 Jonah 1 - 4 Questions and Answers |
| Q. When was the Book of Jonah written? | A. 760 B.C. |
| Q. Who were Jonah's contemporaries? | A. Amos and Isaiah. |
| Q. Was Jonah a prophet? | A. Jonah 1:1 = Yes. |
| Q. What do prophets sometimes have to do? | A. Jonah 1:2 = Go into dangerous places to pronounce doom. |
| Q. And what did Jonah think of pronouncing doom to the people of Nineveh? | A. Jonah 1:3 = He didn't want to do it. |
| Q. What did Jonah do instead? | A. Jonah 1:3 = He went in the opposite direction. |
| Q. Why? |
A. Jonah 1:3 = In order to get away from the Lord. Note: God is everywhere, but Jonah must have thought He was bound only to Israel. |
| Q. What resulted in his running away? |
A. Jonah 1:4 = God pursued him. Note: God wil always pursue you! Imagine if we pursued God like He pursues us! |
| Q. How did God get Jonah's attention? |
A. Jonah 1:4 = God flung a powerful wind over the sea and made his ship to almost capsize. Note: Almost! God gets our attention when we disobey. What a good Father! |
| Q. Did God speak to the Gentile sailors? |
A. Jonah 1:7 = Yes. They prayed to their idols and God answered via casting lots. Note: God reveals Himself to everyone as God. He displayed Himself to those sailors and performed miracles in front of them. We should be so bold! What would the world be like if every believer was up to the task when a miracle was needed? |
| Q. How did Jonah explain God to those sailors? | A. Jonah 1:9 = In a way they understood. He told them that his God was the God who made heaven and earth. |
| Q. Did Jonah understand completely what he was doing? | A. Jonah 1:10 = Yes. |
| Q. When did the sailors look for a solution to their crisis? |
A. Jonah 1:11 = After the storm got worse. Note: Some people don't get it until they reach Defcon 5! God's will is always for our best. We have nothing to fear, not even Ninevites! Or the giants of Caanan! Only God wins battles. Might does not make a difference. God also wins every election! |
| Q. What did Jonah see about all that was happening? |
A. Jonah 1:12 = 1) He couldn't escape from the will of God 2) He didn't want to drag other people into his dilemma 3) He found a way to save them. Note: We should all be so mature! "misery loves company" was not an option for Jonah. May we all find a way to bring peace to others, even in the midst of God's chastening rod. |
| Q. What did the sailors think of Jonah's solution? |
A. Jonah 1:13 = They tried to spare his life. Note: Don't rescue everyone you see in trouble. God may be disciplining them and you'd be interfering. If they are in no immediate danger, let them go through their own tgrials and tribulations. It is necessary to growth and learning lessons. (Easier said than done, especially with family members and close friends!) Respect one another enough to let each other wail an opera! Your prayers will do more for them than your money. |
| Q. How do I know when I'm helping someone outside of God's will? | A. Jonah 1:13 = Finances get drained—I sink with him! |
| Q. Why did God intervene? |
A. Jonah 1:14 = The sailors cried out to Jonah's God. Note: Waht a contrast! When Babylon invaded, the Jews scrambled for their idols to save them. If they had asked God to save them, He would have! Yet these sailors were just introduced to God and they went to Him, asked for help and were saved. They were like Abraham: They believed God and it was reckoned to them as righteousness! |
| Q. When did the storm cease? | A. Jonah 1:14 = When they threw Jonah overboard. |
| Q. What effect did this miracle have on the sailors? | A. Jonah 1:16 = They all went into the ministry! |
| Q. How was it that the big fish was there when Jonah hit the water? |
A. Jonah 1:17 = God arranged it to be beforehand. Note: Did you know your life is pre-arranged? God is your valet, who knows from which outfits you will choose, to what you will struggle through; and has already made arrangements to save you! It's mindboggling to think about it! |
| Q. Once disaster occurs, is it too late to pray? | A. Jonah 2:1-2 = No! Jonah prayed from inside the fish! |
| Q. Did Jonah consider it the sailors decision or his to be thrown into the sea? |
A. Jonah 2:3 = He considered it God's decision to be thrown into the sea. Note: Did you know that God is behind the person(s) executing judgment on you? They can't make a move without God's okay. Remember that in Job's great tribulation at the hands of Satan himself, it was only by permission that he was allowed to test Job. Nobody sneaks past God. There is always a bigger reason things happen. Ultimately, God is glorifed in everything. So keep your atitude in check. Allow God to work; let the purifying fires burn off impurities and sit still for it. Pray always. Someone said "When we're tangled up in trouble, God wants us to sit still so He can take out the knots." What a picture of a Shepherd tending to a sheep with thorns in his wool! |
| Q. How did Jonah see this punishment? | A. Jonah 2:4 = He tried to run from God, but God's punishment was an even more real exile from God. He really felt far from God at this point of sure death. |
| Q. How did Jonah handle it? | A. Jonah 2:4 = Jonah called out to God, recognizing his separation from Him at last. |
| Q. Did God answer at that point? | A. Jonah 2:5 = No. His predicament worsened. |
| Q. How did Jonah describe it? | A. Jonah 2:6 = As being locked out of life and imprisoned in the land of the dead. |
| Q. And his rescue? | A. Jonah 2:6 = As God snatching him from the yawning jaws of death. |
| Q. When did Jonah turn his thoughts back to the Lord? |
