Jonah Chapter 1

Overview of Jonah

Jonah was a prophet called by God to preach in the capital city of Assyria—Nineveh. Jonah resisted God’s call to preach to his nation’s longtime enemy. But after disobeying God and ending up in the belly of a fish, Jonah reluctantly went to Nineveh and found Israel’s enemies responsive to God’s message.1

1 The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Jon.

The Big Idea of Jonah

Jonah tries to hide from God, but God is everywhere.

Bible Project Summery of Jonah

Jonah is also mentioned in the book of 2 Kings 14:23-25 where he prophesises in favour of a bad King of Israel Jeroboam 2. Later God raised up Amos and overturned Jonah’s positive predictions and told Jeruboam 2 he would be defeated in Amos 6:13-14.

Context

Context (from 12 Books to Change Your Life by Cook & Thorp):

The word of the Lord came to Jonah asking him to preach against Nineveh, the largest city of the Assyrian Empire. It was famous for its brutality and violence, which are depicted graphically by the prophecies in the book of Nahum.

Instead of obeying the word of the Lord, Jonah fled by boat in the opposite direction to Tarshish. Tarshish is named in Isaiah 66:19 as one of the places where God’s glory is not known. Or course Jonah was not going there to make Yahweh’s glory known, but in order to hide. His journey, however, showed the futility of that venture. Yahweh acted decisively to bring Jonah back to obedience, and to an understanding of God’s mercy.

Ironically, it was the pagan sailors in chapter one who were concerned for one another’s welfare. During the violent storm, they prayed, threw cargo overboard and cast lots to try to save one another. All the while, Jonah slept, oblivious to the trouble he had caused for everyone. When they finally recognised Jonah as the cause of the peril he was thrown into the sea. The storm subsided and God provided a great fish to swallow the wayward prophet who had refused to obey his word.

Chapter Outline

Chapter 1 and 3 deal with Jonah’s interactions with non israelites, the Sailors in ch 1 and the Ninivites in Ch 3. In both cases Jonah is selfish and critical of God and unforgiving toward his enemies is contrasted to the pagans who are humble and repent to God and trust in God’s grace and forgiveness.

Chapter 1: Jonah and the Sailors

Chapter 2: Jonah’s prayer of repentance in the belli of the fish

Chapter 3: Jonah at Ninaveh

Chapter 4: Jonah’s 2nd prayer where he gets angry at God and critisises his mercy

The Characters

God: You cannot run from God. Jesusanswers the call of God and goes to his people

Jonah: is the opposite of Jesus, runs away and gets angry of God. In the belly of the fish

The Sailors: like the disicples, here the word of the prophet and obey. Jonah is jonah like the phrarisees or the disicples

The Ninevietes: like the crowds of people jesus had compassion on and repent.

The King: what a contrast to Piolet who is presented with the prophet and

The Storm, the fish, the cows and the vine

Gospel Connections

As disciples of Jesus, those who trust in his death and resurrection, we have God’s Spirit living with us, everywhere, all the time.

The Application

We can be confident that God is always with us, no matter what.

Slurpie the Rabitt

Chapter 1:

Jonah 1:1–3 NIV

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

a prophet should be obeying and sharing not runnig away

trys to run away but god is everywhere

Through the story we see parallels to jesus

Jonah 1:4–5 NIV

4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.

Jonah was below deck

is there a parrellel with jesus in mark 4 when he stills the storm

unlike jesus jonah cant controll the storm

CAst lots

Find out it is Jonah

Jonah 1:9 NIV

9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

they are terrified

he says throw me in

Jonah 1:14–16 NIV

14 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.

The non israelites are more faithful and trusting than the prophet

application don’t hide from God. his mission has been given to us.

Matthew 28:18–20 NIV

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

what is your tarshish