Even if we are running from God in some way; even if we should know better; even if our claim to fear the LORD is clear from our lips, but hard to discern in our lives—there is hope.

Like so many other passages in the Bible, the book of Jonah gives us a sobering reflection of our own hearts, and a thrilling glimpse into God’s heart.  Consider the first chapter of Jonah – the story of the storm.  It begins with Jonah receiving three instructions from God: get up, get going, and get preaching to Nineveh.  To actually go to Nineveh and preach for God there was a unique and even bizarre commission.  Why would God ask him to do that?  Unlike some prophets who hesitated or questioned God’s call, Jonah just flat-out rebelled against it.  He got up, and got going in the opposite direction.  Maybe he felt that he could put himself out of the reach of God’s calling, or maybe he felt that Tarshish was a better alternative to this horrifying calling to Nineveh.  But what Jonah discovered is that going away from God is always going in the direction of disaster and death.

The rest of the chapter tells the story of the storm.  God doesn’t just let Jonah run away.  There is something about God’s relentlessness that should cause us to pause and praise God for his determination in the pursuit of his people.

God hurled a storm at the ship, and in response the sailors frantically hurled their cargo overboard while crying out to their own gods.  Maybe it was in that cargo-dispatching exercise that Jonah came to light, sleeping in the hold of the ship.  His sleep is described as a deep sleep, but that does not mean it was not tormented.  I can imagine him hearing God’s call in his sleep: “Rise…go…call out!”  Next thing he knows, the ship’s captain is shaking him awake with almost identical words: “Rise…call out!”

The rest of the narrative is wrapped around an exchange between the sailors and Jonah.  They cast lots and find out that Jonah is the key to understanding this terrifying storm.

Who are you, Jonah?

So they ask him about his God, and then they ask what they should do for that God.  They actually start by asking a series of questions about his occupation, his hometown, his nation and his ethnic heritage.  It sounds like an invitation to give a self-introduction, but really they are asking about the spheres where Jonah would be expected to have gods.  These sailors were pagans, and they wanted to know which of Jonah’s gods was upset with them – was it the god of his occupation, or the local god of his hometown, etc.  But Jonah finally speaks and says, “I fear the LORD.”  He goes on to explain that the LORD is the God of heaven, the creator of the sea and dry land.  This is no local deity in the playground of the pantheon of local deities.  This is the ultimate cosmic God over all.

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