A covenant is a solemn agreement. The most important covenants in the Bible are those in which God makes a covenant with man: the Abrahamic Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, etc. Here is a covenant which man makes with God. The Israelites recognize the importance of God and covenant together to wholly follow Him.
The Book of Jonah is a battle of wills. If there ever was a book of the Bible that dealt with a man matching his will and wits against the Lord, it’s the Book of Jonah. You don’t have to read very far to realize the fruitlessness of that endeavor! Have you ever battled the Lord over anything?
Some say that prophecy is too hard to understand. Everyone interprets the Bible differently and there is no correct way to interpret prophecy. This is not true. As in everything else, God gives us the guidance to understand the prophecy that He wrote.
Jesus appears as the captain of the host of the Lord and gives the plan for taking Jericho. The walls fall flat and Israel wins.
We look on service today as something beneath our dignity. However, Jesus said, “And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant”. And here, in this passage, a temporary servant becomes a lifetime servant of his own free will. What is the Lord trying to teach us?
