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REFLECT | 'What is going on in our life right now?’

• Was there anything you did differently this week and how did that go?

• How was this last week for you? Highs, lows, have you seen Jesus in your life at all?

ENGAGE | ‘How do we engage with what God is saying to us?

Read the text aloud, maybe have different people read a verse each, then spend a little time each reading again.

• Discuss what you think is going on with Jonah, what does his prayer show about his heart right now?

• What might we learn about how, or how not to pray from Jonah? Contrast with Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9 : 4-17

17 Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. 

2 1 [a]From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. 2 He said: “In my distress, I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.
3 You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.
4 I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’
5 The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit.

7 “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.

8 “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.
9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”

• Jonah talks of making sacrifices, that would have meant that he needed to go to Jerusalem (Not Ninevah!). In 1 Samuel 15: 22 we read “What pleases the Lord more? Burnt offerings and sacrifices, or obeying the Lord? It is better to obey than to offer a sacrifice. It is better to do what he says than to offer the fat of rams.” Jonah is promising ritual and religion, but God is longing for obedience. How do we respond when God asks us to do something, are there any places where we have replaced obedient apprenticeship with religious ritual?

10 And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

• God is so merciful to his rebellious son Jonah, he has a huge fish ready to rescue him, but if Jonah had considered how God might save him, it wouldn’t have been in a fish! Where have you seen God’s mercy in your life, and did it happen or look the way you thought, or different?

INSPIRE | - ''How do we inspire each other to do something different this week? What opportunities are in front of us, that we can choose to explore?’

Discuss

• What one thing do I take from this part of the Jonah story that I will reflect on this week?

• Who do we know (or what situations/nations) who needs to experience God’s mercy this week? Pray for them now.

Go Deeper

Interesting to read Matthew 12:38-42 | Jesus’ comparison to his death. Jesus used the experience of Jonah as a metaphor for his own death, three-day entombment and resurrection. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2012%3A38-42&version=NLV

38 Then some of the teachers of the Law and the proud religious law-keepers said to Jesus, “Teacher, we would like to have you do something special for us to see.” 39 He said to them, “The sinful people of this day look for something special to see. There will be nothing special to see but the powerful works of the early preacher Jonah. 40 Jonah was three days and three nights in the stomach of a big fish. The Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the grave also. 41 The men of the city of Nineveh will stand up with the people of this day on the day men stand before God. Those men will say these people are guilty because the men of Nineveh were sorry for their sins and turned from them when Jonah preached. And see, Someone greater than Jonah is here!

Jesus speaks of Jonah as being ‘great’, where do you see his greatness, and how can we use his life as a pattern for our own apprenticeship?