of truth (see post Jonah and Historicity I). Today, I…
Jonah and Historicity I – The Nature of Truth
Whenever Jonah is mentioned, the first question I get is usually about the fish and how Jonah could survive in it, but it makes me sad that when this query is answered, people move on as if there were nothing…
What does it take for God to hear our cry? (Jonah 2)
Jonah 1:17; 2:1-10 A Hungarian play written in the early twentieth century called ‘Blue Fox’ describes the tangled relationships of a married couple, a family friend who loves Cecile (the wife), and another man who may be her lover. The…
Why must Jonah ‘die’? (Jonah 1:10-16)
Jonah 1:10-16 A Christian I know made a disastrous marriage that ended in divorce. Saddened by what had happened to her, she struggled with the thought that God did not warn her. Why did she have to go through all…