Discussion on the theological teachings of Jonah (Part 2)

Their corrections. If they correctly identify one, you could maybe throw them a Swedish fish as a reward. Now, I'm not going to go through the entire story and corrections with you here, but you could see the corrections just by clicking through the slide here. Lesson number three When God Loves My Enemies Truth Because God loves all his children, we should seek their good even when they're our enemies. Now, most of us love the idea of a merciful God. We're grateful that he's patient with us, that he sees our potential, and that he gives us opportunities to change. But what happens when he extends that same mercy to somebody that we don't really like? Somebody who's hurt us? Somebody we'd rather see humbled than helped? And that's where the last chapter of Jonah becomes very personal. This lesson can help our students recognize that the people they struggle to love are still people that God loves. And hopefully it might encourage them to try and seek somebody else's good, even if their feelings are still catching up. What should the teacher know? In our previous lesson, we focused on Jonah receiving another chance from God. The Lord didn't give up on him. So when Jonah receives his assignment again, this time he does go to Nineveh. Well, now we get to see what happens when somebody else receives a second chance. And Jonah doesn't respond particularly well. So first, remember that Nineveh was an Assyrian city. These were the enemies of the Israelites, and the story does take their wickedness seriously. In chapter three, the king specifically calls on the people to turn away from violence. So we shouldn't present this as Jonah having an unreasonable dislike of some perfectly harmless neighbors. There was real evil in them and they needed to change. But lo and behold, that's exactly what happens. The people believe Jonah's warning, they respond to it, and they turn from their evil ways. And God in his mercy spares the city, gives them another chance. If the wording about God repenting in verse 10 raises a question, the JST in the footnote claim clarifies the meaning. The people repented and God turned away the threatened calamity. So God wasn't repenting of sin, he was responding mercifully to their repentance. Now, you might expect the next verse to describe eventually.