Jonah: Becoming Missional

by Gregory Brown

Jonah is often called the most missional book in the Old Testament. In it, God calls Jonah, the prophet, to go to Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, and preach a message of judgment. However, he initially rebels as the Assyrians were Israel’s enemies and greatest threat. Jonah’s reluctance to share God’s message was a reflection of Israel as a nation. They were called by God to be his chosen people. They were to be stewards of God’s temple and his Word, and one day his Son, the messiah, would come from them to die for the sins of the world. The Israelites were blessed so they could be a blessing to the world by drawing others to worship the true God (cf. Gen 12:3, 22:18, Isaiah 42:6, 60:1-3). However, they became prideful instead of humble, exclusive instead of inclusive, concerned with themselves instead of others, and therefore, failed to be God’s missionaries to the nations. We, as the church, are no different. Like Jonah and the Israelites, God has called us to make disciples of all nations (Matt 28:19-20), but it’s easy to neglect and rebel against that call—leaving many unreached and hopeless. As we study Jonah, may it convict and change our hearts to make us more missional so we can complete the great commission our Lord Jesus gave us! Let’s study Jonah together with the Bible Teacher’s Guide.

"The Bible Teacher’s Guide … will help any teacher study and get a better background for his/her Bible lessons. In addition, it will give direction and scope to teaching of the Word of God. Praise God for this contemporary introduction to the Word of God." —Dr. Elmer Towns, Co-founder of Liberty University

143 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 10, 2023

About the author

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Reviews

[F · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is much to recommend this book. It is a pretty solid, reasonable volume on a book of the Bible that rarely, to my knowledge, gets much love. The author seems to have a high view of Scripture which I genuinely appreciate and yet... sometimes makes subtle changes which seem unwarranted.
Example: the last verse of the book [4:11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?]. Pretty straight forward and yet he discusses it as if it reads that they could not discern right from wrong when the Scriptures clearly indicate right from left [and yes the Hebrew bears out the latter]. It kind of changes the whole direction of the narrative.
So, I recommend the book but with caution and some reservations [Mature Christians only, discernment a must]