This Article: (4 Pages)
- 1. Uzziah evidence for... the Bible's veracity
- 2. When was the earthquake of... Uzziah's day?
- 3. The eclipse and the earthquake
- 4. Jonah & What it means to Us
4) Jonah & What it means to Us
A reader of this article pointed out to us another un-designed co-incidence linked to Uzziah's earthquake in the work of Jonah.
Jonah is contemporary with Jeroboam at the height of his power, or towards the end of his rule.
In the fifteenth year of Amaziah... Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years. .... He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher. (2Kings 14:23-25).
In the book of Jonah we see huge respect from non-Jews for the Hebrew God. When the water is rough, the sleeping Jonah is woken,
Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is your occupation? and whence come thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou? And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear Yahweh, the God of heaven, which has made the sea and the dry land.
Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why have thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of Yahweh, because he had told them. (Jonah 1:8-10)
Note when Jonah was from no-where in particular fleeing his God, they had no concern, but they become “exceedingly afraid” when they learn Jonah is a Hebrew!
The men in the ship are not Jews. They didn't recognise Jonah's nationality. They are going to Tarshish, which even Jonah hopes is a long way away from the God of Israel. They had set out from Joppa which in that era most likely was in Philistine territory. But they feared "exceedingly” the Hebrew God. This fear is totally inexplicable. It was not how rough it was that made these tough sailors afraid, it was that Jonah said he was fleeing the Hebrew God.
This makes sense if in very recent history the Hebrew God has been shown to be very powerful over the Philistines, over the Ammonites, Arabia and all the way to Egypt. In the first years of Uzziah's reign, in Joppa, which was so close to events, even a foreign sailor would have heard how the Hebrew God had helped Uzziah by destroying Philistine cities. But the book of Jonah is just reporting events, the writer sees no need to explain why the foreign sailors feared the Hebrew God. It is an un-designed co-incidence a that they do fear.
But there is more. Jonah then is told to go to the Great City of Nineveh. He is a Hebrew from Gathhepher, which is no-where in particular.
And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. (Jonah 3:4-5)
Why did the people of this great and mighty city believe Jonah? At this time Nineveh was a centre of Assyria which was rising to be a great power. Since Shalmaeser III 858-824BC, Assyria had been increasing in power with Northern Israel and may others forced to pay tribute. In 796BC Assyria won a victory over Damascus. In 791BC the king of Assyria ruling Ninveh would have been Adad-nirari III 811–783 BC. Assuredly the death of Jeroboam and a sudden miraculous success of Uzziah would not only have dried up a revenue stream, but been of concern, especially, if another regional power such as the Ammonites were now giving gifts to Uzziah. This concern fits well with the otherwise unaccountable respect the Ninevites from 'the greatest to the least' had for this lone Hebrew's message. Something made them greatly fear and respect the God of the Hebrews.
The great earthquake implied in the Chronicles record is a good reason for the Ninevites' fear. The trade route from Egypt to Babylon went past Nineveh. If the Egyptians spread the news of Uzziah's name it would travel to Nineveh, as many people including the Arabians traded between the two. The mighty King of Nineveh clearly feared the God of the Hebrews,
For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? (Jonah 3:6-9)
Not only did the Ninevites fear, they acted on the fear of the Hebrew God and changed their way of life. This is not the action of a nation that thinks itself and its gods superior to the Hebrews and their God.
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. (Jonah 3:10)
Jonah's success is unprecedented. Not since the time of Rahab and the Gibeonites, have so many non-Jews feared the power of the God of the Hebrews. Even Israelites themselves often didn't repent at just the word of a prophet. It must have been a great earthquake and an amazing event clearly linked to Uzziah that took the fame of Uzziah's name to Egypt and, as the circumstances suggest, the fear of the Hebrew God from Joppa to Nineveh.
What it means to us
We can be sure the Bible is true in this matter as the accounts of Uzziah's life in every particular, even asides corroborate each other, from his name change to the earthquake. That a great miracle occurred at this time is supported by the, otherwise unaccountable, behaviour of non-Jews in the book of Jonah. The earthquake of the days of Uzziah is very, very, ancient history. Yet 250 years after the event Zechariah says, there will be another earthquake for their deliverance, and just like the days of Uzziah they will flee from it. Even when Zechariah wrote the generation that had experienced it was long dead. But in the 2,500 years since Zechariah wrote there has not been an earthquake such as Uzziah's must have been.
Uzziah was the last king to be visibly helped with the active engagement of Yahweh Elohim in the actual battle with an earthquake. By contrast Senacherib's army in Hezekiah's day was smitten while they slept, and did not involve a battle at all. When is Zechariah's earthquake to be? When all nations are gathered to Jerusalem to battle (Zech 14:2) when Yahweh stands on the Mount of Olives. Then the Israeli's on Yahweh's side, and those who have come with Messiah to Zion, will flee from the earthquake in the same way as they did in the days of Uzziah when they fought the Philistines in battle and the cities of Gaza were flattened.
When such power is again seen on earth, all will fear Messiah the king and the God of the Hebrews. Many great modern nations will, as the Ammonites did, bring gifts to the new king in Jerusalem. And those in great cities will repent, just as Nineveh did.
For more on Zechariah's earthquake War, Earthquake and World Peace
Image from the NASA website http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html They are archived at http://www.nasaimages.org/
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An article prompted by National DNA day April 25 celebrating the understanding of DNA.
As I was thinking to write this article, having just read Psalm 46 as I do each year on that day, on January 25th a Bible was found untouched after a tornado hit Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
We have been given many time periods to prophetic events in the Bible. Many people think it too hard, and do not make an effort to understand them. However, if they were not to be understood, why were they given? And the Bible says the wise shall understand (Daniel 12:10).
On the 15th December 2010 was announced a Roman statue from a bathhouse had been unearthed by storms in the Mediterranean,
Standing 1.2 meters (4 feet) tall, the statue was found in the remains of a cliff that had crumbled under the gale-force winds. Discovered near the ancient port after the tides had returned to normal, an official with the Israel Antiquities Authority said the statue will be displayed in various museums.
Dated to approximately 1,800 to 2,000 years ago – the period in which the Romans occupied western Judea -- the statue weighed 200 kg (440 lb) and had no head or arms.
“The sea gave us this amazing statue,” Yigal Israeli, a researcher with the Israel Antiquities Authority told the Reuters news service. He added that other artifacts may have washed out into the ocean due to the same storm, however.
Fragments of mosaics and bits from a Roman bath house were also recovered at the site Israelnationalnews
