Jonah 1

Since we will be having an entire series on Jonah... I thought I might place my random thoughts about the 4 chapters here...


Jonah is that book of the Bible that should have been a LOT shorter, even though it's already very short in length. Basically, it should be Jonah 1:1-2 and all of chapter 3 -- and that's it. Jonah was a prophet of God, one sent to speak God's message. And this time, God wanted this prophet of Israel to speak to a bunch of "sinners" that there outside the boundaries of Israel or it's people. God was sending Jonah to Assyria. "Arrise! Stand up! Go!"

Assyria was known for it's brutality and evil. Their reputation was soundly wretched among "God's People." Obviously, God would not really ask a prophet of Israel to speak to these no good ingrates? Right? Ah... but God DID call Jonah to speak to the people of the great Assyrian city, Nineveh.

So, what was this prophet and follower of God's response to the Lord's command? He ran... ran as far as he could in the opposite direction of Nineveh. In an attempt to run from God, Jonah went down in a ship bound for Tarshish -- modern day Spain and the furthest known body of land (to an Israelite at this time) to the west.


When we run from God: there is no direction for us but down.
But Jonah arose, only to go down. Notice, Jonah went down to Joppa to find a ship. Jonah went down in the ship. Jonah laid down, and went to sleep. And eventually, Jonah went down in the sea into the belly of a large fish.

When we run from God: He hurls reminders toward us.
In this case, God "hurled" (in the Hebrew) a terrible storm toward the boat. The storm was so great, it threatened to break the ship apart. Running is pointless; God knows where we are and where He wants us to be.

When we run from God: we put others and ourselves at risk.
No brainer here... the text suggests great distress for the crew of this ship, even to the point of throwing their cargo over board.

When we run from God: even pagans become God's messengers.
In this case, the captain of the ship finds Jonah asleep down below deck. He uses the same word, the same command God gave Jonah: Arise! Stand up! Call upon your God! Surely, Jonah remembered those words from somewhere...

When we run from God: we will be found out.
The sailors cast lots to find out who was responsible for this calamity. They fell on Jonah, and with great passion -- these horrified sailors asked Jonah a series of questions in verse 8: “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”

When “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” told them he was a worshipper of the God who made the earth and the sea and that he was running from God, they were terrified all the more and yelled "What have you done!?"