There was once a man named Jonah, who lived in Galilee of Israel.  One day the LORD spoke to Jonah.  He said, "Leave right away!  Go east to Nineveh, the capitol of Assyria.  Announce to the people that I can no longer overlook the wicked things they have done."  The Ninevites were so very violent and cruel that Jonah hated them.  He also knew that the LORD was good and merciful.  If he were to warn the Ninevites about their sin then they would ask God to forgive them, and God would forgive them, and they would not be punished.  Jonah wanted the Ninevites to be punished so he decided not to go to Nineveh.

Instead of going east, Jonah tried to run away from the LORD by going west.  He went to the city of Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish.  He paid his fare and went aboard the ship.  However, after they had set sail, the LORD sent a violent wind over the sea.  The storm was so powerful that the ship was in danger of breaking into pieces.  The sailors began to panic and cry out to all of their false gods for help, but the wind only grew worse.  They threw all of the ships cargo overboard hoping to be lighten the ships load and be saved, but the wind only grew worse.

Meanwhile, Jonah had hidden below deck and had fallen asleep.  The captain of the ship came and woke him up, saying, "What are you doing!  We're all going to die!!!  Get up and pray to your God, maybe He will hear you and save us from this storm."  When Jonah got up on deck, the sailors had decided that someone on the ship must have made God angry, so they were throwing dice to see who it was.  When the dice were done rolling they showed that it was Jonah.  They all asked Jonah where he was from and why God was so angry with him.  Jonah said, "I am a Hebrew.  I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.  He told me to go and warn the city of Nineveh but I have run away instead."  The sailors asked Jonah, "Why have you done this and what must we do with you to make the sea calm."  Jonah told them, "You must throw me into the sea."  They didn't want to throw him overboard so instead they rowed even harder to try to get the ship back to shore, but the storm only grew worse.  So they cried to the LORD for help, saying, "Please, LORD, don't let us die for taking this man's life, because you do whatever you want."  Then they threw Jonah overboard and the sea instantly became calm.  The sailors were all terrified of the LORD and offered a sacrifice to Him.

As Jonah sank into the cold darkness of the sea, a whale came and swallowed Jonah whole!  Inside the whale, Jonah was very afraid and unhappy.  (Whales don't smell very good on the inside.)  But after Jonah had been inside the whale for three days and when all hope seemed to be gone, Jonah remembered the LORD.  Jonah prayed and thanked God for His goodness and promised he would serve God if He would save him from the whale.  The LORD then spoke to the whale, and it spit Jonah out onto the shore.

Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time.  He said, "Leave right away!  Go east to Nineveh, the capitol of Assyria.  Announce to the people the message I have given you."  This time Jonah obeyed.  He went to immediately Nineveh, which was a very large city.  So big it took three days just to walk through it.  Jonah walked through the city saying, "In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed!"  The people of Nineveh believed God.  So everyone in the city, from the slaves to the king, put on sackcloth and sat in ashes, refusing to eat and spending all their time in prayer asking God to forgive them.  The king even ordered everyone to cry loudly to God for help and turn from their wicked ways and acts of violence.  When God saw what they did, He reconsidered His threat to destroy them and decided not to do it.

Jonah became very angry about God's decision not to destroy Nineveh.  Jonah still hated the Ninevites because of all the evil things they had done.  He wanted them to be destroyed.  But God told Jonah, "Nineveh has more than 120,000 children who are to young to have ever done anything wrong, as well as many animals.  It is only right that I should show them mercy."  And so it is even to this day.  God is patient, even to those who are wicked, because He does not want to destroy anyone, but wants all people to turn to Him and change the way they think and act.