The Book of the Twelve for Lent 2016 - Jonah (3)
The Book of the Twelve for Lent 2016 Joppa, Anyone? – Jonah (3) Joppa, a city in Israel, places a small but significant role in the biblical drama. It hosted two significant characters at two significant points in their careers. Joppa was a way-station for Jonah as he sought to evade the Lord’s call to preach judgment on Nineveh (Jonah 1:3). And it was also the place where the apostle Peter received vision from the Lord declaring all foods and all peoples were clean (Acts 10). Both men faced the same issue. Neither was prepared to see God’s grace extended to the Gentiles, the pagans, “those” evil people. Jonah was afraid that’s what God was up to and turned tail in the opposite direction as fast as he could go. Peter believed that Judaism was the way to God and turning Jewish was what a Gentile needed to do to find God. One was resistant to extending grace to “them”; the other unaware that it could be done without going through Judaism. Acceptance and welcome of the outsid...