Running From God

Introduction

I want to show you some pictures of kids who are really bad at Hide and Seek.

SHOW PICTURES

As funny as that is—here’s the reality...

All those kids thought those were good hiding spots.

They thought they cracked the code and figured out the game.

But in reality, they look foolish!

And this is what we are like when we are attempting to hide from God.

And that is what we see Jonah doing in our passage tonight.

Context

We started Jonah last week and we saw God telling Jonah, his prophet, to go and warn the Ninevites about His judgment.

He was to go and offer them compassion.

But Jonah has refused.

The Ninevites were the Assyrians.

They were a threat to Jonah’s people.

They were a brutal people and Jonah decided they should not hear God’s message and that they WOULD NOT hear it from him.

So he hopped a ship to Tarshish.

He planned to go 2500 miles in the opposite direction.

He tried to hide.

But tonight we will see that he was a kid laying under the kitchen rug with his feet sticking out.

He was a kid hiding underneath a plastic bin.

Tonight we will see that Jonah could not hide from God and neither can we.

Text

Jonah 1:4–16 ESV

But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.” And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

We have two points for you to remember tonight:

1. Hiding from God brings judgment.

2. Calling to God brings mercy.

Hiding From God Brings Judgment

We start with that first point tonight:

1. Hiding from God brings judgment.

Storm on the Deck, Hiding in the Hull (v. 4-6)

We see right away that Jonah’s attempts to hide from God are failing, right?

He gets on a ship to travel 2500 miles in the other direction and God targets Jonah’s ship by sending a mighty, windy storm onto the sea. (4)

It is so bad the ship is seeming like it is going to break apart.

The mariners in the boat are afraid for their lives. (5)

This is how you know it is bad.

Dudes who live on boats in the middle of oceans are hardcore people.

There isn’t a lot that happens out there that can shake them.

This is WHAT THEY DO.

This storm is so bad that even the sailors are afraid.

That means normal people like us would be needing a Dude Wipe.

They start throwing cargo overboard to keep the boat from sinking.

They are crying out to the false gods they worship as pagan, unbelieving men.

It is pandemonium.

But where is Jonah?

Sleeping in the bottom of the ship.

It is like he has run from God and gotten away from everyone and he finally thinks he has peace.

He is sleeping like a baby because he thought he had hidden himself well.

But he is woken up by the captain of the ship who says that he needs to join in the pagan prayer circle and pray to his god as well so they don’t die.

Jonah’s hiding place is being blown up.

Casting Lots and Accusations (v. 7-10)

At this point, the mariners want to find out why all this is happening. They suspect someone on-board has secret sin.

And they are right—once more—Jonah’s hiding spot is being exposed!

So they cast lots, which is like a modern day version of rolling dice and the lot falls on Jonah!

At this point—any chance of keeping his secret to himself is gone.

Jonah has to fess up.

They start interrogating him in v. 8.

What do you do?

Where do you come from?

What is your homeland?

What is your bloodline?

And he is honest in v. 9

Jonah 1:9 ESV

And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

When they hear that His God has made the sea and the dry land, they are terrified.

Verse 10 tells us that they knew Jonah was trying to hide from God’s presence.

They cry out—“What have you done?”

It is like they are saying, “Your God made the ocean and you made Him mad and now we are all going to die because you are playing hide and seek with Him? What have you done to us? Why did you get on our ship?”

The lots have been cast. Accusations are being cast.

And none of the accusations are wrong.

The pagan sailors are right.

Jonah messed up and put his own life and all of their lives in danger.

The Judgment of the Sea (v. 11-16)

Then, as the storm gets worse, they ask Jonah what they are to do with him in order to get the sea to quiet down.

Jonah says, “Throw me overboard.”

He knows his sin is the problem and he must bear the judgment for it.

Credit to the pagan sailors, they don’t immediately just toss him over the rails.

In v. 13 they try to get back to land, but they can’t. The storm is too much.

In v. 15, after praying—which we will come back to in a moment—they throw him into the sea and the storm stops.

Jonah is on his way to the ocean floor and then a fish’s belly.

His time is up. Judgment has come.

All thoughts of hiding have been blown up and blown apart.

Why Do We Hide From God?

Human beings have a long history of trying to hide from God.

After Adam and Eve commit the very first sin in the world, they hide.

Genesis 3:8 ESV

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Why do we do this? Why did Jonah do this? Why do we try to hide from God?

I think that it can come down to two things:

1. A desire to be safe.

Sometimes we are just scared.

And we decide it is more comfortable to hide.

In hiding, we know we are wrong, but at least we feel like are safe.

Here what Adam says in Genesis 3 when God comes looking for him. God says “Where are you?” and Adam says:

Genesis 3:10 ESV

And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

But in truth, hiding from God is not a comfortable place to be.

First of all, God will find you. Always.

Secondly, there is no true safety unless you walk with the Lord.

