1. A Harlot, a Fish, and the Mercy and Judgment of God
Memorial Presbyterian Church Sunday School – Winter 2017

2. Review: How did Jonah End up in the belly of the fish?

3. How do we Read Jonah? Allegory? Parable? History?
Allegory?
Parable?
History?

4. Repentance and Mercy: Part 1 – God’s Prophet

5. What was Nineveh like? ESV Study Bible ESV Study Bible

6. Repentance and Mercy: Part 2 – the Gentiles

7. How would an Israelite read a story where God relents of his judgment on the judgement-deserving enemies of his people?

8. Why Does Jesus Refer to the Sign of Jonah?
Matthew 12: Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

9. Conclusion
“… this is a message to Israel of rebuke, warning, and loving invitation. They must be aware that whatever calamity comes is not due to any weakness on God’s part, or inability to carry out his will; nor is it due to hardness on his part, or unwillingness mercifully to forgive the penitent. If he gives uncovenanted mercies to pagans, how much more will he give mercy to Abraham’s offspring – such as he does to Jonah. Rather, as in Isa. 59:1-2, the problem is not with God, it is with his impenitent people…”
C. John Collins, “From Literary Analysis to Theological Exposition: The Book of Jonah” in Journal of Translation and Textlinguistics (Vol. 7:1, 1995), 39