Lesson cont...

It can be hard to obey God and listen to his directions, especially if He wants us to do something that seems scary, difficult, or even boring. But we can actually save ourselves a lot of trouble by just doing what God wants us to do in the first place.

Jonah 2:9 “but as for me, I will sacrifice to you with a voice of thanksgiving. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation belongs to the Lord”

Jonah thought he knew better than God - he thought the people of Nineveh were too evil and not worth trying to save. But God knew that there would be people in the city who would listen to Jonah. Jonah had to let go of control and let God use him to deliver the truth to the people of Nineveh. He had to learn that “salvation is God’s” - Jonah had no right to keep people from hearing about the truth. We’re like Jonah, too. We know about Jesus, and we need to tell everybody about him!!

Directions

1. Have the kids color paper plates. Then cut a triangle out of the plate and glue/tape it to the opposite end, forming the mouth and tail. Draw an eye above the mouth. Also draw and cut out a little man, Jonah, and attach him to the belly of the whale.

Directions

1. In a variation of the game Duck, Duck, Goose for grade-school kids, the adult leader sets up a small tent, covers it with a bed sheet and makes eyes out of felt to represent a giant whale. Students gather in a circle around the tent; one player at a time goes around the circle chanting, “Fish, fish, fish ... .” Finally he shouts, “Whale!” and the tagged person must get up and catch him before he sits down. If the “whale” succeeds in catching the person who tagged him, the first player goes into the tent and remains there until someone else is tagged.

Directions

1. In a variation of the playground game Sharks vs. Divers, three kids are selected to be “whales” and stand in the center of a room. Explain to the group that Jonah was called to journey toward Nineveh in modern-day Iraq but boarded a ship in Joppa bound for Tarshish in Spain. Show them the general location of these cities on a map. Designate the wall on which they’re standing as Joppa and explain they have to make it to the opposite wall, which is Tarshish. On your signal, the kids run across the room, attempting to reach Tarshish, but have to avoid being tagged by the whales in the center. Those who are tagged join the whales until everyone has been caught. At the end, lead everyone in traveling toward Nineveh.