Day 2 – Characters and their Relationships – Learn to Study the Bible Series

Today’s study has nine simple steps.

1. Pray. Connect with God before you start reading and studying. Confess your sins and ask for God’s forgiveness so that nothing will stand in the way of your fellowship with him. Invite Jesus to your study and ask the Father to speak to you through his Word with the help of the Spirit. Worship God through a song; if you play an instrument you can sing a worship song or you can listen to one and sing along.

2. Read Jonah 1 slowly and list in your notes all the characters that appear in the text. Last time you concentrated on the most important character – God himself – because that is the best way to start studying any biblical book, passage, or topic. Today you will study other characters and their relationships to each other and to God.

3. Use a different color for each character or group of characters (such as sailors) and mark every place where they appear, including their pronouns (like he, they, etc.). If you prefer, you can perform steps 2 and 3 together.

4. Carefully analyze each character or group of characters and do your best to list every fact the text reveals about them. Make sure you always note the source (i.e., the verse number). When studying characters, you will inevitably encounter some behaviour that you should obviously not mirror (like sailors praying to other gods), some that you should definitely follow as an example (like God, who does not immediately give up on wicked Ninevites and disobedient Jonah), and some where you are not so sure (such as sailors casting lots or making vows to God). Be careful in such cases. It is okay to be uncertain in the early stages of study. I suggest you stick to the following principle: since historical texts of the Bible seldom explicitly say whether something is right or wrong, Christians don’t automatically have the obligation or the permission to do something just because a Bible character did it in the passage they are currently reading or studying. I will write about dealing with such cases in later posts. Please be wise and stay on safe ground. It's better to be patient and safe than to be too quick and sorry. Remember Proverbs 19:2 “It is dangerous to have zeal without knowledge, and the one who acts hastily makes poor choices” (NET Bible). Safe and productive Bible study takes time.

5. When studying a character, pay special attention to his or her relationship to other characters, especially to God. For example, analyze Jonah’s relationship with or attitude towards God and then God’s relationship with Jonah. Do the same for Jonah and the sailors, and so on.

6. Review your findings about God from the previous study. Think about them in the light of today’s study and write your observations down, along with their sources (verse numbers) or rationale.

7. If new questions arise during your study, add them to your list of questions.

8. If analyzing all the characters takes more time than you have in one day, divide the study into two or even three days, repeating steps 1, 4–7, and 9 each day.

9. Pray. Talk to God about what you’ve just learned. Prayer should always be the culmination of a Bible study because fellowship with God is one of the main goals of studying Scripture.

If you have any questions, 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). Share this post if you found it helpful and if you think it would help Christians you know.

See you on the next post. Until then, enjoy God and his Word.