{"id":77824,"date":"2020-07-21T18:25:13","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T15:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=77824"},"modified":"2020-07-21T18:25:13","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T15:25:13","slug":"the-gift-of-jonahs-rebellion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-gift-of-jonahs-rebellion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gift Of Jonah\u2019s Rebellion"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"77824","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":37859,"related_cahpter":"529","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Even when we\u2019re off the path, we\u2019re on a meaningful journey. Failure is part of the story.\r\n\r\n","content":"

Have you ever wondered what would have happened had Jonah obeyed?<\/span><\/p>\n

Picture this. God commands Jonah: “Go to Nineveh and tell them to repent.” Jonah responds, “Certainly, O Lord”, trundles off to Nineveh, they repent, and presto: game over. How dull is that?<\/span><\/p>\n

In this scenario, there would have been no book of Jonah at all. It was precisely because Jonah was such a lousy prophet \u2013 fleeing at top speed from his mission, going down, down and even further down until he is asleep in the dark belly of the boat in the midst of an insane storm \u2013\u00a0 that we even have this marvelous story.<\/span><\/p>\n

Without Jonah\u2019s rebellion, we would not have encountered the wonderful sailors, or seen the effect Jonah has on them, and the process Jonah himself undergoes. Those sailors only come to know God through Jonah, after experiencing the crisis of the weird storm, rising to its challenge, and elevating themselves spiritually. As for Jonah himself, in the eye of the storm, he comes to the point where he stands up for himself and declares proudly: “I am a Hebrew and I serve the Lord of heaven and earth.\u201d This might be the pivotal moment of his life, a moment he would not have had had he not fled from God\u2019s will.<\/span><\/p>\n

To me, the striking lesson here is that even when we seem to ourselves to be dysfunctional, running away from our destiny, off our path, we are still on a meaningful journey. We are still impacting the people around us, possibly even in an indescribably significant way, as Jonah did for those sailors. This prophet with his wayward behaviour gave us the gift of the book of Jonah. We, too, are writing chapters of the book of our life no matter where we are or how \u201cwell\u201d we are doing, and those chapters are a gift too. Even if we ourselves find the plot and character development surprising, confusing or depressing, these chapters are part of our canon. Heaven will send us opportunities from within any place we find ourselves, to be, to do, and even to experience moments of declaring, \u201cI am a Hebrew.\u201d We always get to choose from wherever we are.<\/span><\/p>\n

By the way Jonah (<\/span>Yonah<\/span><\/em>) means \u201cdove\u201d in Hebrew. My friend Chaviva Speter pointed out that the first time that Noah sends out the dove to find dry land, it fails to alight. The second time, it does not fly far, returning with an olive branch. Only the third time does it fly free and not return.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just as Jonah failed initially in his mission, so did the dove. But Noah did not give up, and he sent it out again. The dove\u2019s second try gave us the symbol of the olive branch. On the third try, it succeeded, just as Jonah also eventually succeeded in his mission. Their failures are part of their story \u2013 in fact, they <\/span>are <\/span><\/i>the story. So too are ours.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":77825,"id":77825,"title":"jon1-journey road","filename":"jon1-journey-road.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-gift-of-jonahs-rebellion\/jon1-journey-road\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jon1-journey-road","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":77824,"date":"2020-07-21 15:25:02","modified":"2022-08-31 19:06:42","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1280,"height":1190,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road-300x279.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":279,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road-768x714.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":714,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road-1024x952.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":952,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":1190,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":1190,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road-1200x1116.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1116,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road-452x420.png","home_baner-width":452,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Introduction","main_caption":"The Gift Of Jonah\u2019s Rebellion","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Even when we\u2019re off the path, we\u2019re on a meaningful journey. Failure is part of the story.","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":77825,"id":77825,"title":"jon1-journey road","filename":"jon1-journey-road.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-gift-of-jonahs-rebellion\/jon1-journey-road\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jon1-journey-road","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":77824,"date":"2020-07-21 15:25:02","modified":"2022-08-31 19:06:42","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1280,"height":1190,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road-300x279.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":279,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road-768x714.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":714,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road-1024x952.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":952,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":1190,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":1190,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road-1200x1116.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1116,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jon1-journey-road-452x420.png","home_baner-width":452,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77824"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77826,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77824\/revisions\/77826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}