Jonah 1:1-3

The LORD gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the LORD.

Most Bibles will have the title ‘Holy Bible’ on the cover, which could give the impression that it is a book stacked full of stories of really holy people who never take a step out of line. It is surely a relief to us all that the Bible is nothing like that. At times it feels like the complete opposite! Take Jonah for example. He was called by God but was appalled by the command. Going to Nineveh was absolutely the last thing that he would ever want to do. The city was, at the time, one of the largest cities in the world and was famous for its sin. It stood at the heart of the great and menacing Assyrian empire and everything about it would have been repulsive to Jonah. So, he went to Joppa and found a boat that was heading in the opposite direction to Nineveh. What could possibly go wrong?!

The one factor that Jonah hadn’t taken into account was God. He imagined that he could run away from God and that would be the end of it. But how wrong he was! There was a great storm and Jonah told the crew that they needed to throw him overboard. He was then swallowed by a great fish and spewed up on a beach three days later. It’s a remarkable account but it often resonates with people; so many can speak of the way in which they ran away from God, only to find that he had been with them all the time.

Running away from God is always a bad idea, because no one knows us or loves us more completely. To run away from him is to invite disaster for ourselves and those around us.

Question

What would you say to someone who was trying to run away from God?

Prayer

Lord God, I thank you that you love me so much that, however far I run away, you will still keep loving me. Amen