Sabbath: The Restless Prophet

Image © Pacific Press

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Jonah 1:1-4:11, Jeremiah 25:5, Ezekiel 14:6, Revelation 2:5, Luke 9:51-56, Jude 1-25.

Memory Text: “And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left — and much livestock?” (Jonah 4:11).

One of the most interesting stories in Scripture has to be that of Jonah. Here he was, a prophet of God, someone called of God, and yet — what? He runs away from God’s call. Then, after being persuaded in a dramatic way to change his mind and obey the Lord, he does so, but then only to do what? To complain that the people to whom he was called to witness actually repented and are spared the destruction that, otherwise, would have been theirs!

What an example of someone not at rest, not at peace — even to the point where he cries out, “Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!” (Jonah 4:3).

Jesus Himself referred to the story of Jonah, saying: “The men of Nineveh will rise in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:41). Greater than Jonah, indeed! If not, He couldn’t be our Savior.

This week, let’s look at Jonah and what we can learn from his restlessness and lack of peace.