In this episode we are exploring the return from exile and the era of the Second Temple. What seems to have emerged in the century following the return from exile was a tension between a sort of isolationist wing and a more universalist wing. There were those who wanted to remove all foreigners and double and triple down on following the Law, while others advocated for understanding God as being the God of all people and all nations, not just Israel alone. Here Matt Helms invites us to reflect on some thoughtful and incisive questions that the book of Jonah has to ask of us, primarily around our own sense of self-righteousness, and times when that conflicts with an expansive understanding of God’s love and mercy. Ultimately, this view that God is the God of all people wins out. And even though things aren’t perfect, hopes begin to rise around a Savior, a Messiah, who will help to truly usher in an age where God is in control — not just in the present time, but forever.
