The Book of Jonah - Guest Speaker Van Jones

In one paragraph

The congregation heard a sermon from a guest preacher walking through the entire book of Jonah. He framed the book around six hard things God calls Jonah to do, and he drew consistent parallels between Jonah and Jesus as the greater Jonah. He also brought his own story of wrestling with how to respond to enemies, which grounded the whole message personally. God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh, the...

Read together

1. Jonah 1:1-3 God commands Jonah to go to Nineveh; Jonah flees to Tarshish
2. Jonah 1:11 Sailors ask Jonah what they must do to calm the sea
3. Jonah 2:5-9 Jonah's prayer of repentance from inside the fish
4. Jonah 3:1-2 God gives Jonah a second call to go to Nineveh
5. Jonah 3:4 Jonah proclaims forty days until Nineveh is overthrown
6. Jonah 3:5 The people of Nineveh believe God and fast in sackcloth
7. Jonah 3:7-9 The king of Nineveh decrees a fast and calls the people to turn from evil
8. Jonah 3:10 God sees Nineveh's repentance and relents from the disaster
9. Jonah 4:2 Jonah complains to God that he knew God was gracious and merciful, which is why he fled
10. Jonah 4:5 Jonah sits east of the city waiting to see what becomes of it
11. Jonah 4:6-11 God appoints a plant, then a worm and wind; God's closing question about pitying Nineveh
12. Exodus 34:6-7 God proclaims his character to Moses as merciful and gracious but who will not clear the guilty
13. Luke 23:34 Jesus asks the Father to forgive those crucifying him because they know not what they do

Talk about it

1. The pastor opened by describing how he once wanted to go fight enemies overseas, and how God redirected him toward loving people he considered enemies instead. Has there been a time when God redirected something you were certain about? What did that feel like in the moment?
2. Jonah knew God's character well enough to quote it back to him, yet that same knowledge made him run the other direction. How can knowing the right things about God actually become a way of resisting him rather than following him?
3. The sailors and the Ninevites, both outsiders, responded to God with full repentance, while Jonah, the man of God, only got partway there. What do you think gets in the way of a partial repentance becoming a complete one?
4. The preacher pointed out that Jonah omitted the judgment part of God's character when he quoted Exodus 34, and that the cross is where mercy and judgment meet. How does keeping both sides of God's character in view change the way you think about forgiveness, whether receiving it or extending it?
5. The book ends without telling us what Jonah chose, and Travis suggested that is intentional, so the reader has to answer for themselves. How are you like Jonah right now, and what is the thing God might be asking you to cross out the 'no' on?