Featuring: Dr. Dorian Coover-Cox

In this thoughtful and theologically rich message, Hebrew scholar Dr. Dorian Coover-Cox invites us to revisit the story of Jonah—not as a children’s tale, but as a deep well of God’s character, human resistance, and redemptive pursuit. With Hebrew insights, literary nuance, and pastoral application, Dr. Coover-Cox shows that Jonah is less a story about a runaway prophet and more a story about a relentlessly compassionate God.

Walking through the text in its full arc, she highlights how Jonah deliberately flees God's presence—not merely geographically, but relationally. Yet even in his rebellion, God responds with mercy: appointing a storm, a fish, and ultimately a mission reset. Dr. Coover-Cox focuses particularly on the prophetic prayer in Jonah 2 and the tension between Jonah’s pious-sounding words and his self-focused heart. She skillfully examines Jonah's “I told you so” moment with God in chapter 4 and how God's compassion becomes the very thing Jonah resents—revealing a prophet more committed to his own views than to God's mission.

Throughout, Coover-Cox reminds us that the Book of Jonah is not about flawless obedience but about a God who invites flawed people back into relationship. Even when Jonah delivers the message with minimum effort, God brings about maximum repentance. The story ends unresolved—but that, she suggests, is an invitation to examine our own hearts.