The book of Jonah in the Bible is very well known by believers and also non-believers. Everyone knows about "Jonah and the whale". A thorough reading of the book itself reveals that Jonah and the whale isn't the whole point, or even the key point of the book. We'll discuss some of the key lessons in the book of Jonah this week by sharing some Bible study tactics.

KEY WORD MARKING

One really good practice when it comes to studying your Bible is to mark key words in a distinctive way. And, if you have access to a set of 8, or 16 (or more) colored pencils it helps even more to mark the words in color. You can find a guide on key word markings by clicking here: Precept Word Markings.

In the book of Jonah, a good word to mark is "Appointed" (using the ESV Bible). When you read the four chapters in the book of Jonah and draw a square around the word "appointed" (orange square if you have colored pencils), you will learn some very interesting things:

1. God appoints physical things to happen in this world, for His purpose and will to be done. Nothing happens "randomly".
2. What God appoints is not always for the pleasure or feel-good of a human. Oftentimes it is the exact opposite.
3. There are four uses of the word "appointed" in the book of Jonah:
   1. Chapter 1, verse 17: "And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.
   2. Chapter 4, verse 6: "Now the Lord God appointed a plant, and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade for his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant."
   3. Chapter 4, verse 7: "But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered."
   4. Chapter 4, verse 8: "When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might day, and he said "It is better for me to die than to live."
4. The Hebrew word for "appointed" is "manah" and occurs 28 times in the Old Testament. Other English words that "manad" is translated into are "numbered", "assigned", and "to count". 

Just by marking one word, four times, you can see clearly that God is working even today in the physical world. Make it a mission to mark key words in your Bible this week.