Jonah 1 (NLT)
1 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 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.”
15 Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! 16 The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.
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.
God can work salvation through wayward people and stormy conditions.
Here are some questions for discussion:
1. If someone read Jonah 1 without knowing who the prophet was, would they assume Jonah or the sailors were closest to God? What qualities or actions lead you to that conclusion? Why do we so often assume that religious titles or positions automatically reflect spiritual maturity? Have you ever learned something about God from someone outside your own faith tradition or from someone you least expected?
2. God will save by any means necessary. God WANTS to have all us saved. Yet we often run from it. Consider a time when you or someone you know ran from God like Jonah, what happened that brought (or is currently bringing) you back?
3. God sent a Word. God sent a storm. God sent a fish. We may not hear the word at first but we surely see the storm. With all that He could send, God sent a fish for Jonah. Apparently there is nothing that God can’t or won’t use when necessary. Apart from being a cool story, what about the fish in conjunction with the calming of the storm reinforces without a doubt for Jonah what it was that God wanted him to do?
If you’d like to dig a little deeper, consider the following:
1. Notice the contrast. God commands Jonah, yet he refuses. God commands the wind and it obeys. God commands the sea. The sea obeys. Why do you think it is emphasized that creation responds to God while the prophet himself does not? What could this reveal about human freedom and responsibility?
2. God pursued Jonah across the sea, but in doing so God also impacted the lives of the boat’s crew. The crew then prayed to God even if God was not part of their faith. Have you ever witnessed the faith of one person so clearly impacting the faith of others in their presence?
3. Saving people is not our job. We have been called to be “fishers of men” (Mark 1:17) and to make “disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19-20.) What is the difference between The Great Commission and saving people? How does this distinction reflect itself in the humility of our faith and the awesome love of God?
4. The sailors work together throughout the storm. Jonah isolates himself below deck. How do you typically respond to crisis—with community or isolation? Why is isolation often so tempting? What role does/should community play in helping us weather life’s storms?
For further contemplation, consider these prompts:
1. The storm in Jonah 1 isn’t simply an obstacle to the story—it’s the place where everyone is invited to confront reality. The sailors discover a reverence for God, Jonah is forced to acknowledge his calling, and the reader is left asking whether running from God ever truly leads to peace. Looking back over your own life, can you identify a “storm” that, while painful at the time, ultimately changed your direction, deepened your faith, or revealed something important about you or God? What did that storm teach you?
2. Jonah was sent by God on a mission that would eventually mean the city was spared a great calamity. God went to great lengths to save Jonah from himself on the way to sparing the people of a great city. On the word of Jonah, the entire city changed from its evil ways and was spared. Consider how the man that ran from God’s word was so perfectly capable of delivering God’s word. Whether it was the doubting of Thomas or the reluctance of Jonah, have you ever found yourself directly or indirectly in a similar situation? Have you experienced a faith so demonstrably strong as this? What brought you back on track?