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Matthew 12:39-41: “But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet . For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great , so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of will rise up 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.” (ESV)

Evangelical Free Church of Green Valley Home Studies Autumn 2020

Coordinated with messages by Pastor Steve LoVellette Lessons prepared by Dave McCracken

Table of Contents Date Topic Scripture Page

Sept. 20 Jonah – Running from 1

Sept. 27 Jonah – Praying to God 5

Oct. 4 Jonah – Preaching for God 9

Oct. 11 Jonah – Questioning God 13

Nineveh

iii iv Lesson 1, Sept. 20, 2020 Jonah – Running from God, Chapter 1

We all have something in common with Jonah. Either we have run, or we are running from God. You can run from God, but you can’t outrun Him! The Bible says that there is nowhere that He can’t reach you. Perhaps you are saying, “God, you can have everything in my life… but not that.” “I know that God wants this from me, but if I do that… or if I give that up, I’m going to be missing out.” That’s exactly what fell for in the Garden… they were fooled into believing that God was holding His best back from them. We think we’re going to miss out on something… like this world has anything to offer us that can compare to what awaits us in glory! Ken Mckinley, Sharon FBC, Sharon, OK, July 2013

Note, first, the Prophet’s unwelcome charge. The fact that a prophet of Israel was sent to a heathen city, and that not to denounce destruction except as a means of winning to repentance, declared emphatically God’s care for the world, and rebuked the exclusiveness which claimed Him for Israel alone. The same spirit haunts the Christian Church. We all need to have our sympathies widened to the width of God’s universal love. Jonah sullenly resolved not to obey God’s voice. What a glimpse into the prophetic office that gives us! The divine Spirit could be resisted, and the Prophet was no mere machine, but a living man who had to consent with his devoted will to bear the burden of the Lord. One refused, and his refusal teaches us how superb and self-sacrificing was the faithfulness of the other prophets. What will we do with God’s message entrusted to us? We must bow our wills, and sink our prejudices, and sacrifice our tastes, and say, “Here am I; send me.” MacLaren's Expositions, BibleHub.com

Why did he refuse to go to Nineveh? Not because he was afraid for his life, or thought the task hopeless. He refused because he feared success. God’s goodness was being stretched too far if it was going to take in Nineveh. If he had been sent to destroy it, he would probably have gone gladly. He begrudged that heathen should share Israel’s privileges. MacLaren's Expositions, BibleHub.com

The book of Jonah is, in some ways, the greatest in the . There is no other which so bravely claims the whole world for the love of God, or presents its noble lessons with so winning or subtle an art. Jonah, a Hebrew prophet, is divinely commanded to preach to Nineveh, the capital of the great Assyrian empire of his day. To escape the unwelcome task of preaching to a heathen people, he takes a ship for the distant west. He later obeys the divine command, and his preaching is followed by a general repentance, which causes God to spare the wicked city, whereas Jonah is greatly displeased; but, by a new and miraculous experience, he is taught the shame and folly of his anger, and the infinite greatness of the divine love. Introduction to the Old Testament — J. E. McFadyen

1. Read Jonah 1:1-3. What was the message God gave to Jonah to communicate to Nineveh? Why?

1 2. How did Jonah respond? Where did he want to go?

3. was the most remote of the Phoenician trading places then known. What was he trying to get away from? Is this possible?

Jonah doesn’t want to go to Nineveh because the people are wicked, so instead he goes to Tarshish… where the people are… wicked. When you’re running from God, your life will eventually unravel and will self-destruct. It can mean doing something that He says not to do, or not doing something that He says to do.

God’s plan and purpose for Jonah was to go to Nineveh and preach. When Jonah ran, he was not only running from God, he was also running from God’s very plan and purpose for him! The reason a person’s life begins to fall apart when they run from God is because God has a plan and a purpose for him or her. Are you a Christian? Then part of your purpose is to fulfill the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20). We glorify God by doing what He has created us for and called us to do.

4. Read Jonah 1:4-6. What did the Lord do? How did the mariners respond?

5. What was Jonah doing? What did the captain demand of him? Why?

6. Read Jonah 1:7-10. What did the mariners decide to do? What information did they demand from Jonah? How did Jonah respond to them? What made the mariners afraid? What did they already know?

