Jonah Bible Teaching

Background: 2 Kings 14:23-25

“Jonah the son of Amittai” the same Jonah in both books Jonah (Jonah 1:1). This passage locates Jonah‟s ministry in the northern Kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Jeroboam II (793-753 B.C). Jonah lived when Jeroboam II of the Northern Kingdom was king.

The Prophet Jonah‟s prediction that Israel‟s boundaries would extend under Jeroboam Ii came true. The events in the Book of Jonah took place some time in Jeroboam II‟s reign. Jeroboam II restored Israel‟s boundaries to approximately their extent in Solomon‟s time (excluding of course the Southern Kingdom Territories belonging to Judah and Benjamin).

This is the same Jonah who traveled to Nineveh. During Jeroboam II reign, the prophets Amos and Hosea also ministered in Israel (Amos 1:1; Hosea 1:1).

Jeroboam II: co-ruled with his father Jehoash (793-782 B.C.)

Jeroboam II‟s total reign of 41 years (793 – 753 B.C.).

The fifteenth year of Amaziah of Judah (782 B.C.).

Jeroboam I, son of Nebat (1 Kings 10:29).

Lebo of Hamiath: it is often referred to as the Northern boundary of Israel (Amos 6:14)

The Sea of Arabah: the southern boundary of Israel (was the Dead Sea) see Deuteronomy 3:17

The book of Jonah has been described as a parable, an allegory, or “nice fish story.” For those who consider the book of Jonah untrue, we have to remember that Jesus himself reaffirms both the book and the man in Matthew 12:39-41; 16:4; Luke 11:29-32).

Message of the book: God desires salvation of all people, regardless of their race, nationality, religion, or wickedness (both Jew and Gentile).

Chapter 1:

God called Jonah to go to Nineveh. But Jonah ran away. God sends a storm. The sailors throw Jonah overboard. The sea becomes calm. God sends a giant fish to swallow Jonah.

1:1) The word of the Lord to came to Jonah: IT simply means in laymen terms, that God spoke to Jonah. Throughout the bible God spoke to prophets and others the same way: (See) Genesis 15:1,4, Jeremiah 1:1 Ezekiel 1:3, Hosea 1:1, Joel 1:1, Micah 1:1, Zeph 1:1, Haggai 1:1, Zech 1:1, Mal 1:1). In 1 Kings 19:9; 11-12, God spoke to Elijah in a gentle whisper, not in the mighty windstorm, earthquake or fire. I don‟t know if God spoke to Jonah in a “thunderous voice” or a gentle whisper. Sometimes God will speak to us in a “loud voice” and other times God will speak to us in “a still small voice.” God will also speak to us through His word [Bible]

1:2) Go to Nineveh: In the time of Jonah, Nineveh was one of the largest cities of that time. It was the “skyscraper: city of its day It had walls 100 feet high and 50 feet wide, enough for three or four chariots to drive abreast. Nineveh had 1,200 defense towers and many tall buildings. Today it would be like a farm boy from the Midwest seeing the city of New York or Chicago for the first time.

Question: What if God told you to go somewhere like Las Vegas, Nevada and preach against the gambling and the “night life?”

Where was Nineveh at? It is in the Assyrian Empire (in the Middle East). Today it would be in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.

Nineveh was a wicked City “…for their wickedness is come up before Me.” (1:2). God also called Sodom and Gomorrah wicked cities. God also destroyed them (Genesis 18:20-21). What other city did God destroy and judge in the Old Testament? It was Jerusalem (586 B.C.). I wonder which cities God would call wicked today?

Note: Nineveh was one of the most wicked cities back then. The lure of luxury and wealth brought merchants and people to Nineveh (Nahum 3:16). Nineveh was

known throughout the Middle East and world for its violence, bloodshed, and “sexual sins”. The chief [deity of Nineveh] was Ishtar, goddess of sexual passion, fertility and war. The Assyrians were known for their brutality. Many of their victims were beheaded, impaled or burned.

1:3) But Jonah ran away: Jonah decided not to obey God. Instead he decided to go on a Mediterranean boat cruise. Jonah was supposed to be traveling east to Nineveh, but instead he goes to Joppa and boards a ship to Tarshish (Spain) going west. Jonah knowingly disobeyed God, but why? The Assyrians were Israel‟s feared enemy. They were the dominant world power for most of the seventh and eighth centuries (B.C.). They were the “800 pound gorilla” in Jonah‟s day. Jonah knew if Nineveh repented, God‟s judgment would not fall upon them.

