Jonah

To challenge Israel's narrow nationalism by demonstrating God's concern for all nations - even Israel's enemies - and to expose the heart that can celebrate God's grace for itself while resenting it for others.

God calls Jonah to preach to Nineveh; he flees by ship toward Tarshish; a great storm, a dramatic casting into the sea, and three days in the belly of a great fish produce a prayer of repentance and a second chance.

Jonah's flight and rescue establish the central theme: God's sovereignty cannot be escaped, His mercy extends to the most resistant prophet, and the sign of Jonah points to Christ's resurrection.

Jonah preaches to Nineveh; the entire city repents — from king to cattle; God relents from judgment; Jonah is furious and sulks under a vine; God's final question exposes the narrowness of the prophet's theology.

Jonah's final chapter is the most theologically provocative in the book — God's compassion extends to Israel's enemies, and the prophet's anger at this reveals the smallness of the religious nationalism that God is challenging.