I hope you're enjoying the Monthly Spiritual Challenge for May. As promised, I have put together some more information to help you get the most out of the book of Jonah. These are just my very rough teaching notes, I haven't even reformatted them or anything. I simply didn't have time to do that, but hopefully you will find them informative. You could even use them to lead a Bible study of your own. Today, I'll upload Part 1 and then the following 3 parts between now and the end of the month.
PART 1: PROFILING JONAH
Jonah is
probably the most famous of all the Major Minors..what child doesn’t know the
story of Jonah being swallowed by a whale? But who was Jonah? Does the Bible
tell us anything else about him?
EXERCISE 1
Read the
following Scriptures and answer the questions.
2 Kings 14: 23 – 25
1. Which
city was Jonah from?
Gath-Hepher
2. Was
this city in the Northern or Southern Kingdom?
Northern Kingdom
3. There are two Jeroboam’s mentioned in this
text. Which one was reigning when Jonah ministered?
Jeroboam the Second
4. Besides his mission to Nineveh, Jonah was
also sent with a significant message to the Northern Kingdom. What was his
message to them?
He prophesied to the king that he would restore the borders of
Israel, the Northern Kingdom.
Take a look at this map and locate where Jonah came from (Northern Kingdom) and where he was sent to (Nineveh,
Assyria).
Jonah was probably quite a highly
regarded prophet, at least in the Northern Kingdom, and that he ministered at
the height of the Northern Kingdom’s success, when their borders had been
restored. He ministered around the reign of Jeroboam the Second, which was
somewhere between 800-750 BC, after the Kingdom was split, although his ministry could have begun some 20 years earlier. Although
the Northern Kingdom was at its height, the superpower of the day, Assyria, was
looming as a threat. And in fact, in 722 BC they did destroy the Northern
Kingdom.
Watch this video to get a quick grasp on the historical context of Jonah.
Watch this video to get a quick grasp on the historical context of Jonah.
2.
STRUCTURE OF JONAH
The book of Jonah comprises only 4
short chapters, each chapter reflects a different setting.
Chapter 1: mostly at sea
Chapter 2: belly of a great fish
Chapter3: Nineveh
Chapter 4: Just outside Nineveh
3.
MAIN THEME OF JONAH
Let’s look
at the overall theme of Jonah before delving into each section in detail. Allow
the group time to complete Exercise 2 in their notes, under MAIN
THEME OF JONAH.
EXERCISE 2
Read the
following Scriptures and see if you can uncover the main, overarching theme of
the book of Jonah. Clue: there are
two stories in the book that centre around the same theme and act like bookends
to the tale.
Jonah 2: 7-10 and Jonah 3: 6-10
Both of these stories are about sin and repentance..and the response
of God to both. In the case of Jonah, he sinned by deliberately disobeying
God’s command. God responded by putting him into a situation designed to bring
him to his senses. When he did repent, God responded immediately by rescuing
him and giving him a second chance. In the case of Nineveh, their sin came up
before God and he made a judgement against them. However, he also gave them an
opportunity to come to their senses by sending Jonah to them. When they
repented, God immediately withdrew his judgment. We could call the main theme
of Jonah – the power of repentance.
4. JONAH’S FIRST CALL
Read Jonah 1: 1-17 and answer the questions
below.
1. What was God’s commission to Jonah?
“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for
their wickedness has come up before Me”
2. What was Jonah’s response?
He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Spain, literally the
opposite side of the world.
3. Knowing what you now know about the
Assyrians, why do you think Jonah reacted the way he did?
The Assyrians
were already forcing many countries to pay them tribute..they were overbearing
and cruel and very likely to overrun Israel.
4. How did God feel about Jonah’s disobedience?
“The Lord sent
out a great wind on the sea”.
5. Why did the sailors wake Jonah up?
“Perhaps your
God can save us.” Ironic, isn’t it?
6. What was the result, naturally, and
spiritually, after the sailors threw Jonah into the sea?
Naturally – the
sea calmed down
Spiritually –
those sailors honoured and recognized God
Now read Amos 6: 14. Amos and Jonah prophesied
very close in time to each other. Here is God telling Israel, the Northern
Kingdom, that they will be overthrown by a mighty nation..and really, the
rising superpower is Assyria..and God sends Jonah to offer that very nation, a
chance to repent. Ouch! No wonder he struggled to obey God.