But Jonah would much rather see the city/people destroyed. Then Israel would not have to worry about their “enemy” anymore. Jonah saw Assyria only as a dangerous enemy to be destroyed. But God saw different. He saw the people of Nineveh perishing and lost (4:11). Jonah also thought that God only loved the Jewish people (not the Gentiles). Anyway you “slice it or dice it”, Jonah was disobedient to God.

Some of you are also “running away” from God in disobedience to God. You can fill in the “blank” yourselves. Why are you running away from God? How many of you as a kid ran away from home. I did, but didn‟t get very far. Neither will you when you run away from God.

Joppa: a non-Israelite port town was southwest of Jonah‟s home town of Gath Hepher by about 50 miles. In Psalms 139:7 it says “where can I flee from your presence?” We cannot escape God, or hide from Him (Jeremiah 23:24).

Flee to Tarshish: probably the southeast coast of Spain. This city represents the most distant place known to the Israelites at that time. It was about 2,500 miles west of Joppa.

Story: God told a person to move from New York to Florida. The person did move, but only to North Carolina (about halfway to Florida). Is that obedience? They “tell” God, “but God I did move.” And God tells them. “Yes, you did move, but only half-way.” Remember partial obedience is not obedience (Isaiah 1:19- 20).

Bible story: From Genesis 11:31-12:5, Acts 7:2-4) Abram leaves Ur for the land of Canaan with his father Terah. When they reached Haran, about a halfway point to Canaan, they stop there. There they acquire and gather possessions/servants in

Haran, which probably took a couple of years. It is uncertain but generally believed that they may have lived in Haran for about five years. They settled and stayed in Haran until the death of Terah. Abram was seventy-five years old when he let Haran for the land of Canaan. Now back to the book of Jonah.

God was no longer speaking to Jonah through his word like in 1:1 but now through nature itself, God was now “speaking” to Jonah through the sea, the wind, the rain, the violent storm and eventually the fish that ends up swallowing Jonah.

1:4) Storms: In Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus spoke about the storms that beat against two different houses. Both houses looked good, until a storm came, if you are like most people, they don‟t like storms, because they usually cause a lot of damage. Like the big storm that hit Houston, Texas in 2008.

Storms will show you if your house has a leaky roof, or a bad foundation. “Spiritual storms” can also show you your weaknesses. The apostle Paul speaks about this in Ephesians (4:14). He compares those to “as infants: and as like being tossed back and forth by the waves of the sea, by every new wind of teaching or teacher. Why? Because they have no spiritual foundation of God‟s Word in their life.

“The storm is coming”! It will be a time of God‟s judgment, a time of distress and suffering , a time of disaster and anguish, a time of trouble and ruin, a time of darkness and gloom for the nations, including the United States. In scripture, a storm is often an image of divine judgment (Nahum 1:3; Jeremiah 4:11-17).

The Lord sent the storm: It says that God sent the storm (not the devil). We are so quick to blame the devil for anything bad that happens to us, “The devil‟s been on my back all week, brother”. Sometimes it‟s God that sends the “storm in our lives.” It was God that [sent] let Joseph be sold as a slave down into Egypt, not the devil. Again it was God who allowed Joseph to be sent to prison, not the devil.

In (Genesis 45:5) it says, “for God sent me before you to preserve life.” Sometimes it is God that sends the storms to get your attention. At other times it may be that God is preparing you for something “down the road” like Joseph. Maybe the “monkey on your back” isn‟t the devil after all, but God.

1:15-16) The sailors throw Jonah overboard and the raging sea grew calm. This shows me that god is in control of nature. God can not only start the storms but he can also stop the storms. Example (Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:39, and Luke 8:24). God is in control of the sea, wind, rain, and all nature (whale).

1:17) Now the Lord had prepared…appointed a fish to swallow up Jonah…three days: three days does not have to be 72 hours. The Jewish people considered part of a day as a whole day. The phrase used here may refer to one full day and parts of two others.

Chapter 2:

Jonah prays from inside the fish. The fish vomits Jonah on dry land.

2:1) Then Jonah prayed to the lord His God from inside the belly of the fish: Jonah probably prayed a prayer something like this. Lord if you get me out of here, I promise to do whatever you want me to do, and go where you want me to go [or send me]. Some of you might also have “prayed” this same kind of prayer, when you were in trouble or in an emergency. After God got you out of the mess you were in, did you do it?

