Read for This Week’s Study: Jonah 1–4; Nahum 1:1; 2 Kings

17:5, 6; Ps. 24:1; James 1:27; Isa. 6:1–8.

Memory Text: “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom

shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send

me’ ” (Isaiah 6:8, NKJV).

Not everyone called to mission was as compliant as Abraham.

Jonah is an example (read Jonah 1–4). God called Jonah to

cry out against Nineveh, capital of Assyria. This city, located

in modern-day Iraq, was 560 miles from Jerusalem, a good month’s

journey. Jonah not only refused to go—he ran in the opposite direction.

Arriving at Joppa, he purchased passage to Tarshish, now southern

Spain. Sailing the 2,000-mile trip would have taken at least a month,

depending on the weather. Not wanting to confront the king of Assyria,

Jonah uses the month it would have taken him to get to Nineveh to get

away from it. Why would he, a man of God, have done that?

The Ninevites were notoriously wicked, a people known for their evil

and cruelty and who had attacked Israel and Judah. Nevertheless, God

called Jonah to go to Nineveh and to cry out against its great wicked-

ness (Jon. 1:2). The wording here is very similar to the wording God

used with Abraham regarding Sodom and Gomorrah, in Genesis 18:20,

21. As we will see, however, Jonah was no Abraham.

What can we learn from Jonah’s attitude about the excuses that we

can make in order not to do mission?

* Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, November 4.