Jonah: Group Bible Study Edition

A Runaway Prophet and a Relentless God
An 8-Session Verse-by-Verse Group Bible Study
Everyone already knows the story of Jonah. That’s the first obstacle to reading it.
Most of us have shrunk it down to a flannelgraph lesson: a disobedient prophet, a great fish, and a reminder to obey God the first time. But Jonah was never mainly a story about a fish. Read verse by verse, in its own words and its own world, this little book becomes one of the most searching in all of Scripture. It speaks to anyone who has known exactly what God wanted and gone the other way on purpose.
What your group will discover:

• Why Jonah ran. He wasn’t ignorant of God. He knew Him too well. He knew the Lord is gracious and compassionate, and he wanted no part of that grace being spent on Nineveh, the capital of Israel’s coming destroyer.
• A God who will not be robbed of His glory. When His prophet refused to speak, God glorified Himself through a crew of pagan sailors.
• The true miracle of the book. It isn’t the size of a fish. It’s resurrection. That’s why the only sign Jesus would give the Pharisees was “the sign of the prophet Jonah.”
• A mirror for the heart. A violent city repents at eight words of warning. Meanwhile the prophet who received undeserved mercy sulks on a hillside because someone else received it too.
• A question left open for you. Jonah never answers God’s final question. It’s aimed at the reader: Do you love what God loves?

Built for small groups, Sunday school classes, and Bible study leaders
This edition contains the complete, unabridged teaching of The Study Guide Series: Jonah, with nothing cut. The full Berean Standard Bible (BSB) text of Jonah is embedded throughout. Group material is set apart in clearly marked boxes so you can always tell teaching from discussion:

• WHERE WE ARE opens each session and orients newcomers, so anyone can join mid-study.
• FOR DISCUSSION questions follow each major section and move the group from understanding the text to talking it through.
• Notes space gives each participant room to write.
• SUMMARY closes each session with the key points in brief.
• WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO ME? gives practical, personal application of the truth just studied.
• On Your Own, a closing reflection over the whole of Jonah, is for each reader after the group sessions are done.

Leaders don’t need to be scholars, only willing to prepare and to love the people in front of them. Each session is sized to fill a single meeting comfortably. The divisions are meant to help you plan, not to bind you.
About The Study Guide Series
The Study Guide Series is a pastoral, verse-by-verse commentary series that treats every verse of the text. Key Hebrew and Greek terms are unpacked wherever they shed light on the meaning. The series is written from a conservative doctrinal perspective, with a firm commitment to the inerrancy of Scripture. It’s suited to personal study, group study, and sermon or teaching preparation. The full commentary on Jonah is also available alongside Habakkuk in The Study Guide Series: Habakkuk & Jonah.
About the Author
Jeff Kluttz has been in vocational ministry for nearly four decades. He is a life long pastor and Bible teacher. His Study Guide Series titles include Jude, Romans Volume 1: Justified, Romans Volume 2: Elected and Sanctified, and Habakkuk & Jonah, with new books being released almost monthly for the series, as they are proven in final edit.
“Salvation is from the LORD!” (Jonah 2:9, BSB)