Jonah 3 - A Second Chance
Note to leaders:
Some commentary is included after the questions. This is not the “right” answer but merely a few thoughts. Please allow the group to discuss and reach their own findings and try and resist concluding the discussion with “this is what the notes say”! Rather, use it to inform your guiding and prompting of the group.
Icebreaker
Ask your group if anyone has experienced a time in their life when they have been surprised by someone who has become a Christian. Why were they surprised?
Perhaps they had dismissed that person as being too far from God? Perhaps they had thought that they were not interested in the Gospel or would never be open to hearing the gospel?
You may want to encourage your group to do a re-cap.
Jonah who was a prophet, was instructed by God in Chapter 1 to go to Nineveh to deliver God’s message to the people there who were the Assyrians. They were enemies of Israel. Jonah disobeyed God and boarded a ship to Tarshish which is in the opposite direction to Nineveh. Whilst on board a terrible storm developed and the sailors feared for their lives. They ended up drawing lots to see who was to blame. The lot fell with Jonah who told them his story and asked the sailors to throw him overboard. After some resistance by the sailors to do this, they eventually did and the storm ceased. Jonah sank in the ocean and was then swallowed by a large fish. He spent 3 days in the belly of the fish during which time he prayed (chapter 2). The fish then vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Read Jonah 3
What was Nineveh Like? (Refer to Nahum 3 1-4 and Nahum 1 vs 9)
How do you think Jonah might have been feeling now?
Jonah now obeyed God (verse 3) - what was the effect of his obedience on the Ninevites?
How did the reaction of the Ninevites to God’s message via Jonah affect God? (Verse 10) and what does this teach us about God?
In contrast how did Jonah react to the Ninevites’ response to God’s message? (See chapter 4 verse 1)
Leader’s Notes
Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire. It is now adjacent to the city of Mosul in Northern Iraq. You may have heard of Mosul as having been a stronghold of ISIS for a time back in 2015. It featured in many war reports around that time. The ancient city of Nineveh is at the junction of the Tigris and Kohsr Rivers which made it an important city as it straddled the commercial trade routes from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. The text describes it as large – a visit requiring 3 days, however some scholars think that this may have been a description which included the towns around the Nineveh area, a bit like Greater London, although it was still a very large place. It’s most famous king was Sennacherib who built a palace of 71 rooms and many archeological discoveries have been made including stone statues and carvings. You can find some of them in the British Museum.
Nahum was written after Jonah but it seems to have returned to a city which epitomised violence, arrogance and was associated with bloodshed. The Assyrian empire had conquered Israel and taken control of Judah. Therefore Nineveh was for the Jewish people a place that represented oppression and cruelty – not the sort of place they would have felt any affection towards!
The book does not describe how Jonah was feeling at this point so maybe a bit of imagination could be used…. Relief…. Fear…. Despair?
The effect on the Ninevites was that they repented in quite a dramatic style. The king declared a fast for everyone including the livestock!
God responded to the Ninevites with compassion and did not bring on their destruction. This demonstrates God’s amazing love for a people who were NOT Jewish and were not really very “nice” by all accounts. Is this perhaps a foretaste of the decision made in Acts that the gospel should be preached to all people including the gentiles, and even to those people who might be considered rather “undeserving”? It might be worth thinking about who some might consider to be “undeserving’ people in our society and their opportunities to hear the gospel.
We stray very slightly into the next chapter with this question, but Jonah’s response is such a contrast to God’s. If we are honest, do we sometimes find God’s amazing compassion a bit annoying like Jonah did?
Read Luke 11 verses 29 to 32
Jesus is comparing the response of the people of Nineveh to Jonah, and the Queen of the South (the Queen of Sheba) to Solomon, with the response of the crowds listening to him. What are the differences?
What are the responses of the people you mix with to Jesus? Do their responses affect how you feel about sharing your faith?
What does Jonah’s experience teach us about sharing God’s message?
Leader’s Notes
The differences are: The men of Nineveh responded to Jonah’s message from God, even though Jonah didn’t really care that much about them and there were no recorded miraculous signs. Whereas Jesus cares about his people and has performed miraculous signs and healings yet the crowds are still unwilling to really listen to his message.
These questions are more personal and seek to apply the message of Jonah to our own situations looking at how those around us respond to Jesus – or how we assume they might respond to him. Maybe refer back to the ice breaker as you discuss what assumptions we sometimes make about people’s responses to Jesus, as after all it is in God’s hands how people respond to Jesus and our calling is like Jonah’s which is to obey him.
Prayer
Pray for those we know who perhaps have been hostile to Jesus in the past.
Pray for ourselves that we might be courageous in responding to God.