23 - Jonah The Ran away Prophet

References
The Book of Jonah.
Notes for Servants
- Remember that our work is to serve the Lord. We should do His work His way not our way, as
He direct us not as we pleased.
- Our service should be in total obedience to God’s commandment.
- Let us repeat David's words, "Open my eyes that I maybe hold wondrous things out thy law."May
the Lord give us that simple eye with which we can observe the Lord's commandments all the time.

Objectives

General: God's love and His care for us.

Specific:
The children will be able to ...
A. Understand that God loves all people even the sinners and want everyone to be good.
B. Know that God loves everyone of them even when they behave bad and want them to
confess and be good again.
C. Obey God by obeying their parent, Abouna and their Sunday School teachers.

Bible Verse

“As I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

( John 13:34 )

Teaching Aids
None.

Instruction
(1) Review last week's lesson.
(2) Who remembers the verse?
(3) Remind the children about the church occasions for the coming week.

Story Time
Long ago, there was a prophet whose name was Jonas. God told Jonah to preach to a great city
called Nineveh. Jonah did not want to go. Instead, he went to the sea and tried to run away by getting on
a ship sailing far away from Nineveh. But God was watching him.
As the ship was sailing along, God sent a violent storm. The boat was about to break into pieces.
The sailors threw out all of the goods to make the ship lighter, but the storm grew worse. Then every sailor
prayed to his god for help. Still, the storm kept on. All this time, Jonah was sleeping down below on the
ship. The captain came to him and said: "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he
will take notice of us, and we will not perish."
The sailors thought that someone on the ship might have done a great wrong. They cast lots to find
out who it could be, and the lot fell on Jonah. Now Jonah had to tell them what he had done. He told
them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea, and it will become calm."The sailors did not want to do this,
but the storm worsened. At last, they took Jonah and threw him into the sea. Then the wind stopped
blowing right away. When the sailors saw, they feared the God of Jonah and offered sacrifices to Him.
God did not forget about Jonah. He sent a big fish to where Jonah was thrown into the sea and
this is swallowed Jonah whole. For three days and three nights, Jonah was in this fish. There he thought
about his sins and began to pray to God. Then God spoke to the fish, and the fish came near the shore and
spat Jonah up on dry land.
Once more, God told Jonah to go to Nineveh. This time Jonah went. Nineveh was a very big city,
and its people were very wicked. When Jonah came into the city, he began to preach. "Forty more days
and Nineveh will be overturned," he said. The people and the king believed Jonah’s message was from
God and were sorry for having sinned. They prayed to the God of Jonah and brought sacrifices, hoping
that He would have mercy on them. When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil
ways, He had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened.

Discussion
1 - Follow up the story by talking about it with the children.
2 - Continue the discussion while the do the activity.

Learning Activities
Activity Sheet.