One Verse Podcast | Liberating Scripture From The Shackles Of Religion ... One Verse At A Time

What if there was another way to defeat violent groups of people, other than with more violence? What if there was a better, godly ways to defeat violence? This is one of the questions we consider today from Jonah 3:6-8. This is what we are going to learn about today, as we see how God brought the violent and evil empire of Assyria to its knees in sorrow and repentance. If you want to defeat evil, if you want to beat an evil empire, the best way is to follow the way of God, which is also the way of Jesus.

God can start a city-wide revival through the smallest of acts. You don’t have to be Billy Graham. This is what we are going to learn today from Jonah 3:5.

How do you evangelize? Do you use tracts? Invite people to church, or to an evangelism crusade? Do you use the Roman’s Road? Do you shout into a bullhorn that people are going to hell unless they repent? In Jonah 3:4, we see how Jonah shared the message of God to the people of Nineveh. We’ll also see that his approach to evangelism left much to be desired.

What does God think of evil people? What does God think of people who disobey Him, and are opposed to Him and His ways? Well, according to Jonah 3:3, God thinks they are great. We’re going to see that the wicked and violent people of Nineveh are great to God. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, and so this is why I titled today’s podcast Making Assyria Great Again. Assyria was in modern day Iraq, so maybe I could have said Make Iraq Great Again. I know, that’s a challenging thought. But if God thinks they’re great, who are we to disagree? This is what we learn from Jonah 3:3.

Do you ever feel like you are stuck on a hamster wheel in the life of discipleship to Jesus? That you hear the same things over and over? You go through the same steps over and over? That you just keep going round and round and never seem to make any progress or do anything new? If so, what you learn today from Jonah 3:2 will be helpful for you.

Jonah 3 begins in almost exactly the same way as Jonah 1. Jonah 3:1 is nearly identical to Jonah 1:1. Jonah 3:1 reveals that God is a God of second chances. After Jonah’s blatant rebellion and shameful disobedience of chapter 1, and after Jonah’s self-righteous, unrepentant behavior in chapter 2, God still calls Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach to it the message that God to him.

As we have studied through Jonah’s prayer in Jonah 2, I have been fairly critical of Jonah and what he says. But what does God think of Jonah’s prayer? This question is answered in Jonah 2:10. This verse contains God’s response to Jonah’s prayer, which is what we look at in this episode of the One Verse Podcast.

If I say “salvation is from the Lord,” what do you think of? If you are like most Christians, you think of how God forgives your sins so you can receive eternal life and go to heaven when you die. Well, the phrase “salvation is from the Lord” is found in Jonah 2:9, which are looking at in this podcast episode, and we will see that it means something quite different from what many Christians think it means.

Do you think that theology can be an idol? That is, do you think that we sometimes allow our study of God, or even what we think we know about God, to get in the way of actually worshiping and obeying God? In other words, do you think we Christians ever make our theology of God more important than God Himself? Is it possible for our theology to become idolatry? That is what we discuss in my podcast on Jonah 2:7-8.

What is your prayer life like? Do you ever wonder if you are praying properly? As we continue to look at Jonah’s prayer in Jonah 2:5-6, we learn some more lessons today about how to pray, and how not to pray.

In Jonah 2:4, Jonah states that he prayed to worship God in His holy temple. In this way, Jonah seems to take credit for his deliverance from drowning. And though he has no interest in obeying God by going to Nineveh, Jonah is happy about the prospect of worshiping God in the temple. But which do you think God would prefer?

Do you fear death? I do not. But as we study the book of Jonah, we see that Jonah sort of wanted to die, but he did not want to die by drowning. We see why in this study of Jonah 2:3. We see that Jonah prefers to die by digestion that to die by drowning.

When the Bible talks about hell, or hades, or sheol, a completely different picture emerges about hell than most people think. We talk a bit about this today when we look at Jonah 2:2, where Jonah goes to hell.

My two recent books have referenced René Girard's Mimetic theory. If you want to learn more about this theory, and why it is so important for understanding life, Scripture, and ourselves, below is a video I recorded about all of this last year.

In my own prayer life, I find it helpful to pray the prayers of Scripture. I sometimes pray the prayer of Daniel in in Daniel 9. Or the prayer of Jesus in Matthew 6. Or any of the numerous prayers of Paul found throughout his letters, such as the one at the end of Ephesians 3. I especially find it helpful to pray the Psalms. There is a Psalm for every emotion. If you do something like this, the one prayer in the Bible I encourage to never pray is the prayer of Jonah in Jonah 2. It may be the worst prayer in the Bible. That is what we are going to begin seeing today as we look at Jonah 2:1.

It is Easter week, and it just so happens that we are looking at Jonah 1:17 today, in which we read that Jonah spent three days in the belly of a fish. In Matthew 12:40, Jesus uses this event to talk about how He will spend three days in the grave.

After Jonah teaches some terrible theology the sailors, we see in Jonah 1:13-16 how the sailors respond. In the process, the author of Jonah clearly contrasts the behavior of the sailors with the behavior of Jonah. As we consider this contrast, we will also learn why some non-Christians today are better Christians than some Christians.

Today we are going to look at Jonah 1:10-12 in which Jonah teaches some very bad theology to the sailors. We will look at what he says that is so wrong, and then try to find an explanation for why he would teach theology that he knew was so obviously wrong.

Do you fear God? Are you afraid of Him? Should you be afraid of God? Does God want you to be afraid of Him? As we study Jonah 1:9. We see that Jonah fears God and he instructs the sailors to do the same thing. But is Jonah right in what he says? Should he fear God? Should the sailors? Should you and I fear God?

Jonah 1:6-8 shows some questions that Jonah gets asked. The sailors on board the ship reveal a better understanding of God, and life, and justice, and right and wrong than Jonah reveals in his answers. When you respond to the theological questions of others, what are you teaching them about God?