The story of Jonah has a great deal to teach us about disobedience to God. If you do not know where to find the story, just read the Holy Bible (King James version) in Jonah 1:1-9.

“Now the word of the Lord came onto Jonah the son of a Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me. But Jonah rose up to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man until his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.  Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people are thou?  And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of Heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.”

The people then asked Jonah what they should do to him and Jonah told them to throw him overboard. When they did, a great fish opened up his mouth and swallowed Jonah. For three days and three nights Jonah prayed in the belly of the fish and then the fish spat him out on dry land.  After that, Jonah finally obeyed God and went to Nineveh and did as God had told him to do.

He told the people that Nineveh would be overthrown in 40 days. The people believed God and the king heard what Jonah had said and everybody put on sackcloth and ashes, and the King proclaimed a fast.

And God saw their works and that they repented and so the Lord decided not to destroy them.

This made Jonah angry, however. Jonah left the city and made him a booth, the Bible says, and sat under its shadow.

The Lord made Jonah a gourd and caused it to come up over him to shade him from the sun because the sun was very hot.  However, God sent a worm to destroy the tree and Jonah was mad because God destroyed the gourd, or tree, and his shade.

Jonah cared more about a gourd, or tree, than the city of Nineveh or the people in it.

God corrected his thinking and set Jonah straight.

The moral of the story is that we should obey what God tells us to do the first time He tells us to do it, and that we should desire to see all men repent and be saved from the wrath of God.

You should not disobey God because if you do, you are going to get into trouble the end.