jonah

I don't understand why everyone loves you and feels this need to protect me against you or warn me against you." It was insulting, to tell the truth. Everyone just assumed she'd roll over... "Everyone just automatically assumes that you're after me and that I'm going to fall for you. It's insulting.

Jonah__ hair sprays water each time he flips around, in search of another fish. Droplets shimmer on his skin. He__ really cute. And Hallelujah can__ help but think about last night. About him liking her. He flashes her a smile, and something inside her swoons.

I have spoken of Jonah, and of the story of him and the whale. _ A fit story for ridicule, if it was written to be believed; or of laughter, if it was intended to try what credulity could swallow; for, if it could swallow Jonah and the whale it could swallow anything.

Never has God given waivers to family members, just because they had bad leaders. In Jonah's time, the entire family of Israel had become unacceptable, but never has any Israelite administration been without some injustice, intolerance and alienation from God--much less today's earthly family. Even during the celebrated reign of Solomon, Solomon was multiplying wives and horses--against God's written counsel. It has always been so.Regardless, Israel was one family. They were expected to stick together whether they were in exile, or at home living in abundance. No deserters, or pious arm-folders were allowed. As Jonah discovered, no quitters were allowed. (page vi)

Hallelujah can barely breathe through the pain of each step. Rachel is panting from the effort of holding Hallelujah up. Still, when they get closer to the clearing, Rachel manages to call out: __onah! Help!__here__ a rustling noise up ahead. Twigs snapping. And then Jonah appears. His face is in shadow, but his voice is worried: __hat happened?___ turned my ankle,_ Hallelujah says. ____ okay.___he__ not okay,_ Rachel gasps. __he can__ put weight on it. Can you carry her?__onah doesn__ hesitate. He wraps one arm around Hallelujah__ waist, and then he scoops up her legs with the other. In a single, fluid motion, she__ off the ground. She holds on to his shoulders. For a second, she thinks about how strange this is__o be held like this, to be held by Jonah.

It has always been difficult for Jews to take Christians serious, mostly because Christians lack the fundamentals that religious Jews learn in their youth. It remains an embarrassing fact, that modern Jews can comprehend the New Testament better than modern Christians. There is no excuse for this. Christians have dropped the ball and should be anxious to remedy that neglect. Not only would they benefit themselves, but their community too.

The Greeks were more preoccupied with, where these ousted gods resided. That is: The fallen son's of God could go where humans were, but humans could not go where they were. According to Greek mythology, Tartarus was an imposed condition for bad gods--not bad humans. (page 10)

Jonah is something. Jonah__ opinion matters. And she doesn__ want him to hurt because of her.She and Jonah will never be what they were. Too much has happened. But maybe they could become something else.She decides to take the first step. __onah,_ she says.He looks over at her. ____ sorry,_ he says, voice low.__on__ be. I forgive you,_ she tells him. It sounds so formal. I forgive you. But it helps to say it out loud.__hanks. I don__ know if I deserve that. But thanks.___ou do. Of course you do._ Hallelujah says it firmly. __nd__ want to._ I__e missed you, she adds silently. She__ not ready to say that part. Not yet.

Jonah shifts to lean back a little farther, moaning as he does. __oly heck, my leg hurts,_ he says, still with that strained, forced lightness.Again, Hallelujah mimics his tone. ___oly heck_? That__ cutting it close.___ have a gash in my leg the size of the Mississippi. I can say whatever I want.

Whatever criticism we may have for Jonah, at least it can be said that Jonah was consistent. This legalistic, over-judgmental, young prophet will consistently proscribe the most severe form of punishment for the guilty--even when the guilty party is himself. The young Jonah hijacks written Torah to condemn everyone--even himself.

The special knowledge you are about to learn will reveal a __etter theory_ that was set into motion from the very first verse in your Bible. It is as though the divine author is telling the reader to expect Hebrew letters and numbers to weave messages, in the sub-text, through the rest of the Bible__tarting with verse one.

We should expect nothing less from the language that was originally given by God, to His human family. Hebrew was the method that God chose for mankind to speak to Him, and Him to them. Adam spoke Hebrew__nd your Bible confirms this. Everyone who got off the ark spoke one language__ebrew. Even Abraham spoke Hebrew. Where did Abraham learn to speak Hebrew? Abraham was descended from Noah__ son, Shem. (Ge 11:10-26) Shem__ household was not affected by the later confusion of languages, at Babel. (Ge 11:5-9) To the contrary, Shem was blessed while the rest of Babel was cursed. (Ge 9:26) That is how Abraham retained Hebrew, despite residing in Babylon.So, Shem__ language can be traced back to Adam. (Ge 11:1) And, Shem (Noah__ son) was still alive when Jacob and Esau was 30 years of age. Obviously, Hebrew (the original language) was clearly spoken by Jacob__ sons. (Ge 14:13)

If this letter system works, it should be reproducible and consistent. If this letter system works, it should be demonstrated in biblical narrative__ith consistency. It has. It does. It will. For instance: Daniel interpreted the handwriting on the Babylonian wall. (Da 5:1-31) The question has always been, __hat method would produce the same interpretation?_ If you will pull out your Strong__ Concordance and translate those same four words, you won__ get the same results that Daniel got. Was Daniel using a different method than modern Christians? Yes, obviously.

