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May 7: Sustaining Love (Jonah 1:7-17)

By May 7, 2017June 2nd, 2017Teacher Tips

To begin the session:

This week’s lesson represents the first of four studies from the book of Jonah. Ask your group members to share their answer to at least one of the following ice-breaker questions.

  1. What are some of your earliest memories of learning about the story of Jonah (and similar Bible stories)—e.g., from your parents, Sunday school flannelgraph, Bible school stories, reading the Bible as a new believer?
  2. If you could visit anywhere or cruise anywhere in the world, where would you go?
  3. When have you been traveling and gotten caught in a bad storm?

 

To engage the learners in a study of the Scripture text:

Although today’s lesson doesn’t begin till Jonah 1:7, have your group read all of Jonah 1 and then discuss the following questions.

The book of Jonah opens with God calling his prophet to go and proclaim the word of the Lord to the great city of Nineveh. Most of us know the story well: Jonah “ran away from the Lord” (1:3) and headed in the opposite direction. What may not be as clear in our memories, though, is that Nineveh was the seat of power of Israel’s worst enemy, Assyria—a nation dreaded and despised for its aggression and brutality.

  1. How do you think you would feel if you were Jonah and God asked you to go and preach in Nineveh?
  2. How did the Lord respond to Jonah’s decision?
  3. How did the sailors respond to the storm?
  4. Why do you suppose Jonah’s answer in verse 9 terrified the sailors?
  5. How did Jonah respond to the storm?
  6. What redemptive results came from this story? For the sailors? For Jonah?
  7. In your relationship with the Lord, would you say that you are running away from God, running back to God, or running next to God?
  8. What most often holds you back from obeying what God wants you to do?
Andrew Sloan

Author Andrew Sloan

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