Running away from God

Jonah Tries to Run Away from God

 Jonah 1:1-3 

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

We know this story.  We know that Jonah did not want to do what God called him to do so he ran away.  In his case, this unwillingness resulted in a great storm putting other people in danger.  He sacrificed his life to save theirs, but God still had a call upon his life so a large fish swallowed him.

This is the part of the story we usually get stuck on.  What kind of fish was it that he could live for 3 days inside of it?  Was it a whale or some kind of special, miraculous fish that God provided just for this occasion?   While we are focused on the fish we forget the more important parts of the story.  

Jonah made a really bad decision.  He tried to run away from God because he did not like what God wanted him to do.  He thought if he went to another city God would forget about him or call someone else in his place. He was wrong, but he would put himself in a terrible situation before he was willing to cry out for God’s help and accept God’s call upon his life.

God does not forget about a call he places on our hearts.  We can try to ignore it. We can find all sorts of excuses for not doing the thing God wants us to do.  We can take up some other good work instead of the one we don’t want to do.  But God is patient and does not forget.  We will eventually find ourselves in a position where we no longer have any choice but to do what God wants from us - even if, like Jonah, we still really don’t want to do it.  

Has there been a time in your life when you felt God’s call to do something you did not want to do?  Did you do it anyway?  If so, what convinced you to answer that call?