1. The “Clothesline”

God’s majesty is the tension-bearing reality holding together His mercy and might.
● Where do you personally tend to drift when thinking about God — toward mercy without
judgment, or judgment without mercy?
● What experiences (good or bad) have shaped that tendency?

2. Jonah’s Resistance

Jonah didn’t flee because he feared Nineveh’s violence, but because he feared God’s mercy.
● Why do you think mercy toward certain people can feel more threatening than judgment?
● Are there groups or individuals today for whom you secretly struggle to hope for
repentance?

3. The Warning
Jonah’s message (“Forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown”) contains no explicit offer of mercy — and yet repentance follows.
● Why do you think a message of judgment alone was enough to provoke repentance
here?
● What does this say about how seriously the Ninevites took God’s might?

4. “Who knows?”
The king’s response hinges on uncertainty: “Who knows? God may relent.”
● Why is that phrase so important in the story?
● How is pleading for mercy different from presuming upon mercy?

5. God Relenting (Jonah 3:10)
God’s relenting is not weakness, but sovereign freedom.
● How does seeing mercy as an expression of might change the way you read this
verse?
● Why is it important that God was not “talked out of” judgment, but chose to withhold it?

6. Jonah vs. Jesus
Jonah wanted justice without mercy; Jesus bore justice to give mercy.
● How does Jonah’s anger in chapter 4 prepare us to better understand the cross?
● In what ways does Jesus answer Jonah’s deepest (but unspoken) fears about injustice?

7. Hearing the Word
Nineveh responded to a single warning; we have far more revelation available to us.
● What makes it harder for us, with more knowledge and promises, to respond as urgently
as Nineveh did?
● What does repentance look like for someone who already “knows the story”?