How Jonah's Story Parallels God's Plan of Salvation
I was asked to teach a lesson on Jonah to children and I wanted to tie it into what they already know about God's Plan of Salvation . In my searching, I was not able to find any writings, in or out of the church [ the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ], about how Jonah's story parallels the plan of salvation. It seemed to me to have the basic elements of going away from God and then returning to God; but I could not detail out which aspects of the story paralleled the plan of salvation. In my searching and reading, my mind was recalled to a class I took at BYU Campus Education Week back in 2007. The first 6 elements below I learned from Patrick D Degn . The rest I discovered and saw parallels that I will outline below. 7 Downs Down to Joppa ( 1:3 ) Down into a Ship ( 1:3 ) Down into the Sides of the ship ( 1:5 ) [Down] into the Sea ( 1:15 ) [Down] in the Belly of the [great] fish ( 1:17 ) Down to the Bottoms of the mountains ( 2:6 , Roots ) [Down into] the Earth w