Jonah

During this series, we are going to be looking at a really good “runner.” He may not have been an Olympic athlete or marathon runner, but he is perhaps one of the more famous runners in history. His name was Jonah and he was a prophet in Israel during the 8th century B.C., and despite his prophetic title, he attempted to abandon his mission and run from God. He is mentioned very little in the Bible elsewhere, but there is an important book named after Jonah that gives us, perhaps, one of the best pictures of God’s character in the entire Bible. But, this is also at Jonah’s own expense. The book is full of life lessons, beautiful theological illustrations, and yes, even humor!

Many of us have heard the story in some form or another, and almost all of them are probably centered around the fish/whale debate and whether it was literal or metaphorical. However, part of the purpose of this series is to look past the tree and see more of the forest of the valuable parts of Jonah’s story that have so much to teach us about God, one another, and ourselves, today.