2:2-9) Jonah‟s near death experience inside the belly of the fish. Jonah prayers are from different Psalms. How wise it was of Jonah to memorize the word of God (before he was in the belly of the big fish). “Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path”, Psalm 119:105. It was his only “light” in the dark place he was in. How wise it would be of us also to memorize the word of God for “our dark place”. Psalm 119:11, “they would have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.”

In the future it could get where “darkness covers the United States.” Where it could be against the law to have a Bible, of even go to church. Most of don‟t or can‟t carry a Bible around with us 24/7. That‟s why its good to memorize the word. You will have it hid in your heart, where you need it.

Affliction and God’s discipline: When we go our own way (or run away from God) like Jonah did, God has to afflict us. Sometimes God uses pain and suffering as a “school teacher.” God afflicted Jonah by sending him to the “School of the Whales.” Psalm 119:67, “before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word.

Genesis 41:52 says, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction” when Joseph was in Prison, God “pruned him”. But why? Was Joseph doing something wrong? No! No! No! and No! It was because God was getting Joseph ready to put him in charge of “feeding and saving” Egypt, Israel, and the whole known world (Genesis 4:56-57). God put him second in command to the whole land of Egypt. Let God “pursue you” so you can bear and produce more fruit (John 15:2).

2:3) You hurled me into the deep. Go had used the sailors to throw Jonah overboard (Jonah 1:15) Jonah was acknowledging that [God] was the one who really had put him in the belly of the fish, and that it was God who was disciplining him.

2:5) Seaweed was wrapped around Jonah‟s head.

2:10) And the Lord commanded again: this shows me that God controls nature. To have the fish vomit Jonah onto dry land (along the Mediterranean Sea Coast). Not Nineveh, as some think.

Chapter 3:

A second time, God told Jonah to go to Nineveh. This time Jonah obeyed God and went. Jonah preaches and God withholds his judgments on Nineveh (Jeremiah 18:7-10).

3:1) Then the word of the Lord came a second time, go to Nineveh: It‟s interesting, the place didn‟t change (1:1-2) but Jonah had.

3:2) Go: the Great commission in Matthew 28. Go to all nations [peoples]. Most of the “world” has never heard the gospel message. God is still calling people to go into the “fields” for the end time harvest. (See my bible Parables “The Harvest”) Isaiah 6:8, “Here am I, send me.”

Proclaim the message I give you: the key word here is message. The message of the book of Jonah is that God desires salvation of all people, regardless of their race, religion, nationality or wickedness. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because the Assyrians were enemies of Israel. Somebody tell Jonah, this is not a

cafeteria-style plan. Where you walk through the line and pick and chose what you want. I like that but I don‟t want that. You don‟t get to pick and choose, that‟s God‟s call, not yours.

3:3) Jonah obeyed: Jonah finally did what the Lord asked him to do back in (1:2). Wouldn‟t it have been much easier for Jonah just to have obeyed God then [the first time] and not to have gone to “whale school” to change his mind? As Jonah was walking to Nineveh, he might have been thinking about what he had heard about the Assyrians. Jonah knew this mission had a “job hazard” or “danger” to it. If the Assyrians didn‟t like what Jonah said, he could be skinned alive, or impaled up on a sharp pole, or his head cut off. The Assyrians did this bring terror and fear to the cities and people they wanted to conquer.

Jonah went to Nineveh: Went means to go. First let me ask you a question. Where is Jonah at right now? Jonah is somewhere along the Mediterranean Sea coast (2:10) where the fish vomited him onto dry land. Note: It would take Jonah about a month to walk from the seacoast to Nineveh (about 500-550 miles).

A visit required three days: This may suggest a larger area. Perhaps it took Jonah three days to go to every neighborhood, marketplace, and cities gate with his message. Three days may refer to the district of which Nineveh was the capital.

According to Genesis 10:11-12, four cities were involved in the Nineveh metroplex (Nineveh, Rehoboth-IR, Calah, and Resen). All these cities/suburbs combined together to form the great city of Nineveh. “Greater Nineveh” covered an area of some sixty miles in circumference. A three day journey may suggest that it would take three days [walking] by foot to visit all of the area‟s four cities. Either it would take three days to go through the city and its suburbs, or three days to go around them.

Note: Archaeological excavations reveal that the city of Nineveh was about eight miles around. To walk eight miles “around Nineveh” may take a person four or five hours walking, not three days to walk.

Amplified Bible notes: Nineveh had many suburbs, three of which are mentioned along with Nineveh in Genesis 10:11-12. Excavations have revealed that Nineveh was a quadrangle, measuring about sixty miles in a circuit – a “great city” indeed. Quadrangle: means four sided, a square or rectangle.

