Jonah--Leader's Bible Study

Note: As a Sunday school leader I take my role of educating our youth about Jesus very seriously. As such, I feel it necessary to dig deeper into the stories I have known throughout my life to really have a strong background and grasp on the stories, concepts, and possible life applications that can be drawn. Therefore, the following is my own quest for that knowledge prepared for you in “Bible study” form. I encourage you to learn and grow as much as you feel called to in order that you might not only feel prepared to teach and share with our children, but that you may also be filled and renewed in your study of God’s Word. This is not meant to be an exhaustive of the text, but notes to help provide context and background for leaders.

Objectives:
• Provide leaders with a historical context for understanding.
• Provide leaders with a Biblical context for reaching and teaching.
• Provide a theological basis for the concepts to be taught to the children.
• Serve as a renewal and time of reflection to strengthen leaders to serve.

Scripture: Book of Jonah

Memory Verse for this rotation: “But you, O Lord, are merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” Psalm 86:15

Concepts to be learned by children:
* Even when we don’t understand God’s plan, we should still obey.
* God will not give up on you even if you disobey.
* God has power over all of nature.
* Jonah was a reluctant prophet and had trouble accepting God’s mercy and love for his enemies.
* God wants all people to turn to Him and know Him.

Historical/Theological/Biblical Contexts
Authorship, Date, & Background on the book of Jonah: The authorship of this book is not state, but there is no good reason to suppose that it was not Jonah. The use of the third person is no problem since the same approach appears in the Pentateuch of Moses as well as in secular literature (such as the writing of Julius Caesar). Unlike other prophetic books “it tells a story about a presumed prophet rather than relating oracles spoken by a prophet” (Trible, 466). The boundaries for the date of composition fall between the 8th and 2nd centuries.
Jonah (whose name means “dove”) was the son of Amittai; according to 2 Kings 14:25 he lived in Gath-hepher, which was near Nazareth, in the eight century B.C. Hosea and Amos were contemporaries and Jeroboam II was king.
The book is about Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrian empire, which existed for three centuries. It was a militaristic monarchy detested by the surrounding nations and guilty of depraved and brutal conduct. God was to use Nineveh to punish Samaria, but this nation itself was to disappear from the face of the earth at a later time. Nineveh’s insolence and pride offended God, who would judge this country if it did not repent. God ordered Jonah to preach the necessity of repentance to Nineveh with the promise of sudden judgment if the nation failed to respond.
Many modern scholars have always denied that Jonah is history; rather, they argue that it is fiction. They do so because they cannot accept the supernatural, not the least of which is the great fish that swallowed, Jonah, who spent three days and three nights inside it. Moreover, the plant that grew and protected Jonah from the heat and the worm which destroyed the plan are unacceptable to those who deny the miraculous. For evangelicals, these facts present no problem.

Characteristics and Content: Jonah received his prophetic call from God to minister to the people of Nineveh. He disobeyed by trying to flee from God’s presence and taking a sea voyage in the opposite direction from Nineveh. The omnipresence of God was manifested, for Jonah discovered he could not flee from the diving presence. Following the episode of the three days and nights in the fish’s belly, Jonah repented, and was restored and re-commissioned to take the same message to the same people as God had originally called him to do. He went to Nineveh and a city-wide revival occurred, reaching to the monarch himself. Jonah was unhappy about the success of his crusade and manifested anger with God. God reproved the prophet by making clear that he cares for all people everywhere and that whoever repents of sin will find mercy from him. The repentance of Nineveh led to the survival of Assyria for another century; it suggests the same need among nations today, and God offers the same promise of forgiveness to those who will repent.

Structure
I. The disobedient and suffering prophet (1.1-17)
II. The repentant and delivered prophet (2.1-10)
III. The reluctantly obedient prophet (3.1-10)
IV. The God of unlimited mercy (4.1-11)

Themes
Trible notes that one cannot derive on consistent message from Jonah. If we attempt, as interpreters, to wrangle one theology from the many ideas fround in Jonah then we will fail to gain an honest and true understanding of the story of of God as presenter here. That said, there are a few running themes one may watch for:
1. Differing view of God---destroyer vs. savior, merciful vs. angry and unrelenting
2. Role of nature—storm, sea, fish, wind, bush, worm, sun, animals in Nineveh. God uses nature to control Jonah, yet also shows that he cares about the animals in Nineveh.
3. Repentance—Nineveh turns back to God and God turns away from destroying Nineveh
4. Prophetic call—Many prophets resist God’s call at first, but Jonah blatantly disobeys.

