Tuesday 9th February
God’s Compassion for the City
The final episode of this story, as ever at a blistering pace, takes us through to the end of Jonah. Jonah’s ‘8-word sermon’ has profoundly affected the Ninevites! The situation has changed. Jonah is ‘greatly displeased and… angry’. As James shared there are lots of ‘turn around moments’ in Jonah – the sailors turned around and began to worship God, the people of Nineveh turned around and worshipped God… and Jonah always seems to be the last to turn around – and then only for a short while. In this last instalment God challenges Jonah about His nature and His compassion.
Before exploring the story together, spend some time catching up with each other, then read the passage.
As you read the story, what stands out for you and how does it affect you?
The Bible describes God as ‘gracious and compassionate’ at least 10 times in the Old Testament including in chapter 4 verse 2 – often linked with love and faithfulness, and sometimes with justice – and Jonah really does know this but the Assyrians had done (really) terrible things including slavery, torture, ethnic cleansing. And the Lord just forgives them! This is pretty offensive to Jonah!
How does what the Lord is doing fit with His self-revelation as you understand it?
(clue: Genesis 12:1-3)
What does this tell us about the basis of the people of Israel as a ‘special people’ and their task?
How does Jesus fulfil this task for us?
What is Jonah doing in this passage in response to what God is doing?
Why is he so angry about the Lord’s compassion? Three times he says he’s ‘angry enough to die’ (v 3, 8, 9). This is pretty extreme!
How does he justify his reaction? To what extent do you identify with Jonah’s feelings?
Having dealt with the Ninevites, how does God deal with Jonah in this passage (v 8, 9a, 11b)? His 3 challenges mirror Jonah’s 3 declarations of anger.
We don’t find out how Jonah responds to God’s last challenge. But if we think about this passage as holding a mirror up to our own thoughts and feelings, what do we learn about:
Our natural way of thinking about other people, especially those who’ve done us harm?
The impact of this sort of forgiving? (You may have examples you can think of, and James gave an example in his sermon.)
The Lord’s compassion and how it applies to people we think of as outsiders and even enemies (because it also applies to us)?
What’s needed for us to be able to show the Lord’s compassion?
Spend some time praying together.
