You would think Israel would have learned their lessons. ‘The evil’ they do is not specified but likely to have been following the local gods, where shrine prostitution was part of their practices. This time it’s the Moabites, Ammonites and Amalekites who oppress Israel, and this time it’s for eighteen years. 

The book of Judges relates the story of twelve Judges. The likes of Gideon, Samson and Deborah are well known but some, like Othniel, have just a few verses devoted to them. This is in the pre-monarchy days, and we see the classic cycle within Judges: Israel sins, God allows enemies to defeat them, they cry out to God, God sends a deliverer. 

The book of Judges outlines the way God provides a series of deliverers to rescue God’s people from their surrounding enemies. For a while they learn their lesson and return to God, only to backslide again, until the pain becomes so great, they call out to the Lord again. 

The stereotypical view of Jesus is of a man who showed up for occasional talks in the open air and had down time with His disciples between events. Doubtless this pattern did prevail. But this verse in Mark and parallel verses in the other Gospels paint a more complicated picture. 

Jesus is said to be indignant on two occasions in the Gospels: when the disciples stopped children approaching Him (Mark 10:14), and here when the man with leprosy approached Him. His indignation (could be translated anger) can be read in a few ways: that the leper wasn’t sure He would be willing to heal him, or that He was angry at how sin had messed this man’s life up, or maybe that He knew the man would ignore His later request to keep quiet. 

This opening chapter of Mark paints a picture of who Jesus is. Having gathered His team of disciples, His first public actions are to teach and cast out an evil spirit. 

If Jonah had been in the modern day, his ministry newsletter would have made interesting reading. An astonishing revival comes about such that God does not bring on the people the judgment He had promised. You can imagine the book deals and the conference invites that Jonah would garner off the back of this. 

It was seven words (five in Hebrew) and a whole city turned around. Now of course it may be that we have just a summary of what Jonah said but, even so, it was a simple message. Why the turnaround?

We wouldn’t have the Jonah story if God had let Jonah go. After all, He could have raised up another prophet who would be more willing. But He had His purpose in sending this prophet to these people and so God intervenes with a storm, and we have the oddness of pagan sailors calling out to their gods with Jonah prayerless. 

Jonah certainly has a bad reputation as a disobedient and grumpy prophet who fails to go where he is told to go and is angry with God when his warning is heeded by the people.