[MajestyJo]

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice . . . you shall be my treasured possession. (Exodus 19:5)

To know Jonah is to love him," writes Lloyd John Ogilvie. "And the reason we love him is because he is so much like us in our response to God's guidance."1 The man Jonah is indeed like us in a number of ways. Learning to identify with him is our key to the meaning of his story—and our big mistake if we fail to do so. As Ogilvie suggests, we pick up a great deal from this book about God's guidance and about discovering his will. We learn about the danger we experience when we run from God's will, the deliverance we experience when we submit to God's will, the deliverance others experience when we fulfill God's will, and the depression we experience when we question God's will.

But the book of Jonah is about much more than discovering the will of God for us as individuals, as we'll see while getting to know this surprising story more intimately.

From Bible Study Tools