Running Away from God
By Jeff Cranston
When the Word of the Lord came to Jonah, a Jewish prophet, there was nothing unclear in God’s directions. Jonah was to go to Nineveh and proclaim God’s judgment and forgiveness. Instead of running to God, however, Jonah ran from Him. Instead of going to Nineveh, Jonah paid his own fare to go thousands of miles in the opposite direction to Tarshish. His real desire was to flee from the presence of the Lord, but the problem in Jonah’s plan was no such place exists. As Jonah was about to find out, disobedience is always costly. Read Jonah 1.
What is God up to in this story? We see frightened sailors, a rebellious prophet, a troubled ship, and a dreadful storm. The only thing we see of God here is that He commissioned Jonah to preach in Nineveh, then hurled a terrible storm at him when he ran and had heathen sailors praying to him by the end of chapter one.
Why does God allow the sudden storms of bitter circumstances to clamp down on Jonah? Have you asked yourself the same question about your circumstances? Where is God when your visibility drops to zero and the acid of fear and anxiety begin to eat away at your faith?
Jonah probably wrestled with questions very similar to those. Yes, he had disobeyed God. Was this, then, divine punishment? Was it a sign that God no longer cared? Even for one of his own prophets?
How about you? Car troubles? Child problems? Late payments? Impatience in the carpool line? Relational difficulties? Washing machine making loud banging noises and leaking water? Marriage on the rocks? Pinned down by alcoholism or drug abuse? Do you have any disobedience in your life?
Maybe you're dealing with these or comparable issues. Your difficulties may not be as severe as Jonah's encounter with Jaws, but even minor issues, such as a tiny school of piranha, can be worrisome.
We can learn from what we see in Jonah 1: evidence of a life that is running away from God. When you’re God is too small, you think He can’t do anything about your situation. You think that He can’t help and that you can leave Him in the dust and go your own way.
What does life look like when you seek to flee God, but also to run your life your own way? First of all, when you are running from God …
1. You will misuse your finances.
Jonah 1:3 says that Jonah “ … paid the fare … ” One of God’s names is Jehovah-Jireh—the God who provides. Jonah used what God had provided to him to purchase a one-way ticket to get himself as far away from God as possible. When you are running away from God and outside of His will for your life, you will not use your money properly. The money in your hands and mine comes from our Father who blesses us with it. How are you using it?
You may use money to buy things that lead you down paths—very dark paths. You may even use the money God has given you to purchase big-ticket items, hoping that a new home, a new car or truck, furniture, clothes, a cruise, etc., will take your mind off of your back-slidden, running-from-God condition. But they don’t work. You find yourself meeting God at every turn and corner.
2. Your prayer life is the pits.
When God sent the storm, did you notice that everyone in the ship is praying except the prophet of God? What is Jonah doing? Sleeping! How can Jonah be asleep after what he has done? The vessel is pitching up and down, back and forth. He is on the run from God—and he’s sleeping like a baby.
Insensibility to the things of God is frequently associated with sin. Here we find a pagan shipmaster rebuking the prophet of God, telling him to wake up and pray that they might all be saved. It’s supposed to be the other way round, isn’t it?!
When you are not right with God, you know it because you are not praying. Your prayer life is the pits. You are not only failing to pray with God’s people, you are not even praying by yourself.
3. You’ll have little concern for others.
Jonah had not told anyone who he was or what he was doing. But now, because of his obstinate disobedience toward God, other people’s lives were endangered—but he stilled played everything very close to his chest.
But the people on the ship weren’t the only ones in trouble. Jonah had turned his back on the people of Nineveh to whom God wished to have a word with. He had already punted on the Ninevites; their eternal torment and destruction were fast approaching, and Jonah didn’t care. He had become exclusive. It was at this one point where Jonah’s faith collapsed. He had a small concept of God and, as an inevitable consequence, he had a smaller concept of God’s kingdom.
4. You’ll live under the weight of unconfessed sin.
I’m sure after Jonah was awakened by the sailors, he probably did pray to calm the storm. But nothing happened. In his state of unconfessed sin, the sailors aboard concluded that he must be the one on board who was guilty of some crime. Because of the sin of one man, the entire boat was in trouble. Every sailor was under the sentence of death. Jonah was trying to run from God’s appointed duty for him and all were in jeopardy.
The cat is finally out of the bag and poor Jonah is forced to give himself up. What a fix he had gotten himself into! How much easier it would have been if he only obeyed the Lord! Because you and I both know, Jonah is going to Nineveh one way or the other.
When we take our eyes off of Christ, we can land ourselves in some pretty big trouble spots, can’t we? And there is a long, hard road back into fellowship with Christ when all of our rebelling is through.
Are you living in the will of the Lord right now? In the place of blessing? “Where is that place of blessing,” you might ask? The place of obedience is the place of blessing.
Is your life miserable right now because you are not following what you know God has called you to do or be? Is there something that is hindering your joy, your walk with Christ, and your testimony?
It all begins easily enough. We oversleep and rush off to work or school without touching God’s Word or remembering to pray. “I’ll catch up tonight,” we think to ourselves.
But let’s end on a better note because, in Jonah 1:15, the picture changes entirely! It is there and then that Jonah becomes a type—a foreshadowing—of none other than Jesus Christ. Jonah 1:15 says, “So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped raging.
Jonah now becomes a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, who took Jonah’s place, the sinner’s place, my place, your place. If the storm is to be stilled, Jonah had to be sacrificed. It was the only thing that could save the sailors from death. The sacrificial lamb was given over. This is true for all of humanity. We have sinned, and God’s judgment has fallen upon us. We, therefore, must die. But God wants to save and not destroy sinners. So He sent His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him, will not perish, but have everlasting life! God made Christ to be sin for us that He might take the sinner’s place on the painful instrument of death - the cross.
Here then is the one great lesson of Jonah: One man must die that others might live. The sea could not be stilled until Jonah was cast overboard. And God’s justifiable wrath against sin cannot be erased and His justice quenched until Christ called out from the cross, “It is finished!”
God’s ambassadors
We, too, are God's ambassadors, just like Jonah. If we are saved, we are God's ambassadors on earth, proclaiming the good news of salvation through Christ's death and resurrection. But, like Jonah, how many of us are primarily concerned with our personal needs and spiritual comforts?
And what about others around you? Has it been weeks or months since you have spoken to anyone far from Christ about Christ? While you should be weeping for the lost and repenting of your indifference to the destinies of people all around you, are you instead making a comfortable bed for yourself in this world? Are you like Jonah—fast asleep aboard a sinking ship?
God has no other hands but our hands, and no other mouth but our mouths to tell the story of His redeeming grace. May God grant us faithfulness to Christ’s commission to, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15).
Jeff Cranston is the lead pastor of LowCountry Community Church in Bluffton, South Carolina.