Come Follow Me with Sam

 Welcome! Jonah The normal story of jonah goes something like this - Jonah was commanded by God to do something, but he didn't so he got swallowed by a whale so he repented and did what God wanted, the end. If we are lucky, we get that bit at the end where Jonah is angry that God delivered the people and God basically showed him that he was under God's mercy just like the others. Jonah is a story with many layers. I like to start by looking at its chiasm form, the apex of which is reached at the end of Jonah 3 8  They that observe  a lying  vanities forsake their own mercy. 9  But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay  that  that I have  a vowed .  b Salvation   is  of the  Lord . Jonah is speaking for himself as much as he for the people. He mentions the temple multiple times. For the second portion, Jonah's experience with the gourd leaf and the worm, I like to flip it around. Not focus on Jona...

 Welcome! Amos and Obadiah, like many of the other old testament prophets, have significant parallels to the new testament epistles in the sense that they both knew that the party was going to come to an end and that apostasy was coming. many prophets before the fall, like Hosea, Amos, and Isaiah spelled out the captivity of Judea. Likewise, Paul and others warned that the primitive Christian church would suffer apostasy and fall. The redeeming message of both times was that in the last days, Christ's church would be restored, and God would work again His work to fulfill the promises given.

 Welcome! As we keep going through these prophets in exile, this is the conversation that keeps going through my head. Prophets: Look what happened to Ephraim. It could happen to you Judah: We don't care Prophets: You need to change your path if you don't want this to happen Judah: We don't care Prophets: No seriously, if you don't change this now, it is going to happen. Judah: We don't care Prophets: Well its imminent at this point, it is about to happen Judah: We don't care Babylonians: Hello there Judah: why did this happen? Prophets: Glad you are finally ready to listen Also Prophets: at this point, think less of deliverance now and more about deliverance in the meridian of time and in the last days. (Judah: we don't care??) Hosea Hosea prophesied before the fall of Judah, but we can see in his writings that he knew exactly what was going to happen and he walked them through it. The overall narrative of Hosea is walking through the covenant relationship,...