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A Prayer for the Hostages in the Dark. And for Us.
A nephew of one of the released Hamas hostages said his aunt “’had to adjust to the sunlight’ because she had been in darkness for weeks. ‘She was in complete darkness,…completely cut off from the outside world.’” Imagine living in total darkness, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 7 weeks—50 days for the now-released hostages, 102 days and counting for those still in captivity. Think what you were doing on October 7th. Now think of erasing all you’ve done since then. All that work, vacation, time with family and friends, church fellowship, football, Thanksgiving, Christmas prep–all those moments you’ve held dear. Imagine instead sitting and sleeping in plastic…
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Jonah, a reluctant prophet
Jonah 3 forms part of the lectionary readings for the third Sunday after Epiphany, which is January 24th. Unlike the other Minor Prophets, Jonah is not a collection of oracles. Instead, it is an account of a period in the life of a prophet, namely, “Jonah son of Amittai” (1:1). Virtually nothing is known about Amittai. According to 2 Kings 14:25, Jonah lived in the northern kingdom of Israel. Jonah was originally from Gath Hepher, a town in the territory of the tribe of Zebulun, located about three miles northeast of Nazareth (Josh 19:13). According to 2 Kings 14:25, Jonah foretold Jeroboam II’s restoration of the territory of Israel from…