Lesson 143 - Elementary

Memory Verse

"Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it" (Luke 11:28).

Notes

Jonah Sent

Long, long ago there lived a man named Jonah. Jonah believed in God. Many people in the countries around where he lived did not believe in the living God. They worshiped idols, or statues, made of wood and stone, and because they did not believe in the good God, they became very wicked and sinful. The people of Nineveh were like that, so God sent Jonah to tell them that they should be good or they would be destroyed. But Jonah did not do at first what God told him to do. Jonah thought that because they were heathen people, God should not save them. But we know that God loves everyone. He wants every little boy and girl, and every man and woman in all the world to be saved and go to Heaven and live with Him forever.

Sometimes children do not want to do what Mother and Father tell them to do because, like Jonah, they think it is better to do something else. But it is always right to do what God tells them to do, and God tells the little children: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.”

Jonah Disobeys

Perhaps Jonah thought: I do not want to go to Nineveh and tell them they are so bad that they will be destroyed if they do not pray and repent and ask God to forgive them; maybe they will stop bowing down to their idols and pray to God for mercy and help, and God will bless them and let them live. So instead of going east across the desert to Nineveh, Jonah went down to the sea and took a ship going west across the big ocean to Tarshish. But, of course, God was not going to let the people of Nineveh be destroyed without giving them a chance to be saved. So God had to make Jonah willing to go to Nineveh and preach.

The Storm

As Jonah was sailing to Tarshish, God sent a great wind on the sea. It blew so hard the sailors thought the ship was going to be broken up and they would be drowned. Each one of them cried out to his god to help them, but of course their gods did not help them because they were only wood and stone and could not hear nor see nor move. The ship was carrying some things over to Tarshish -– perhaps kegs of grape juice and olive oil -– and the sailors threw these out into the ocean to make the ship lighter so it would not sink. Still the wind blew very hard and the big waves probably went right over the top of the ship.

The shipmaster found Jonah asleep and told him to get up and call upon his God. But Jonah could not very well pray and expect God to help him, because he was not doing what God asked him to do. Jonah told the sailors that he was running away from God -– the God of Heaven who had made the sea and the dry land. Then they knew why this big wind and storm had come upon them, and they were afraid.

Jonah Spared

They asked Jonah what they should do so that the wind would quit blowing and the sea would be quiet. He told them to throw him overboard into the ocean. Of course, they did not want to do that; they thought he would be drowned. They worked hard to get the ship to land, but the wind only blew harder and big waves almost upset them. They decided they would have to do what Jonah told them to do, and after they had prayed to God, they threw Jonah into the ocean.

God knew Jonah would go to Nineveh and preach if he had another chance, so God made a special, big fish to swallow Jonah. There are whales in the ocean today with big enough throats and stomachs to swallow a man. Some men caught a whale that had room in his stomach for a small automobile. But the fish we read about in our lesson today, God made especially to swallow Jonah, and of course it was easy for God to make it big enough for Jonah to be swallowed and live inside of the fish. Jesus knew about Jonah's being inside of the whale, too -– He spoke of it many years afterward when He was on earth. While Jonah was being carried around in the sea by this big fish, he prayed and told God that he would do what He wanted him to do. So God spoke to the fish and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land.

Nineveh Repents

Then God spoke to Jonah again and told him to go to Nineveh and preach. And Jonah went right away. God told him just what to say, and he walked down the streets calling out. "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

When the king heard that he and his people were to be destroyed because they did many naughty, bad things, he stopped doing what he knew was wrong. Then he took off his beautiful robe and put on coarse, rough clothes and sat down in ashes to show God how sorry he was that he had been bad. He told his people to repent -– to stop doing wrong things. They all put on rough clothes, called sackcloth. They didn't even eat nor drink water, and they cried and prayed to God to forgive them. When God saw how sorry they were, and that they were going to be good, He saved them, and the city of Nineveh was not destroyed.

God Loves Everybody

How good it is to tell others -– maybe our playmates or a neighbour – that Jesus loves them; that He will save them and take them to Heaven some day if they will pray and ask Jesus to forgive them. We would be glad if our friends and neighbour were saved -– just as glad as though they were our own brothers and sisters. God showed Jonah that He wanted every boy and girl, man and woman, in all the world to repent and be saved, even the heathen and people who were very bad and sinful.

Questions

1. What did Jonah do when God told him to preach to the people of Nineveh? [JON:1:3].

2. What happened to Jonah when he disobeyed? [JON:1:17].

3. What did Jonah do when he was inside the big fish? [JON:2:1].

4. What did the people of Nineveh do when Jonah told them they were to be destroyed? [JON:3:8].

5. Does God love our neighbours and heathen people just as much as He loves us? [2PE:3:9].