JONAH - PART 1

PRAY TO BEGIN
This week a good idea may be to pray Psalm 119 over the group before beginning your time:

“Praise be to you, Lord;
    teach me your decrees.
I rejoice in following your statutes
    as one rejoices in great riches.
I meditate on your precepts
    and consider your ways.
I delight in your decrees;
    I will not neglect your word.
Open my eyes that I may see
    wonderful things in your law”

Read Jonah 1:1-3
Read the passage twice, slowly and in two different versions. Ask people to notice one specific word or phrase that jumps out more than any other word or phrase in the passage.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What was the word or phrase that stood out to you? What about this word or phrase do you find significant?

2. Often the bible gets mediated to the world through religious media and shapes a narrative that the bible is a story for kids or a collection of simplistic stories. Jonah however is one of the most sophisticated writings in the whole of the bible: anyone can sit down to enjoy and experience it- but infinite layers of depth, beauty and sophistication can be found. 

What are some of the preconceived ideas you have of the book of Jonah and the character of Jonah based on what you have heard, read, or been told through media, children stories, Sunday school? 

3. What questions do you have about Jonah, his character and his motivation after reading these 3 verses.

Read Jonah 4:1-2

4. Now having the end of the story what do we see was the motivation for why Jonah ran from the presence of the Lord?

5. Here we see Jonah wanting God to withhold compassion and forgiveness from the people of Nineveh. What might be some of the dark “benefits” of unforgiveness?

6. In what ways is Jonah putting himself in the place of God in these passages?

Apply and Pray
1. Jonah heard the word of the Lord and did the exact opposite of it. He didn’t obey God’s word or God’s leadership in his life. Is there an area in your life you are unwilling to hear the words God is speaking to you or are tempted to flee from Him?

2. (In pairs) In what ways has God shown mercy and forgiveness to you? Share two areas you are most thankful for his mercy and forgiveness

3. (In pairs) In what ways can you relate to Jonah? Are you holding any un-forgiveness or debts over another person as a tool for your own power? Be specific if you can

Pray God would be opening up our eyes and hearts to his compassion and mercy for ourselves and the world around us. That we would be a people quick to forgive and to show genuine mercy to all.

Pray we would be a people who seeks the presence of God, eager to do his will.