How Far Can We Run from God?

Bible Passage: Jonah 1:1–17

Introduction

Why did the fish blush? Because he saw the river’s bottom!

We kid, but I know some of you take fishing seriously. I recently heart a story about two men who went fishing:

As they were in their boat on the river, a funeral procession passes on a nearby bridge. One guy takes off his hat and bows his head. The other says, "Wow, I didn't know you had it in you." The first guy replies, "Well, I was married to her for 30 years".

Okay. Enough with the obligatory fish jokes when approaching a sermon series about Jonah! I’m so excited to get into it so let’s…jump right in!

Open your Bibles to Jonah 1. It’s in the Old Testament. Slightly right of the middle of your Bible. Or just look up at the screen.

1. Run Jonah, run!

Jonah 1:1–3 ESV

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

The first thing we’re going to discuss from chapter one is how Jonah ran. I’ve entitled it: Run Jonah, Run!

Discuss Jameel, the missionary who is a former Muslim, who struggled against ministering to his own people from Morocco (or Muslims in general). “Anybody but them, Lord,” he said.

He lost his family

He was expelled from the community and considered a traitor

He was threatened with real violence (as well as economic ruin).

Who can blame him right?

A similar thing was going on with Jonah when God asked him to go to Nineveh.

Before we continue, the question must be asked: Who was Jonah? Truth is, we don’t know much about him. His ministry is only mentioned in this book and in an obscure passage in 2 Kings and a comment or two from Jesus.

2 Kings 14:25 “25 He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.”

From this passage, we know a few things:

Jonah was a real person. Not a story character. Not a fiction or myth. He had a father and there are historically verifiable events that occurred in the region because of him. He, as many claim, is not a parable or some morality tale. Jesus spoke of him as if he was a historical person and I think he would know!

The 2 Kings Jonah is the same Jonah as the one in this book because of the inclusion of his father’s name.

Jonah prophesied that God would restore Israel’s territory from Lebo-hamath to the Sea of Arabah.

The time period around 2 Kings 14 corresponds to the same era in which the prophets Hosea, Isaiah, Amos, and Micah were proclaiming God’s truth.

That’s it. That’s all we really know about him.

Then we come to the book of Jonah and God is assigning to this little known prophet a HUGE task. He has told Jonah to go to Nineveh…the capital city of the Assyrian empire (modern day Iraq).

What do we know about the Assyrians and the city of Nineveh?

It was barbaric, cruel, and warlike that tormented the people of Judah on a regular basis.

As you walked up to the gates of this city, you would be greeted by human heads on pikes and mounds of skulls.

A few of their kings were known to flay the skin off live people for fun, cut the hands and feet off their prisoners while leaving them alive, and other brutal tortures.

And they did the same to the lands they conquered as well…devastating the terrain with scorched earth tactics that left the land unfit to live.

Once again, keep in mind that these people tormented the people of Judah on a regular basis, killing and torturing the people of Judah.

And guess where Jonah was from?

According to 2 Kings 14, Jonah was from Gath-hepher, near the Sea of Galilee, which is in…you guessed it, Judah!

So imagine being Jonah and God telling you to ARISE and go to this brutal, violent city that tortures and kills your people and tell them that God’s judgment is upon them! How glorious would that be? God’s wrath was going to come down on these people hard. Justice would be served. And God was about to lay waste to that horrible city. Wouldn’t you be excited? Wouldn’t you want to rush there and tell them this yourself?

But that’s not what Jonah did. He obeyed the first command of “arise.” In verse 3, it said Jonah “rose”. Then…BOOM! He made a beeline toward the nearest port to get as far away from Nineveh as he could.

So, the question is…why did Jonah run?

And keep in mind, he didn’t just run…he ran in the complete opposite direction!

He was heading to a whole other continent! Jonah was from the Continent of Asia (as is most of the Middle East, by the way). Tarshish was in modern day Spain in Europe!!!

This is even more significant when you consider the fact that the Hebrew people were known as ‘Land Dwelling People.’ They were not seafarers. They weren’t keen on ocean voyages.

How desperate did Jonah have to be to hitch a ride on this vessel?

And the question that comes to mind now is: Did he really think he was going to be able to run away from God?

Yahweh—the God of the Israelites—was different from all other ancient deities in that time period.

Most gods were considered ‘localized’, meaning you could only find them in the regions in which they were worshipped.

But the Hebrews knew God wasn’t like that. He was the God of EVERYWHERE and EVERYTHING!

Psalm 139:7 “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” (David)

Jonah was a PROPHET of God…so he, more than most, would know this. And yet, he ran anyway.