3:4) On the first day…Jonah began to preach: don‟t miss this “on the first day.” Jonah didn‟t wait until the second or the third day to start preaching.

This shows me, Jonah didn‟t waste time taking a tour of the city, or go “sightseeing.” The first day at the “job site” (which was Nineveh) Jonah started working. He got right to it. When God sends you somewhere you need to hit the ground running!

Forty days: the number forty in the bible seems to mean testing or judgment. Genesis 7:12; 17 (it rained forty days and nights); Numbers 14:34 (the spies explored the land of Canaan for forty days); Deut 2:7 (Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years; 1 Samuel 17:16 (the giant Goliath taunted the army of Israel for forty days); Matthew 4:2-3 (Jesus fasted for forty days).

Forty days Nineveh will be destroyed: today many Christians think God wouldn‟t (or will not) judge this nation. Or that God isn‟t behind the storms like Hurricane Katrina and Rita that hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005. But God does send storms, as we have already seen in Jonah 1:4. Nothing happens to a nation

without God‟s permission. Remember, it wasn‟t the devil that destroyed Sodom, it was God. Nor was it the devil who brought the flood in Noah‟s day, it was God.

Today the wickedness of America far exceeds that of Nineveh. Those ancient people never had pornography, or the Internet, or dirty TV shows or movies. I believe if this nation does not “really” repent, we are in for more judgments from God (Jeremiah 18:7-10). The judgments from God could be the high price of oil, and many more jobs going overseas.

3:5-9) Ordinarily, when prophets were sent to wicked cities with that kind of message, they were run out of town (if they were lucky). Many times they were put into jail, stoned, or even killed. The people of Nineveh believed God, and they declared a fast, all of them from the greatest to the least. Even the animals didn‟t eat or drink.

3:10) Jonah preaches and the people repent: most prophets or evangelists would be delighted with such a response. But, not Jonah. Why? Jonah saw Assyria – Nineveh only as a dangerous enemy to be destroyed. Not repentant sinners who needed to the Lord. God retains the right to offer His pardon or judgment over nations and kingdoms (Jeremiah 18:7-10). Jonah‟s thinking, „This wasn‟t in my plans. God you were supposed to destroy Nineveh. They are our enemies, remember God?‟ The city repented and the judgment of God was stopped. God had the Babylonians destroy Nineveh in 612 B.C. about 150 years later.

Chapter 4:

Jonah was more concerned about the “vine and shade” than the people of Nineveh perishing.

4:1-4) Jonah‟s angry at God‟s kindness: Jonah is maybe thinking they deserve to die: God, they are some of the most wicked sinners around. Jonah is angry that God would have compassion on an enemy of Israel.

4:5) Jonah went out of the city, and waited to see what would happen. Jonah was still hoping that Nineveh would be destroyed.

4:6-10) The vine. The meaning of the vine: Fleeting value. Here one day, gone the next (Isaiah 40:6-7, James 1:10-11).

The vine: the vine represents the “things” in our lives that give us temporary or short-term happiness. Most of us are like Jonah. We care only about our own selfish wants and needs, our own agenda, and our own possessions. With Jonah it was a plant. Jonah was more concerned about the “Shade or vine: in his life, than people perishing, With you or me it might be: making a lot of money, our business, a job, our pursuits, a car, or house, having fun, or just being comfortable. We, also, are more concerned about the “shade or vine” in our lives than people perishing.

4:11) God asks Jonah a question at the end of the book: “Should I not pity Nineveh in which more than 120,000 people live?” We aren‟t told how Jonah answered God‟s final question. The real issue isn‟t how Jonah answered God‟s question; it‟s how we are answering God‟s question. Are we doing our part that the gospel will go into “all the world” (Mark 16:15)? Are we helping to send it there? As it says in John 4:35-38, “One sows, another reaps.”

Footnote: only about 2 percent of the world‟s population goes to church. World‟s population is about six billion people.

Lessons Learned from Jonah:

# 1. Disobedience (Jonah 1:1 – 3: 10)

Disobedience: Instead of obeying God, Jonah decides to run away. He goes on a Mediterranean boat cruise. Jonah was supposed to be traveling east to Nineveh, but instead goes to Joppa, and boards a ship going west. Jonah knowingly disobeyed God.