You may have the illusion of feeling safe, but nothing is more dangerous than trying to hide from God and not deal with what He is calling you to.

2. A desire to sin.

This is more of what we are seeing in Jonah.

See—Jonah had already been a prophet to Israel.

And I think that Jonah was doing a logic exercise in his head.

If Jonah goes to Nineveh and warns this evil, pagan people and they repent and God has compassion on them, what does that say about Jonah’s people?

Jonah had been preaching to them for years and they didn’t repent. Other prophets had been preaching to them for 150 years and they wouldn’t repent.

Jonah is doing the math and saying, “If the evil pagans repent and Israel won’t, what does that say about Israel’s hearts? And what does it say about what God will do to Israel?”

Jonah doesn’t like the answers to the problem, so he leaves the exam.

He decides that He doesn’t like what God is doing and he won’t be a part of it.

This is a sin problem.

This is a desire to get what you want, even if it means disobeying God.

He is sinful and he is going to try and hide.

But Judgment Will Come

But at the end of the day, the hiding is futile. It is worthless.

You can’t do it.

God sees all. God knows all. God has all power.

He is working with all the information.

He is working with full knowledge of where every human is, what decisions they are making and what is in their heart at all times.

Trying to hide from Him is like trying to hide from the sun in the desert.

You can’t do it.

What happens to Jonah here—Judgment comes.

He ends up tossed into the sea for a watery death.

This is the way it is with God.

Whether it is to try and be safe or to try and sin, you cannot hide from God but for so long.

He will expose our secret sins.

He will wake us up from our slumber.

He will have the lot fall to us.

He may even cast us into the sea.

And He does these things to lead us to change.

To turn away from our sins and trust in Jesus.

And we should do that as soon as possible, because here is the thing about trying to hide from God.

It impacts other people.

We see that with Jonah who almost causes a whole crew to die and a ship to sink.

As you hurt God, you often hurt others.

Our sins affect others. They usually don’t occur in a vacuum.

A little gossip between two friends becomes a massive wave of conflict that impacts a whole friend group.

A little bit of wandering eyes on a smart phone may not seem like a big deal, but sexual imagery can stick with us for life.

Looking at sexually immoral things as a teenager can impact your married life down the road.

A little bit of laziness where you don’t study may seem like a secret sin, but it will be exposed when the grades come in and your parents are suddenly angry or heartbroken.

If you are trying to hide from God tonight, stop.

You aren’t smart enough.

God will find you out.

Calling to God Brings Mercy

Now—the question is—what do we do if we are hiding sin tonight or our sins have found us out.

Do we wallow in guilt and shame?

Do we give up on knowing God?

No. We call out to Him.

2. Calling to God brings mercy.

Pagan Sailors Cry For God’s Mercy

Look at v. 9 again.

The pagan men were used to a belief system where you had what was called a “local god.”

Like each city had their own gods and the gods only controlled one thing or two things.

Each place may have a god of the sun, a goddess of the moon, a god for the sea, a god for growing crops, a god for having babies, etc...

When Jonah tells them that his God made the sea AND the land, they are like, “WHAT? You worship one God who made everything? This is a powerful God. Why did you make him mad!”

So down in v. 14, before they throw Jonah into the sea, they call out to God for mercy.

Jonah 1:14 ESV

Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.”

Please don’t let us die for throwing this guy overboard.

And then, after they see the waters calm down, they know they are dealing with the one true God.

They fear the Lord and they offer a sacrifice to the Lord and make vows to Him.

They worship Him the way the Jewish nation worshipped Him.

Meaning, God has not just spared their physical lives, but seems to have changed their hearts in the process.

This is God’s mercy.

We All Need Mercy

And we all need it. We all need to cry out to God for mercy.

We are not born loving God.

We are born as lost as the sailors.

We are not born running to God but running away from Him.

We are all born like Jonah.

And we all have only one hope of being saved from our sin and our attempts to hide from God.

That is to turn to Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the Son of God.

And Jesus was perfect in all that He did and said.

Jesus was not like Jonah.

He did not hide from God.

He lived His life under the eye of His Father and His Father was always pleased because Jesus was totally righteous.

And yet—though Jesus was not like Jonah—he suffers a similar fate to Jonah.

They both suffer judgment.

In Jonah’s case, he suffers for his own sin.

But in Jesus’ case, though He had no sin, He suffers for the sins of others.

Jonah brought disaster on others.

Jesus died for our disaster.

The disaster of sinning against a holy God.

And we must do what the sailors do.

We must cry out to God for mercy.

We must pray to God and admit we are sinful and we are wrong.

We must turn away from our sin toward God.

And we must confess to Him that we have no hope of not being punished forever for our sin other than Jesus.

Jesus already paid for our sins by dying for them on the Cross.

We must confess to God that we trust in that with all of our hearts and souls.

And if we pray to Him with a sincere heart, what you will find is that like the pagan sailors—you will receive mercy.