We are still looking through the book of Jonah. Today we are going to be looking at God’s actions in this book. Since we are going to be all over it again, I am going to read the whole book to you again, just in case you haven’t read it, or heard it before.
As I read it, what I want you to listen and look for are God’s actions. What is God doing in the life of Jonah, and the other characters in the story. Also look at how He is interacting with them and the creation as well.

Big Idea as it pertains to God’s hand in Jonah’s life and our lives is this: God’s hand will act in your life so that He will get the ultimate Glory.
Some of the actions that we see God doing in this story are as follows:
Spoke: His word came to Jonah… Spoke to the fish…
Hurled: a great wind upon the sea…
Influenced: the lots that were cast pointed to Jonah…
Appointed: a Fish, Plant, worm, scorching East wind…
Heard: Jonah’s prayer in the fish…
Answered: Jonah’s prayer…
Saw: both the evil of Nineveh, as well as their repentance…
Relented: From the destruction he had threatened…
Rebuked: Jonah for his lack of compassion for people…

God’s primary purpose in his sovereign work is His Glory.
Isaiah 43:6-7 “I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for My Glory.”
Isaiah 48:9-11 “for my names sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you ni the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake I do it, for how should my name be profaned” My glory I will not give to another.”
God’s work will often make you uncomfortable.
1 Peter 1:6-7 “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith- more precious than gold though it is tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
James 1:2 “count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.”
Mathew 10:16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

The purpose of God’s work is to make us more dependent upon Him. It is God’s compassion that he wants to reveal to you.
Romans 5:3-5 “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
2 Corinthians 6:3-10