7. Read Jonah 1:11-16. What did the mariners want Jonah to tell them? Why? How did Jonah respond?

2 8. What did the mariners try to do? What did they pray to the Lord God, in whom they had not believed until now? What did they do to Jonah? What did they then do?

Jonah chose to die rather than follow God’s plan. That’s what he’s saying when he says, “Throw me overboard.” He could’ve said, “I’m supposed to go to Nineveh, if you’ll drop me at the next port so I can go, all will be well.” But instead he says, “Just kill me. Throw me into the sea.”

This may be like us. We may have that area in our life that we’re unwilling to give to God. We’re unwilling to repent of it. Sin can sink its teeth so deep into us, and it’s almost like it’s a part of us, and rather than let it go, we run from God. And we, in effect, say, “I’m not going to give that to God… I’m not going to bow the knee in this area.” We need to humble ourselves before the Mighty Hand of God and say, “God, you are God, you are Lord of all… I can’t let it go so I just need you to take it. Take it by force if need be, but take it so that I can stop running from you, but instead run to you.” Ken Mckinley, Sharon FBC, Sharon, OK, July 2013

9. Read Jonah 1:17. What did the Lord God appoint? To do what? How long was Jonah in the belly of the fish?

10. Read Matthew 12:38-42 & Luke 11:29-32. What does use about the story of Jonah to point to his death on the cross? Why would Nineveh condemn the people to whom Jesus was preaching?

11. Why will the queen of the South judge the people to whom Jesus was preaching?

12. Read 2 Chronicles 9:1-9. How did the queen of the South (Sheba) respond to the wisdom of Solomon?

When believers rebel against God's will, they bring pain and loss upon themselves as well as other people. The good news is that the Lord often gives a second chance to obey Him. Have you been running from your Creator in some area of your life? If so, return to the Father and give Him complete control. He delights to work through available, obedient servants. Charles F. Stanley, InTouch Ministries

3 4 Lesson 2, Sept. 27, 2020 Jonah – Praying to God, Chapter 2

Psalm 139:7-10 says, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in [the grave], behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.” We might choose to run from the Lord; but even if we do, we will still have to come face to face with God at some point or another and reckon with Him.

Doing our own thing will only lead to death and destruction, for we read in Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” Acting apart from the will of God is what the Bible calls sin, and Romans 6:23 tells us, “The wages of sin is death,” meaning spiritual death. Because Jonah ran from the Lord and entered a downward spiral, he was going to have a brush with death. God’s Word has clear principles, and when we obey them, things tend to work better for us… when we ignore them, or disobey them, they don’t. Thankfully God is merciful, and He understands that often times we are boneheads. But He has mercy and grace! God will hear us when we repent. He’s also in the midst of the difficult circumstances that will bring us to repentance. Sometimes people don’t like to hear that.

There is an eternal perspective here. That’s why Jesus says things like “What good is it if a man gains the whole world yet loses his own soul.” That’s why Paul says in Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” In God’s economy… or in God’s view it would be better if we suffered the entire time we are on earth if in the end we spend eternity in His presence in glory. And that’s hard for us to understand, but it’s Biblical.

God is bringing judgment upon Jonah, but more importantly God isn’t so much paying Jonah back, as He is bringing him back. God knew what it would take to get him to stop running and to stop rejecting His rule and reign over his life, and so God allows… and even ordains Jonah’s suffering, in order to show Jonah how inept he really is, and to show Jonah how much he really does need God.

Jonah’s in the fish, he’s suffering the consequences of his running. He realizes that he can’t blame anyone. He can’t blame God. God had made it clear what Jonah was supposed to do, and so he repents and prays. And God shows Jonah grace. Jonah deserves to be digested by this fish. He deserves whatever befalls him. He’s rebelled against God Almighty! But God Almighty is a God of grace!

1. Read Jonah 2:1-2. What did Jonah do from the belly of the fish? What is Jonah’s condition? How does Jonah describe the place he finds himself?

5 is the Hebrew word for the “grave.” Jonah realized that his path of disobedience was leading him toward death and destruction; he was on his way to a spiritual grave. Whenever we are in a state of spiritual death and the grave, God hears us too when we choose to call out to Him.

