Running from God
Jonah 1:1–3
Jonah: Running from the God Who Pursues — Week 1
Mention Jonah and most people immediately think about a fish. Maybe a whale. Maybe a giant fish swallowing a reluctant prophet.
And if you have spent much time around fishermen, you know something about fish stories. The fish gets a little bigger every time the story is told. That is why we joke that if there is no picture, we are not entirely sure the fish was ever caught.
But the book of Jonah is not another fish story.
In fact, if all we know about Jonah is that he was swallowed by a great fish, we have missed the point of the book. The fish appears only briefly. God is the central character.
Jonah is the story of a God who speaks, a prophet who runs, a storm God sends, a pagan crew God confronts, a fish God appoints, a city God warns, a city God spares, and a prophet God corrects.
Above everything else, it is the story of a God whose mercy reaches people we might rather avoid.
And it begins with a man running from God.
A Prophet Who Knew Better
“Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai…” (Jonah 1:1).
Jonah was not a fictional character created simply to teach a lesson. He was a historical prophet of God. We also meet him in 2 Kings 14:25, where Jonah ministered during the reign of Jeroboam II and prophesied concerning the restoration of Israel’s territory.
That detail matters.
Jonah was not a young prophet panicking over his first assignment. He knew God. He knew the voice of God. He knew the Word of God. He had already experienced God working through his ministry.
And Jonah still ran.
That gives us an important warning:
Spiritual experience does not make us immune to spiritual disobedience.
We can know Scripture and still resist it. We can have years of Christian experience and still tell God no. We can serve faithfully in one season and struggle with obedience in another.
Jonah knew exactly who was speaking to him.
That was part of the problem.
Why Nineveh?
God told Jonah:
“Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me” (Jonah 1:2).
Nineveh was northeast of Israel and one of the great cities associated with the Assyrian Empire. Assyria was not simply another neighboring nation. It represented a terrifying enemy known for brutal treatment of conquered peoples.
So when Jonah heard God say, “Arise, go to Nineveh,” Jonah did not hear, “Go help some unfortunate people who need encouragement.”
He heard, “Go to the enemy and take them a message from God.”
Later in the book we discover something else about Jonah. His concern was not merely what the Ninevites might do to him.
Jonah knew what God might do for them.
God might forgive them.
That exposed something deep inside Jonah. Fear was mixed with spiritual elitism. Jonah was comfortable with God’s mercy when that mercy was directed toward Israel. He was far less comfortable when God wanted to extend mercy toward people Jonah considered undeserving.
Suddenly, this is not much of a fish story anymore.
It is getting uncomfortably close to us.
When God’s Word Takes Us Somewhere Uncomfortable
The book begins with God speaking.
“Arise.”
“Go.”
“Cry against it.”
Three direct commands.
God’s will was not confusing. Jonah did not need another sign, another meeting, or another month of prayer to determine what God wanted him to do.
God had spoken.
Sometimes the difficulty of obedience is not that we do not know what God wants. The difficulty is that we do.
God’s Word may lead us toward forgiveness when we would rather hold onto resentment. It may lead us toward reconciliation when distance feels safer. It may call us to serve when we would rather sit. It may call us toward generosity, evangelism, repentance, transformation, or obedience in an area we would rather leave untouched.
The question is not, “Do I like what God has said?”
The question is, “Has God said it?”
Obedience begins when God’s Word becomes more authoritative than our preferences.
God also reveals something about Himself in His command to Jonah.
He sees Nineveh.
Their wickedness had come before Him.
Powerful governments do not escape God’s sight. Cities do not escape His sight. Nations do not escape His sight. Individuals do not escape His sight.
“The eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3).
Yet notice what God does when He sees Nineveh’s wickedness.
He sends a preacher.
If judgment were God’s only concern, why send Jonah?
God sends a warning because there is still an opportunity to respond. Even God’s warning of judgment contains an expression of mercy.
“But Jonah…”
Then come some of the saddest words in the opening chapter:
“But Jonah…”
God says go, and Jonah goes.
Just in the opposite direction.
Jonah heads for Tarshish instead of Nineveh. This is not a man accidentally wandering away from God’s will. Jonah deliberately reverses direction.
Jonah wants to flee “from the presence of the LORD.”
He certainly knew that God was everywhere. Psalm 139 asks, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?”
Jonah was not foolish enough to think God would simply lose track of him.
He was attempting to leave the place of obedient service before the Lord.
In other words:
“God, I know what You said. I am not doing it.”
We may never board a ship for Tarshish, but we can do exactly the same thing.
God says forgive.
We say no.
God says serve.
We say no.
God says repent.
We say no.
God says speak.
We stay silent.
God says go.
We head the other way.
When the Wrong Direction Seems to Work
Here is one of the most dangerous parts of Jonah’s story.
At first, everything seems to work.
Jonah goes down to Joppa.
There is a ship available.
It is headed where he wants to go.
He has enough money for the fare.
There is apparently room aboard.
He pays, gets on the ship, and heads toward Tarshish.
What an open door!
Except God never opened it.
An open door is not necessarily God’s door.
Circumstances working out do not automatically mean God approves of our direction.
That is an important lesson because we can easily interpret favorable circumstances as divine approval. Jonah could have looked at that ship and thought, “Everything is falling into place.”
Everything was falling into place because he was deliberately running in the wrong direction.
Jonah paid the fare for his trip away from God, but the ticket price would be the smallest cost of this journey.
Disobedience always has a price.
By the end of verse 3, Jonah appears to have accomplished his escape.
God said Nineveh.
Jonah chose Tarshish.
He found the ship.
He paid the fare.
He boarded.
He was leaving.
Escape accomplished.
Then comes verse 4.
“But the LORD…”
Jonah may have been finished with God.
God was not finished with Jonah.
The God Who Pursues
This is where the story of Jonah begins pointing beyond Jonah.
Jesus Himself directs us back to this prophet in Matthew 12:39–41. But Jesus does not simply tell us to study Jonah. He shows us that something greater than Jonah has come.
Jonah was told to go, and he ran.
Jesus was sent, and He came.
Jonah resisted going to sinners.
Jesus said, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).
Jonah would reluctantly carry God’s message to his enemies.
Jesus willingly gave His life for His enemies.
That is why the message of Jonah cannot simply be, “Do not be like Jonah.”
The greater message is:
Look at the God who pursues Jonah.
As we begin this journey through Jonah, there are some questions worth asking.
Where has God said, “Go,” while I have said, “No”?
Where have I placed my preferences over God’s Word?
Where have I mistaken favorable circumstances for God’s approval?
Where am I running?
Jonah is about to discover that geography cannot place him outside the reach of God. Neither can a ship, a storm, a sea, or eventually the belly of a great fish.
And neither can we.
We may run from what God wants, but we can never run beyond the reach of the God who pursues us.
You may be running from God, but you are not running beyond God.
The God who called Jonah is the God who pursued Jonah.
And before this book is over, we are going to discover just how far His grace will go.