PERSONAL APPLICATION
1. Is it really necessary to always obey God? Doesn’t grace cover our disobedience?
2. How important is it for a prophet to obey God? Why?
3. How do you feel when God shows mercy or blesses someone you can’t stand – or you think really doesn’t deserve it?
Mid-week devotion
Have you ever turned away, run away, from something you knew God wanted you to do? What was the result? Do you need to make right with God now concerning this?
Weekend devotion
Read: Jonah 1: 1-5; Romans 1: 28 – 32
Can you see Jonah’s downward spiral into sin displayed in the choice of words used in the Jonah verses – “He went down to Joppa”; “He..went down into it (the ship)”; “But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship”. Sin and disobedience is seldom a sudden thing; its usually the end result of a slow, downward spiral.
The Romans verses indicate exactly the same thing.
5.
THE BIG QUESTION FROM JONAH 1:
Did Jonah really get swallowed by a fish or is this story just a myth?
Below are three articles written
about this topic.
Article 1:
Did Jonah Really Get Swallowed by a Whale?
by John D. Morris, Ph.D.
Skeptics ridicule many portions of Scripture and let's face it—some
of them are difficult to believe. Certainly one that has received a major dose
of such ridicule deals with Jonah and the whale (or great fish). How could a
whale or fish swallow a man whole? How could a man survive in such an
environment for any length of time? As always, there are answers to the questions
if we are willing to study and believe.
First, let me say that the historicity of this account is vital to
the Christian. Believing it is not an option, for Jesus Christ Himself believed
it and made it a model for the doctrine of His resurrection. "For as Jonah
was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man
be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40).
What kind of animal swallowed Jonah? In the passage above, the Greek
word translated "whale" actually means a huge fish or sea monster. In
the passage in Jonah (1:17; 2:1,10), the Hebrew word was the normal word for
"fish," but here the word is modified by the word great. Our modern
taxonomic system places whales among the mammals, sharks, among the fish and
plesiosaurs among the reptiles, but, the Bible uses a different system.
"All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of
men,another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds." (I Corinthians
15:39).
Evidently any living thing other than the creeping things (Psalm 104:25) in the seas is
placed in the category of "fishes". In addition, there are several
species of whale and of sharks alive today with gullets large enough to swallow
a man whole. Among extinct animals like the plesiosaurs, the same could be
said, and perhaps this was a heretofore unknown fish of large size. The point
is, the story is not impossible. However, most importantly, the Bible says that
"the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah" (Jonah 1:17). Clearly this
event was miraculous and not a naturalistic phenomenon. Thus we don’t have to
give it an explanation limited by modern experience or knowledge.
Could a man survive in a fish’s belly? The Hebrew idiom "three
days and three nights" has been clearly shown both from Scripture and
other sources to mean a period of time beginning on one day and ending on the
day after the one following. It doesn't necessarily mean three full days and
nights.
Furthermore, there have been several reported cases of modern
sailors or other individuals swallowed by such an animal, only to be recovered
many hours later.
But again, this story involves the miraculous. It may be that Jonah
actually died and was resurrected by God. This is implied in his description of
his experience especially Jonah 2:2. Of course, resurrection is
"impossible" but it clearly happened on several occasions in
Scripture requiring miraculous input. To deny the possibility of miracles,
especially those miracles specifically mentioned in Scripture, is to deny the
existence of God, and this is not an option for a Christian.
The point is nothing about the story is totally impossible: There
are "fish" large enough to swallow a man; men have been known to
survive inside a "fish"; the Bible says it really happened; Christ said
Jonah’s experience was an analogy of His own death and resurrection; and God is
alive and capable of this feat.
Article 2:
Taken
from - Christian Answers
How
could Jonah survive three days in the belly of a “whale”? See this page in:
Dutch, French, Indonesian, Spanish This is one of the Bible stories most
ridiculed by people who consider themselves sophisticated and intellectual.
Skeptics say that no whale could swallow a man in the first place, and, even if
he did, the man would certainly never survive three days and three nights in
his belly, as the Bible claims. “Christian liberals” have attempted to avoid
this problem by saying that the story of Jonah was only an allegory and was
never meant to be understood as actual history. However, whenever the Bible
writers used allegories or parables or other symbolic stories, they always
either said so or else made it evident in the context. The book of Jonah is
certainly written as though it were actual history. Jonah was a real prophet
who is mentioned also in II Kings 14:25. None of the ancient Jews or early
Christians ever doubted the authenticity and historicity of the book of Jonah
and its story. JESUS CHRIST Most importantly, the Lord Jesus Christ accepted
the account as true. He said that the people of Nineveh repented of their sins
as a consequence of his preaching (Matthew 12:41). He even said: “For as Jonah
was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man
be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth” (Matthew 12:40). Thus
Christ actually compared Jonah’s experience to His own coming death and
resurrection, pointing out the miraculous nature of both. One cannot deny the
factuality of Jonah’s experience, therefore, without charging the Lord Jesus
Christ with either deception or ignorance, either of which is equivalent to
denying His deity. A MIRACLE There is little question that the event was a
miracle, but this fact certainly does not disprove it! The account, in fact,
says as much: "Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.
