Jonah’s wandering away from God is somewhat legendary … and a little fishy.
He didn’t just stray from God; he ran. And he ran from God because he was disobeying Him. As a prophet of God, Jonah was supposed to be one of God’s elite. Yet when God sends him off to be a street preacher in what is modern-day Iraq, to a people who are Jonah’s equivalent of the Islamic State, Jonah hauls off in the other direction (Jonah 1:3). And who can blame him? A holiday in the Mediterranean sounds a lot more appealing.
Lost in a dark place
So, this fickle and disobedient prophet runs away ‘from the presence of the Lord’ (Jonah 1:3). And while Jonah sleeps soundly in his getaway ship, God stirs up a wild storm (vv.4-6).
This stops him in his mutinous tracks, waking him up both physically and spiritually, and he admits to the ship’s captain that he is running away from his God, ‘the God of heaven, who made the sea’ (v.9). Jonah knows that if he doesn’t surrender himself to the waves, he will drag these unbelieving sailors to an early death with him. His disobedience has very quickly turned lethal. But God’s grace wastes no time: as the waves envelop him, Jonah is graciously gobbled up by a humongous fish (v.17).
We sanitise Jonah’s story, when in reality his backsliding led him to a pretty grim place. It is very probable that Jonah wasn’t on his knees praying angelically with only a string of soggy seaweed wrapped around his toes. He spent many long and traumatising hours inside a fish. Jonah describes himself drowning in the ‘belly of Sheol’ which is a Hebrew term for a place of death (Jonah 2:2).
Imagine yourself buried alive inside a flooding coffin; that was Jonah’s experience. It would have been pitch-black, smelly and airless. He would have had to fight for breath, especially if he was immersed in water… hungry, thirsty, exhausted, and fighting his own thoughts to give up and allow himself to drown. Straying away from God is miserable. Perhaps you know all too well that what starts out as a fun distraction quickly turns ugly and spiritually toxic.
Grace in the storm
But Jonah was not abandoned… and neither are you. If you have been backsliding headfirst into sin, or if you are dry and feel spiritually dead, remember the promise that God ‘will seek the lost’ and ‘bring back the strayed’ (Ezek.34:16). God’s grace is unmistakable in Jonah’s story. God’s grace was in the storm: He could have just left Jonah to run away. God’s grace was in the fish: He could have left Jonah to drown, but instead sends an unconventional ark to rescue him.
Jesus was your rescuer and ark when you first became a Christian. And He is still your ark today; the safe vessel to bring you out of the lifeless depths and back home to God. You see, even when we run like Jonah, God ‘delights in steadfast love’ (Mic.7:18). Our Heavenly Father ‘will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea’ (Mic.7:19).
What Jonah does
What does Jonah do when the reality of his rebellion against the Lord hits him like a faceful of krill? We read in chapter two that Jonah calls out to God for help; he prays. In Jonah’s case and in our own, God’s grace works together with our responsibility to call upon Him. When we call upon the Lord He listens. Like Jonah you might be sinking; pulled down in a sea of rebellion. Call out now and God will rescue you. ‘The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love’ (Zeph. 3:17).
