Judas, Jonah, Jeremiah — a thought experiment

Off the top of my head, for example:

Judas, Jonah, Jeremiah — three people acting dramatically around whatever God is doing.

(NB. I'm thinking aloud. I am not pretending to preach.)

Putting myself in the shoes of these characters, in their stories, let's say:

Judas

- in these shoes

it feels like he's thinking:

"Jesus knows I have strong skills, let me try it my way.

Perhaps Jesus will be forced to show his Godly credentials

if I put him on the spot."

Jonah

- in these shoes it feels like:

"I'm special, and this assignment feels like it makes my role less special, so I'm skipping this one.

Perhaps God will be forced to give me a different assignment more in line with my aspirations

if I am physically somewhere else."

Jeremiah

- in these shoes it feels like:

"I know God. I'm a person who gets things wrong, but on this one I feel very clear this is God.

Definitely, God will use me to speak to people even if I'm getting it wrong.

In any case, I don't matter. God matters. His story, not just history.

…

Those are massive characterisations - I have no idea, no expertise, I cannot know what those men are thinking.

But I'm working on this idea:

Let's imagine

the Bible calls for readers

who put themselves in other people's shoes — within each story,

and perhaps then ask themselves if in each case if

there may be a situation

in their lives

(in our lives)

where we find ourselves reacting in any of these ways.

Hmm.

What do we see?