Let__ take some extra time to talk about one: Only the number one can create all numbers with this simple equation, 111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321. One, expressed nine times, multiplied by itself, produces all subsequent numbers progressively and then inversely. Zero is not a number.

And God does have a personality. He can't hide from us. His personality shines through every Hebrew letter, on every page. Sometimes we forget that God is a person--not a fleshly person, but a person nonetheless. (page iii)

He__ looking at her with so much compassion. Like he knows what she__ going through. Like he cares about her. This is what she wanted to see after everything happened with Luke. Instead, she saw Jonah__ back, every time he turned and walked away from her.She blurts, __hy are you being nice to me?"She regrets it immediately. It__ the vulnerability talking. The fear. The adrenaline. For a second, she forgot the aloof, thick-skinned Hallelujah she needs to be.Jonah relaxes his grip. He looks away, out into the wet woods. He waits a long time before speaking. __uke told me.__allelujah is instantly tense. __uke told you what?__nother long pause. __hat he lied. About what happened that night.___hat happened?_ Rachel cuts in. __hat__ Luke lie about?__allelujah ignores her. She stays focused on Jonah, even though he won__ look at her. __hat__ he tell you originally?__onah flinches. __e made it . . . worse. Than what he told the adults. He said that that wasn__ the first time. And he said that you____ever mind,_ Hallelujah cuts in. __ can guess._ She__ heard the rumors. The persistent ones and the surprising, weird, creative ones. She bets there are a lot that she hasn__ heard, too. __one of that happened,_ she says softly but firmly, certain without even knowing exactly what Luke said. What Jonah heard. __one of it.___hat__ what he told me yesterday. I wanted to know why he was still__ He swallows, his Adam__ apple moving up and down. ____ heard him and Brad laughing about what they were gonna do to you this week, and I was like, enough is enough. Time to let it go. So I asked him what was up. Why he was still messing with you.___nd?_ Hallelujah asks.__nd he told me the truth: that he__ made most of it up. He said he had to keep you quiet. Plus, um. He said messing with you was fun.__allelujah lets that sink in. __ou really didn__ know it was a lie? You believed him this whole time?__onah suddenly looks right at her. His eyes plead. __ saw you, Hallie. And Luke was the only one of the two of you with a story to explain it.

Luke said that he was surprised when I showed up at his room. That he hadn__ meant to give me the wrong idea. That he would never have taken it beyond just kissing. And he looked so genuine. So trustworthy. So sorry about what had happened. He almost convinced me that I__ misread his signals._ Hallelujah pauses. __he whole time, I kept my mouth shut. I wish I hadn__. But I was still so humiliated. And I felt guilty. I made out with him. I liked it. And no one made me go to his room.__er voice breaks. She has to swallow past a lump in her throat.__ know Luke__ not a good guy. I know what he did isn__ my fault. It__ his. But still, none of it would__e happened if I hadn__ gone to his room.__he__ almost there. Almost done. Almost heard. Something deep inside her hurts like it hasn__ hurt in a long time. But she knows that this gash had to reopen in order to heal. That__ how wounds work. They need air.__ knew I__ get punished, and I did. My parents grounded me. I was put on youth group probation. But I honestly thought Luke__ lies would just fade away if I kept a low profile. There__ always gossip about someone. This time it was me._...__uke is still telling people about what supposedly happened that night,_ Hallelujah says. __nd he makes fun of me. All the time. What I look like, what I say, my name. And he does this thing at church: whenever we sing a hymn with my name in it, he sings it like he__ hooking up with me. He sings the word __allelujah_ at me. He moans it. And I hate it._ That__ one of the reasons she stopped singing: his voice, his fake grunts of satisfaction, ruining the music she loved so much.__ou said,_ she says to Jonah, __e wanted to keep me upset. To keep me from telling anyone what really happened. Well, it worked._ She pauses. __ntil now.___ntil now,_ Rachel repeats. Then she curses. __ can__ believe him. I can__ believe he got away with it.___ let him get away with it,_ Hallelujah says softly.__o. He__ the one who crossed the line. And okay, maybe you could__e spoken up sooner. But if no one pushed you for your side of the story, that__ on them._ Rachel yawns and stretches. __nd when we get home, we__e going to set the record straight.

Jonah__ anger was not marked by outbursts of rage but by a quiet withdrawal from the company of others and a growing preoccupation with the events in his own life.