Week 23 · about 45 minutes
Jonah and the Great Fish
Jonah 1–3 · Memory verse Jonah 2:9
Get the free weekly Sunday school and bedtime printable pack
For a parent or teacher. Children do not make accounts here. The pack is a week of printables, not a child profile.
Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Jonah and the Fish), the matching word search and answer key (Jonah and the Great Fish), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a blanket fish that can cover a child
Hold up a blanket fish that can cover a child. In about five minutes, tell the class this: Jonah runs from God’s errand, prays inside a fish, and learns that God’s mercy is wider than he wanted. Show the prop and ask, “What does this have to do with Jonah and the Great Fish?” Let two children answer. Then read Jonah 2:9 together: “But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation belongs to Yahweh.”” Close by asking one child to say the lesson back in their own words, using the prop.
Story script
God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and warn the people to turn from their cruel ways. Jonah did not want to. He bought a ticket the other direction and went down into a ship. You can run from an errand, but you cannot really run from the Lord.
A storm shook the sea. The sailors were afraid. Jonah told them the storm was tied to his running. At last he was thrown into the water, and the sea grew quiet. God sent a huge fish to swallow Jonah. It was a rescue that felt like a dark room. For three days Jonah prayed. “Salvation comes from the Lord.”
The fish spat him onto dry land. God sent Jonah to Nineveh again. This time he went. The people listened and turned. Jonah still had a grumpy heart about God’s mercy. God cared about the city anyway, including people Jonah did not like.
When you disobey, God can still interrupt you with mercy and send you back to the right road. And when God forgives someone you are mad at, that is what his heart is like. Salvation comes from him, not from our perfect record.
Group game
Jonah runs the wrong way, storms under a shaken sheet, then prays inside the blanket fish and walks to Nineveh to give God's warning kindly.
Craft
Draw a great fish and a praying Jonah. Write Salvation comes from the Lord.
Memory verse
Jonah 2:9
“But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation belongs to Yahweh.””
Take-home prayer
Lord, salvation comes from you. When I run, bring me back. Help me be glad that your mercy is big. Amen.