But why? Because, the Assyrians were enemies of Israel. He wanted Nineveh to be crushed and destroyed. Then Israel would not have to worry about their enemy anymore. Jonah saw Assyrians only as a dangerous enemy to be destroyed, anyway you “slice it or dice it” Jonah was disobedient to God. Some of you are also “running away” from God in disobedience.

Delayed obedience is still disobedience: See Numbers 13-14: the people were afraid of going into the Promised Land because of the bad report from the 10 spies (13: 26-33). That night the people talked about choosing a new leader and going back to Egypt. They also talked about stoning Joshua and Caleb (14:1-10); because they were afraid they must wander in the wilderness for 40 years (14: 25-35). But, the next morning they started for the Promised Land (14:41). But Moses told them, its too late, you are disobeying the Lord (delayed obedience). Their “obedience” had now become their second disobedience.

Note: a journey that might have been taken Israel eleven days lasted for 40 years (Deuteronomy 1:2) The distance from Mount Horub to Kadesh – Barenea was about 165 miles. Kadesh was at the southern edge of the Promised Land. Many of us also have to “take another lap or many laps around the mountain” because we don‟t obey God.

King Saul’s Disobedience:

All of us can come up with all kinds of “good” reasons why we didn‟t or don‟t obey God. King Saul did in 1 Samuel 13:5-15. King Saul disobeyed God by an unlawful sacrifice. Only priests could offer sacrifices. These are reasons Saul gave to Samuel:

1. The soldiers were scattering.

2. Samuel had not come as promised.

3. The Philistines were gathering their forces at Michmash, ready for battle.

4. The Philistines are ready to march against us.

In 1Samuel 15: 1-23, Saul again disobeys God‟s commands by taking Agag, King of the Amalekites, alive and sparing the best of animals. He wanted to gain prestige by bringing home the spoil of the Amalekites. Saul excused his disobedience by blaming the people. He also sought to justify sparing the best of the sheep and oxen by suggesting that he intended them for sacrifice.

In Luke (5:4-10) Peter also obeys. Peter could have said to Jesus, we are professional fisherman, you are not. How many times we tell God, “That won‟t work”. But Peter obeyed His word, and let down the nets. It was at Joppa that Peter got his call to go to the Gentiles in Acts 10. At Joppa, Jonah disobeys, and at Joppa, Peter obeys. Isaiah 1:19-20.

It‟s easy to obey God “when the sun is shining.” In Isaiah 1:19, God promised that they would eat the good of the land if they obeyed Him. That promise was conditional, based with the stipulation that they obey God and His Word. They must do more than talk about obeying God‟s law or doing religious activities. They must do what God asks.

In your disobedience, don‟t get delayed or detoured. Many of us, because of our busy lives, tell God, I‟ll do it later, I just can‟t get to it right now, I‟m going to do it, just a “little later” God, you know how busy I am God. Many of us procrastinate, and then do it later. Doing it later is not obedience. “Good Morning Church”. For obedience see Isaiah 1:19- 20.

In (Isaiah 1:20) God warned them that if they continued their rebellion, it would mean instead of letting them have the good of the Land of Canaan, instead the sword of the Assyrians and Babylonians would conquer them.

In disobedience: If you crack the door “an inch”, the devil will open it “a country mile.”

God tells you to build one building. So you go ahead and build three buildings. Is that disobedience? Sure is!

God tells you to go one a trip to Spain. You think that is was a great idea, so you also go to France, England, and Germany. Is that disobedience? Sure is!

#2 Affliction (Jonah 1:17 – 2:10)

The “school of the whales”: when we go our own way (or run away from God) like Jonah did, God has to afflict us. Sometimes God uses pain and suffering as a “school teacher”. God afflicted Jonah by sending him to the “school of the whales”.

Psalm 119:67 says, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept this word.” God also afflicted both (Israel and Judah) with exile and slavery. Affliction is good, if it makes us stop what we are doing, and then turn back to God.

Genesis 41:52: “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” When Joseph was in prison, God “pruned” him. But why? Because God was getting Joseph ready, to put him in charge of feeding and saving from the coming famine, Egypt, Israel and the known world (Genesis 41: 56-57). God put Joseph second in command of the whole land of Egypt.

Being in a hard place, is like being pruned. Let God “prune you” so you can bear and produce more fruit. Nobody likes the cutting and trimmings and pruning that God does in our lives. But the results are phenomenal.

I would be lying to you, if I told you, that you will like God‟s pruning. You won‟t. But you will like the results from the pruning. John 15:1-2. God prunes us, so we can produce more fruit.

