Teaser Questions for Jonah 1-2

What can you find out about Assyria and its capital, Nineveh, in the 700s BC?

Who would want to go and preach there? Why or why not?

How does Jonah’s commission compare with our “Great Commission?”

What is your first reaction when you think about … Jonah fleeing from God?

What would you have done? Why?

What can you find out about Tarshish? Can you locate it?

There are several fascinating ironies in Jonah 1. What ironies do you see?

About the sailors and Jonah in 1:5?

About the captain’s words to Jonah in 1:6?

About the lots being cast and the cause of the storm in 1:7?

About Jonah’s admission in 1:8-9?

About the men’s reaction to Jonah’s having fled in 1:10?

About the men’s desperate efforts to save Jonah in 1:11-13?

About the men praying to, fearing, offering sacrifice to, and paying vows to Yahweh in 1:14-16?

About the calm that resulted from Jonah’s ejection in 1:15?

About Yahweh appointing a fish to swallow Jonah in 1:17?

What do you think Jonah learned, or what should he have learned, from his encounter with the fish?

What are your thoughts about “near-death experiences?”

What would you have prayed from the belly of the fish?

Does the Bible specify that the “fish” was a “whale?”

How might you compare Jonah with the people of Nineveh?

How might you compare the fish with Jonah?