Jonah for Kids: Part 1

Maybe think of this as a creative writing project. I’m not entirely sure what my motivation for this endeavor is, perhaps divine inspiration. I have an 11-year-old at home and this is sort of a children’s sermon version of the Jonah Runs sermon I preached on Sunday. I printed it out for her and turned in her illustrated children’s Bible to Jonah 1. If you or anyone you know could be served by this series then please share and God bless.

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Jonah for Kids
Part 1: Jonah Runs

Jonah is the story of a prophet that did not listen to God. In Jonah 1, he does exactly the opposite of what God tells him to do. When God spoke and told him to go to Nineveh and preach, he tried to flee (run away) from the presence of the Lord. It can’t be done and our hero will learn that lesson the hard way. Notice everything in chapter 1 goes down. He went down to Joppa, down in the lowest part of the ship where he then laid down and went to sleep. Later he is thrown into the sea. The Bible does not use the word down again but we can reason that he goes down into the sea and into the belly of the whale. When the chapter ends he is somewhere under the Meditterarranean Sea.

The Fourth Man in the Fire

In Daniel chapter 3, Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego were called to appear before King Nebuchadnezzar. They were charged with not worshiping the gods of Babylon nor bowing down the golden image of Nebuchadnezzar himself. He is willing to give them another chance, and if they will bow down then all will be well. But instead:

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”  -Daniel 3:16-18

Lessons from Jonah

There is old saying about quality over quantity.  The old testament book of Jonah is only 4 chapters long, but it has much to teach us.

Lesson #1: Listen to God

Many people spend a lifetime “searching” for God.  Even those who know God still spend much time seeking his will.  God plainly speaks to Jonah, telling him exactly what he wants done.  God has ordained the events of history.  Paul says we see through a glass darkly, so it makes sense to listen to the one who sees all things clearly.  Consider Genesis 50 and Acts 2 when pondering free will.  Man does what he wants, God always gets what he wants.  God had plans for Nineveh, and Jonah was to be the instrument God used.  We could save ourselves a lot of pain (and wasted time, energy and effort) if we would just listen to God in the first place, especially when he makes it that clear.

What About the Sailors?

UPDATE: This post was my first impression while reading Jonah.  My 3-point sermon, after revising this post, is called Lessons from Jonah.

So I was reading Jonah yesterday.  Despite Veggie Tales getting a 2-hour feature film out it, there’s actually very little material.  The entire book is only four chapters, and one of those is really short.  Okay, here’s what I noticed.