Today’s study has six steps.
1. Pray. As on previous days, confess your sins and invite God to your study and into your heart. Ask him to open your eyes as you study his Word and to remove any internal obstacles that could prevent you from being fully concentrated. Then, if time and circumstances permit, worship him in song.
2. Read the whole Book of Jonah in one sitting. If possible, read aloud in your normal speaking voice. This will take about ten minutes. Reading aloud is good for several reasons:
A) It sharpens your focus. When reading aloud, you are not using only your eyes, but also your mouth – your lips and tongue – and your ears, so your mind gets a stronger input, which improves your focus on the text.
B) It prevents you from jumping back and reading the same line more than once for no good reason.
C) It increases your attention span.
D) It will probably help you remember more of what you have read.
E) If you regularly read the Bible aloud, you will become comfortable with it, especially with pronouncing more unusual biblical words and names, a skill that is useful for serving in the church.
3. After reading the whole book, think about the following question: How do other parts of Jonah shed light on Jonah 1? For example, you’ll find out more about why God sent Jonah to Nineveh and why Jonah didn’t want to go.
A) The question of how the whole informs each part is one of the most fruitful questions in Bible study. It is a way of applying the well-known principle that the Bible is its own best interpreter. In other words, one passage of the Bible is best interpreted by other relevant Bible passages, and some of them are almost always found in the same book.
B) This approach will also save you from jumping to wrong conclusions about any single passage of the book, because the big picture will keep you in balance. One of the clearest examples of that is the book of Job (that book is not as long a read as people usually think; it takes only about 100 minutes to read it aloud). Before the very end, in Job 42:7-8, we find out what God thinks about the words spoken by three of the book’s major characters – Eliphaz and his two friends – words that comprise about 20% of the book. Listen to what God said to Eliphaz: “My anger is stirred up against you [singular] and your two friends, because you [plural] have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has” (NET). The same words are repeated in verse 8! God himself said twice that about 20% of the book is not true when speaking about Him! This doesn’t necessarily mean that every single word in those passages is untrue, but such a statement from God should undoubtedly make us very careful when drawing any conclusions about Him from the words of Job’s friends. When you read the book of Job for the second time, you will not perceive their words in the same way as before. Therefore, reading the whole book will not only help you see the big picture, it will also form the way you look at the book and its parts in the subsequent readings and guard you from making quick and wrong conclusions.
4. List in your notes all the connections between Jonah 1 and other parts of the book. If needed, skim the book again as you are making the list.
5. Think about each connection and add your conclusions to your notes.
6. Pray. Talk to God about what you’ve learned from his Word. 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.
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See you on the next post. Until then, enjoy God and his Word.
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