Just Call Me Jonah

By Taisa Efseaff Maffey

Most people know the story of Jonah from the Bible.  Or at least they know that he ended up in the belly of a large fish –– in all likelihood, a whale.  I’m not sure if most people go any deeper than that, but I can tell you that Jonah’s story has resonated with me at more than one point in my life.  I can relate to this guy Jonah, and I suspect others might too.

“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.’  But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.  He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”  (Jonah 1:1-3)

I don’t know about you, but I find this seriously funny.  God speaks to the prophet Jonah and tells him to go to Nineveh –– the capital of the Assyrians, who were infamous for their idolatry, wickedness, and cruelty –– and Jonah gets up and boards a boat that’s going in the exact opposite direction.  Jonah is actually trying to run away from God.  This cracks me up.  I mean, where does he think he’s going that God can’t keep up with him or find him?

Well, Jonah soon learns he can’t escape God, and he learns that by trying to avoid what God was calling him to do he makes the situation much worse for himself.  God sends a great storm on the sea, and it’s so bad that it threatens to break apart the ship that Jonah is travelling on.  The ship’s crew figures out that Jonah’s disobedience is the cause of the storm, so they throw him overboard, and the sea immediately stops raging.

“Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah.  And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.  Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly.”  (Jonah 1:17-2:1)

After three days in the belly of the whale, Jonah cries out to God about the trouble he’s in, acknowledges that God is chastening him, and by the end of his prayer he turns back to God with a submissive heart:

“‘But I will sacrifice to You

With the voice of thanksgiving;

I will pay what I have vowed.

Salvation is of the Lord.’

Can you believe it took Jonah THREE DAYS of living inside the big, gross, smelly fish to cry “uncle”?  I’m tempted to say that I wouldn’t have waited ten minutes before praying and submitting to whatever God’s will was, but when I think about all the times that I’ve resisted doing what I knew God wanted me to do, then I have to admit I’m no better than Jonah.  Try to think of a big, gross, smelly situation you have been in because of your own doing and how long you remained in that situation when God was likely just waiting for you to turn back to Him so He could bail you out.

“So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”  (Jonah 2:9-10)

(Side note: Did you know that the word “vomit” was in the Bible?)

And now… Take II:

“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.’  So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.  Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent.  And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk.  Then he cried out and said, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’”

Given a second chance, Jonah goes to Nineveh and warns the Ninevites that their great city will be overthrown as judgment from the Lord because of their wickedness.  And what do you know?

“So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.”  (Jonah 3:5)

“Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.”  (Jonah 3:10)

And so, mission accomplished.  But have you wondered at all why Jonah refused to go to Nineveh and preach in the first place?  It becomes clear in the final chapter of the book when we see Jonah angry about the Ninevites’ repentance and God’s mercy towards them:

“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.  So he prayed to the Lord, and said, ‘Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country?  Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.’”  (Jonah 4:1-2)

Here Jonah personally knew God’s grace and mercy, His temperance, His lovingkindness, and yet he didn’t want an enemy Gentile nation like the Ninevites to experience any of it.  Yikes.

I mentioned in the beginning that I could relate to Jonah.  While there are several applications we can take away from this story, for me what hits home is the idea of running away from God.  Jonah did so almost literally.  And it caused a great storm not just for Jonah but also the people who surrounded him.  If we ever think our disobedience or sin only affects us, we would be seriously mistaken.  When we think of “sin,” we usually think about doing bad things, right?  But the Bible also has this to say about sin:

“Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”  (James 4:17)

I’m willing to bet all of us have tried to run away from God at one time or another –– those times when we know God wants us to do something, but for one reason or another, we resist submitting to Him and we avoid doing it.  So here’s the million dollar question:

Is there something that you feel like God has been calling you to do… but you’re not doing it?

If you’re not a Christian or not a practicing Christian, maybe God has been knocking on the door of your heart, waiting for you to let Him in:

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”  (Revelation 3:20)

James 4:8,10 puts this promise another way:

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.  […]  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

According to the Bible, God

“desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.  For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom [a means of deliverance or rescue from punishment for sin] for all.”  (1 Timothy 2:4-6)

And the Bible gives this assurance:

“that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  (Romans 10:9)

Bottom line: If you’ve felt a tapping on your shoulder, a tugging on your heart, a nagging in your gut, or anything that gives you a kind of antsy feeling about needing to make yourself right with God, then please don’t ignore it.  That’s God reaching out to you, pursuing you, desiring to have a relationship with you, and ultimately desiring that you accept the eternal salvation (your ticket into heaven) that only He can provide.

If you are already a Christian, has God been calling you to do something, but you’ve been ignoring it or dismissing it or putting it off?  Maybe you’re like Jonah and you’ve been withholding love or kindness or forgiveness from someone because you don’t think they deserve it.  Maybe you’re not doing something God wants you to do out of stubbornness or anger because you don’t feel like God has been fair.  Maybe you’re not doing something out of sheer laziness or complacency.  Or maybe you’re like me and you’re not doing something because of fear –– fear of God not coming through, fear of failure or rejection, fear of letting others down, fear of what others might think, or perhaps fear of the perfect dream becoming an imperfect reality.  I know these fears, and they are real, but we have to remind ourselves that they are without merit:

“The Lord is my light and my salvation;

Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the strength of my life;

Of whom shall I be afraid?”  (Psalm 27:1)

“Fear not, for I am with you;

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you,

Yes, I will help you,

I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’”  (Isaiah 41:10)

“Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”  (Joshua 1:9)

“For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand,

Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’”  (Isaiah 41:13)

I don’t know about you, but I love the image of God holding my hand when I’m scared about something.  I’ll leave you with this last verse:

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.  But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”  (1 John 4:18)

My advice to myself and to you is to allow God to perfect His love in you.  How?  By trusting in Him and stepping out in faith.  If you’re fearful about something, you’re not trusting in God.  Simple as that.  And if you’re not doing what God is calling you to do, you’re disobeying Him.  Simple as that.  So instead of being prideful or resentful or complacent or fearful or whatever else, we need to place a higher priority on answering God’s calling for us and doing His will.  Simple as that.