As we wrapped up Jonah, the narrator finally revealed why Jonah tried to run away from Yahweh in chapter 1; Jonah knew that Yahweh would forgive the people of Nineveh. At this point we not only see how vast the chasm is between God's ways and our own, but we are receive confirmation that the central struggle in the book of Jonah is between God and Jonah himself.

In many ways, there in a New Testament version of this same story, it's Jesus parable of the prodigal son where, a man has two sons, one of whom abandons his father and wastes his inheritance on wild living, only to return and beg for forgiveness which the father grants. However, upset with this gracious response to the "Nineveh son", the son who remained with his father the whole time, the "Jonah son" in irate (and blind to the fact that the father had been equally gracious to him all along).

Yahweh uses a shade tree as one final attempt at teaching Jonah about His nature, but the book ends on a question, forcing us to wonder what happened and inviting us to figure out where we fit in the story.

Discussion Questions:
1. If you were placed into the story of Jonah, would you be Jonah or the people of Nineveh? Why do you place yourself there?

2. What is the amazing grace that God had already shown Jonah and all of Israel? What is the grace He has shown in your life?

3. What do you think happens with Jonah? What should happen to you following a study of Jonah?

Jonah chapter 3 does an amazing job of portraying the grace of God, first to Jonah and then to the people of Nineveh.

While Jonah spent chapter 1 running away from God and chapter 2 not taking responsibility for his sinful actions, Jonah 3 opens with God calling Jonah to be His voice to the people of Nineveh once again. There is no suggestion of Jonah's past failings, rather, God offers Jonah a clean slate and a chance to start anew.

Taking advantage of this opportunity Jonah goes to Nineveh and, in the Hebrew, offers a five-word sermon about God overturning the city. This prompts the question, what does it mean to overturn? While it could be a military coup or fire from heaven destroying everything, another option is mass repentance on the part of the people so that, rather than following their own desires, they seek to honor God. This of course it what happens, fulfilling Jonah's sermon in an unexpected way.

This of course is what God wants to do in all of our lives. He desires us to not trust in ourselves, but to follow the example of those in Nineveh and realize that our only hope in this life and the next is to cling to the grace of God. What's different between those in Nineveh and us, is that we have the direct promise from God that He will forgive those who trust in Him.

The conversion of the Nineveh also opens an interesting discussion on what it means to be a follower of Jesus. After all, the people of Nineveh had five words to shape their understanding of Yahweh, yet this was enough for God to look upon them graciously. To this end, we could define a disciple as someone who, in as much as they know Jesus, wants to follow Him, and who wants to know Jesus more.

Discussion Questions:
1. How has God overturned your life?

2. The people of Nineveh fasted and prayer to deepen their faith in God. What do you do in your life that reminds you that God has overturned your life?

3. Given the above definition of being Jesus' disciple, how well do you know Him and what more do you want to know?

As we explored the second chapter of Jonah, we ran across three interesting points.

First, Jonah's prayer from the belly of the fish isn't an original work, rather, what we see going on is Jonah praying bits and pieces from the Psalms (see Psalms 18:1-12, 69:1-18, and 88). Given that Jonah historically took place after the Psalms were written and incorporated into Jewish worship through a lectionary of readings that matched the Jewish festival year, we can assume that Jonah's prayer was shaped by his worship in Jerusalem.

The second thing we noticed is what's missing in Jonah's prayer, namely confession of his sin, some inkling of repentance, or accountability for his actions. Instead he blames God for casting him into the sea (v3) and sees himself as being holy while pointing out sins of others that he himself is guilty of (v8). Given this hypocrisy, it's no wonder that the fish wanted to vomit him out.

This reminds us of Christ in Revelation 3:16 when he tells the Laodicea that they were lukewarm. This was a good chance to remind ourselves that this passage isn't about being either totally for or totally against God, rather, it's a reference that compares the water in the town of Laodicea to the works of the Christians there. Nearby towns had hot springs that were healing and cold water that was refreshing, but Laodicea has lukewarm water that was useless. In the same way, the works of the Christians of Laodicea had no value to the Kingdom.

Finally, we found it interesting that, as you read through the prayer of Jonah, his salvation wasn't being spit out upon the land, rather, according to Jonah, salvation was being swallowed by the fish. This fits with something theologians call, the theology of the cross, that is, God isn't found in the beautiful and the glorious things of this life, rather, he's found in the midst of death and suffering.

Discussion Questions:
1) Jonah's life events triggered thoughts of corporate worship and God's Word, what is it that is most often triggered in your mind during everyday events? Do you think this is shaping you in a positive or negative way?

2) In what areas of your life do you find yourself struggling against hypocrisy? What is it that makes you want to be like Jonah and not act according to your beliefs?

3) Where do you see yourself dying right now? How is God using that to transform you and raise you to new life?

As the story of Jonah continues it reveals an interesting set of contradictions between Jonah and the sailors. In short, while Jonah confesses Yahweh properly in verse nine, it is the non-believing sailors who act like they have faith.

To flesh this out more, when trouble in the form of the storm comes, Jonah buries himself in sleepy denial in the belly of the boat while the sailors cry out to any God they can think of and even rouse Jonah so he can include Yahweh in the mix.