2. Read Acts 2:21. What are we saved from?

The translates sheol as “hell.” Spiritual death leads to spending eternity in hell, which is a place of never ending torment.

Three ministers were talking about prayer in general and the appropriate and effective positions for prayer. As they were talking, a telephone repairman was working on the phone system in the background. One minister shared that he always held his hands together and pointed them upward as a form of symbolic worship. The second suggested that real prayer was conducted on your knees. The third suggested that they both had it wrong--the only position worth its salt was to pray while stretched out flat on your face. By this time the phone man couldn’t stay out of the conversation any longer. He interjected, "I found that the most powerful prayer I ever made was while I was dangling upside down by my heels from a power pole, suspended forty feet above the ground." Probably the most powerful prayer that Jonah ever prayed was in the belly of a fish. Mike Wilkins, Runnymede Community Church, Toronto, ON, Canada, June 2002

In February 1891, the Star of the East, a whaling ship, spotted a large sperm in the vicinity of the Falkland Islands. Two boats were launched. A harpooner speared the whale. The second boat attempted to get in another harpoon, but the boat was overturned in the process and one man was drowned. Another man, James Bartley, disappeared and was assumed drowned. The whale was killed and drawn to the side of the ship where it was tied fast and the blubber removed. The following day the stomach was hoisted onto the deck. That’s where James Bartley was. He was in the whale’s stomach, unconscious, but alive. He recovered and continued working as a whaler. Tim Richards, The Refuge, St. Louis, MO, Feb. 2004

3. Read Jonah 2:3-5. Describe Jonah’s situation. What did he believe would happen to him?

4. Read Psalm 18:4-6; 42:7 & 31:22. Does it appear that Jonah is praying the ? Perhaps he had memorized some of them in his youth. Does Jonah appear to be confident that the Lord will hear him?

6 5. Read Psalm 107:10-15. What was the penalty for rebellion against God? How did the people respond? How did the Lord respond? What is man to do?

6. Read Jonah 2:6. Does Jonah have any hope? Does he express any faith in God?

7. Read Jonah 2:7-9. What did Jonah do when he had lost all hope? What promises does Jonah make to God? To whom does he look for salvation?

8. Read Psalm 50:15. To whom are we to call when we are in trouble? What will be the result? To whom are we to give glory?

9. Read Jonah 2:10. What did the Lord do to the fish? What did the fish do?

10. Read 1 Samuel 15:22. What gives the Lord delight?

11. Read 5:1. What warning is given? What are we to do?

What would you do if you were conscious, but in the belly of a fish? Would you pray? Would you pray the scripture you know to God? Would you pray the Psalms? What other portions of scripture might you pray (since we have the and Jonah didn’t)?

Pray because God is good even when we are not. Pray because God is powerful enough to pull us out of anything. Pray because prayer will change you for the better.

7 8 Lesson 3, Oct. 4, 2020 Jonah – Preaching for God, Chapter 3

1. Read Acts 2:37-39. What instruction did Peter give to the people at Pentacost? What were the people to do? What is the promise they were given?

The meaning of the word “repent” is to turn from doing something wrong to doing something right. Often we think we have repented, but do not stop our bad behavior.

2. Read Jonah 3:1-5. What message did God give to Jonah? How did Jonah respond this time?

3. How is Nineveh described? What message did Jonah proclaim?

4. How did the people respond to Jonah’s message from the Lord? Did everyone seem to be participating in this act of repentance?

Repentance is the activity of reviewing one's actions and feeling contrition or regret for past wrongs. It generally involves a commitment to personal change and resolving to live a more responsible and humane life. The practice of repentance is considered necessary for the attainment of salvation. It often involves an act of confession. This typically includes an admission of guilt, a promise or resolve not to repeat the offense, an attempt to make restitution for the wrong, or in some way to reverse the harmful effects of the wrong where possible.

Nineveh teaches us about regret for our sins. We are the “instant society,” and we have become used to the grace of God. The moment we feel the slightest discomfort with our sin, we run off to the altar to be forgiven and have it removed. If we recognized the offense that our sins cause God, we too might learn to fast and mourn. In our “repentance” we can often times be concerned more with stopping feeling bad, rather than understanding the offense of our sins.

