Messages

We love knowing who to root for in a story. Who’s good? Who’s bad? In scripture, we can condition ourselves to see the people of God as the default “good guys”, and the nations who don’t worship God as the “bad guys”. Yet in Jonah, the author challenges all our presuppositions about who is good, who is bad, who can be saved, who needs saving, and who is responsive to God. Throughout Jonah, God’s character and willingness to save are revealed through the hard-heartedness and apathy of Jonah, his prophet. Jonah also points us ahead to Christ. In all of Jonah’s failures as a prophet, we see him point ahead to Jesus, who calms the storm, descends to the depths, preaches the good news of the kingdom, and seeks and saves the lost.

The book of Jonah asks God’s people to wrestle with the question “Do I live like I want God to be to others who he is, and who he has been to me?”