![]() ![]() ![]() While the sailors dumped cargo and cried out to their gods for answers (no answer… surprise), Jonah, meanwhile, was sleeping like a baby in the bottom of the ship. “…the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.” Jonah 1:4 NKJV Jonah 1:3 says Jonah fled “from the presence of the Lord” by hopping on a ship to Tarshish, thought to be on the coast of Spain… the opposite direction of Nineveh (in case your geography is a little shaky, like mine). When Jonah ran, he didn’t just run from God’s command – he ran from God Himself. Worst case, they kill your entire country. This enemy needed to be annihilated, not redeemed! Who wants to march across the desert to tell your mortal enemy that God is gonna get ’em? Best case, they kill you. Jonah feared that if God had mercy upon the Ninevites it would give them the edge they needed to attack Israel again. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, a country that had attacked and oppressed Israel for centuries. Nineveh was huge! Three chariots could ride abreast on its walls it was 60 miles in circumference and took three very long days just to walk from one end of the city to the other. Nineveh was 800 miles east of Israel near the modern-day city of Mosul in Iraq. Specifically, God told Jonah to go to the exceedingly great and wicked city of Nineveh and give them the business (i.e. Jonah was the only prophet sent to the Gentiles (i.e. This short book, only four chapters, has been imprinted on our minds since Sunday School. Certain commands make my skin crawl, some verses slay me so I put them away for another day when I feel more spiritual, when I have time, when the stars align and obedience will be more convenient. I abandoned my faith for 20 years, but even though I’ve returned to Him – fully committed, all in – sometimes I still find myself taking off like a sprinter at the starter’s gun. Running from God is a skill I developed early in life. ![]()
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