“RUNNING FROM GOD”
JONAH 1:1-17
The prophet Jonah is an interesting study, for his response to God’s call upon his life often mirrors our response when God calls upon us to be obedient to Him. The Book of Jonah contains four chapters. Each chapter describes Jonah’s struggle to submit to God’s authority in his life, a struggle which may define your relationship with God. Chapter 1: Running from God. Chapter 2: Running into God. Chapter 3: Running with God. Chapter 4: Trying to Run God. The Book of Jonah is more than a fish story.
Little Jeffrey had acted up, so his father disciplined him. Jeffrey decided he was not going to take it anymore. He got some of his clothes, his teddy bear and his piggy bank, put them all in a bag, and announced, “I’m running away from home!” “What if you get hungry?” asked Jeffrey’s dad. “Then I’ll come home and eat!” “What if you run out of money?” “I will come home and get some!” “What if your clothes get dirty?” “Then I’ll come home and let mommy wash them.” His father thought, “This kid is not running away from home; he’s going off to college.”
We can be like Jeffrey with God. God may say something or do something we do not like, and we want things our way; so, we run. But God will pursue you as He pursued Jonah because when it comes to the will of God in our lives we can run, but we cannot hide from God. 1-3
Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, Israel’s enemy. The Assyrians were a cruel and heartless people. When they took over a town in battle, they impaled survivors on stakes in front of the town, then piled up the skulls of their enemies. The leaders wore the severed heads of their enemies around their necks. Nineveh was not one of the top 10 holiday destinations of the day.
It is to this group of people, to this enemy nation, to which God calls Jonah. He is probably thinking, “Sure God, you want me to go and say bad things about Nineveh to their faces so they can kill me slowly and painfully!” Instead, he runs the other way to get away from God.
Have you ever run from God? You know God is calling you to a specific thing, but out of fear or rebellion, you run the opposite direction. The call on your life might not be to a place as dangerous as Nineveh, but it is a call all the same.
• A call to change your behavior; instead, you do everything you can to avoid the topic.
• A call to be more public with your faith; instead, you keep your light under a bushel.
• A call to forgive someone for harm they have done to you; instead, you avoid them at all costs in order to
keep your grudge.
• A call to quietness and prayer; instead, you fill your life with unimportant busy things.
• A call to a specific ministry, or use of your spiritual gifts; instead, you put it on the back burner until a more
opportune time.
• A call into relationship with God through Jesus; instead, you throw yourself into the things of the world.
Jonah runs, but he cannot hide because God will not let him go. I am so glad God pursues me when I run because the worst place to be is outside the will of God! 4-6
A Christian may sail on the wrong boat. He may head in the wrong direction. He may stow away, seeking to hide from the presence of God. He may be reluctant to follow the Lord. Yet God does not give up on us. Notice the extent to which God pursued Jonah. The Lord sent out a great wind on the sea. He changed the course of nature to bring Jonah back to Him. Never underestimate God’s relentless pursuit of you, even if He has to put you in a storm to get your attention.
This is called “harsh grace”. It is harsh because it hurts; but it is grace because His intention for the storm is to draw you back into His will, His presence, and His love. Gospel singer Kirk Franklin says, “You should be happy about your troubles. If it was not for troubles, some of you would never pray.”
For Jonah, the storm is literally a “wake up call.” Asleep in the bottom of the boat, Jonah is woken by the captain begging him to pray to his God. The last thing Jonah wanted to do was talk with God. When you are running from God, the first thing you abandon is your prayer life.
The heathens were praying, but Jonah was sleeping. The heathens were trying to find God, but God’s prophet was trying to flee from God. This is a microcosm of the church today. While the world is desperately searching for peace within through any source available, which is a quest for God, His people are asleep, disinterested in the spiritual condition of the souls of people who are facing eternal damnation.
Running from God will cause you to have a deaf ear to the cries of others. It will blind your eyes to all that is going on around you and will dull your heart, so you become insensitive to the voice of God and the needs of others.
7-10 When they ask Jonah “what’s up,” he responds: I fear the Lord and serve the God of heaven, the Creator. His words, though, do not reflect his heart. He says it, but he is not living it.
Like Jonah, we are good at keeping up appearances. We can say the right things, and do the right things, but inside still run from God. Jonah is running from God while claiming to worship God. On Sunday mornings we can lift up our hands and our voices in praise to God, but our hearts are far from God. When we are running, our worship is empty.
In the end, running from God placed Jonah in a far more dangerous place than going to Nineveh. 11-16 Cast into the sea, the storm stops. The sailors fall on their knees worshiping Jonah’s God, promising to serve Him. These men recognized the absolute power of Jonah's God. They ran to God, unlike Jonah who was “sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful shore.”
God, though, is gracious to Jonah. Instead of leaving him to die, God sends a great fish to swallow Jonah preserving his life. 17 When we are running from God and He sends a storm, He also provides a way out. It might be as slimy as the belly of a fish, but it is a way out all the same. The lesson of Jonah chapter one is: He is a God of grace who pursues you with a passion because He loves you and desires for you to be in perfect fellowship with Him.
Are you running from God? Has God clearly revealed to you what His will is for your life, yet you have said, “No?” I can identify with Jonah. God worked in a similar fashion in my own life throughout my teenage years into early adulthood.
I came to Christ at the age of 9, but I ran from God from the time I was 12 until I was 18. I was not interested in what He wanted to do in my life. I had no concern for what His plan might be for me.
God, though, did not give up on Mark Lindsey. He worked providentially and persistently to get my attention and to turn me in the right direction. During my senior year in high school, I realized I was running from God’s purpose and plan for me.
During a Lay Renewal Weekend at Crestview Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas, I put up my hands and said, “I surrender!” The God of grace, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness welcomed me home and gave me another chance.
Like Jonah, I discovered you can run, but you cannot hide from God. When God finds you, you ask, “Why did I ever run from God in the first place?” It costs far more to run from God than it does to run with God. If you are running from God, stop, turn around, and go back home where you belong. He is one step away.
