As I have now completed the Manga Bible Series, I have come to appreciate some of the smaller details this series mentions that don’t often get talked about enough. This has been a continuous theme that has made me grow to appreciate this series. But out of all six volumes that I have reviewed, there was one volume in particular that really brought out so many thoughts and reactions that I wanted to share more of. That volume was Manga Messengers.
Let us start with Jehu. I was surprised that the moment oil was poured on Jehu, all of a sudden he is the king of Israel. It is not so much the symbolic action that was surprising, but how fast the title of kingship changed. It was so instantaneous because Jehu wastes no time and just cleans house. Joram is killed. Jezebel is thrown off a temple building. And then 70, that is right, 70 sons of Ahab were slaughtered and beheaded. Can you imagine a stack of heads piled up on this table?
I know Jezebel is always mentioned as being evil. But her daughter Athaliah was even more crazy and evil than her. She was so power-hungry that she ordered every male in the royal family, even including her grandsons to be killed. And people would just follow these orders and do it without even questioning it once. They probably knew if her logic is that crazy, she could be just as crazy to have them killed for questioning her.
Because of all this insanity, the lineage of David was down to a single thread. But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, and sister of Ahaziah went and hid the one last grandson of evil Athaliah; Joash. I know Ruth, Rahab, and Esther are often mentioned as brave heroic women in the Bible. But if you want to talk about brave heroic women in the Bible, why on earth is Jehosheba not mentioned enough?! Two great things happened because of her. She literally kept the one thread of David’s lineage intact. And it resulted in an evil queen eventually being killed. Sure, Israel now had a 7 year-old King, but Jehosheba helped prevent the terrible reign of Queen Athalahiah from continuing.
But yeah, there was just so much killing and idolatry going on. It was a vicious cycle of Idols frequently being set up and eventually being destroyed. These idols were created and destroyed so often, they almost felt like those pop-up shops at marketplaces. And Baal seemed to be the one idol that came back the most. And then to think that child sacrifices were being made to these false pieces of metal and wood that were considered some sort of god is just astronomically insane. Sure you could criticize Abraham for attempting this, but at least God spoke to Abraham directly beforehand. These people were doing it blindly. How could you sleep at night knowing that you burned your baby child alive to a block of wood?
When it came to Jonah, I was always told as a kid that the sailors were angry at him for causing this massive storm and just threw him overboard. But that is not how it happened. It was in fact Jonah who asked them to throw him over. And despite Jonah asking them to do it, the sailors STILL tried to keep going without having to resort to that. They wanted to keep Jonah on the boat. But when they realized the storm was not going to end as long as Jonah was on that boat, they finally had to throw him. But right after they pleaded with God not to hold their actions against them. It sounds to me like the sailors were pretty cool guys that were sympathetic and understanding of Jonah’s situation.
I don’t know why, but I find it funny that Jonah just spent 3 days and nights inside a whale, gets spit out, and right before he could barely stand and collect himself, God is already giving him a job to do. Wow…like Jonah just miraculously survived this incredible event. With astronomical odds against him, he somehow escaped from this great giant fish alive. He is covered in nasty stuff and smells awful, and yet God wastes no time giving him his next job. God was clearly frustrated Jonah ran away and was not having any sympathy for him. At least Jonah could have an epic story to share, if they actually believe him.
When I saw people use words such as “dude” or “awesome”, I believe The Manga Bible was probably just paraphrasing, but then I wondered if people actually said words like “dude” or “awesome” in their own language back then? pg. 115 / 226
Amos is another character not talked about much, but I loved how aggressively he was talking to people. No political correctness. He just told everyone the right to their face.
Hosea and Gomer feel like one of the most underrated love stories in the Bible. I have said in the past that the story of Ruth and Boaz is underrated. And even though I love the Ruth and Boaz love story, I think now the love story of Hosea and Gomer is even more underrated and underappreciated. Here we see Hosea knowing full well he is marrying a prostitute.
Hosea and Gomer are truly the pinnacle example and personification of our relationship with God and how unconditional and unwavering his love is. We are that spouse that cheats and betrays God multiple times, and yet just like Hosea, God pursues us and takes us back even when we betray him.
Then there is that time when the Angel of the Lord just waltzed into the Assyrian army camp and killed 185,000 soldiers. Just Imagine waking up to see that many dead bodies on the ground?
Because of how fast paced these Manga Volumes have to be, it can be humorous how fast someone can go from a king to a prisoner. (160)
Manasseh is all happy at the top of this page until he is captured and thrown into prison
One of the most valiant kings was Josiah…Here you have an eight year old that boldly says I am not going to be like my father Amon. As he got older, he destroyed all the idols and alters and asherah poles. He cleansed and reformed Judah of all idol worship. He arranges to have Solomon’s temple to be repaired and restored. But he was also not afraid to be on the front lines when they went to war against the Egyptians. He didn’t just sit back and watch. He put himself right in the trenches. He got shot by an arrow and eventually died of his injury. But to me that what a true leader is. He went down as a noble king never once broiled in controversy.
Now on the flip side, Zedekiah appears to be the dumbest king. Jeremiah lays two crystal clear options out before him. One choice leads to death, one leads to life. He chose the path that leads to death. Yet he basically surrendered anyways as he cowardly abandoned his kingdom by trying to sneak out the back gate. Because of that foolish choice, he was forced to watch his own sons be slaughtered, was then blinded, and then taken to Babylon to be killed. Like this was the cost of not doing what God warned him not to do. Although I did find it odd that they killed him shortly after they blinded him. Kind of pointless to blind him to begin with. If you are going to kill him, no point in blinding him. You have to appreciate God’s patience through all of this pride, arrogance, and stubbornness.
I never really understood the logic of why killing was so often the default solution for so many problems. If a wise man gave the wrong interpretation of a dream for King Nebuchadnezzar, he was torn limb from limb. You give a false prophecy, you die. You approach a certain king without being summoned, you die. You don’t bow down to someone in authority, you die. If you want to fine them, or throw them in prison, okay. But to immediately kill a person over something that could be an innocent mistake is so extreme.
I am actually surprised that this volume is missing two incredible scenes from the book of Daniel. The fiery furnace, and the lion’s den. What a missed opportunity to provide some stunning visuals and important lessons about faith and trust. Such a shame.
But at least we get the story of Mordecai getting poetic justice on this Haman guy. He hates an entire people group for what they did a long time ago. He especially hated the Jew named Mordecai because he did not bow to him. So what does he do? He tricks the king to allow him to forge a sealed decree that orders the death of every Jewish Man, Woman, and Child to be killed on a certain day. What an evil human being. And yet again, people are blindly following these stupid orders no matter how illogical they are.
Esther goes on to ruin Haman’s plans, which frustrates Haman even more. So what solution does Hmanan’s wife suggest? To just build a 70-foot pole and impale him the next day. Again, the logic is crazy. I mean what was wrong with just throwing people into jail? Why was killing such a first resort and a default reaction to solving so many things? Why did people make such a large leap from being offended to having to kill a person?
I could keep going on and on about my thoughts with this volume. I think why I share these thoughts is to show how visual representations of the Bible such as Manga can inspire people to dig deeper into scripture. The Manga Bible series has been a testament to helping readers not only learn about the Bible, but encourages them to dig deeper to find answers towards the kind of thoughts and questions I just shared. This was just one volume I talked about. Imagine what the other ones can do. But this one really had me thinking and reacting more than any of the other ones. Incredible series. Definitely check them out.