5. Read Psalm 32. What brings the Psalmist joy? How did he feel when he refused to confess his sin? How did the Lord respond to his confession?

9 6. What advice does he give for those in rebellion to the Lord?

Too often we seek the Lord but are unwilling to change our ways. We sometimes find the people of Israel fasting and mourning but God does not respond.

7. Read 58:1-9. Why are the people unhappy with God? What kind of behavior is present in those who are fasting?

8. What kind of fasting does the Lord want? How does this type of fasting result in acceptable behavior?

9. Read Psalm 51:17 & 2 Cor. 7:10. What does God want of us?

When revival came to the Orkney Islands off Scotland, The Spirit of repentance was so strong that sailors sailing past found that they had to put into port and find a church to confess because the weight of their sin was so great. Mike Wilkins, Runnymede Community Church, Toronto, ON, Canada, June 2002

10. Read Jonah 3:6-9. What did the king of Nineveh do? What proclamation did he issue? To whom were they to call out to?

11. What were they to turn from? What did he hope for from God?

12. Read Ephesians 4:25-32. What are we to put off? What are we to do? What are we to do before the sun goes down? Who should never get a foothold in our lives? What change of behavior is expected?

10 13. How should we guard our speech? Whom are we not to grieve? What are we to get rid of? How are we to be to others? Who is our model for our behavior?

14. Read Jonah 3:10. How did God react to the repentance of the people of Nineveh?

15. Read Revelation 3:20. What does Jesus want from us?

No matter how far we run from God, Jesus continues to knock at the door of our heart, to be let in. He doesn’t stop knocking, but we can stop hearing the knock. The longer we ignore the knock, the harder it is for us to respond to it.

Is Jesus knocking on the door of your heart? Is there something in your life that you need to repent of? Confess your wrong doings, demonstrate your regret, and stop doing the things that you used to do. We have God’s promise that when we repent, that he will forgive us and bless us with his Spirit.

Stand up, Stand up for Jesus, ye solders of the cross. Lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss. From victory unto victory His army shall He lead, Till every foe is vanquished, for Christ is Lord in deed.

Stand up, Stand up for Jesus, the trumpet call obey. Forth to the mighty conflict in this His glorious day. Ye that are men now serve Him, against unnumbered foes. Let courage rise with danger and strength to strength oppose.

Stand up stand up for Jesus, the strife will not be long. This day the noise of battle, the next the victor’s song. To him that overcometh a crown of life shall be, He with the king of glory shall reign eternally.”

It’s time to decide if we want to do business with God.

11 12 Lesson 4, Oct. 11, 2020 Jonah – Questioning God, Chapter 4

Jonah ends his story with a complaint to God about Nineveh’s repentance and God’s forgiveness. This final dialogue exposes Jonah’s narrowness of heart. God is quick to remind Jonah that God’s compassion and concern extend far beyond what Jonah expects or desires. In fact, no one is beyond God’s forgiveness and love. God will deliver all who call out to Him, regardless of background, nationality, way of life or ethnic group. Women of Faith Study Bible, NIV, 1984, p. 1508

1. Read Jonah 4:1-4. Why was Jonah angry? What had he thought about the Ninevites that caused him to flee towards Tarshish?

2. What did Jonah know about God that made him angry? Is this a good thing to be angry about?

3. What did Jonah now want God to do to him? What question does God ask Jonah?

Jonah is furious. These guys deserve it – they are evil! Jonah looks like an idiot – he said they’d be destroyed and now they won’t be. Besides, they are Assyrians for Pete’s sake! But Jonah is dead wrong. He doesn’t get God’s heart at all – he knows it, theologically speaking, but he doesn’t get it. Forgiving is what God does best. Jonah knows it, and he hates it.

The Assyrians were a cruel and heartless people. The truth is that they did deserve judgment – but Jonah is saying this as if he is someone who did not deserve judgment. The truth is that he is extremely lucky that God is “a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” Jonah is a prophet who knows the very Word of God, he proclaims the righteousness of God to the nation, and yet he spends all of chapter one running from God in disobedience. Mike Wilkins, Runnymede Community Church, Toronto, ON, Canada, June 2002

4. Read Matthew 18:23-35. How much did the servant owe that had his debt forgiven? When the master was going to sell all of his family as slaves, what did the servant do? How did the master respond?

