Jonah

A skit

from the book of Jonah.

The Book of Jonah

is one of the most well-known Bible stories.

Consider

using this skit for a

family devotional night,

a Sunday school class

(adult or children)

or as a skit for a church service.

-

Consider recording this skit 

and sending it to 

grandparents and aunts and uncles.

-

This is a Gospel blessing

for those who perform it and for those who view it.

- 

I initially created this for a

5th grade Sunday school class.

Characters

Cast Members:

You can expand or contract the number of characters

depending on how many people you have. 

For small groups:

One person could read the three narrator parts if you

don't have enough people.

For a family group:

invite grandparents, aunts & uncles, 

or neighbors to join you! 

For large groups:

this skit can accommodate a lot of people

because you need a crowd for the boat crew. 

Speaking parts:

First Person Narrator

Second Person Narrator

Third Person Narrator

Jonah

God

Sailors

Captain

King

Print out a copy of the skit for each person. 

Sound effects:

You might want to assign someone to occasionally

do some storm sound effects.

Children especially love sound effects!

 But remember to write those effects into the script

at particular places

so that the sound effects person

does not overshadow the speaking parts.

Chapter One

Chapter 1

The Living Bible version in general

First Person

The Lord said to Jonah, the son of Amittai:

God  

 “Go to the great city of Nineveh, and give them

this announcement from the Lord:

‘I am going to destroy you -

for your wickedness

rises before me;

it smells to highest heaven.’”

First Person

3  Jonah did not obey God. Instead of obeying, he went down to the seacoast, to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket, went on board, and climbed down into the dark hold of the ship to hide there from the Lord.

Second Person

4  But as the ship was sailing along, suddenly the Lord flung a terrific wind over the sea, causing a great storm that threatened to send them to the bottom. 

5  Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.

And all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold.

Third Person

6  The captain went down in the hold to talk to Jonah.

First Person

The captain approaches Jonah, wakes him and says...

Captain

“What do you mean - sleeping at a time like this? Get up and cry to your god, and see if he will have mercy on us and save us!”

Second Person

Jonah gets up and walks up the stairs and goes to the place where the sailors are.

Third Person

7  The crew decided to draw straws to see which of them had offended the gods and caused this terrible storm; and Jonah drew the short straw.

Sailors speak to Jonah

8  “What have you done to bring this awful storm upon us? Who are you? What is your work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?”

Jonah

“I am a Jew; I worship Jehovah, the God of heaven, who made the earth and sea.”

First Person

Then Jonah told them he was running away from the Lord.

Second Person

The men were terribly frightened when they heard this. 

Sailors  - (SHOUT the following words)

“Oh, why did you do it?” 

Third Person

The sailors didn't wait for him to answer because the storm suddenly grew stronger.

Sailors - (SHOUT the following words)

“What should we do to you to stop the storm?”

Jonah

12  “Throw me out into the sea, and it will become calm again. For I know this terrible storm has come because of me.”

Second Person

13  They tried harder to row the boat ashore, but couldn’t make it. The storm was too fierce to fight against. 

14  Then they shouted out a prayer to Jehovah, Jonah’s God.

Sailors (Shouting while pleading to God)

“O Jehovah, don’t make us die for this man’s sin, and don’t hold us responsible for his death, for it is not our fault—you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”

First Person

15  Then they picked up Jonah and threw him overboard into the raging sea—and the storm stopped!

Second Person

16  The men stood there in awe before Jehovah, and they sacrificed to Jehovah - the God of Jonah and vowed to serve him.

Third Person

17  Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.

Chapter Two

Chapter 2

First Person

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish:

Jonah

2  “In my great trouble I cried to the Lord and he answered me; from the depths of death I called, and Lord, you heard me! 

3  You threw me into the ocean depths; I sank down into the floods of waters and was covered by your wild and stormy waves. 

4  Then I said, ‘O Lord, you have rejected me and cast me away. How shall I ever again see your holy Temple?’

5  I sank beneath the waves, and death was very near. The waters closed above me; the seaweed wrapped itself around my head. 

6  I went down to the bottoms of the mountains that rise from the ocean floor. I was locked out of life and imprisoned in the land of death. But, O Lord my God, you have snatched me from the jaws of death!

7  When I had lost all hope, I turned my thoughts once more to the Lord. And my earnest prayer went to you in your Holy Temple. 

8  (Those who worship false gods have turned their backs on all the mercies waiting for them from the Lord!)

