The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai:2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.” 3 Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence. -- Jonah 1:1-3

Jonah: An Overview (Jonah 1-4)

This week at NorthStar we continued our "Questions God Asks" series as we looked at God's question in Jonah 4:4 where God states,

"Is it right for you to be angry?"

Today, we are going to dig deeper into Jonah as a whole and get a 40,000 foot view of the book in order to get a clearer understanding of it's parts throughout the week.The Bible is 66 Books, telling one story of God's loyal love. The book of Jonah is in the Old Testament (39 OT books) and is one of the Minor Prophets(12 Minor Prophets total). Jonah is considered a minor prophet not because it is less significant but because it is a shorter book (only 4 chapters!).Prophets in the bible are not fortune tellers. While they do speak about what is to come, they do much more. The prophets are those who are commissioned to speak on God's behalf. The thing they cared about most what the mutual partnership (covenant) between God and God's people.Jonah is unique among the prophets because instead of the book focusing on Jonah's words, its focuses on Jonah's actions. In this story about the Prophet Jonah, God's character is highlighted and humanities nature is illuminated.In verses 1-3, we see that Jonah is called to go to the great city of Nineveh to preach a word of repentance, compelling the Ninevites to turn from their wickedness to the one true and living God. Yet, instead of making his way to Nineveh, Jonah flees the Lord's presence and heads to Tarshish. See map below:

Jonah flees. Why? Jonah hates the Ninevites. The people of Ninevah had caused much pain and destruction to Jonah's people. Jonah was unwilling to preach to these people.Jonah did not want to go preach their because he did not want God's kindness to be extended to them. Jonah was so familiar with the character of God; that he is merciful, kind, and forgiving that he did not want to preach the message of repentance. Jonah's vision was clouded by his own prejudice and hate. You could imagine Jonah saying something like, "they don't deserve your mercy, Lord".The theological message of the book of Jonah is this:

God's sovereign grace towards sinners despite disobedient messengers.

As we investigate Jonah this week, I pray you see the heart of God towards you, towards your neighbor, and towards your enemy. He is powerful, just, and gracious.