A person’s actions can reveal a lot about them, especially about their character and values. This is not only true of people, but also of God. In fact, God’s actions are one of the most important sources of information about him, especially when paired with God’s direct interpretation of them. Some of God’s and Jonah’s actions from Jonah 1 are interpreted in this way in Jonah 4 (on Day 5 you will read the whole Book of Jonah and see what I mean if you don’t already know the story or haven’t read the whole book recently).
Today’s study has eight steps.
1. Pray. As on previous days, confess your sins, invite God to your study and into your heart and, if time permits, worship him in song.
2. Read Jonah 1 slowly and list all the events and actions of the characters. There is no need to sharply distinguish between the two; the goal is to list everything that happened and add another layer to your knowledge and understanding of the text.
3. Analyze each event or action and think about what it reveals about God and other characters involved.
4. Think about the sequence of events and actions: is it chronological (most often), geographical, topical, or a combination of any two or all three of them?
A. Think how each event or action is connected to the previous and following actions/events in the sequence. See if that reveals something important about God and other characters.
B. If the sequence is not purely chronological, think why and see if the structure the author chose reveals anything significant about God and other characters or about life with God.
5. As always, take detailed notes as you go and always include the verse numbers.
6. Review your previous notes about God and about other characters and their relationships and think about them in the light of today’s findings.
7. If analyzing all the events and actions takes more time than you have in one day, divide the study into two or more days, repeating steps 1 and 3–8 each day.
8. Pray. Talk to God about what you’ve learned from this study. Prayer should always be the culmination of your Bible study because fellowship with God is one of the main goals of studying Scripture.
If you have any questions, you can write them in the comments below or send me an email to matej@pbsi.online. Subscribe to our newsletter to get notified whenever we publish a new post (you can do so at the bottom of the page). Please share this post if you found it helpful and if you think it would help other Christians you know.
See you on the next post. Until then, enjoy God and his Word.
Comments