Old Testament
Jonah
Four chapters about a prophet angry that God forgave the wrong people.
Prophecy / Narrative · 4 chapters · About 8 minutes
c. 8th century BC setting
Overview
God sends Jonah east; Jonah books passage west. The storm, the sailors, the fish — all of it is God chasing a runaway.
Jonah finally preaches the shortest, laziest sermon in Scripture, and an entire violent city repents.
Then the real crisis: Jonah sulks. The book ends on a question God asks him — and never answers for us.
What it keeps returning to
Mercy
Jonah's complaint is that God is 'gracious and merciful.' He's right.
Running
You cannot outrun a God who is already at the destination.
The unanswered question
'Should I not pity Nineveh?' The book hands the question to the reader.
Start here
Jonah 1
The flight and the storm.
Jonah 2
A prayer from inside the dark.
Jonah 4
The argument — and the question that ends the book.
Go deeper in Jonah
“I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”