hello my friends welcome to follow him favorites my name is Hank Smith and I'm here with the incredible John by the way welcome John by the way thank you if you've been following follow him favorites this year you know that we're taking a single question from every lesson and we're just talking about it the question this week John is what are we supposed to learn from the story of Jonah this is just a crazy story of Jonah running away from God and being swallowed by a fish and by the end of chapter one you're going holy cow what is happening here so John what do you get out of the story of Jonah
 oh man there's a few things that I think are kind of interesting one of them is that he gets to call to go to a place that is known for being really wicked and really brutal to Nineveh and I kind of like the words that used to describe he went down to Joppa and went down into a ship and then fell down into the water or they threw them in the water and then he yells up the swish Bish Falls and he vomits him up on the shore he goes up to none of it it's kind of like when you're going away from God you're going down down down there something to learn about if the Lord calls you to do something that sounds really harder and possible you can do it with his help and that's the beautiful part of the fun part is Hank and we talked about this before is that Jesus talks about the story of Jonah when the scribes and Pharisees or demanding a sign a sign of the Jesus says up I will give you one except for the sign of Jonah so what did he mean by that do you think Hank Did I love the sign of Jonah the idea that I can give you a sign that Jonah was in the
 well for three days and three nights in the ears a sign for you I'm going to come out of a tomb after three days and three nights and those in the belly of the whale Jonah was there three days and three nights somewhere he never should have come out of and yet he came out of it and does I think the sign Jesus talking about is I can do something even bigger than Jonah did not just come out of a fish I can come out of death after three days and three nights I've had students asked me do you really think that Jonah was in the belly of a whale for 3 days is that scientifically possible and I've often thought that's not the question we should be asking the question we should be asking did Jesus come out of the Tomb after three days and three nights is that scientifically possible because that question is going to have eternal consequences that you want to question whether it's a metaphor or not I'm not overly concerned about that I'm concerned about Jesus and if you really did come out of the Tomb and if he did while that changes everything doesn't it
 yeah like you said you only came out of a place no one's ever come out of before and Jesus came out of it to nobody had ever done that before and came out of a tomb and resurrected I meant I guess I was thinking he Shields Lazarus but he brought him back from the dead but Lazarus died again later Jesus came out of the Tomb resurrected never to die again and so how's that scientifically possible cause of the Tower of Resurrection is the opposite of entropy of everything breaking down and requires a power and he came forth and so I love that Jesus would reference the sign of Jonah and say no and I'm going to give you sign up for this time because of Jonah's in the New Testament but in the New Testament Greek names that end in an H ends in an s in the New Testament I think one more lesson from Jonah is let people repent be happy when people repentance is so upset that God doesn't destroy Nineveh it is almost like saying don't give them a second
 it's like you just gave me a second chance allow people to repent and will be happy about it but almost like the parable of the prodigal son here where he's upset that his brother is doing the right thing and he came back we've got to be happy when God allows people to repent when God is kind I really like the connection that you makes their Jonah just got a second chance why should he be upset that the people that never getting a second chance and I guess it was Elder Holland it said that God is a god of Second Chances in Repentance is of Elder Holland say the most hopeful encouraging word in the whole Christian vocabulary is repentance and the people of Nineveh did it well Jonah you should be happy to Lord let you repent so let the people of Nineveh repent to maybe he really wanted some justice because they were pretty brutal those Australians in Nineveh maybe wanted them to suffer for their deeds but remember someone is already paid the savior is already paid for those deeds so let's be happy and rejoice
 other people repent and come back to the Lord I think Elder Holland said be kind and be grateful that God is kind it's a happy way to live I like it to be angry it's working for you how's that working out we hope you'll join us on our full podcast it's called follow him you can find out where ever get your podcast this week we're with Doctor Josh Sears you're going to love it so come over and join us there and then join us next week for another follow him favorites