“But Jonah ran away from the Lord … .” -Jonah 1:3a
Jonah is often called God’s reluctant missionary. Based on the text, though, that title doesn’t seem quite accurate.
When God told him to go to Nineveh, Jonah didn’t plead for the Lord to send someone else like Moses had, and he didn’t express his fear as Ananias did. Instead, Jonah just ran—physically and spiritually as far away from where God was calling him to go.
Understanding the Life of Jonah
Not much is known about the life of Jonah outside the book titled after him. The one historical mention of him outside of this book says he was a prophet from Gath Hepher during the reign of Jeroboam, the son of Jehoash (2 Kings 14:23-25).
Considering that the lives of Old Testament prophets involved a great deal of persecution and suffering, prophesying one good thing for Israel probably didn’t sound too bad to Jonah. But God would soon enough call Jonah to a greater challenge.
“The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.'” -Jonah 1:1-2
Assuming Jonah was where most of the Israelites lived at the time of this word from God, Nineveh would have been east of him. And so when Jonah fled to Tarshish, he was going as far west as he could travel.
Despite Jonah’s unrepentance, God was merciful and sent a fish to swallow him and carry him to shore. Jonah prayed from inside the fish, praising God for saving him. Still, he didn’t admit to his sin.
“‘Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.'” -Jonah 4:2
Jonah never wanted to see Nineveh saved. He wanted to see the city destroyed. The Ninevites were an unreached people, but Jonah didn’t care. He didn’t want the Lord’s grace and compassion to extend to the evil Assyrians, a nation that had tormented the Israelites for years.
Spreading the Word of God
We must love God’s enemies because we were all once enemies of God (Romans 5:10). The world is full of people who are far from God. Worse yet, billions of people have no way of knowing who Jesus really is unless someone takes the gospel to them.
If you feel like a modern-day Jonah, the good news is that God is a God of second chances. He gave Jonah another opportunity to obey, and He gives nations the chance every day to repent and believe in Him.
When believers choose to follow God’s call on their lives, incredible things happen. An entire city was saved after a prophet spoke five words. Imagine what could happen if all believers took part in God’s global rescue mission.
