Alright!
Welcome to Isaac Hunter’s Transparent Bible Study. We are now at the midpoint of our February study, and this is a good moment to pause—not to summarize or resolve, but to take stock of where the text has been pressing.
Both Jonah and Jude resist being read casually. They are short, but neither allows distance. Each book confronts the reader directly, and neither is interested in affirming our instincts.
If you are finding either book uncomfortable, that is not a sign of failure or confusion. It is likely a sign that the text is effective.
So, let’s take a closer look at these two books and talk about some questions that might have come up during your reading.
Alright, here we go…
– Mid Month Check In –
!! ISAAC HUNTER’s BIBLE STUDY !!
We chose five chapters to cover this month because it allowed us to cover both books or letters as a whole, which is the best, most effective way to study the Bible: book by book.
By now, Jonah has likely unsettled any attempt to reduce the book to a moral lesson or a children’s story. The discomfort in Jonah does not come from Nineveh. It comes from Jonah himself. The text quietly exposes how easily obedience becomes conditional, and how quickly we can approve of God’s justice while resenting His mercy. Jonah does not argue with God’s power. He argues with God’s character. If you feel the story ending without closure is frustrating, that reaction is part of the point.
Jude does not ease into its warnings. It assumes drift. It assumes compromise. It assumes that distortion has already entered and is being tolerated under the language of grace. Jude presses hard questions about authority, memory, and accountability—especially within the believing community. It is not written to alarm outsiders, but to wake insiders.
If Jude feels severe, it may be because we are unused to Scripture speaking this plainly.
- Where have you noticed resistance rising as you read—toward God’s mercy in Jonah, or toward God’s authority in Jude—and what does that resistance reveal about your own instincts?
- Which feels more dangerous to you right now: open disobedience, or quiet drift—and how do Jonah and Jude challenge the way you normally define faithfulness?
Our 2nd Half of the Month:
In the second half of the month, we now shift gears from primarily reading and question recording to in-depth research. While it is highly recommended that you continue to read the chapters at least once through each day for the remainder of the days (until the 31st), our focus will be on digging into commentaries, dictionaries, online resources, etc to find satisfying answers to our questions. Also, by now, you should have your chapters highlighted using the hierarchical highlighting method. Keep up the great work, and I will see you again at the end of the month!
Word of Reminder:
As a reminder, this study is not about speed or volume.
- You do not need to “finish” quickly.
- You do not need polished answers.
- You do not need to resolve every tension.
What matters is reading honestly, resisting the urge to soften the text, and allowing Scripture to confront assumptions rather than confirm them.
We will continue through the rest of February with that same posture.
Let the discomfort remain where it belongs.
Jonah and Jude
Jonah is often remembered for the fish, but the fish is not the point. The book centers on a prophet who knows God well enough to deliberately flee Him. Jonah resists God’s mercy, not His power, forcing readers to confront obedience, justice, and who defines repentance and grace. Jude is brief, dense, and confrontational. Written to believers, it warns of grace distorted into permission and authority hollowed out from within the church. Jude exposes moral compromise disguised as freedom and urges vigilance against forgetting what has already been revealed.
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If you would like to join us for Isaac Hunter’s Official Bible Study, use the form at the bottom of this email, then post a comment below to confirm you are present and accounted for. If you are reading this months or years later, by all means, join in after the fact, post below, and start reading. Better late than never!
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“Okay, mom,” Randy said.
“You behave yourself and be nice. You’re lucky to have company while you wait for the doctors.”
The woman turned and started back the way she came.
“The nurse said it would be twenty or thirty more minutes, so we’ll eat quick and be back up here before they take you in, okay?”
“Okay, mom.”
“Sorry for him,” the woman said to Katie as she walked by.
“He’s funny.”
Katie grinned.
As the woman left, Katie noticed the boy moving around again on the bed. Before she realized what was happening, the tiny lump disappeared and she could hear the faint sound of bare hands and feet on the tile floor.
He was low crawling under the beds toward her.
A moment later, Randy popped his head out from under the nearest hospital bed, craning his neck around to look up at her.
“Hello, there,” Katie said.
Randy disappeared back under the bed, the bed sheet draping down almost to the floor. Katie could still see three little fingers pressed to the tile.
“What are you here for?” Katie asked, readjusting her seat in the chair, trying to get the ache in her chest to lessen.
For whatever reason, the wheelchair was really uncomfortable.
“Why are – “
Randy’s voice trailed off for a moment as he looked around.
“Why are you here?”
“I’m getting my leg fixed,” Katie said. “See?”
Randy poked his head back out from under the bed and looked at the leg she was pointing to.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“The doctor said it’s broken,” Katie said. “Shattered.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah. Ouch.”
“Can you feel it?” Randy asked, able to stay out from his hiding place.
“I can feel it, but it’s not too bad,” Katie said, then tapped the IV in her arm. “This thing is giving me medicine of some kind for the pain. At least that’s what the nurses said.”
“Why are you – “
Randy stopped mid-sentence.
He scooted out from under the bed entirely and slowly crept over to er on all fours.
“What are you, some kind of spider?” Katie asked, giggling a little.
“What are you?” Randy echoed.
He was now only about a foot away from her chair and sat there, his legs folded up under him, gawking up at her.
“What are you staring at me for?”
“I’ve never – “
Randy put out a hesitant hand and ever so gently touched her arm.
“Are you some kind of ghost?”
He looked around again.
“Are you – ”
He leaned in, talking in a whisper.
“Are you dead?”
A nurse came around the corner and stopped abruptly, spotting the empty bed in the far corner where Randy should have been.
“Randy Andrews,” the nurse said, her hands now on her hips. “You get right back into the bed and you stop playing around, please. They are ready for you in surgery.”
Katie watched as Randy scrambled on all fours under the beds and back up onto his, pulling the sheet back over top of himself again.
She started to ask him about his question, but couldn’t get the words out before his parents appeared at the door.
Katie sat there quietly, watching Randy stare back at her from under his sheet. She glanced over at his parents and the nurse, noticed Randy’s dad had no hair on the top of his head.
Are you dead?
What kind of question was that?
The snap of the wheel locks being disengaged on Randy’s hospital bed jarred Katie out of the confusion she was in.
The doctor she’d first seen was now at the door, waiting for Randy.
He was his surgeon.
They wheeled Randy out of the room, his parents following right behind, disappearing to the left, heading for his operating room.
The pre-op room was empty again.
Dead.
Are you dead?
What kind of crazy question was that?
The nurse came back through the double doors.
“It won’t be long now,” she said.
“Okay.”
Katie tried not to think about the dull ache growing just behind her sternum.
The nurse disappeared around the corner as Katie watched the double doors to the operating rooms slowly shut.
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