- calebharlan
QUAD Content: Session 2, Week 4
Before reading chapter 4, summarize the story up until this point and predict what you think will happen next. If you already know what happens next, discuss how you would have imagined this story ended before knowing.
Read Jonah 4.
In your own words, how would you describe Jonah’s emotional arc through this chapter? Do you think Jonah is justified in his feelings towards God? Why or why not? When have God’s actions frustrated you? What did you do with that frustration? What should you do with that frustration?
After Nineveh relented why do you think Jonah stuck around? I mean, at that point his mission was over, right? Why does he not head back to Israel?
How does God initially respond to Jonah and his anger? Why do you think he responds this way? Read Gen. 3:8-9 and Gen. 4:8-9. In these passages and many others, God asks His people questions. Why do you think God does that? He knows the answers to his questions, right? How did Jonah respond to God's question?
If you read this chapter closely, you'll notice the entire plot evolves around God's question. The only answer Jonah gives is "yes! I am, okay! I'm angry enough to die!" Why do you think God's compassion made Jonah so angry? He was so angry that he was unwilling to name it. God's questions get to the root of our behavior and emotions.
Read Luke 15:22-32. As we discussed a few weeks ago, the first two chapters of Jonah represented Jonah as the younger brother. But the last two represent him as the older brother. What are similarities and differences between Jonah and the elder prodigal brother?
What does this passage reveal about the character of God, about what he is like? What might this passage teach us about how God responds to us in our anger towards him?
Some of our culture’s most discussion-worthy movies end with cliffhangers. What is the cliffhanger that the book of Jonah ends on? Why do you think the book ends this way? Why does that matter for your life?