In this skit Billy learns about the prophet Jonah and how things didn’t go very well for him when he disobeyed God. Billy also learns that God is merciful and gives people second chances when they repent.
Memory Verse:
So he prayed to the LORD, and said, “Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. (Jonah 4:2 NKJV)
Lessons Taught:
• Jonah was a prophet
• A prophet is someone who gets a message from God and then tells others the message
• Jonah gave King Jeroboam a message from God about reclaiming land
• God told Jonah to go to Nineveh
• Nineveh was wicked and sinful
• Jonah boarded a ship in Joppa for Tarshish rather than going to Nineveh
• God sent a strong wind and storm
• The ship’s crew threw the cargo overboard to lighten the load
• The ship’s crew cried out to their gods
• The ship’s captain found Jonah asleep and he woke him up and told him to pray
• Jonah told them that his God was the One who had made the sea and dry land and had sent the storm because Jonah was disobeying Him
• Jonah told them to throw him overboard
• The ship’s crew tried to row to land
• The ship’s crew prayed that God wouldn’t hold them responsible for Jonah when they threw him overboard
• As soon as Jonah was off the ship the storm stopped, this made the crew believe in Jonah’s God
• God had prepared a large sea creature to swallow Jonah
• Jonah prayed to God while inside the fish
• Jonah was inside the fish for 3 days and 3 nights
• God commanded the fish to spew Jonah out on dry land
• God once again told Jonah to go to Nineveh
• Jonah went to Nineveh
• The city of Nineveh took 3 days to walk through
• Jonah told everyone that in 40 days the city would be overthrown
• All the people repented, wore sack cloth and fasted
• The king wore sackcloth and sat in ashes
• God didn’t destroy the city
• Jonah was unhappy that God didn’t destroy Nineveh
• Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, which was Israel’s enemy
• Jonah made a shelter outside the city and waited to see what would happen
• God caused a leafy, vine to grow to provide shade for Jonah
• God caused a worm to destroy the vine the next day
• God told Jonah that he cared more about the vine that had lived for one day than the 120,000 children and animals that lived in Nineveh
Scripture References: (NKJV)
2 Kings 14:25 – ...which He had spoken through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet...
Jonah 1:1-2 – Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai...
Nahum 3:1 – Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims! (NIV)
Jonah 1:3 –But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish...
Jonah 1:4 – But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea...
Jonah 1:5 – Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea...
Jonah 1:6 – So the captain came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper?...”
Jonah 1:9-10 – So he said to them “...I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”...
Jonah 1:12 – And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea...”
Jonah 1:13 – Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land...
Jonah 1:14 – ...“We pray, O LORD, please do not let us perish for this man’s life...”
Jonah 1:15-16 – So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging...
Jonah 1:17 – Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Jonah 2:1 – Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish’s belly.
Jonah 2:10 – So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Jonah 3:1-2 – Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time...
Jonah 3:3 – So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh...
Jonah 3:4 – ...Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
Jonah 3:5 – So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.
Jonah 3:10 – ...and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it
Jonah 4:1 – But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.
2 Kings 17:6 – ...the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria ...
Jonah 4:5 – So Jonah went out of the city ... till he might see what would become of the city
Jonah 4:6 – ...So Jonah was very grateful for the plant
Jonah 4:7 – ...the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered
Jonah 4:10-11 – But the LORD said, “You have had pity on the plant ... And should I not pity Nineveh...”
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