A story by the fire

Jonah and the Storm

Read: Jonah 1 · For families, classes and youth groups · About 30 minutes
Play the storyBack to Roads of Galilee

The story

God sends Jonah, a prophet from Gath Hepher in Galilee, to Nineveh. Jonah runs the other way: he goes down to Joppa and pays for a ship to Tarshish, as far west as ships could go. At sea a great storm breaks. The sailors throw the cargo overboard and pray to their gods, while Jonah sleeps below. When the lot falls on Jonah, he tells them he is a Hebrew who fears the LORD, the God who made the sea, and asks them to throw him in. They row hard for land first, but cannot. When they throw him over, the sea goes calm, and the LORD has prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah.

In the game

Players are an ordinary sailor on the ship out of Joppa. They carry the cargo aboard, stow it so the ship sits level (a short puzzle), heave it over the side in the storm, find the passenger asleep below, and row for land. The story is told in narration pages quoting the KJV word for word, and Jonah appears only as a figure, with no words of his own.

Key verses

But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.Jonah 1:3, KJV
And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.Jonah 1:9, KJV
Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.Jonah 1:17, KJV

Talk about it

  1. Jonah went “down” to Joppa, “down” into the ship, and down into the sides of the ship. Why do you think the story keeps saying down?
  2. The sailors prayed to their own gods while Jonah slept. Who in the story seems more awake to what is happening?
  3. Jonah says, “I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.” How does that fit with what he was doing?
  4. The sailors rowed hard to bring the ship to land before they would throw Jonah over. What does that tell you about them?
  5. Have you ever tried to run away from something you knew you should do? What happened?

Try this

Lighten the ship: as a group, list the things you carry around (worries, habits, grudges) that make life heavier than it needs to be. Write each on a slip of paper and decide together which could “go over the side”.

For the leader

Jonah came from Gath Hepher, a village in Galilee (2 Kings 14:25), so for the people of Roads of Galilee this is a local story. Let the questions stay open: the book of Jonah asks more than it answers.

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (Authorized Version), which is in the public domain. In Roads of Galilee, biblical figures are never given words the Bible doesn’t give them: the player is an ordinary witness, and scripture is quoted word for word.