06/09/2026
THE GIST OF THE CHURCH SCHOOL LESSON
Grace Beyond Borders
Lesson: Jonah 1:1-3; 3:1-5; 4:6-11
Then the LORD said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"
Jonah 4:10-11 (NRSV)
This lesson begins our look at the theme of Unit 3, “Fulfilling Our Obligations to God and Society.” A study of the Book of Jonah will remind us that the God we claim as ours is the God who claims all.
Second Kings 14.25 refers to a prophet named Jonah who lived during the reign of Jeroboam II (786-746 B.C.) This may be the character our narrative is based on. However, the book of Jonah is unique among all the books of the prophets. Books like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, and Amos contain a collection of prophetic texts consisting of oracles (“thus says the Lord”), sermons, and even predictions. Jonah has none of these. The only words Jonah speaks to the people of Nineveh are these, Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! (Jonah 3:4). The book of Jonah focuses more on what the prophet does than what he says. It is what the Bible scholars call a didactic narrative. It is an account designed to teach a lesson, to answer a question: What is the extent of God’s saving love?
Jonah receives two calls from God (Jonah 1:1-2 and 3:1-2). At first, he refuses to go to Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrian Empire (the superpower of his day). He boards a ship headed for Tarshish (on the west coast of Spain), but God sends a great wind to intercept him and a great fish to “cough him up” on the shore. He heeds the second call and proceeds to Nineveh, but his preaching is brief and reluctant. He does not identify himself, the God for whom he speaks or the reason for his prophecy. Yet, miraculously, the people respond And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth (Jonah 3:5). Even the King proclaims a fast for humans and animals. And God spares the city. But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry (Jonah 4:1). His hatred for the Assyrians was the reason he refused God’s commission in the first place. He knew God would be forgiving. Jonah was more concerned with the fate of a castor oil plant than with the lives of the Assyrians.
The book of Jonah ends on a question. God asks Jonah, And should I not be concerned about Nineveh?" We, too, must give an answer. Can any people who consider themselves a “chosen people” believe that they alone are loved by God? Jesus taught love for the enemy because God loves them, even those whom we have the most difficulty loving. Humans divide people into regions, but when God looks at the earth, there are no borders. God’s grace extends to everyone.
Reverend Steven B. Lawrence
