Jonah

OBJECTIVE

The theme for the Old Testament module for 2nd grade is to learn about Obedience and how important it is in our church. In the story of Jonah, we will learn how obeying God and fully trusting in Him is of the utmost importance in our spiritual life. Sometimes it is hard to fully trust in the choices God chooses for us, but we have to trust in His will and His timing for everything.

INTRODUCTION & HOOK - 5 Minutes

Please review the previous week's lesson. (5 minutes)

Who's been on a boat? Has anyone been fishing? How big of a fish did you catch? Has anyone been whale watching before? Has anyone seen a whale? A whale can be as big as three double-decker buses back to back.

Who here has played hide and seek before? How long does it take for you to find the person hiding? Sometimes it can take a long time, cant it, especially if they picked a really good hiding spot.

Today we will learn about Jonah, who was always a faithful servant to God, but let his fear get in the way. God wanted to use him to help the people of Nineveh, but when Jonah became scared, God decided to teach him a lesson in trusting Him always, even if we have fear, are stubborn, or don't understand everything going on in our life. When we know that God is with us, we will always be protected.

The foundation, the reason why we follow God is because we have faith in Him that He will not put us in harm's way. We trust Him, that He will protect us, and maybe He might put us in situations we don't feel comfortable, because in the end He might be using us to do good, or to introduce others to Him. So maybe we will feel scared in our decision to trust God because we are humans, but as long as we know and trust that He wants the best for us (His children), then we will always be safe.

HOLY SCRIPTURE - 5 Minutes

Memory Verse: "I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me." Jonah 2:2

CONTENT (KEY POINTS) - 15 Minutes

The Word Jonah in Hebrew means "dove". There was a prophet named Jonah, he loved God very much and always listened to Him. But one day God told Jonah to go to a city called Nineveh and tell them how wicked they are and that they need to be better and follow Me. Jonah did not want to go to the people in Nineveh and didn't really want to go do what God told him. So he decided to run away and hide from God in a city called Tarshish.

Jonah went and found a boat that was going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and went on the boat. God saw Jonah of course. So God sent a really strong wind on the sea. Everyone was afraid that the boat would break. They all started praying to their own gods, hoping that one of these gods will listen and calm the wind down.

The captain found Jonah sleeping downstairs on the boat and woke him up and said wake up and pray to your God, maybe He will listen to us and we won't die. The people on the boat decided that they would cast lots (explain what cast lots means, picking a name out of a hat) to see whose fault this was that the winds were so angry and strong.

The lot fell on Jonah. The people all begged him to tell them his story and why the winds were so angry with him. Once he told them his story, they didn't know what to do and asked Jonah, what could be done to make the winds calm down. Jonah told them, "just pick me up and throw me into the sea." They felt bad to do that, so they rowed the boat really hard to try to get back on land, without throwing Jonah overboard, but it wasn't working, the winds were just too strong. So they picked Jonah up and threw him overboard. As soon as they threw him overboard the wind came to a complete STOP All the people overboard right away believed in Jonah's God and offered sacrifices and took vows to believe in God.

The Lord knew that this would happen, so he prepared a big fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah stayed in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. (Remind kids this is why we fast for 3 days during Jonah's fast). While Jonah was in the belly of the fish he prayed a prayer (Jonah 2: 2-9).

When God heard that prayer, He commanded the fish to spit out Jonah. God again told Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh and talk to them about the Lord. Jonah got up and went to Nineveh and he preached to them about God and how they must turn away from all the evil that they are doing or God will destroy them and their city. The people listened to him and started changing their ways right away. God saw that they were changing, so he did not destroy them or the city and was happy.

This made Jonah angry that God forgave them so quickly. So he went out to pout alone. He found a place to sit and wait to see what would happen to the city of Nineveh. The Lord prepared a plant to grow right over Jonah to give him shade from the sun. Jonah was very happy with the plant. When morning came the next day God prepared a worm to damage the plant and die. Jonah became even angrier. God said to Jonah "You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left - and much livestock?" Jonah 4: 10-11

DISCUSSION (Challenge) - 5 Minutes

• Why did Jonah run away?
• What city was he supposed to go to?
• Why did God want him to go to Nineveh?
• Why didn't Jonah obey God right away?
• Where did Jonah go hide? Did God find him? Was God angry with him?

LIFE APPLICATION - 10 Minutes

In the story of Jonah, we learned that obeying God and fully trusting in Him is of the utmost importance in our spiritual life. Sometimes it is hard to fully trust in the choices God chooses for us, but we have to trust in His will and His timing for everything. Following God without question is hardly ever the easiest thing to do.

Jonah thought he could hide from God, but we all know that we can never hide from God. God knows where we are at all times, and He knows our thoughts even before we think them. So even if we are not in church in front of God doesn't mean He can't see us or hear us. If you say a bad word or lie at home or upset your brother, sister, mother, or father, God can see and hear all that.

When God gives us a task (service) to do and we think it's a tough one and we don't think we can do it, the answer is not to run away and hide If God brings it to us to do, He knows that we can do it and do it well. God will never give us something that we cannot handle.

Remind the children that God's grace is for everyone, especially the sinners. God loves us all equally and wants us all to follow Him and do good always. When Jonah didn't obey God the first time around, God was patient with Jonah and had lots of compassion and grace. God forgave Jonah after Jonah repented.

ACTIVITY - 15 Minutes

15 Minutes Jonah Movie :

Craft - Jonah and The Big Fish (See attached craft below)

Materials:

• Print one copy per child (see attachment)
• Paper cup
• String
• Foil (enough to make a ball for each child, to glue Jonah on it)
• Tape or Glue
• Kids scissors

Directions:

• Have children cut out all the pieces
• Tape the top piece of the fish on the paper cup, then the bottom
• Tape Jonah to the ball of foil in order to give Jonah some weight
• Cut a long piece of string (16 - 18 inches)
• Tape one end of the string to the bottom of the paper cup; tape or tie the other end to Jonah.

How to play:

• Hold on to the fish in your hand
• Try to put Jonah in the mouth of the fish

Song: Obedience

SERVANT RESOURCES

• Refer to the Old Testament Timeline attached for major events and chronological order through the Bible.
• Treasures of the Fathers: Jonah the Prophet
• Additional visual aids and story illustrations: FreeBibleImages

• Old Testament Books Song - Missing Deuterocanonical books (Tobit and Judith from history books, Wisdom and Sirach from poetic books, Baruch, 1&2 Maccabees from prophetic books, and the Prayer of Manasseh)

PARENTS CORNER/HOMEWORK

This week we learned about Jonah and how we can not run away and hide when we are given a tough task. Sometimes we are given a tough task to make us even better at something. We must have trust in what God chooses for us and obey Him always.

If we feel like we made a mistake in life, we have to remember that God has so much Grace for us and will forgive us always once we repent, just like He did with Jonah.

Remind the children to always show grace for those around them just like God shows us grace on a daily basis.

LESSON ATTACHMENTS