Title: You Can Run, But You Can't Avoid
Contents
God who speaks
God speaks to Jonah. "Arise, Jonah son of Amittai, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for its wickedness has come up before me."
Today the prophet Jonah is a happy prophet. Because the word of God has come. Specifically, God tells Jonah what to do. It was to go to Nineveh and preach the gospel. There is only one choice for a prophet before the word of Almighty God. Just obey and move on. Nevertheless, Jonah's answer surprises us. How does Jonah respond to verse 3? “But Jonah arose and fled to Tarshish to escape the presence of the Lord.”
Jonah runs away. Do you understand? It was not a vague command from God. He speaks directly to Jonah. How can a prophet who has to preach the word of God respond like this? "He fled to escape the face of the LORD." In the Bible, avoiding the face of God is an expression used to show the image of a human being who lives with his back on God. To what extent is Jonah a fallen prophet, so he reacts like this? Did he really fall and become a prophet who could not hear the word of God at all? To understand Jonah's reaction, we need to know who Jonah is and what Nineveh is like.
Who is Jonah? 2 Kings 14:25 speaks of Jonah as a prophet and servant of God. He was a servant of God and a prophet. What does a prophet do? He is a person who speaks the word of God like the mouth of God. It was Jonah who lived like that. The expression "the word of God came to Jonah" is not at all strange.
But Jonah decides to run away from the face of Jehovah today. What's the problem? Was it because Jonah really wanted to avoid God? The answer lies not in God, but in the Word of God. What did you say? “Jonah, go to Nineveh and preach the word.” Guys, what kind of place is Nineveh? It is the capital of the country of Assyria. Assyria was one of the most powerful powers of its time and was an enemy of Israel. It is the country that destroyed Israel. There is a place called Nahum in the Old Testament. Nahum is a prophecy that casts a curse on Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, a wicked country. Why do you curse Nineveh so much? Chapter 3 of Nahum shows the cruelty of the Assyrians. "Woe to you, city of blood, for it is full of deceit and violence, and plunder does not depart." Why? "A beautiful gisaeng who became the master of magic committed fornication