Jonah 1:1-17 - The Depths of Sin & Grace

To provide a little summary of last week: Jonah is a unique prophetic book. Prophetic books always involve a word from God to a prophet, a prophet sharing that word as a warning, and then the prophet invites them into a new direction of seeing things as God does, which is a vision of goodness and restoration. What’s unique about Jonah is that the character of Jonah's character is the warning and invitation. The book is not merely about obeying or disobeying God, as important as that is to the story, but rather seeing the destructive tendencies of humanity and choosing to join God in what he is up to. Jonah receives a word from God, he  runs away from God’s plan, boards the ship to Tarshish –the land of self-fulfillment and prosperity. Tarshish won’t deliver. Keep in mind that Jonah’s name in the Hebrew means Dove son of Faithfulness. This frames the story with irony, that every time the dove who is to carry peace in faithfulness to God does the exact opposite. Today, we explore the depths of sin and the depths of grace as we dive in with Jonah.