Jonah – a Man With a Message ናሙና

Meet Jonah

This is the story of Jonah. Jonah is called a minor prophet because his book in the Bible is very short. However, the message God gave him to share was very big and helped save an entire nation!

Jonah was from the town of Gath Hepher, which was very near the town of Nazareth, where Jesus grew up. He was called a prophet because he heard from God and spoke God’s words.

One day, God spoke to Jonah about a city called Ninevah. The Ninevites were very wicked and an enemy of God’s people. They were harsh and cruel and greatly feared!

God decided something had to be done about Ninevah. His plan was to destroy the whole city of Ninevah to punish them for their great wickedness, but because He is a God of compassion and mercy and justice, He sent Jonah first to warn the people. He wanted to give them a chance to turn from their wicked ways.

Jonah heard the word of the Lord, but he didn’t want to obey! In fact, he got on a ship in Joppa to escape to a city called Tarshish – as far away from Ninevah as he could get!

Maybe he was scared of the cruel Ninevites, or maybe he disliked the Ninevites so much that he didn’t want them to have a chance to turn from their wickedness. They had been so unkind to God’s people, the Israelites, that Jonah may have just hoped God would completely destroy them.