Running from God

Read Jonah 1 - 2:1-7

When God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, he ran in the other direction. You'd think a prophet of God would know better, but we've all done the same thing in one way or another at some point in our lives. In doing so, Jonah became disobedient and broke the special bond he'd had with the Lord. All of a sudden he thought he knew what was best more so than God. He couldn't understand why God would give the cruel Assyrians a chance to repent. Why didn't he just destroy them for their evil ways?

Instead, Jonah hurried to Joppa where he boarded a ship bound for Tarshish.  Nineveh would have been about 400 miles to the northeast from Israel. Tarshish (the area we now know as Spain) was 2,000 miles  to the southwest. In fact, Tarshish was pretty much at end of the known world of Jonah's day. The prophet was running as far as he could.

But notice that even though Jonah had abandoned God, God had not abandoned him. He'll never leave any of us, His children, either. Jonah must have breathed a sigh of relief when he boarded the ship. Now he could leave the travel to the sailors. He must have also been exhausted after his long, hurried journey to Joppa, so he went below and fell asleep. How many Christians have fallen asleep to God's plans for their lives? Is today's Church doing the same thing?

While Jonah slept a great storm came up - one so much worse than these seasoned sailors had ever seen before. The wind and waves crashed around them, tearing apart the ship. They prayed to their gods, threw as much as they could overboard, and tried to battle to control the ship, but nothing worked. Finally, the ship's captain went below to wake the prophet and decide what to do. We'll pick up here next week.

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