He wasn’t just running from his mission…this passage says he was trying to run “from the presence of the LORD.”

What about you? Have you ever run from God? From a calling God has placed on your heart? How did that work out for you?

Well, we’re about to see exactly how that worked out for Jonah…when we ask the question…

2. What have you done, Jonah? What have you done?

Jonah 1:4–10 ESV

4 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. 5 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. 6 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.” 7 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. 8 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?” 9 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.” 10 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.

I have a friend who always looks for what God is teaching her with every storm she faces.

Truth is, not every hard time we face is from God.

Sometimes, it’s the devil.

Other times, it’s just life in general.

But sometimes…SOMETIMES…it’s most definitely God using such moments to get our attention.

The storm these sailors are facing in this passage wasn’t meant for them…they just happened to be along for the ride. The intended target for this great tempest was obviously Jonah.

But let me ask a question: Why? Why would God go through all this for one disobedient prophet? We’ve already discussed there were several other prophets of God during this time period. Why not just get them to go to Nineveh? Why not raise up a new prophet who wasn’t so obstinant?

Because God was extending grace to Jonah by letting him be part of God’s redemptive plan!

It was an honor that he would have missed out on. It was a privilege that his rebellion would have kept him from.

After all, if Jonah didn’t eventually submit to God’s will and go to Nineveh would we be talking about him today?

When God chooses us for a ministry or a mission, trust me, there are dozens (if not hundreds) of people who could do as good a job (or even better) than we can.

God doesn’t NEED us to help Him out. He LETS us be part of what He’s doing.

My dad and the riding lawn mower.

God tracked Jonah down and terrified those poor sailors so that Jonah wouldn’t miss out on something truly amazing God was about to do.

What about us? What have we missed out on because we have disobeyed God? What awesome things have we not been part of because we told God there was someone out there far more qualified to deal with what he’s nudging us to do?

And yet, despite this…we’re about to see that Jonah would rather DIE than obey God and go to Nineveh!!! Let’s continue…

3. Give up, Jonah! Give in.

Jonah 1:11–17 ESV

11 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. 12 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.” 13 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. 14 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.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Rather than give in…rather than repent and agree to do what God wanted him to do, Jonah was ready to die in the sea.

We still haven’t been told WHY Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh. By its reputation, you’d think it was because of how barbaric and dangerous it was.

But his willingness to die by drowning suggests it wasn’t so much about the physical danger that kept Jonah from Nineveh. It must be something else.

So, what is it? What caused Jonah to go to such great lengths to avoid going to Nineveh? Spoiler Alert!

We find the answer in chapter 4.

Jonah 4:2 “2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”

We’ll talk more about this in detail when we get to this chapter, but for now, let me just say…wow.

It wasn’t fear that kept Jonah from obeying. It wasn’t uncertainty. It wasn’t that he believed it was a waste of time.

It was precisely the opposite!

He KNEW God would bring repentance to the people.

He KNEW God would forgive them.

And he didn’t want that. He hated Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire. He hated their evil. He hated the way they had treated his people. And he wanted them to burn for it.

But let me ask you this: What would the world be like if Jesus had felt the same way? Where would we be in Jesus ran from God’s calling to go to Nineveh (the World!) and die for it?

Jesus Himself made His own comparison to Himself and Jonah!

Matthew 12:38–41 “38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”

Here, Jesus compares Jonah’s time in the belly of the fish to His own time He would be in the grave.

It reminds me of Jesus at the Garden in Gethsemane when He prayed to the Father, “Let this cup pass before me…yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Like Jonah, Jesus wasn’t looking forward to what was about to happen. Unlike Jonah, He sought God’s will over His own.

The world had treated Jesus (and God) in a very similar manner as Nineveh had Judah. The world is just as barbaric and violent to Jesus as the Assyrian empire. We’re really not much different.

And yet: John 3:16–17 “16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Jonah was sent to Nineveh to preach repentance and he didn’t want to do it because he was afraid the city would repent and that was a result he just couldn’t stomach.

Jesus was sent to the world to preach repentance and salvation and while He dreaded what would happen when He carried the weight of the world’s sin on His shoulder, He loved us despite everything we did to Him.

What about us? Will we be more like Jonah or Jesus? Will we forgive those who have done us wrong? Will we follow after God’s call in our lives?

And what about those who might never have received Christ’s call to repentance? What about those who have never given their lives over to Christ? God might not send a great fish to carry your own hearts to repentance…that’s a decision only you can make on your own.

Let’s pray.