Running Away from the Lord

This content was excerpted from the Storyteller Jonah Bible study week one.

In the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), both Jesus and the expert in the law to whom Jesus is talking equate being a good neighbor with showing mercy. What makes the Samaritan “good” in the parable is that he acts mercifully toward a man in need. Mercy is what Christians do. When Jesus defined the qualities or attributes of His followers in the Sermon on the Mount, He chose being merciful as the demonstration of righteous living (Matthew 5:7). Followers of Jesus have their eyes up to see the needs around them. They have compassion for those in need and engage to bring them real relief, even at great cost to themselves. God is merciful, and Christians are to reflect that mercy into the world around us. The story of Jonah is a story of mercy. It’s a story of God mercifully allowing the Ninevites, a deeply sinful people, an opportunity to repent and believe. It’s a story of God mercifully chasing after a rebellious prophet and offering him a second chance. It’s a story of a prophet wrestling with the depths of God’s mercy, feeling it’s bigger than should be allowed. The story of Jonah overflows with mercy. What everybody needs is something only God can truly give. 

Jonah knew he was a prophet, and this was not the first time the word of God had come to Jonah. He had previously been given the privilege of speaking a word of great blessing to the Israelites, even though they did not deserve it. It was a message of compassion, grace, and mercy for a people led by an evil and idolatrous king (see 2 Kings 14:24-27). Imagine the pleasure of delivering such a message! God would bless Israel, not because of their obedience or repentance but only because He loved them and had made a promise to them to not blot them out of existence. Yet this message did not have the desired effect on God’s people. They became even more selfish and greedy and idolatrous. All they could think about was more money, political power, and pleasure. It may have been a pleasant message to preach, but it fell on hard hearts and did not stick. Now, God speaks to Jonah again, only it’s a different kind of message for a completely different group of people. The command, on the surface, is unusual from a human perspective. Weren’t the problems in the northern kingdom—where God’s chosen people lived—more important than those of a pagan city? Of what use could a man like Jonah, who has never left home, be in a pagan city like Nineveh? God’s word had come, but it wasn’t at all what Jonah would have expected. 

Why do we often shirk our responsibility and avoid doing what we know we’re called to do? Why did Jonah do it? Jonah’s choice to flee from God rather than obey God provokes some thoughtful reflection that may very well convict our own hearts. Jonah ran. Did Jonah fear the risks associated with such a long journey? Did he dread the ire of Nineveh’s citizens? Did he doubt the message God had given him? We make many decisions based on fear instead of faith, trusting our own hearts rather than leaning on God’s understanding. We have more in common with Jonah than we’d like to admit. When we consider the absurdity of what Jonah sought to accomplish by fleeing in light of how it all actually appeared to be coming together, we can imagine that Jonah was likely tempted to believe God was actually all for his fleeing. It wasn’t the time of year to begin sailing long distances on the Mediterranean, and ships to Tarshish from this area were extremely rare, given its distance, but a ship was ready to sail—with room for an unexpected passenger, no less! Sometimes, when everything is going just right, we conclude that God’s hand must be in it. We accept our favorable circumstances as confirmation from God. The problem with that is, that may not be the case at all—and it is certainly not the case when we’ve heard Him speak one thing and we do another. We need something more concrete than circumstances to assure us of God’s direction and favor. We need the word of God. We need to beware of reading providential circumstances in a way that contradicts the explicit commands of God.