Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-03-02
SABBATH SCHOOL LESSON
For March 5th-Jonah 3, 4
BY DIR. MARION NH. HULL

| ing as condemnation of the unbe.
| lief and hard-heartedness of the
Jews under His preaching. He also
spoke of that in the same way as
He did. of the visit OF the queen of
Sheba to Solomon. If one was a
parable for an allegory the other
was; if one was historical, the. other
I was. But no one denies the his
toricity of the queen of Sheba's visit
to Solomon. The cenclusion\is evi.
dent-the book of Jonah is a Simple
narrative of an actual experience in
the life of one of Gods servants,
and is written for a definite purpose,
which, as we shall see, is to teach
the omnipresence Of God and the
largeness of His mercy to include
all people.
2. Contents:
I l. The story condensed. 1t is hard
| to condense this story into tabloid
| form, but read it once a day for
| a week and then try it yourself.
Jonah, prophet of God, is commits
stoned to go and preach to the Nine
vites. He went in the opposite
direction and took ship at Joppa to
go to Tarshish, twice as many miles
| in the opposite direction. A short
time out from port a terrific storm
arises and seasoned mariners are
afraid. Jonah is asleep. He is
awakened and confessed his sig.
tells them to cast him overheard and
be saved. They try to avoid it, but
finally do it. The sea at once be-
comes calm and they are converted.
AS for Jonah he is swallowed by
ance and forgiveness. After three
days the great fish finds Jonah hard
to digest and gets rid of him. Jonah
| gets a second commission, and this
time goes to Nineveh. He walks
one day's~journey into the city, cry
| ing, "Yet forty days and Nineveh
shall be destroyed The whole city
is converted and saved-much to
Jonah's disgust. He goes outside
| the city and waits to see what will
happen, and prays to die.
over night a castor oil plant grows
up and shelters Jonah. But worm
inside and a whitening wind outside
killed it, which made Jonah very
sad This was Gods object lesson
| to him to teach him how He cared
for His human creatures whether
! they were Jews or not. =
! This is not satisfactory, but try it
yourself.
u q. rive SIrlhlIlS ldClS III tllS DOOh'
(a) That Jonah thought he could
flee from the presence of the Lord.
| Qb) That Jonah was willing to give
his life for the sailors. (c) That
Jonah should have known Gods
word so we'll that in his prayer he
quoted from a different psalm in
every verse. ID Not that fish was
big enough to~swallow a man alive,
but that Jonah could live three days
without air. (e) that foreign mis-
sionary with one brief sermon OF
eight words should have been the
means of conversion of an entire
heather city Of a million people.
8. Verse study. Space will not
permit complete study of the AZ
verses; but notice in your study of
these verses that it was a great
wind (Ch: 1:4, a "great" fish Old,
great" city to- which he was sent
ga, great wind (4:S)-nott Re also
the hand of Jehovah in 1t all.
Jehovah prepared" a great fish to
swallow Jonah. He also prepared"
the gourd, the worm, and the
vehement east wind. 1t was Jehovah
also who sent him to Nineveh; who
cast on: the great wind, who pre-
pared the fish, who made the fish
give Jonah up-notice also that God
was gracious enough to receive TN
sailors when they repented, Jonah
when he repented, and the million
Ninevites when they repented-
notice how tender He was with