Bible 101: Lesson 31

Micah

Micah was active during the last third of the eighth century B.C. He preached to a nation that had gone wrong in many ways. The rich were oppressing the poor, merchants were cheating their customers, the religious and judicial leaders were corrupt, and the true prophets were being told to keep quiet. (Isaiah and Hosea were active at the same time.) But people still believed God was with them and would defend them. Micah’s ministry was to warn the people of the consequences of national sin.

Two verses in Micah stand out above the rest: Micah 5:2 which predicts the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, and Micah 6:8 - one of my favorite verses in the Bible.

“He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?”

Messianic prophecies in Micah

Born in Bethlehem
OT References: Micah 5:2-4
NT Fulfillment: Matt 2:1-6; Luke 2:4, 10-11

Bible 101: Lesson 30

Jonah

The book of Jonah is unique among the books of the prophets because it doesn’t contain any prophecies or visions. Instead it tells about a period of time in the life of the prophet Jonah. He is mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25, so the period of time discussed in the book is the early eighth century B.C.

The story is simple, but very profound in its lessons about God. He called Jonah to preach a message of warning to the city of Nineveh, telling them that God was about to destroy it in forty days. Jonah ran in the opposite direction though, because he was afraid that the success of his preaching would cause God to show mercy. Basically, Jonah was prejudiced against the people of Nineveh and didn’t want them to be saved. Even though he had good reasons for his dislike, Jonah needed to learn a lesson about how God’s mercy extends even to the wicked. Jonah didn’t let go of his prejudice until he had literally sunk to the lowest depths in the belly of a “great fish” who swallowed him after he had been thrown out of a boat into the Mediterranean during the middle of a severe storm.

Several important themes come out of the book of Jonah. One is it shows that, while God had a special relationship with Israel, he did not lose his compassion and concern for other nations. Another is God’s compassion for children and animals. When He chides Jonah for his sinful prejudice, God says, “And should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right hand and left hand, as well as many animals?” Finally, although there are no direct Messianic prophecies in the book, Jesus saw Jonah’s experience in the belly of the whale as a prophetic picture of what he would go through during his three day interval of death. He also used the repentance of the Ninevites after Jonah’s preaching to chide his unrepentant contemporaries (Matt. 12:39-41).

There are no messianic prophecies in Jonah.