Cruising with Jonah

JONAH: A MAN ON THE RUN

You can run but you cannot hide.

     —Psalm 139:7-10

Called by God, Jonah was commissioned to “go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it.” Why? Well, according to the Lord, the city’s “wickedness” had come up before Him. It had become an affront to God, and through the prophet, God sent his message of war against the great city. “But Jonah ran away from the Lord” (Jonah 1:2-3, NIV).

Inspired by God to do one thing, Jonah made the decision to do the opposite. Jonah chose to follow his own conscience rather than the explicit command of God. God’s charge was to go one way, but Jonah chose to go another. Jonah disobeyed God. Whenever we go in a direction that is contrary to God, we are being disobedient.

How many times have we in some way acted exactly like Jonah? In full knowledge of what the Lord requires, we decide we know better and follow our own conscience rather than the command of God. We, like Jonah, in so many ways have run in the opposite direction of God. We have been, either by commission or omission, contrary to His Word, will, and/or way. 

For example, instead of running to love one another, so many of us have run hand-in-hand with hatred and thus caused untold suffering. Instead of running to forgive one another, we vigorously run with our hearts filled with unforgiveness, irrespective of the fact that the Lord has said that if we fail to forgive others, we will not receive forgiveness: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12, KJV).

Instead of running to bless our fellow man, we have devised ways to curse our fellow man. Instead of ceasing from anger and forsaking wrath, we decide to destroy one another by any means necessary. Instead of seeking the kingdom first, we insist on chasing the things of this world. We ignore the fact that our insteads only drive us further and further away from God.

Any time we seek our own desires and not God’s, we are disobedient. Any time our thoughts do not match His thoughts, our ways do not line up with His ways, then we are disobedient to God.

Disobedience, though sometimes disguised, is still disobedience. Disobedience shrouded in garbs of kindness is still disobedience. Disobedience preceded by kindness is still disobedience. This is the point Samuel made to King Saul when the king claimed to be obeying God but in actuality was selfishly seeking to please himself. Consequently, Samuel boldly proclaimed, “To obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15, KJV). 

Disobedience always drives the believer away from the Lord. Whenever we are caught in the clutches of our own egos, we will be steered in the wrong direction, drawn away by our own lust (James 1:14b). Whether we run, walk, or crawl away from God, away from God is still away from God. And away from God is always in the opposite direction from whence He has called us. God’s call is always unto Himself, closer to Him, nearer to Him, never away from Him. Submission to God draws us nearer to Him. As James declared, “Come near to God and he will come near to you” (James 4:8a). 

We are called out of the darkness and into the light, out of sin and self and into salvation, out of wreckful lifestyles and into righteous living, out of the broad path and into the narrow path that leads to God. Answering God’s call means doing what He requires, saying what He has commanded, and going where He says to go—not in a direction that pleases self. 

As we shall see in the life of Jonah, running in the opposite direction of God’s will did not relieve Jonah of his responsibility or obligation to God. It never does and never will. To God, we are always responsible.

Disobedience sets us at odds with God. It puts us in a fight we cannot win. It puts us in a foot race we are sure to lose. Yes, like Jonah, a man on the run, we too can run from God. But also like Jonah, we will discover that we won’t get very far. Surely we can run, but we cannot hide (Psalm 139:7-10).