The Story of Jonah Ep. 2 - All roads lead to Niniveh

40 more days and Eneva will be overthrown. If you do not repent of the evil things you do, God will destroy this city. 40 more days and if you do not repent, God will punish you. Jonah continued proclaiming. Hello kids and welcome back to the second episode of our Jonah series. Oh, so much happened in the first episode. Do you remember where we left off? You're right! The sailors threw Jonah overboard. The sea became calm and Jonah was swallowed by a whale. But let's see what happened next. It never occurred to Jonah that he would end up in the belly of a whale. Still, Jonah was now thankful that God kept him alive, even though he had disobeyed the What were the chances that such a big whale would be in the exact area of the sea where Jonah was thrown from the ship and at exactly the right time? And what were the chances that Jonah didn't drown before the whale swallowed him? Besides that, what was the chance of him surviving after the whale swallowed him? Do you know how all these things were possible? It was only because God did a miracle, and Jonah was surely aware of this. After doing his best to run away from God, Jonah, now in the belly of a big fish, prayed to the Lord and said, I was in danger, so I called to the Lord, and He answered me. I was about to die, but You saved me from death, O Lord my God. Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the whale. There wasn't much to do inside of the whale, so he had time to talk to God and consider his actions and regret his mistake. But the thing that amazed Jonah the most was that God had mercy on him, even though he deserved punishment for his disobedience. He could have drowned in the sea, but the Lord saved him. This undeserved favor from the Lord caused Jonah to repent. Jonah also told the Lord in his prayer, I was thrown into the deep sea, and the water was all around me. The engulfing waters threatened me. The deep surrounded me, and seaweed was wrapped around my head. I thought those were my last moments of life, Jonah continued, and that I would suffer for my disobedience. But You, God, saved me from death. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered You, Lord, and my prayer rose to You. While thinking about what had happened, thankful to be alive, Jonah confessed to the Lord, I know, Lord, the people who worship idols give up their loyalty to You. I can only praise and thank You for being alive. So whatever I say I will do, I will do. I will keep my promises to You. For salvation comes from the Lord, Jonah continued. Seeing that Jonah was sorry for what he had done, God spoke to the whale, telling it to spit Jonah onto dry land. And so it did. Then the Lord spoke to Jonah again, saying, Jonah, go to the great city of Nineveh and tell the people all that I have told you. This time, Jonah did not run in the other direction, but instead he went to Nineveh exactly as the Lord told him to. Nineveh was a very large city. It would have taken you three days to walk across it. From the first day he arrived, Jonah walked through the city of Nineveh, shouting and preaching, forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown. If you do not repent of the evil things you do, God will destroy this city. Forty more days and if you do not repent, God will punish you, Jonah continued proclaiming. Wow, what a message to deliver. Do you think the people of Nineveh believe what Jonah told them? Well, we'll find out in the next episode. But until then, let's see what we can learn from this one. Jonah made his life very difficult when he chose to disobey God. Jonah could have obeyed the Lord's command from the very beginning, gone to Nineveh, and delivered them the message of repentance. He could have avoided ending up in the whale's belly. Sometimes we think obeying is hard, but let me tell you a secret. Disobeying and the results of disobedience are much harder to deal with. The good news is that even when we disobey, God is merciful to forgive us. Just like when Jonah disobeyed God at first, God forgave Jonah anyway. Could the Lord have punished Jonah and let him die when he was thrown into the sea? Yes, he certainly could have allowed it. Jonah might have deserved that. Couldn't God have sent somebody else to Nineveh instead of Jonah? He certainly could have. However, the Lord chose to forgive him, knowing that Jonah would also learn the important lesson of obedience through this experience. On top of that, the Lord would teach Jonah the reason he needed to deliver the important message to Nineveh, which we will learn about next time. Children, we should all learn this lesson of obedience from the life of Jonah without forcing God to make us go through the same unpleasant experiences. Choose to obey the Lord's commandments without second thought. Are you eager to find out what happened to the people of Nineveh and what happened to Jonah? Well, join us for our next episode and you will find out how the story ends. with the rest of this series on YouTube on the DG Bible Stories channel. You can also find our series in audio format on most podcast apps. We invite you to check out the Jonah original song on our DG Bible Songs channel on YouTube, where we frequently post Christian songs and animations for children.