And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights."
-Jonah 1:17 (King James Version) Later it says: "And the Lord spake unto
the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." -Jonah 2:10 (King
James Version) God was certainly able to accomplish this if He wished; to deny
the possibility of miracles is atheism. The actual occurrence of this
particular miracle is adequately attested by the very fact of its record in the
Holy Scriptures, and is doubly confirmed by the testimony of Christ. Whole
animals as large or larger than a man have been found in the stomachs of the
sperm whale, the whale shark and the white shark. What Was the “Great Fish”?
The “great fish” may have been either a whale or a shark or even a fish
specially prepared by the Lord for this purpose. (The Hebrew and Greek words
that are used merely mean "a great aquatic animal.") Some species of
whales and some species of sharks are quite capable of swallowing a man whole.
Among these are the sperm whale, the white shark, and the whale shark, all of
which have been found with whole animals as large or larger than a man in their
stomachs. HOW DID JONAH SURVIVE? As to whether a man could survive “three days
and three nights” under such conditions, there are three possible answers that
could be suggested in defense of the Biblical narrative. NATURAL. In the first
place, it has been well established that the phrase “three days and three
nights” in ancient Hebrew usage was an idiomatic expression meaning simply
“three days,” and was applicable even if the beginning and ending days of the
period were only partial days. Thus it could refer to a period as short as
about 38 hours. There is always some air in the whale’s stomach, and, as long
as the animal it has swallowed is still alive, digestive activity will not
begin. Thus, Jonah’s experience could possibly have happened entirely with the
framework of natural law. MIRACLE. It is much more likely, however, that the
event involved a divine miracle, as the Scripture strongly implies. The “great
fish” was prepared and sent by God, as was the intense storm that threatened
the ship on which Jonah was traveling. The storm ceased as soon as Jonah was
cast overboard (Jonah 1:4, 15). In like manner, it was quite probable that God
preserved Jonah’s life miraculously all through the horrifying experience.
RESURRECTION. A third possibility is that Jonah actually suffocated and died in
the great fish and then God later brought him back from the dead. There are at least
eight other such “resurrections” recorded in the Bible, as well as the glorious
bodily resurrection of Christ—of which Jonah’s experience in particular was
said by Christ to be a prophetic sign. This is also implied by Jonah’s prayer,
when he said: “…out of the belly of hell (i.e. “sheol,” the place of departed
spirits) cried I, and thou heardest my voice” (Jonah 2:2). In any case, it was
a mighty experience, evidently well known and certified in his day, probably
contributing in significant degree to the fact that all people of Ninevah
repented and turned to God (Jonah 3:5) when Jonah returned “from the dead,” as
it were, to preach to them. Even in Jesus’ day, it was so well known that He
could use it as a “sign” of His own impending death and resurrection, which
were to constitute God’s crowning proof of the deity of His Son and the great
work of salvation which He would accomplish on the cross for all who would
receive Him. “God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: Because He hath
appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in
that He hath raised Him from the dead.” —Acts 17:30, 31 (King James Version)
Article 3
The Historicity of Jonah by John Piper
Before we look at this chapter, let me mention briefly why I regard
the book as historical rather than as a parable. Not only was Jonah a
historical person, as we saw from 2
Kings 14:25, but also in the New Testament Jesus treats Jonah's story as
historical. He says in Matthew 12:40, "Just as Jonah was three days and three nights
in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of man be three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will arise at the judgment
with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of
Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here." Those of us who
respect the wisdom of Jesus will be very slow to call his judgment into
question. He thought the story was historical. We should, too. If you ask how a
man can survive in the belly of a fish three days, the answer is, he probably
can't—any more than a person can stay three days in the grave and live again.
That's why Jesus called it a "sign." In Matthew 12:39 he says, "An
evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be
given to it but the sign of Jonah, the prophet." Jesus knew this was no ordinary event.
It was a miraculous sign of God's gracious and powerful intervention. There is
no point in trying to explain it scientifically any more than the miraculous
signs of Jesus' ministry. Jonah cried for help, and God saved him miraculously
with a fish.
