Vol.10 No.5

Journey with Jonah
Follow Jonah on a journey from God’s will to his magnificent U-turn, compliments of a great fish.
Based on Jonah, chapters 1– 4.
by Adriana Timsa

The story of Jonah fascinates me. I refer to it again and again, whenever I find God’s calls difficult to accept. In this story, we discover what kept Jonah from obeying God, as well as what may be hindering us from following God’s will.

Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian realm, a great city of antiquity, became so wicked that God’s long-suffering love compelled Him to warn them of their impending destruction. God chose Jonah to deliver the warning. In His omniscience, He knew Jonah would also benefit from the task.

The First Call

“Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai …” On this day God interrupted Jonah’s life by giving him a special assignment. But when Jonah heard God’s word, obstinacy rose inside him, and he “rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” If Tarshish is Tartessus, a town in southern Spain, to reach it Jonah would have to travel three times the distance in the opposite direction. When men refuse to obey God, they become compelled to flee from His presence, going even farther than he has requested in another direction.

Finding a ship headed to Tarshish, Jonah “paid the fare thereof, and went down into it.” Disobedience always comes at a high price and leads in a downward path. Jonah’s flight only met failure. The Lord sent a mighty storm which nearly broke the ship. Isn’t it wonderful that even when we forsake God, He does not forsake us? Instead, He keeps working with our stubbornness until we either surrender our will or resist until our probation closes.

In the ensuing terror and confusion, the passengers cried to their gods, while Jonah slept in the hull of the ship. Imagine how he felt when the shipmaster awoke him, commanding him to pray to his God. His thoughts may have been, How can I cry to my God when I am running away from His presence? When we disobey, it is hard to pray, because the still, small voice points us back to the path of duty. If your prayer life is troubled, ask yourself, Am I fulfilling all the duties He’s asked of me? Am I living up to all the light He has sent me? Am I running from something He’s asked me to do?

Disobedience is Punished

Jonah must have felt dumbfounded and miserable as the passengers cast lots to find the culprit responsible for the storm. When it fell on him, he was interrogated and had to confess his reverence for “the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.”  How ironic! He was fleeing from the Creator of the sea, and yet he claimed to reverence Him. Disobe-dience makes us hypocrites.

Upon hearing Jonah’s testimony, fear gripped the sailors. “Why hast thou done this?” they questioned. Their question is similar to those of many worldly-minded people today: If Christians worship the only true, all-powerful God, why are they often sad and depressed? Why don’t they obey Him? Why so much inconsistency? The discrepancies only cause amazement to non-Christians.

Jonah told them the only solution was for him to be cast into the sea, but “the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.” Finally, as their last resort, the men threw Jonah overboard. As he sank to the bottom of the sea, it “ceased from her raging” and “the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows.” Sometimes those ignorant of God are more sincere than those who claim to be His representatives.

Three Dark Days

For three days and three nights, Jonah miraculously survived in the belly of the great fish God sent to swallow him. He needed these days to repent and find his Lord again. In the darkness of that fish’s stomach, he says in faith, “my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple … Salvation is of the Lord.” His repentance is also shown in his promise to pay back that which he had vowed. True repentance always brings reformation of life, not just sorrow for sins.

These three dark days are a sym-bol of those moments in our lives when the road leads nowhere. Then it is the right moment to surrender all our plans to God, to repent of any sins, and to put our will on the side of faith and obedience. The answer will not tarry; deliverance will come.

The Second Call

God delivers Jonah by prompting the fish to vomit him onto the land. Back where he began, Jonah is now ready to obey God. The message has not changed, but Jonah’s proud heart has. Now surrendered, Jonah enters Nineveh and delivers the message of warning. The response is unexpected. The people, following the example of their king, repent with fasting and much prayer, pleading for God’s mercy. “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil … and he did it not.”

Complaining about Success

Fear of defeat first prevented Jonah from fulfilling his mission, but when he met success, he still was not pleased. Instead of rejoicing in God’s amazing grace, he sinks into self-pity. Would others now regard him as a false prophet? By focusing on his reputation, he loses sight of the infinitely greater value of the souls found in that wicked city.

God’s compassion on the Ninevites “displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.” Jonah complains to God about eclipsing his overnight reputation as a fire and brimstone preacher with God’s extravagant forgiveness.  I like Jonah. He has the courage to be honest with God.

The dialogue between Jonah and God is full of significance. Jonah, like Elijah the prophet, after his victory over the prophets of Baal, wishes he could die. Why is it that after a mighty victory in the Lord’s battlefield, God’s servant loses heart so quickly? His focus had turned from God’s agenda, to self.

God asks Jonah, “Doest thou well to be angry?” but he does not answer. God desired Jonah to find the cause of his own affliction. Were God to state the cause, Jonah, no doubt, would have denied it. But Jonah refuses to reason with God. He just sits outside the city walls, miserable and silent.

Lessons from a Vine

God reveals His concern for His prophet by sending him an object lesson. Because it was very warm, God cools Jonah by providing a vine with gourds to grow above his head. It grew and refreshed him, but in one night it withered and died. Jonah has now brewed so much inside, that when God asks, “Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?” Jonah’s response is almost hostile: “I do well to be angry, even unto death.” Indulgence of negative thoughts and feelings has distanced him from God.

God’s response reveals the true condition of Jonah’s heart—you have pity over a plant that came up in a night, and went down in a night, and should not I have pity over Nineveh, with its thousands of inhabitants and also much cattle? What a gracious God we serve! 

Like Jonah, God calls each of us to missions of mercy among the con-fused, anxious, lonely, and proud hearts of today’s Ninevehs. Unlike Jonah, we need not follow the detour of self. Instead, we may choose the shortest route to duty, the one through God’s great heart of love.

Then it is that we find the journey was really meant for us.