A. Jonah 2:7 = When he had lost all hope. Note: Don't wait until your logic, physical body, or mind is used up to turn to God. He is there beside you to save you. Won't you call on Him the instant you are in trouble? Trouble oftentimes is a test of your faith. You can draw trouble out and get very soulsick. Or you can praise God for all else that He has blessed you with, and let God's peace overwhelm your trouble. "Don't be overcome by evil, but let evil be overcome by good." |
| Q. What kind of prayers does God hear? |
A. Jonah 2:7 = Earnest ones. Note: Pray from the heart. What is on your mind? What troubles you? Take it to God. Focus on what you are asking. How will you recognize the answer when it comes if you don't remember what you asked for? Beterstill, start a prayer book and write it down. Then write down the answer when it comes. Date everything. Soon, you'll have a bulging notebook of answered prayers. Remember, write down how God answered your prayers. They oftentimes are answered in mysterious ways! |
| Q. What happens to folks as a result of idol worship? |
A. Jonah 2:8 = They turn their backs on all God's mercies. Note: They forget God is still there, ready to answer prayers! If they ask Him! |
| Q. What are our songs of praise to God? |
A. Jonah 2:9 = Sacrifices to Him. Note: Waht is a sacrifice? Any time we lift God up above us and recognize His sovereignty over us, we lower ourselves in the process— to where we belong in the scheme of things. Songs of praise lift God up in thanksgiving and recognize Him as Lord over our lives. Even in our trouble. Maturity happens when we learn that we were never in charge in the first place. |
| Q. What else did Jonah offer up to God? | A. Jonah 2:9 = His repentance for not going to Nineveh and assurance that he would go if he ever got out of the fish. |
| Q. Who orders wildlife to do God's bidding? | A. Jonah 2:10 = God does. And they understand Him too! |
| Q. How did Jonah get out of the fish? | A. Jonah 2:10 = God ordered it to spit Jonah up on the beach. |
| Q. How big was Nineveh? | A. Jonah 3:3 = So big that it took three days to see it all. |
| Q. Did Jonah take three days out to see Nineveh first? | A. Jonah 3:4 = No. He shouted their doom as soon as he entered the city gates. |
| Q. What was the message? | A. Jonah 3:4 = Forty days from now, the city would be destroyed. |
| Q. What stopped judgment on Nineveh? | A. Jonah 3:5 = The people believed Jonah's message! |
| Q. How did they show their remorse? | A. Jonah 3:5 = They fasted and wore sackcloth. |
| Q. How many repented? |
A. Jonah 3:5 = All of them, from the greatest to the least! Note: Wouldn't that be awesome if revival happened to the USA like it did in Nineveh? Every politician, every false prophet, every astrologer, New Ager; every Jehovah's Witness and Mormon, every criminal, every homeless one and every rich one, repenting all at once; and acknowledging their sins and repenting as a nation. Every homosexual, every transvestite seeing sin for what it is and realizing the God of the universe has been close by them all their lives and loves them, even before they repented. It is an awesome realization to be in that place for the first time. Doesn't that get you excited about evangelism? God prepares the hearts. We don't need to prove a thing. Be God's messenger. Tell them God is near. Taht the kingdom of God is near. God will reveal Himself and cause repentance to happen. |
| Q. How does a king respond when his subjects repent to God? |
A. Jonah 3:6-9 = He repents too! Note: This can happen in Iraq again! If the people as a nation are touched by God, so will every leader, be they terrorist or king. May it happey today! |
| Q. When did God decide not to destroy Nineveh? |
A. Jonah 3:10 = When the evil stopped. Note: Not when the people fasted and wore sackcloth, but later when they repented. To repent means to turn away from evil. |
| Q. Did they acknowledge God too? | A. Jonah 3:8 = Yes. The king ordered earnest prayer to God by every citizen. |
| Q. Why did Jonah loathe to preach this message in the first place? | A. Jonah 4:1-3 = He had argued with God about this message when God commanded him to give it. He knew that God frequently changed His mind about destruction he promised. Why say it if it has any possibility of not coming true? |
| Q. How did God respond to Jonah's predictable response to His mercy? |
A. Jonah 4:4 = How could you (Jonah) be angry that people were saved? God rejoiced in their repentance. He always does! Note: Jonah lost sight of God's reason for creating people. Sometimes we forget that we believers are not the only ones worthy of God's unlimited mercies. The mission we all have is to the world. Let God prepare the hearts! |
| Q. Does God really feel sorry for whole cities living in darkness? | A. Jonah 4:11 = Yes! He even cares for the fate of its animals! |
| Q. How does God describe a city in darkness? |
A. Jonah 4:6-8 = 1) As a plant providing shade and comfort to its people 2) Infected by a worm (Hell) and dying. 3) The people suffer because they no longer have that protective covering and don't uhderstand waht is happening. 4) God has mercy on the city and intervenes. (God sends the prophets so they can know that they need to tdo to survive the worm. And now they know!) Note: It is important that you understand why you do God's work. You are not 1) buying your way to heaven 2) making points with God 3) concerned with being elevated before your brethren 4) want to look more mature than others 5) better than others 6) acting as judge for God 7) Angry at enemies you finally get to repay. Rather, you anticipate God's excitement for saving whole cities and bringing in a huge harvest and are priveleged to be part of His huge plan of redemption. Let the joy of God flow through you. New brethren await adoption! I'll bet you can't you wait until it happens! God brings folks to a place where they think, "Isn't death better than this?" They are ripe for God at that moment. Will you be there to tell them the Good News? |