Running from God

The natural condition of our hearts is to run away from who we truly are.     We all can become very clever at running.  Whether it is a marriage in disarray, where each spouse is blaming each rather than taking personal responsibility OR an alcoholic or addict who is in denial about how his choices are destroying his own life and those around them, man is a genius at running away from who he really is.

I still remember when I was 22 years old, when a young man Tyrone, who I had played baseball with at Long Branch High School, came to me on the boardwalk and shared the gospel with me.  Within minutes I literally ran away from him, telling him I had to take a jog.  But thank God He did not stop sending me faithful men like Tyrone to share the gospel with me until I bent my knee to Jesus. 

Our natural condition is to run from God.  We do that because of our sin and shame.  We do it because we are captured by darkness and deception.  Instead turning to God and the light of His word, we are geniuses at getting our own way and ultimately suffer the consequences for it.  

That is part of the story of the prophet Jonah.  Jonah 1:1-4 tells us that after the Word of God came to Jonah, telling him rise and go to Nineveh to preach and call that wicked city to repentance, we read that Jonah “fled from the presence of the Lord.”  In fact this text tells us that Jonah was fleeing from God’s presence two times in vs. 3 and 4. 

What was going on in Jonah’s heart as a prophet of God to try to escape God’s presence and obey what God was telling Him to do?  That is part of the account of the book of Jonah, a man who knew God but tried to run from Him.  A man who was called by God, yet was so earnest at disobeying the word of God that we find in our text that instead of going north to Nineveh, he went west to Joppa to board a ship towards Tarshish.

We are all like Jonah at different times in our lives.  Instead of going North we go South, instead of yielding to God’s word, we yield to ourselves and allow fear, worry, bitterness and anger to shape us instead of allowing God to have His way in our hearts. 

We are all like Jonah, needing God to intervene on our behalf to keep us running in the wrong direction.  And that is what God does.  God sends a storm to stop Jonah and then a fish to swallow him after he was thrown into the sea to die.  Despite rebellion, God seeks, pursues and will send discipline to turn us from errant ways. 

This week we will begin the book of Jonah and look at several truths.  First, we will see that God speaks.  The word of God came to Jonah and the Word of God also comes to us.  God have given us His Bible and teachers and pastors to exhort us to turn from our errant ways back to Him.

We will also see that like Jonah, we also are guilty at times of running.   Instead of going God’s way, we persist on our own path, until God in His mercy sends a storm to stop us and a fish to swallow us.  Jonah 1:4, “the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea… a mighty tempest on the sea.”   God intervenes on our behalf, even if it takes a storm to bring us back to Himself.  This is goodnews and is a sign God loves us.

Maybe the storms and trials that you are facing are there to get your attention that you may turn back to God.  God loves us, and Scripture tells us that “God disciplines those He loves and chastises every son He receives.”  (Hebrews 12:6)  The goodnews is that when we turn back to God, He forgives and will draw close to us.  Therefore, “let us humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt us in the proper time.” (I Peter 5:6)