The Story of Jonah Ep 1 Nineveh or Tarshish

Throw me into the sea and it will calm down. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon all of us. Instead, the sailors did their best to sail the ship to land. They rowed hard, but in vain. The sea became much stronger and they had no idea what to do. Hello children. Have you been waiting for a new series of Bible stories? Well, I don't know about you, but I've been eagerly waiting for one. Especially since we will start a very interesting and unusual adventure. Do you have any clue whose story I might be sharing with you? Let me give you some hints. Prophet, Whale, Nineveh. Did you figure out who it is? Yes, we will set off into this new adventure with Jonah. Jonah was a prophet. Do you know what a prophet is? When God would send a man to deliver a certain message to other people, that man was called a prophet. Many times, God would repeatedly send that man to warn the people before a punishment or to make God's will known to the people. That man sent by God was called a prophet. Now, it was not easy to be a prophet. Most of the time, God sent a prophet to encourage people to repent so that he would not have to punish them. Sometimes people listened to God's message and repented, but other times, they did not receive the message sent from above. Many times the prophet got hurt, even though he was only doing his job of getting God's message to the people. But that's enough talking about prophets. Let's see what happened to Jonah. It all began when the Lord spoke to Jonah and said, Jonah, I want you to go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me. The Lord God continued, But do you know what Jonah did? Instead of listening to the Lord and going to Nineveh, Jonah got on a ship going to Tarshish in a completely different direction, thinking that he could run away from God. Jonah probably thought to himself, Why does the Lord want to send me to Nineveh? The people of Nineveh are sinful and dangerous. How could I, an ordinary man, go to Nineveh and tell the people there that God will wipe them out if they do not repent? Jonah continued pondering, I'll probably be the only one wiped out if I go to Nineveh. No, I will go to Tarshish instead. If I run away, maybe I can escape and hide from God, Jonah concluded for himself. On one hand, we can understand Jonah's fear about going to preach against Nineveh, but his disobedience only brought him trouble. Do you want to know what happened next to Jonah? Jonah, along with other travelers, boarded a ship going to Tarshish to flee from the Lord. Soon after, a very strong wind started to blow over the sea. A great storm was about to break out. The ship already seemed to be in rough shape, and now a violent storm threatened to break it into pieces. The sailors on Jonah's ship were all terrified. They each cried out to their God to stop the storm. Then they started throwing objects from the ship into the sea to make it lighter. But nothing seemed to help. The storm was getting stronger, and the ship was about to be swallowed by the angry sea. Jonah was also on that ship, but he had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain woke him up, saying to him, How can you sleep when the ship is sinking? Get up and pray to your God. Maybe your God will save us and we won't die. The captain urged Jonah. Then the sailors said to each other, Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity. Casting lots was a custom practiced at the time. It was like when we flip a coin to see who will go first in a football game. When the lot fell on Jonah, they all began to question him. Tell us! One of the sailors shouted through the storm, Why has this terrible storm come upon us? Yeah, what kind of work do you do? Another sailor asked Jonah, What country are you from and who are your people? Jonah answered, I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. Interesting answer. Jonah told the sailors that his God was the God of heaven and earth and that he served God, but he was actually running from God. And although he knew that everything was in God's hands, he chose not to listen to him, causing a great storm to come upon the ship and its sailors. Jonah's words spoke about God, but his heart and his deeds were far from the Lord. The sailors on the ship were terrified of Jonah's answer. They learned that Jonah was running away from God and they understood why God brought the storm upon them. They asked Jonah, Tell us, what should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us? Because the sea is becoming so much stronger. Jonah replied to the sailors, Throw me into the sea and it will calm down. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon all of us. Instead, the sailors did their best to sail the ship to land. They rowed hard, but in vain. The sea became much stronger and they had no idea what to do. So they began to cry out to the Lord and said, Lord, please don't let us die because of this man. Please do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man. The sailors prayed. Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea became calm. The sailors saw the power of God, so they feared the Lord and began to worship Him. They offered sacrifices to the Lord and made vows and all kinds of promises to Him. You may be wondering, What happened to Jonah? Well, the Lord sent a whale to swallow him. We'll learn more about that in the next episode. Until then, let's see what we can learn from Jonah's experience today. What would have happened in this episode Hmm. He certainly wouldn't have ended up in a whale's belly. Many times, we know the Lord wants us to do or say certain things, and out of fear we disobey Him. Maybe you won't end up in the belly of a fish like Jonah if you don't listen, but you will miss out on an opportunity to obey and to do God's will. Everything God asks us to do is surely for our good. Perhaps you will tell me that God has not told you anything, or that He has not sent you anywhere. You may not have heard God's voice, but He gave you parents, grandparents, and teachers for a purpose. God wants us to listen to them. So even if you don't always find it easy to listen to them, don't repeat Jonah's mistake. You don't want to end up in the belly of a whale. Let me tell you one more thing. Remember what I said about being a prophet at the very beginning of the episode? Yes, a prophet is a man who delivers God's message. Maybe you think only Jonah was supposed to do that, because God spoke to him personally, but the Word of God is also made known to us in the Bible. You can tell your friends about Jesus and how He loves them so much that He gave His life for their sins. You, too, can be a prophet. God wants your friends to hear about Him. And you can also spread the Word if you choose to listen to Him and choose to say yes. If you want to find out what happened to Jonah after the whale swallowed him, don't miss our next episode of the new Jonah series. If you like this episode, give us a like and a 5-star rating and remember to tell your friends about us. You can re-watch this episode, along 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.