Many times when believers face affliction, they think the Devil is attacking them. It may not be the Devil attacking them, but God doing it. See Jonah (1:4) where God sent a great wind on the sea, not the Devil.

In Jonah (2:3) it says, “you [God] hurled me into the sea”. Jonah recognized that the sailors had thrown him into the sea (1:15), but actually it was God who had hurled him into the sea; because God was really behind their action. The sailors were agents of God‟s judgment.

Sometimes in our affliction and correction we think God must be mad at me. There is a right response and a wrong response to God‟s affliction and correction. The right response would be, what are you trying to say to me, or show me, or teach me in my affliction God? The wrong response would be to get mad at God. God‟s afflictions are meant to guide or teach us, heal us, and to bring forth spiritual fruit in our lives.

Picture a surgeon and his team as they prepare to operate on a person who has cancer. The surgeon knows if the tumor is not removed the person will die. For that reason the surgeon will use every measure to get the cancer out of that person‟s body. It will be painful for awhile for the person, but in the end they will be free of cancer.

Likewise our Heavenly Father knows what is bad in our lives that can destroy us. That‟s when He allows afflictions in our lives, to remove the “deadly cancer” or sin/ God doesn‟t want to inflict pain on His children, He only wants to remove that sin in our lives. If we could see through the eyes of God, we would see that God‟s afflictions and corrections are meant to help us.

#3 Go, being sent (Jonah 1:2; 3:1 – 2)

Go: the Great Commission in Matthew 28 says go to all nations (peoples). Most of the “world” has never heard the message. God is still calling people to go into the “fields” for the end time harvest (Matthew 9: 37 – 28).

The message of the book of Jonah is that God desires salvation of all people regardless of their race, religion, nationality or wickedness. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because the Assyrians were enemies of Israel. Somebody tell Jonah, this is not a cafeteria style plan. Where you walk through the line, and pick and chose what you want. I like that, but I don‟t want that. Isaiah 6:8 “here am I, send me”. Romans 10: 14-15 “Preacher sent from God”.

Question: where does God want to send you? On being sent: (1) many people think they have to go to China, India, South America or some other “far place” (2)

that only missionaries, evangelists or pastors go. Wrong! Every believer is called to go into their part “of the world”. Where you work at, or go to school at, or buy your food and gas at. You can be sent to your neighbor, or someone near you (district, vicinity, or neighborhood). 1 Samuel 30:22-44

#4 Jonah obeyed (and went to Nineveh) (Jonah 3:3)

Obedience: Jonah finally did what the Lord asked him to do back in 1:2. Wouldn‟t it have been much easier for Jonah just to have obeyed God then (the first time) and not have to gone to “whale school” for three days to change his mind? As Jonah was walking to Nineveh, he might have been thinking about what he had heard about the Assyrians. Jonah knew this mission had a “job hazard” or “danger” to it. If the Assyrians didn‟t like what Jonah said, he could be skinned alive, or impaled upon a sharp pole, or his head cut off.

(3:3) Jonah [went] to Nineveh: went means to go. But, where is Jonah at right now? He is somewhere along the Mediterranean Sea coast (2:10). It would take Jonah about a month to walk from the sea to Nineveh (about 500–550 miles). Jonah saved a city/nation from God‟s judgment (because he obeys).

Story about obedience: Some people in church just made $100,000 selling a house. About three months later they were broke, because they bought a brand new car and boat, went on a three week vacation, and just spent the rest of the money enjoying themselves. God tells you “Go give those people $200”.

So you tell God why you shouldn‟t (obey) or do it:

1. They just had $100,000 and spent it. “You know God”, that‟s more money than I earn at my job in a year.

2. You know God, they have a brand new car, and I‟m driving a ten year old car.

3. You know God, they wear designer clothes, and I go to Wal-Mart to buy most of my clothes.

4. You know God, they have just been on a three week vacation “Around the World”, and I stayed at home because I couldn‟t afford to go anywhere.

5. You know God, I‟ve seen them eating in the best restaurants around town, and when I eat out, I eat at Burger King.

6. You know God, they just bought a brand new speed boat, and they never even asked if I wanted to take a ride on it.

God tells you again, “Go give those people $200”.

God doesn‟t want your opinion, or what “you think is fair” or what you believe is right. God doesn‟t even want your advice. God is not asking you about how they spent their money. They might very well have spent their money like fools. But that is not the issue here. The issue is are you going to obey God or are you going to give Him reasons why you think you shouldn‟t obey Him?