9  I will never worship anyone but you! For how can I thank you enough for all you have done? I will surely fulfill my promises. For my deliverance comes from the Lord alone.”

Second Person

10  And the Lord ordered the fish to spit up Jonah on the beach, and it did.

Chapter Three

Chapter 3

First Person

Then the Lord spoke to Jonah again:

God

“Go to that great city, Nineveh

and warn them of their doom,

as I told you to before!”

Second Person

3  So Jonah obeyed and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city with many villages around it—so large that it would take three days to walk through it.

Third Person

4-5  But the very first day when Jonah entered the city and began to preach, the people repented. Jonah shouted to the crowds that gathered around him,

Jonah

“Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!”

First Person

And the people of Nineveh believed him and declared a fast; from the king on down, everyone put on sackcloth—the rough, coarse garments worn at times of mourning.

Second Person

6  For when the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne, laid aside his royal robes, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 

7  And the king and his nobles sent this message throughout the city:

King

“Let no one, not even the animals, eat anything at all, nor even drink any water. 

8  Everyone must wear sackcloth and cry mightily to God, and let everyone turn from his evil ways, from his violence and robbing. 

9  Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will decide to let us live and will hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.”

Third Person

10  And when God saw that they had put a stop to their evil ways, he abandoned his plan to destroy them and didn’t carry it through.

Chapter Four

Chapter 4

First Person

This change of plans made Jonah very angry. 

Second Person

2  Jonah complained to the Lord about it:

Jonah

"This is exactly what I thought you would do, Lord, when I was there in my own country and you first told me to come here.

That’s why I ran away to Tarshish.

For I knew you were a gracious God, merciful, slow to get angry, and full of kindness; I knew how easily you could cancel your plans for destroying these people."

Third Person

Then Jonah said...

Jonah

3 “Please kill me, Lord; I’d rather be dead than alive when nothing that I told them happens.”

First Person

4 Then the Lord said,

God

“Is it right to be angry about this?”

Second Person

5  So Jonah went out and sat sulking on the east side of the city, and he made a leafy shelter to shade him as he waited there to see if anything would happen to the city. 

Third Person

6  And when the leaves of the shelter withered in the heat, the Lord arranged for a vine to grow up quickly and spread its broad leaves over Jonah’s head to shade him.

This made Jonah comfortable and very grateful.

First Person

7  But God also prepared a worm! The next morning the worm ate through the stem of the plant, so that it withered away and died.

Second Person

8  Then when the sun was hot, God ordered a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah, and the sun beat down upon his head until he grew faint and wished to die. And then Jonah said,

Jonah

“Death is better than this!”

Third Person

9  And God said to Jonah,

God

“Is it right for you to be angry

because the plant died?”

Jonah

“Yes, it is; it is right for me to be angry enough to die!”

First person

10  Then the Lord said,

God

“You feel sorry for yourself

when your shelter is destroyed,

though you did no work

to put it there,

and it is,

at best,

short-lived. 

11  And why shouldn’t

I

feel sorry

for a great city like Nineveh

with its 120,000 people

in utter spiritual darkness and all its cattle?”

First Person

I am here to share these final words about the book of Jonah.

The book of Jonah is a story about not obeying God.

The people of Nineveh were not obeying God, so they were about to get punished.

And Jonah did not obey God.

Yet this story shows us that God is merciful and he forgives us when we pray and ask him to forgive us.

Scripture

If we confess our sins,

he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins

and to cleanse us

from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

For God so greatly loved and dearly prized

the world

that He [even] gave up

His only begotten (unique) Son,

so that whoever

believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him

shall not perish

(come to destruction, be lost)

but have eternal (everlasting) life.

John 3:16 AMPC

And the King James Version

is also a wonderful one to read.

Notes

Making sure

your group

know these concepts.

Drawing Straws or Casting lots

This is similar to having
one person hold small sticks in his fist
while each person picks one -
and the one with the shortest stick loses.

Big Fish

We are not told what kind of fish it was -

it might be a whale.

Sackcloth and ashes 

Wearing un-comfortable cloth and being in ashes

shows that the person

is in

great sorrow and grieving.

And in some cases,

it is an outward action

showing an inward repentance.

In the book of Jonah, 

it is clear that

all the people of Nineveh repented.

-

Fasting

Make sure your group understands the concept of
fasting food and drink
in order to give God honor
and in this situation it also shows sadness for sins and a desire to become obedient to God.

God loves everyone

Obviously Jonah did not like the people of Nineveh,

but God loves all people.

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