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JONAH 1
page 815
may be the voice of a preacher, a walk through a mountain meadow, or the advice of a
friend. It may be any one of a hundred unexpected things. But whatever it is, we need to
be sensitive to the voice of God, listen, and obey.
Key verses in Jonah
1:1- 3 The Lord gave this message
to Jonah . . . “Get up and go to the
great city of Nineveh. Announce
my judgment against it because I
have seen how wicked its people
are.” But Jonah got up and went in
the opposite direction to get away
from the Lord.
1:17 Now the Lord had arranged
for a great fish to swallow Jonah.
And Jonah was inside the fish for
three days and three nights.
2:9 “But I will offer sacrifices
to you with songs of praise, and
I will fulfill all my vows. For my
salvation comes from the Lord
alone.”
1:12 “Throw me into the sea,”
Jonah said, “and it will become
3:1- 3 Then the Lord spoke to
calm again. I know that thisterrible Jonah a second time: “Get up and
go to the great city of Nineveh, and
storm is all my fault.”
Jonah Runs from the LORD
The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of
Amittai: 2 “Get up and go to the great city of
Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”
3 But Jonah got up and went in the opposite
direction to get away from the Lord. He went
down to the port of Joppa, where he found a
ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket
and went on board, hoping to escape from the
Lord by sailing to Tarshish.
4 But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over
the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened
to break the ship apart. 5 Fearing for their lives,
the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for
help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten
the ship.
But all this time Jonah was sound asleep
down in the hold. 6 So the captain went down
after him. “How can you sleep at a time like
this?” he shouted. “Get up and pray to your
god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare
our lives.”
7 Then the crew cast lots to see which of them
had offended the gods and caused the terrible
storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. 8 “Why has this awful storm
come down on us?” they demanded. “Who are
you? What is your line of work? What country
are you from? What is your nationality?”
9 Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made
the sea and the land.”
10 The sailors were terrified when they heard
this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. “Oh, why did you do
it?” they groaned. 11 And since the storm was
1
deliver the message I have given
you.” This time Jonah obeyed the
Lord’s command.
3:10 When God saw what they
had done and how they had put a
stop to their evil ways, he changed
his mind and did not carry out the
destruction he had threatened.
4:2 “I knew that you are a merciful
and compassionate God, slow to
get angry and filled with unfailing
love.”
getting worse all the time, they asked him,
“What should we do to you to stop this storm?”
12 “Throw me into the sea,” Jonah said, “and
it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.”
13 Instead, the sailors rowed even harder to
get the ship to the land. But the stormy sea was
too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it.
14 Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God.
“O Lord,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for
this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible
for his death. O Lord, you have sent this storm
upon him for your own good reasons.”
• Adversity
JON A H 1:1-17
Even people who have only a nodding
acquaintance with the Bible recognize
the story of Jonah and the great fish.
Most Sunday school children can
recount in graphic detail how Jonah
was swallowed whole and then spit
up onto the beach. But what they may
not remember is how Jonah got into
such deep trouble in the first place.
Jonah knew what God wanted him to
do (preach to the people of Nineveh),
but he took off in the opposite direction.
When we disregard or disobey God, we
will sooner or later find ourselves in deep
water. Is there an area of your life today
in which, like Jonah, you are running
from God?