Text Study
Phrases/Ideas for Thought and Reflection (using NRSV)/Questions to Consider:
CHAPTER 1
1:1 Jonah begins as if in the middle of a story
Jonah is referred to in 2 Kings 14:23-27 “as a prophet who supported the
Northern Kingdom of Jeroboam II (786-746 BCE)”
1:2 Nineveh is “a major city in Assyria to the east—a nation that is conquered in the
Northern Kingdom in 722 BCE”
God’s command has 3 parts: Arise, Go, Call
It was an honor for Jonah to be chosen by God to represent him as a prophet at Nineveh. He dishonored this call by refusing to go.
1:3 Tarshish is a city to the West, in the opposite direction of Nineveh. “A western
seaport possibly to be identified with Taressus in Spain—on the outer edge of the then known world”. Not the movement of Jonah down, down, down.
1:4 hurl—multiple references: God hurls storm, sailors hurl Jonah
1:6 Captain shows hope
1:7 casting lots is like drawing straws
1:9 Jonah’s answer here is ironic given his attempt to flee from God.
1:11 The seamen noted that Jonah was a prophet, so they asked him for a solution to their problem. It was he who suggested that they toss him overboard, though they resisted this proposal until absolutely necessary.
1:12 Jonah asks to be thrown into sea—going father down—is this one last attempt to escape God through death?
1:14 Before throwing Jonah overboard, the seamen pleaded for God’s mercy that they might be held guiltless. They perceived that what they experience had come from the hand of God. God did use Jonah for good in this incident, for the seamen acknowledged that Jonah’s God was the true God, and they feared him with great fear.
1:16 The sailors sacrifice and pray to Yahweh—don’t know if they gave up their own gods
1:17 large fish—not necessarily a whale
swallow has negative connotations
3 days/3 nights—Christ compared his own death and entombment to that of Jonah (Mt. 12.40). As Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, so Jesus would be three days and three nights in the grave. And as Jonah was delivered from his Sheol, so Jesus would come forth from the grave alive. Some theorize that Jonah actually died in the belly of the fish and was raised form the dead. Whether he did or not is immaterial, for he was as good as dead in the tomb of a fish. Certainly nothing in the narrative gives credence to the idea that Jonahs’ imprisonment was not historical.
belly of the fish is like being in the womb and compared to being in Sheol—life and death symbolism
CHAPTER 2
Psalm of Thanksgiving: the claims in the psalm do not fit the story so far
2:1 It took three days and three nights for God to gain Jonah’s attention. THEN, as a result of his affliction, Jonah began to pray.
2:2 Jonah finally calls out to God—says he calls from Sheol. No matter how bad we
are and how far we have strayed form the Lord, when we turn to God penitently, he will hear our prayers as he did Jonah’s.
2:3-9 He blames God for his predicament and praises his own piety (!!)
Seems strange that Jonah claims he has been delivered while he is still inside the fish
2:4 Jonah now admitted that he was out of favor with God, and his prayer was one of confession for his delinquency.
2:8 Those who follow the road of disobedience, as Jonah had done by fleeing form the presence of God, forsake their true loyalty; i.e., they have turned away from the true God of mercy to idols who cannot help them. Whatever is not of God is idolatry.
2:9 Jonah swore that he would remain faithful to God if he were delivered, and he offered thanksgiving for God’s mercies. The great deliverer is God and God alone. He is the author of salvation.
2:10 Finally God causes the fish to vomit (spew) Jonah out. Was the fish really the deliverance if Jonah sought to die?
CHAPTER 3
3:1-3 God commands Jonah to arise, go, and call again. This time Jonah goes.
3:3 Really translated “ a great city to God”
“large city, a three days’ walk across”, i.e., so large that it would take three days to walk through it. The Hebrew texts makes no distinction between the city proper (the walls of Nineveh were only about eight miles in circumference, accommodating a population of about 175,000 persons) and the administrative district of Nineveh, which was thirty to sixty miles across.
3:4 overthrown can also be translated “transformed”
3:6-8 The people and king of Nineveh correspond to the sailors and their captain. They believe and repent
3:9 The words of the king reflect ht words of the captain—hope that God will save them
3:10 God “changed his mind” (repent, turn) about destroying the Ninevites
CHAPTER 4
4:1-4 We are given reason for Jonah’s disobedience—his is angry because God is merciful and will save the Ninevites.
Jonah quotes from Exodus 34:6-7; God’s words when entering convenant with Israel
Jonah would rather die than see Nineveh saved
4:5 Jonah was so angry that he left the city to sulk, while he waited for a destruction that never took place.
4:6-8 God again uses nature to make his point with Jonah.
4:9 “It is right for you to be angry?” God patiently reasoned with Jonah to correct him and to humble him. His recovery from the fish’s belly did not teach him as much as he should have learned, not the least of which is that God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55.8,9).
4:11 Jonah was (selfishly) more concerned with the plant that died than he was with the death of Nineveh. God’s perspective was the exact opposite: his concern for the city was far greater than concern for a mere plant.
God gets the last word—concerned even with the animals of Nineveh.

Closing Prayer

Lord, you’ve told us that while on this earth we will know only in part and understand only in part, but in the end we will see all and be like you in our understanding. God we pray that you will fill us as completely as needed to share this information with our youth. We ask that you would fill us with what you want taught and how we can best relate to our youth. We also ask that you would help us to live out what we are teaching in our daily lives. Finally, Father, we thank you for our youth. We pray that they and their parents would find their way to Sunday school each week so that they can grow in the fulfillment of your plan for them. We pray that they would take the lessons learned and always apply them to the lives they are living for you.
We ask this all in your name, amen.


WORKSHOP SUMMARIES
How We are Sharing the Good News with Hope Kids

Opening Songs/Prayers/Activities: Students will have the opportunity sing songs
Enforcing the ideas of the scripture, take part in enrichment activities regarding the story, and pray and praise as a group. Offerings will be taken, Birthdays recognized, and memory verse introduced and rehearsed. They will also receive their Sunday school dollars at this time in the morning.

Woods (Drama): Watch 2nd half of Veggietales Jonah Movie

Ocean (Science): Exploring the fish that would have swallowed Jonah.

Arcade (Craft/Listening): making stoplight bracelets

Creation (Arts): Making Batik pictures

Theater (Movies): Watching 1st half of the Veggietales Jonah movie

REFERENCES/RESOURCES:

Halley, Dr. Henry H. Halley’s Bible Handbook. Twenty-Fourth Edition, Copyright 1965 by Halley’s Bible Handbook, Inc. Zondervan Publishing House 1415 Lake Dr. S.E. Grand Rapids, Michigan 49606.

NRSV Harper Study Bible. Copyright 1991 by Zondervan Corporation

“Jonah”—Workshop Leader’s Bible Study” by Kirk of Kildaire Education Team. http://www.kirkofkildaire.org/quest/FQlessons/JonahWorkshopLeadersBibleStudy.htm Printed 8/9/2008