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Group Discussion
Questions for facilitating dynamic discussion
Jonah & The Lost Cause
August 23,2025
Week 4: God's Compassion
Jeff Griffin
Jonah 4
Having completed the mission God called him to – preaching to the people of Nineveh – you would think Jonah’s story would close on a high note. Or at least with a sense of resolution. Instead, God’s mercy and compassion confounds the prophet, and reveals the tendency of the human heart toward indifference to the lost.
What positive trait of yours can turn into a liability or a source of frustration on the part of others? Can you tell when it’s veering into negative territory?
1. When it comes to a desire for justice versus mercy or compassion, which reaction do you default to when it comes to evil and wrongdoing in the world?
2. Read Jonah 3:10-4:2. What about the situation made Jonah angry? What outcome had he been hoping for? What outcome did he know to anticipate instead?
“But to Jonah this seemed very wrong…” (Jonah 4:1a, NIV)
3. Jeff pointed out Jonah’s use of what is called “The Divine Attribute Formula” in describing God. Read the first occurrence of this phrase in Exodus 34:6-7. Oddly enough, what has changed about the wording between God declaring it to Moses and Jonah’s recitation of the formula (which mirrors Joel 2:13)? What might this say about God’s people’s experience of His character?
4. Read Jonah 4:3-6. Jonah took offense at God’s very nature, bordering on blasphemy. How did God respond to this? How could God have responded? Where does Jonah’s situation parallel the Ninevites’? Now read Jonah 4:7-9. From what we can tell here, what mattered most to Jonah?
5. Jonah didn’t change much from chapter 1 to chapter 4 of this book. But he also didn’t seem interested in letting God be Lord. How does acknowledging Jesus’ Lordship in your life, as Jeff shared in his sermon, give you hope for growing from indifference to love for those who don’t know God?
God’s compassion toward the broken and wretched in our world should awaken our hearts to reach out. Pray that each person in your group would fall deeper in love with God and those He loves.
“And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.’” (Exodus 34:6-7a, NIV)