Last night our group met for our midweek Lenten journey with “Jesus, Jonah, and “Soup.” This is our fourth study and we ran out of Jonah because the book only has four chapters. But wow…it ended with a bang! After we enjoyed delicious soup and conversation, we picked up the story with Jonah acting like a toddler full of drama. After hearing God was seriously considering sparing Nineveh from destruction, Jonah stomped out of the city, pitched a tent, and waited to see what would happen. God called Jonah out on his behavior, but it really didn’t make a difference. In our discussion we couldn’t decide if Jonah was really getting God’s message. His emotions seemed to switch quickly and often throughout the conversation. We really don’t know what happened at the end of the story except that Nineveh was saved until it’s destruction during a civil war.

So, what did we learn from last night? I think we all agreed that even though God certainly had the power to end Jonah’s life, instead he attempted to get Jonah to see things from God’s point of view. God saw the people of Nineveh as beloved people and even though they weren’t worshipping God, they had the repentant hearts that he desired. Jonah on the other hand was more concerned about himself. Well, does that sound at all familiar? Time and time again in the scriptures we see where God patiently and lovingly tries to get our attention. But we focus on the wrong thing which is most often ourselves.

We have one more week of study to compare and contrast, Jesus, Jonah, and ourselves throughout this very interesting book of the Bible. Oh, and did I mention one more week of delicious soup?

See you Sunday!