Then, when Jonah admits that the storm is his fault because he is fleeing from the presence of Yahweh and that he should just be cast overboard, the sailor value Jonah's life more that he does as they struggle to return to shore. Then, when they finally do cast him over, they do it with the prayer that Yahweh would be merciful to them. Oddly enough, if Jonah had simply confessed his sin and declared his intention of going to Nineveh, most likely the storm would have ceased. However, Jonah, refused to repent and instead was sent into the sea and towards his death.

Perhaps what's most amazing in the midst of all this is that the right confession of Jonah prompts the right acting sailors to come to faith in Yahweh.

Jonah chapter one opens with God calling Jonah to get up and go up to Nineveh and Jonah responding by going down to Joppa, down into the belly of the boat, and down into the sea. Jonah 2 will explore just how far he went down before coming up.

Discussion Questions:
What is the relationship between faith and action?

Is it better to have right belief or right action? Or is their a third option?

The book of Jonah opens with a three verse introduction that sets the stage for the entire book by introducing the two major characters and the three major places of the book.

Two of the three main places are obvious, Nineveh and Tarshish. In the days of Jonah, Nineveh was a far cry from the powerful city it was in the centuries before and after Jonah. In Jonah's day it was an independent city state that was experiencing economic hardship. In modern day terms, we could compare Nineveh to a city like Detroit, making it's evil something along the lines of immoral behavior, crime, or neglecting the poor.

Tarshish, on the other hand, is most likely the New Testament city of Tarsus, the hometown of the Apostle Paul. It was a city in modern day Turkey that in near a range of mountains known to be rich in natural resources including lumber and mineral deposits. Because it was part of an important trade route, Tarshish was a place financial security which makes it the opposite of Nineveh.

The third city isn't mentioned in Jonah, but it is revealed in 2 Kings 14:23-29, where we learn that Jonah is a prophet in Samaria during the reign of Jeroboam II. What's odd is that Jeroboam is described as a king who does wicked in the site of the Lord which, typically, would mean that he would be an enemy of God's prophet. Since we don't see this relationship with Jonah, we have to wonder if Jonah might have been a prophet in the king's pocket who was called by God to be a true prophet in another land ... much like the Apostle Paul in the New Testament.

In addition to the three main places, these verses also introduce us to the two main characters of the story, Jonah and Yahweh (aka God). When we read these three verses in light of the overall Biblical narrative, we can see the two primary characteristics of Yahweh, his justice and his gracious.

Yahweh's justice can be seen in his desire to send Jonah to speak against the sin of Nineveh. This might strike our culture, which typically tries to link a Judeo-Christian morality to a Judeo-Christian faith, as odd, in that Nineveh, a Gentile city, is being accountable to a divine law that had never been given to them.

This invites us to pause for a moment and think about the difference between revealed and natural law. Revealed law is what we see happening at Mt. Sinai in Exodus 20 where God comes to Israel and gives them the 10 Commandments. However, those commandments were only given directly to the Jewish people. Natural law however is what the Apostle Paul addresses in Romans 1:18-32 where, all people are held accountable to God's Law because it's naturally observable and obvious. Therefore, those who aren't Jewish, like the people of Nineveh, are also held accountable to the 10 Commandments because they are a wonderful summary of natural law. For more on this we recommend the book, What We Can't Not Know: A Guide.

However, in addition to Yahweh's justice, we also can be confident, because of his nature, that he is gracious and is sending Jonah to Nineveh to prompt repentance so the people will be forgiven. Later Jonah will reveal that it is because of God's grace that he didn't want to go to Nineveh ... he didn't want them to repent and he didn't want God to forgive them.

This attitude on Jonah's part reveals his character. As a prophet who has been called by God we can assume that Jonah is a man of faith, however, he doesn't understand or like God's mission in the world. At this level, we can see attitude of Jonah that parallel many Christians today who are content to guard the Gospel, keep the good news of Jesus to themselves, and not be willing to go to those outside the Church with God's gracious message to all nations.

There are two more lessons that we pick up from Jonah. The first deals with the presence of Yahweh. As Jonah boards the boat to Tarshish, we're told that he's trying to run from the presence of Yahweh. Given that he believes in a God who is the Creator of all things, it would be foolish to think that he was trying to hide from God. Rather, if we look through the Old Testament, we can always see that the presence of God is connected to physical things like a burning bush, a pillar of cloud or fire, the tabernacle, or the temple. It was through these incarnational places that God would do his work of forgiving.

In the New Testament, Jesus becomes this incarnational presence of Yahweh and passes it on to the Church in the Word, both written and spoken, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper. When people today avoid God's Word, the sacraments, and Christian community, they are, like Jonah, seeking to escape the presence of Yahweh that will often make them experience an uncomfortable reshaping of their lives.

This links us to the final lesson from Jonah 1:1-3 in that, while the Word of God will convict us and change us, there's another Word spoken to us, a Word of forgiveness. Oddly enough, we often are like Jonah in that we reject this Word.

Throughout the Old Testament God speaks and things happen, being it creation coming into existence or a prophet going to work. However, with Jonah, God speaks and Jonah doesn't act accordingly. We see this happening in our live today when God speaks forgiveness into our lives, be it through the telling of the Gospel, the waters of Baptism, or the body and blood of the Lord's Supper, and we continue to allow our past (and now forgiven failures) to define us.

God longs to speak grace into all our lives. In the opening of Jonah, God's prophet seeks to block this grace, but, as the story unfolds, we'll see that even this unwilling prophet can't handcuff the love of God for humanity.