5. How much did another servant owe the first servant? What was done to this servant since he could not pay the debt?

13 6. How did the master respond when he heard about this wicked servant? What is the penalty for those who refuse to forgive others?

7. Read Jonah 4:5. Where did Jonah go? What did he make? For what purpose? Think about his attitude. Do you think he really wanted to see Nineveh destroyed?

8. Read Jonah 4:6. What did the Lord do for Jonah? Was Jonah thankful for the plant?

9. Read Jonah 4:7-9. What attacked the plant? At whose instigation? Who appointed a scorching east wind? What did the sun do for Jonah?

10. How did Jonah react to his discomfort? What seems to be his attitude towards God?

Jonah has been forgiven for intentional disobedience, but he can’t handle God forgiving ignorant disobedience. The Ninevites might be undeserving of mercy, but no more than Jonah. The reason that it is called mercy is that we don’t deserve it! Jesus says don’t try to pluck the speck out of other’s eyes until you take the plank out of your own. The Ninevites may have had a two by four in their eye, but Jonah was judging them while he had a two by six in his own. Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that unless we forgive others, God will not forgive us. Mike Wilkins, Runnymede Community Church, Toronto, ON, Canada, June 2002

11. Read Jonah 4:10-11. What seems to be the message that God is giving to Jonah?

Jonah doesn’t seem to get God’s heart. In Luke 15 there are 3 parables about lost items. In the first one, A shepherd with 100 sheep loses one; he leaves the 99 to find the one; he brings it back and has a party with his fellow shepherds to celebrate. Because as Jesus says: “There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:7)

In the second story a woman loses a coin, and searches the whole house until she has found it. When she does she calls her neighbors to rejoice that she has found what was lost. And Jesus says once again “there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10)

14 In the third story, a man has two sons – one rebels, asks for his inheritance and leaves to spend it on loose living. Finally the money and good times run out and he comes to himself and returns to the father in repentance. The father has been waiting for him, he forgives him, gives him clothes, shoes and a ring and throws a big party because as he says, “this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” The older son, who stayed behind and obeyed comes in from the field to hear the party going on and he is furious. It says "The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in (to the party). His father came out and begged him, but he replied, `All these years I’ve worked hard for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the finest calf we have.’ "His father said to him, `Look, dear son, you and I are very close, and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’ " (Luke 15:28-32)

If there is great rejoicing among the angels of God over the repentance of one sinner, can you imagine the party that was going on in heaven on the day that Nineveh repented?! There are more than 120,000 evil people who turn and repent and follow God, and Jonah, like the older brother is standing outside the party in a snit because they didn’t deserve to be saved.

12. Read 1 Timothy 1:15-16. What did Paul tell Timothy? For what purpose did Jesus come into this world?

Jonah was racist, bigoted, prejudiced (– whichever word you want to use). He hated the Assyrians – they were the enemy of Israel. Jonah didn’t want Nineveh saved because he hated the Ninevites! Are there not some groups out there that we would rather not have in the church? Ethnic groups? Socio-economic groups? Subcultures? With our minds and our lips we believe that God can and, maybe even, should forgive them, but we’d rather not have to sit beside them in church. We believe that they need salvation, but by our action, or inaction, we show that we’d rather that they go to hell. Mike Wilkins, Runnymede Community Church, Toronto, ON, Canada, June 2002

13. Who is it for you? Who are your personal Ninevites? Radical Muslims? Homeless people? Members of the Rainbow Coalition?

There may be days when we are deeply concerned and complaining about our own comfort level, but God comes to us and says, “Do you know what is concerning me?” As we listen to him, we come back and say, “On second thought, my life is pretty good.”

The message of the book of Jonah also clearly demonstrates that running away from God is never a good idea. The God of Jonah and of Nineveh is our God today, and he is a God of second chances. Just as he saved Jonah when he called to God from the stomach of the great fish, and Nineveh when they heard Jonah’s message of judgment, he offers us today a second, a third, even a fourth opportunity to call on him and be saved. Women of Faith Study Bible, NIV, 1984, p. 1508

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