Jonah: A Story of God's Relentless Love and Abundant Mercy
Oct 29, 2021 · Courtney Jacob
Do you wish you knew what God wanted you to do?
Do you long to serve God, but feel like you’re too broken or just not good enough?
Do you long to know the heart of God and better understand his ways?
Do you think the world today is going to “hell in a handbasket” and wonder why God isn’t doing anything about it?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then the book of Jonah is for you. Join Groundwork for our series “Jonah: A Story of God’s Relentless Love and Abundant Mercy” to learn from an Old Testament prophetic word that still resonates today. Together we’ll study the story of a prophet of God with an attitude problem and discover just how far God will go to reach the people he loves and how willing he is to provide mercy.
The Prophetic Book of Jonah
The historical context of Jonah sheds light on the disdain and contempt Jonah has for the people of Nineveh. We find the book of Jonah toward the end of the Old Testament. It’s a short book, only four chapters long. It sits among the Prophetic books, meaning it contains a message God gave a particular prophet for his people. And yet, the book of Jonah is unique and a little unusual. Groundwork hosts Scott and Darrell detail how Jonah is different from the other prophetic books in the first episode, Jonah: Running Away from God.
The story of Jonah takes place during the time when Israel was divided into the northern kingdom, known as Israel, and the southern kingdom of Judah. King Jeroboam II was king in Israel (2 Kings 14:23-29) and King Uzziah was king in Judah (2 Kings 15:1-7and 2 Chronicles 26). Jonah was from the Northern kingdom of Israel and Nineveh, the city to which God sent Jonah was in Assyria, which at the time was a significant threat to the northern kingdom.
The Resonance of Jonah
How often throughout history have we learned about one people group hating another people group? How often still today do we catch ourselves perpetuating a mindset of “us” vs. “them”? So much in the book of Jonah should feel familiar to us still today. Reading Jonah and hearing again what God thinks of this type of attitude can help us to tune our hearts to God’s heart and to care, like he does, about his people.
If you’ve ever longed to know how you can serve God, if you’ve ever wondered if you’re good enough for God, if you’ve ever questioned whether there was a limit to God’s love and forgiveness then you can find assurance and answers in Jonah.
Read Jonah for Spiritual Growth
In four short chapters, the story of Jonah reveals God’s consistent, unchangeable character and is a testament to his relentless love and abundant mercy. If you want to experience spiritual growth, if you want to cultivate a heart more like God’s, or if you want to better understand God’s priorities, I invite you to listen to our Groundwork series, “Jonah: A Story of God’s Relentless Love and Abundant Mercy”:
- Jonah: Running Away from God - Jonah 1
- Jonah: Praying for God's Deliverance - Jonah 2
- Jonah: Doing God's Work - Jonah 3
- Jonah: Discovering God's Heart - Jonah 4
...and together we’ll grow deeper in faith and in our understanding of God so that we can be his faithful ambassadors in the world today.
Posted in: #Jonah, #God'slove, #Mercy, #SpiritualGrowth, #ServeGod, #HeartofGod