Jonah: Obey God

Tuesday:	Jonah: Obey God
Story Passage:	Jonah 1-2
Other Passages:
Objective:	We should obey God.
Visuals:	Available

Introduction: Nineveh? No way!

God had an important job to be done. He told Jonah to go preach to the people at Nineveh. They were not obeying God. They were being very bad. They were NOT nice. Jonah did not WANT to obey God by going THERE. So, he went and got on a ship and ran away. God said go that way [point]. But Jonah went that way. [Point in the opposite direction.]

Story: Running Away

The ship Jonah was on went out on the sea. Jonah went down in the bottom of the big ship and fell asleep. While he was asleep, a big storm came. The sailors were scared. They were afraid the storm would make their ship sink. The wind was blowing very hard. It was tossing the ship all around. [Use hands to show.]

The sailors were praying to their gods. The captain of the ship woke Jonah up and told him to pray. The sailors asked Jonah what he had done to make God so mad at him. He had already told them that he was running away from God. He was disobeying God, wasn't he? Is that a good thing to do? (No!)

The storm was getting worse and worse. The sailors asked Jonah, What can we do to make the storm stop? Jonah told them to throw him off the boat into the sea. The men didn't want to do that! They knew he would drown. They tried to row the boat back to shore but couldn't. So finally, they did what Jonah said. They threw him into the stormy water. And right away the storm stopped.

But Jonah was in the water. It was too far from shore to swim. And even though he had disobeyed God, God still loved him and cared about him. God sent a big fish to swallow him whole. Gulp. That must have been scary! It was dark and wet and smelly inside the fish. Jonah was inside the fish for three days. While he was in there he prayed. He told God he would obey. And God had the fish spit Jonah out on the shore. Ptoooey.

Conclusion: Jonah Obeys

Can you guess where Jonah went then? Yes. He decided to obey. He went to Ninevah and told the bad people that God was going to punish them for being so bad. They believed it, and asked God to forgive them. They said they would obey God better, so God didn't have to punish the people in Nineveh. And so, Jonah obeyed God after all.

Application: Obedience

We should aways remember to obey God right away and not wait like Jonah did.

Copyright © 2004—2007, Jill Eady and the Galion Grace Brethren Church. See licensing for information about rights and permissions. Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.