Walking with God – Day 18

We may feel shocked to think of a prophet running away from God and probably astounded to think that he actually thought he could escape Him, but that is exactly what Jonah did, in direct defiance of God’s instruction to go to Nineveh, to preach against the wickedness of the people there. He literally ran in the opposite direction in protest against his assignment and boarded a boat for Tarshish. However, he underestimated God’s determination to achieve His purposes and His patience with His wilful servants.

Jonah got into a terrible predicament by trying to avoid God’s call. God sent a fierce storm that threatened to destroy the boat, until Jonah owned up to being the cause of it and persuaded them to throw him overboard. This allowed calm to return, but not for Jonah. In the water, Jonah was swallowed by a huge fish and stayed in its belly three days and nights, by which time he understood that his escape plan had failed. Facing death, Jonah came to his senses; he repented and prayed: “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you … But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD” (Jonah 2:7-9; full prayer, see Jonah 2:1-10). At God’s command, Jonah was then vomited onto dry land and he went to Nineveh. Sometimes, people need a crisis to clarify their thinking.

True to his word, Jonah preached God’s impending judgement on the city with great success, as the king immediately declared a fast of repentance so rigorous that even the animals were included. He ordered the Ninevites to give up “their evil ways and their violence” (Jonah 3:8) and “when God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened” (Jonah 3:10). Contrary to what we would think, Jonah was not overjoyed that one hundred and twenty thousand people were saved destruction through God’s mercy and his message; instead, “Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry … ‘O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That was why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.’” (Jonah 4:1-2)

It is difficult to understand how Jonah could so lack compassion for his fellow man, when he had such a clear perception of God’s compassion and had so recently experienced deliverance himself. However, when we look at ourselves, we realise that, often, our own attitudes are not any better than his. We need to ask ourselves if we truly care about the fate of others and God’s instructions to us (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 7:12). Jonah’s resentful attitude was transparent, but ours may be hidden.