Jonah 1:1-3
Get Up and Go the Other Way
1Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying,
2“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”
3Jonah, however, got up to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard to sail for Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
The book opens with God speaking, and with a man named along with his father: Jonah son of Amittai. He is not a stranger to the rest of the Bible. Second Kings has Jonah son of Amittai from Gath-hepher working as a prophet in Israel, giving a message about the country's borders that turned out to be right. The man God is talking to here has done this job before and has been correct at it before.
The errand is Nineveh. Nineveh is named as far back as Genesis, among the cities of Assyria. God tells him to get up, go there, and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before him. An Israelite prophet is being sent to preach against the enemy's great city.
Then verse 3, where every word travels the wrong way.
Jonah, however, got up to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
He does get up. He makes the same first move God asked for and spends it going the other way: God names Nineveh, and the ship Jonah finds is bound for Tarshish, out across the sea. There is no hesitating here and no negotiating, and he does not argue with God about the errand. He goes down to the harbor.
At Joppa he finds a ship headed the right wrong way and pays for his place on it, out of his own pocket. Getting away from God costs him something, and he hands it over without a word of complaint. Then the writer finishes the verse the way he started it.
So he paid the fare and went aboard to sail for Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
Away from the presence of the LORD at the top of the sentence, and away from the presence of the LORD again at the bottom of it. Somebody wanted to be sure we knew what this voyage was for.
There is a psalm that answers it. Where can I go to escape your Spirit, where can I flee from your presence, and if I settle by the farthest sea, even there your hand will guide me. Jonah is a prophet, and he paid the fare anyway.
How We Know
This book is not the only place its prophet appears. Second Kings 14:25 identifies Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath-hepher, and sets him in the reign of Jeroboam the Second, recording a word he spoke from the LORD about the borders of Israel. Two things line up between the two passages: the name and the father. Gath-hepher and the reign are supplied by Kings alone, which is what makes the identification worth having.
Nineveh has a place in Israel's own records well before this. Genesis 10:11 names it among the cities of Assyria, and the prophet Nahum addresses an entire book to it.
Questions
1 What is Jonah told to do, and what does he do instead?
AnswerGet up, go to Nineveh, and preach against it. He gets up and pays for passage west to Tarshish, which is the opposite direction.
2 Jonah is not a beginner at this. What does the rest of the Bible tell us about him?
AnswerSecond Kings names Jonah son of Amittai from Gath-hepher as a prophet in Israel and records a message of his about the country's borders that came true. He had done the work before and had been right before.
3 Why would Nineveh be a hard place for an Israelite to be sent?
AnswerIt was a great city of Assyria, the empire everyone he knew was afraid of, and the one that would eventually destroy his own country. God was sending him to preach against the enemy.
4 What is something you have gone out of your way to avoid? What did the avoiding cost you?
AnswerAvoiding a thing is rarely free, which is what the end of verse 3 says out loud: he paid the fare. Jonah spent his own money on a boat God had not sent him to. Ours usually costs time, or sleep, or somebody else's patience.
What This Means for Us
Running from God cost Jonah money. He had to go down to the harbor, find a ship going somewhere useless, and hand over money of his own. We tend to picture disobedience as something that happens to a person in a weak moment, a slip. This one took planning, and a purse.
The travel here only ever goes one way. Down to Joppa, down into the ship, and before the chapter is over he will be lower still. A life spent getting away from God runs downhill.
Nobody at this table is buying passage to Tarshish. Most of us have spent something, though, on not doing a thing God had already made plain.
Prayer
Father, we know how to spend time and money getting away from what you asked. Thank you that you did not let Jonah go. Show us what we are running from, and give us the honesty to say it out loud tonight. Amen.