The Risks of Running from God
Jonah 1:1-16
ILLUSTRATION Once an atheist asked a Christian lady if she believed the Bible was true. “Yes,” said the lady. “Then.” Said the atheist, “tell me how a whale swallowed Jonah, as a whale’s stomach is no bigger than a man’s head.” “I don’t know,” said the lady: “but when I get to Heaven I will ask him.” “What if Jonah is not there,” said the atheist. “Then you can ask him,” said the lady.
(Read Jonah 1:1-17)
What is the Book of Jonah about? Well, it’s not simply about a great fish (mentioned only four times), or a great city (named nine times), or even a disobedient prophet (mentioned eighteen times.) It’s about God! God is mentioned thirty-eight times in these four short chapters, and if you eliminated Him from the book, the story wouldn’t make sense.
The Book of Jonah is about the will of God and how we respond to it. It’s also about the love of God and how we share it with others. This passage says that God called Jonah to preach against Nineveh but Jonah ran away from the Lord. Why do people run away from God? What happened when we ran away from God?
Can we really run away from God?
SEE Psalm 139:7-12 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
We can be in an environment or culture where God is not acknowledged but God is never absent.
In the case of Jonah, he was going to a pagan place Tarshish far from the Promised Land where a Jewish community of faith worshiped and cherished the Scripture and practiced the Torah or Law. Jonah was going to Tarshish where the name of Yahweh was not spoken and where other gods or no gods were the objects of commitment and where life was lived as if there were no Lord of heaven and earth.
In the same way, we can flee to our own Tarshish. We can immerse ourselves in our irreligious society or in a godless social circle or in our own affairs and interests that the name of God is never spoken except in profanity and the works of God are never recalled.
We can absent ourselves from all worship, all faith communities, all religious learning, and all attempts to live by faith’s ethic and become totally secular – banishing God from our thought, our deeds, our devotion, our total view of the world.
We can forget about God and live in “Tarshish” and perhaps Tarshish is a good name for our present culture. But God of course, is not absent from such a culture. At times we ran away from the Lord by simply ignoring the issues he confronted us to, or by being absent minded before the presence of God, or by being indifferent to the things he wanted us to do. We run away by shutting the door of our minds and ears from anything that pertains to God. But God is never absent.
SEE Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world; from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
And if ever we are able to ignore God today, later on we would still stand before the judgment seat of Christ. So there is really no way that we can run from the presence of the Lord. Therefore stop running and begin talking to Him, discuss your concern, and listening to His argument. And eventually, agreeing with Him because He is God.
But why do people try to run away from the Lord? In the case of Jonah, he simply disobeyed and evaded the will of the Lord. God wanted him to go to Nineveh but he resisted. Jonah’s wrong attitude toward God’s will stemmed from a feeling that the Lord was asking him to do an impossible thing.
God commanded the prophet to go to Israel’s enemy, Assyria, and give the city of Nineveh opportunity to repent, and Jonah would much rather see the city destroyed. The Assyrians were a cruel people who had often abused Israel and Jonah’s narrow patriotism took precedence over his theology. Jonah forgot that the will of God is the expression of the love of God. God called him to Nineveh because He loved both Jonah and the Ninevites.
Why do we run away from the Lord?
1. We do not want to do the will of God. But it is in obeying the will of God that we find our spiritual nourishment (John 4:34), enlightenment (John 7:17), and enablement (Heb. 13:21). To Jesus, the will of God was food that satisfied Him; to Jonah, the will of God was medicine that choked him.
2. We do not want to be confronted by the Word of God. In a Bible study perhaps, a call to change your behavior was issued but instead of doing everything we tend to avoid or change the topic. We cannot be selective when it comes to the message of the God’s word. We must learn the entire counsel of God’s message.
3. We do not understand the purposes of God for our lives. SEE Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
What happen when we run away from the Lord?
1. We will be confronted by the power of God. (v. 4) there will come a time that God will stop us from running. Running away is a form challenging the authority of God. God would demonstrate that He is still in charge of your life.
SEE Romans 9:20-21 But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ’Why did you make me like this?’" Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
2. We risk the safety of the people around us. (vv. 5-6) Sometimes in the process of disobeying and running from God, we risk the life of the people around us. We thought that our decision will only affect our personal lives. That is not true. Oftentimes the will of God should be heeded so he can bless a number of people in the community. And ignoring God and his will deprive them of the opportunity to be blessed by God.
3. We risk the integrity of the people of God. (vv. 7-10)
When the sailors asked Jonah’s background, he actually risked the integrity of the people of God. You can imagine the anger of the sailors against this Jonah.
4. We face the possibility of being disciplined by God. (11-17)
Jonah upon realizing that God was confronting him acknowledged that they must get rid of him in order for the storm to stop. So they threw him into the sea and was swallowed by a great fish.
It is a privilege to work with God. When he called us to do something, let us humble ourselves and obey him.
