Jonah is a prophet of God. His job was to speak for God. Jonah means DOVE, conveying the notions of peace and tranquility. (There were few prophets available at this time, Hosea, Amos, and Jonah were about the only 3 men prophesying to all Israel.)
Jonah 1:1-4
“[1]Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
[2]Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
[3]But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
[4]But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was like to be broken.” (KJV)
Verse 1. The word of the Lord appeared to Jonah, the son of Amittai (Truth). Like God spoke to Jonah, he wants to talk to people too. All we require is to make our-self accessible to God and he’ll begin to speak with us. The concern is are we preparing ourselves to be accessible to God or are we pushing ourselves off to hear God?
Verse 2. Nineveh was the capital of Syria, full of wicked people. Why would God send Jonah to Nineveh? Cause Nineveh had just gone through two serious plagues and a solar eclipse which in those days were startling to unsaved people and the people of the town were ripe for repentance. God does not always tell us the thing we might expect to listen to or want. We just think about the outcome we desire but we do not think what blessings it might give rise to for others.
Let’s take a moment to look at David, Abraham, Jesus. Did David want to battle with Goliath? Did Abraham want to sacrifice his only son Issac? Did Jesus want to bear the cross?
Verse 3. Nineveh was 500 miles whereas Tarshish was 2500. Still, Jonah chose to flee towards 2500 miles. What we can see here is it carries more effort to disobey God than to obey him. When Jonah paid the boat fare, he had to pay some price for driving away from Jesus. Ever wonder when we too try to run away from God we might end up giving the most beloved aspects from our life. When we flee away from God there is always a boat heading towards the false path.
Verse 4. The Lord sent out a great wind into the sea. The ‘Storm’ here indicates that we need to be awake. God sometimes uses an external force to wake up us. This storm is not necessarily needed to be in our favour. Jonah turned his back on God and His will. That was clearly a step-down and everyone around him was negatively impacted by his disobedience.
In reality, it is hard to run away from a God who is everywhere. Even when we are running away from Him we are sure to run into Him. May be running away from God might be possible but hiding away from him is not. It is far better to run to God than to try running from Him.
There’s a thing we need to focus on.
1. What is it leading us to get in the wrong boat?
2. What can keep us in getting away from the wrong boat?
