The Prodigal Prophet Encounters God’s Lavish Mercy

The Minor Prophets: Jonah 3 & 4

The Village Chapel - 06/30/2024

What happens when a reluctant prophet delivers a word from the Lord to a group of people whom the prophet despises and wishes God would destroy instead of save? For that matter, how do we relate and respond towards those we regard as “Other?” How do we treat people who are deeply different than us? How would God have us treat those who we classify as “them” and not “us?” Join Pastor Matt as he leads us through the final two chapters of Jonah, and we hear from the Lord on these issues.

You probably already know the story from when you were growing up. It was probably called “Jonah and the Whale,” or “A Whale of a Tale,” or something like that. Well, the fact is the OT book of Jonah is not primarily about a whale or about whether or not there was a fish big enough to swallow a full-grown, adult human being and then hold him in its stomach for three days and three nights. No, Jonah is about a prodigal prophet. It’s an Old Testament version of the parable Jesus told about the prodigal sons and their father in Luke 15. But in this case, Jonah looks like both the younger son who ran away from His father, then squandered his life, and the older prodigal son who refused to rejoice at the return home of his brother.

What is this wideness in God’s mercy all about? Why does the grace of God become such a scandal to so many of our hearts and minds? Why do we so often want justice for others, but grace and mercy for ourselves?

Join Pastor Jim as he helps us see the real message at the heart of the story of the petulant, prodigal prophet known as Jonah and the way it points forward to the greater Jonah, Jesus Christ.

Have you wondered whether there will come a day when evil will be eradicated, justice will be done and everything broken in the world will be set right? We have and that’s why we believe you will love studying the book of Joel, especially this final segment in our series of studies in Joel. Here we read about what God intends to do about all that is wrong in the world.

Five times in three chapters Joel mentions “The Day of the LORD,” describing what will happen, to whom it will happen and implying its historic, imminent and ultimate fulfillments. Join Pastor Jim as he helps us unpack the meaning and hope we find in the ultimate Day of the LORD!