Of God relenting judgment/punishment because the person prayed?
There's a few examples of people who prayed for protection from certain death or murder.Of God relenting judgment/punishment because the person prayed?
Nineveh.Of God relenting judgment/punishment because the person prayed?
Ninevah - see book of Jonah.Of God relenting judgment/punishment because the person prayed?
Hezekiah would have been much better off allowing God to take his life (God knew what was best), read what son he bore and problems he caused by living longer.Hezekiah is also a very good example.
2 Kings 20:
1 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”
2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: 5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. 6 I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’”
I think repentance is what the Lord is looking for (Luke 3:1-3).Of God relenting judgment/punishment because the person prayed?
Did Jonah pray for Nineveh? My understanding is that he became mad at God for sparing it!Nineveh.
Jonah was an unwilling prophet. Being a prophet, it is not a stretch to think that he knew very well that Nineveh and the Assyrians would be the death of Israel and scattering of the Ten Tribes into oblivion in the very near future.Did Jonah pray for Nineveh? My understanding is that he became mad at God for sparing it!
Could be. Symbolism has that tendency to inspire many different insights in the mind of the reader.I see it differently. God by that experience was telling Jonah that Nineveh was like that plant that grew up in a night and perished in a night; and saying that the nation had given Him some pleasure so that He desired that it might not perish.
It wasn't a question.But more pertinent to you first question, yes Jonah was mad at God.
That's right.It wasn't a question.
(Oh yes, the question was, Did Jonah pray for Nineveh? In light of your answer I would think that he didn't pray for Nineveh, he may have even prayed against it, hoping for God to judge them as a nation).
I've never read this view in any of the Church Fathers. St. John Chrysostom says in one of his homilies that the reason Prophet Jonah did not want to warn the Ninevites, was because he suspected that God wanted to show mercy - otherwise why warn them - and he didn't want his prophecy to prove wrong and himself a false prophet. Verse 2 in chapter 4 suggests as much:Jonah was an unwilling prophet. Being a prophet, it is not a stretch to think that he knew very well that Nineveh and the Assyrians would be the death of Israel and scattering of the Ten Tribes into oblivion in the very near future.
He was very, very reluctant to offer them any way out of the fate of being destroyed by God's wrath. He really, really, really wanted them dead, and was absolutely disappointed that God spared them...
The traditional interpretation* is that the plant represents the OT worship according to the letter, which offered some temporary respite from sin to the Jewish people, represented by Jonah, but became obsolete and was destroyed by Jesus Christ, the worm according to the Psalmist and the bait that hooked the Devil as we read in Job. He, our Lord Jesus Christ, is also the sun that arose after His resurrection and ascension and Who scorched the Jews with the trials that He send them because they did not repent of their sins and unbelief. Ninevah of course represents the Church of the Nations.I see it differently. God by that experience was telling Jonah that Nineveh was like that plant that grew up in a night and perished in a night; and saying that the nation had given Him some pleasure so that He desired that it might not perish.
I don't think that I am saying anything different in my post. I would accept your response as a direct paraphrase of what my post is saying, in fact.I've never read this view in any of the Church Fathers. St. John Chrysostom says in one of his homilies that the reason Prophet Jonah did not want to warn the Ninevites, was because he suspected that God wanted to show mercy - otherwise why warn them - and he didn't want his prophecy to prove wrong and himself a false prophet. Verse 2 in chapter 4 suggests as much:
And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.