Slices
Prepare
Ask that God will speak to you as we begin these readings in the book of Jonah and reveal any prejudices you may have in the light of his amazing love.
Bible passage
Jonah flees from the Lord
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.’
3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, ‘How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.’
7 Then the sailors said to each other, ‘Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.’ They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, ‘Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?’
9 He answered, ‘I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.’
10 This terrified them and they asked, ‘What have you done?’ (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)
11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, ‘What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?’
12 ‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea,’ he replied, ‘and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.’
13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, ‘Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.’ 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.
Explore
I ran away from home once. I had done something wrong, and expected to be in trouble, so I ran into the fields behind our house and hid among the trees. Happily, my mother came and found me. I said sorry and that was the end of the matter.
Jonah ran away to Tarshish not because he had done something bad, but because he suspected God wanted to do something good. Nineveh was a violent city, the capital of a barbaric superpower called Assyria. At first, he was perhaps pleased that God wanted to confront these wicked foreigners with their crimes and give them their just deserts. But then (according to his own words in 4:2) a troubling thought seized him. What if Nineveh responded to his preaching and repented? God would be obliged to forgive them, and Jonah couldn’t stomach the thought of that.
Grace is good when we are the recipients, but can seem troublesome when others are beneficiaries, especially those who don’t deserve it. Our inbuilt prejudices and warped sense of fair play can make us narrow-minded, cutting us off from the heart of God, which as the hymnwriter says ‘is most wonderfully kind’ (FW Faber, 1814–63).
Respond
Have you ever been tempted to turn your back on God? What happened? How does the mercy of God give us hope at such times?
Deeper Bible study
‘Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?’1 How does this thought comfort you? Or make you uncomfortable?
The book of Jonah begins with the customary formula of prophetic books: ‘The word of the Lord came to Jonah’ (v 1). Two verses later, the story takes off in an unexpected direction when Jonah takes off towards Tarshish in the west instead of heading east to Nineveh (v 3).
Jonah flees from ‘the presence of the Lord’ (vs 3,10, NRSV) – but it is unthinkable that this prophet, who professes faith in the all-powerful Creator (v 9), would have imagined he could escape from God’s presence! Desmond Alexander suggests that ‘by fleeing from the Lord’s presence Jonah announces emphatically his unwillingness to serve God’.2 Jonah isn’t running from God’s presence so much as refusing to serve his purposes. Under Jeroboam, the extension of Israel’s borders had protected Israel’s national interests. Since this happened ‘in accordance with the word of the Lord … spoken through his servant Jonah’,3 it would also have furthered Jonah’s career as a prophet. Should we conclude that Jonah was prepared to serve God’s purposes only so long as this furthered his own? Even the unbelieving sailors are appalled by Jonah’s disobedience. Their outraged ‘What have you done?’ (v 10) echoes God’s question to Eve after humanity’s rebellion in Eden.4 These sailors seem to be more sensitive to the things of God than God’s own prophet (vs 6,14,16)! As Jonah runs, God relentlessly pursues, ready to move heaven and earth – and literally moving wind and waves (vs 4,11)! – to reach his runaway prophet. A great wind is ‘hurled’ upon the sea, cargo is ‘hurled’ overboard, Jonah is ‘hurled’ into the sea (vs 4,5,15, ESV). All this hurling and raging is like a wrestling match between God and Jonah! Unlike Jacob, who wrestled with God because he yearned for God’s blessing,5 Jonah wrestles with God’s desire to bless Israel’s enemies.
Are you running from God? How might he be pursuing you? Will you let him catch you?
1 Ps 139:7 2 In Baker, Alexander and Waltke, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah, TOTC, IVP, 1988, p101 3 2 Kings 14:25 4 Gen 3:13 5 Gen 32:22–30
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Deuteronomy 2,3; Acts 26
Pray for Scripture Union
Please join us in thanking God for the new members of staff who have joined the team in the north region. Please pray for them as they continue to settle in and for wisdom as they seek to increase engagement with Revealing Jesus across the region.
