Jonah 1

3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for the Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

Jonah made a pretty big mistake...he ran away from God and His command to go tell the people of Ninevah for sinning and all their evildoings.

4-5 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.

God..seeing how Jonah ran away from him, got angry and made the seas all roar and become scary and stuff. Cause & effect.

15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.

This part was kind of interesting. Jonah knowingly ran away from God because he didn't want to do what God told him to do, but then upon seeing how his disobedience put all those people in danger, Jonah willingly went overboard to make the sea calm.

Jonah knew that he disobeyed God, and he admitted to it by letting the crew throw him overboard. although just a small part of the story and the lesson to be learned, Jonah didn't try to justify his actions and fight with the men. Kind of admirable, i think. If he didn't do that, then God wouldn't have provided the big fish to swallow him and keep him 'safe' in his belly.

=]

Jeremiah 16

"But now I will send for many fishermen," declares the Lord, "and they will catch them. After that i will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks. My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols." - v16-18.

God says He'll use fishermen to fish out the ones who can be saved out of the sea of sin, and hunters to hunt down the evil people. The people ask God why He's doing that to them when they didn't do anything. but God tells them He's punishing them because not only their ancestors disobeyed God, but even they are doing worse things. I think the danger here is that the people didn't even know how bad they were falling from God. the thing to learn here is to stay on the Word and hear what God is saying to us because without that guidance, we can become just like these people and end up in huge trouble.

Jeremiah 15

Then the Lord said to me: "Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go! And if they ask you, 'Where shall we go?' tell them, 'This is what the Lord says: Those destined for death, to death' those for the sword, to the sword; those for starvation, to starvation; those for captivity, to captivity.'

In the previous passage, God tells Jeremiah not to even pray for the people of Judah, but he does anyway. and this is God's response to his prayer. to anger God so much as to Him not even wanting to answer your prayer is so scary. the rest of this passage God says how He's going to punish those people.

Jeremiah 14

Have you rejected Judah completely? Do you despise Zion? Why have you afflicted us so that we cannot be healed? We hoped for peace bu no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror. We acknowledge our wickedness, Lord, and the guilt of our ancestors; we have indeed sinned against you. For the sake of your name do not despise us; do not dishonor your glorious throne. Remember your convenant with us and do not break it. Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is you, Lord our God. Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this. - v. 19-22

These several verses are Jeremiah's prayer for Judah to God. Jeremiah prays for the people of Judah even though God tells him earlier to not even bother because no more prayer can help them. Jeremiah's relationship with God and the people of Judah is kind of interesting. He acts as a bridge between God and those people, who can see through the eyes of God but also prays for them because he considers them still his 'brothers' who don't know better.