Jonah3: Mighty Merciful
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- “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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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”?
