Running From God

Well, good morning again, and I hope you're having a great 4th of July weekend with your

family and your friends.

Over the next four weeks, throughout the month of July, we are going to be looking at the

story of Jonah, which is a prophet story in the Old Testament.

And I'm really excited to be looking at this story, to be looking at this book, for a number

of reasons.

It's an amazing story.

It's a story that perhaps many of us may or may not be familiar with us, we may or may

not be familiar with.

But it's an amazing story for a lot of reasons, not only because of the plot and the characters

and what happens in the story, but the scholars who have studied this over the years are aware

of how sophisticated a story it is in terms of its form, in terms of its structure, in

terms of its style.

Even though it's an incredibly short story, it only takes up about three pages in my Bible.

Even though it's a short story, scholars understand that it is a masterful work of Hebrew narrative,

of Hebrew language.

There's irony, there's satire, there's humor, and parallelism and symmetry, and so it's

this really amazing story.

And I also love this story because Jonah touches on some of the great themes of the entire Bible.

It touches on some of the most important themes of all of Scripture, things like the core doctrines of sin and grace.

What does the Bible teach about what sin is?

What does the Bible teach about what grace is?

Jonah gets right at that.

It touches on God's character.

It touches on how his justice and his mercy, his holiness and his love and compassion come together.

Jonah is about the power and the centrality of God's Word and our response to God through his Word.

Jonah is about mission.

It's about our calling to make disciples of all nations and to take the gospel to the whole world.

Jonah is also about the sins of racism and nationalism and ethnocentrism and the human tendency to feel superior to other people and other cultures.

Jonah is also about cities.

Jonah is about the importance of cities, not only to humanity, but also to God.

So Jonah is about all these amazing themes.

And another reason why I love this story and I'm excited to look at it is that even though it's an old story,

even though it's an ancient story, millennia old, it addresses modern questions.

And therefore, it's a really modern story.

It addresses questions like how do we live in a society that has deep differences?

It addresses questions like how do we become the kind of people who cannot just tolerate but love and live at peace with those who are different from us?

How do spiritual change and social change go together?

How can a city and a society experience both spiritual renewal and cultural renewal?

And so it's an old story, but it's a modern story because it addresses a lot of our modern problems and questions.

And so for all those reasons, I love this story.

I'm excited to look at it.

But before we dive into it, there's at least a couple things, one thing in particular, that we have to unlearn before we study this book.

And one of the things that we have to unlearn as we come to study Jonah is that Jonah is just a children's story.

That it's just a kid's story about Jonah and the fish.

I think it's common for a lot of people to think about it this way.

Perhaps that's because of the success of VeggieTales.

I was telling Deborah about that this morning.

Or perhaps because of the experience in church that we grew up in, that it tends to be a story that kids like.

And so it tends to be a story that we associate with just telling our children.

But for a lot of reasons, for those we already named, it's literary sophistication.

It's all the great themes that it touches on.

It's actually way more of an adult story.

It's way more of an adult story than a children's story.

Although, the beauty of Jonah is that kids, it's a story that kids love too.

It's a story that kids and adults can read together and love.

And so that's something that we have to unlearn as we come to this story together.

The last thing that I'll say, one final thing I'll say, by means of introduction and orientation to this book,

is a word about history.

So because of the nature of the story, because of some of the fantastic or even miraculous things that happen in it,

many people are going to read this as just an allegory or as a parable,

as just a symbolic story that reveals a bigger truth about God.

That whether or not it happened in history doesn't actually matter.

What matters is the bigger spiritual truth.

And so that's a question we have to think about.

Is Jonah just a symbolic story?

Is it just an allegory?

Or did it actually happen?

And that's an important question.

And I do want to address that.

But for the sake of time, we're actually going to leave that for next week.

We're going to leave that for week two.

Just for the sake of time.

But I do want to address it because it's an important question.

And it's probably a question that many of you all have as you think about the book of Jonah.

So we'll touch on that next week.

So let's dive in and let's look at Jonah chapter one.

In the first chapter, in the beginning of this story, we're going to see a couple things.

We're going to see Jonah's flight from God and God's grace in the storm.

Jonah's flight from God and God's grace in the storm.

So first of all, Jonah's flight from God.

So what do we know about Jonah?

Well, the Bible actually doesn't give us a ton of background information about him except for 2 Kings chapter 14.

2 Kings 14 · chapter mention

And in 2 Kings chapter 14, we learn that Jonah was a prophet who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel in around the 8th century BC.

2 Kings 14 · chapter mention

And we learn in that passage that God had given Jonah a prophecy.

He'd given Jonah a prophecy that Israel was going to reclaim land.

It was going to restore its national borders from land that it had previously lost in previous generations to other powers in the region.

And in 2 Kings chapter 14, we learn that this prophecy comes to pass under King Jeroboam II through various military campaigns.

2 Kings 14 · chapter mention

And the northern borders of Israel are expanded and restored.

And the reason why that matters, the reason why that context matters, is because it means that the early days of Jonah's ministry as a prophet were actually a time of national pride for the people of the northern kingdom of Israel.

Despite the fact that Jeroboam II was a bit of a mixed bag and a pretty terrible spiritual leader, God had nonetheless showed favor on his people in this way.

The national borders of Israel were expanded to a place that had only been matched in the days of King Solomon.

And if you know the story of Israel, you know that the days of King Solomon were the glory days of Israel.

They were the glory days of wealth and prosperity and learning and peace.

And so you can imagine the kind of pride, the kind of honor that Jonah must have felt as a prophet during this time.

His ministry could be mentioned in the same sentence as King Solomon.

He was God's prophet.

And he got to preach a message of expansion and glory and victory and success.

And he also got to see it come true.

And maybe that meant that in Jonah's days, maybe that meant that the glory days were on their way back.

That the glory days of King Solomon were rolling back.

Jonah may have thought to himself, you know, being a prophet in Israel, this is a pretty great gig, you know.

I wonder what message of glory, what message of victory, what message of success is God going to ask me to preach next.

But then we see Jonah chapter 1, verse 1.

Jonah 1:1

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it.

For their evil has come up before me.

Now given everything that we had just said about the early days of Jonah's ministry, this was not the assignment that Jonah had in mind.

This would have come as a great shock to him for a number of reasons.

The Lord had never in history before called a prophet from Israel to go to another nation, to go to a Gentile nation.

He had only sent prophets to Israel and Judah.

And so this was completely unprecedented.

This would have been completely off the radar for Jonah.

And not only was it a Gentile nation that God had called Jonah to go to, but it was the city of Nineveh.

It was the city of Nineveh.

Now what do we know about Nineveh?

Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, that great and powerful, fearful nation to the north.

A generation earlier, the Assyrians had forced Israel's king, Jehu, to pay tribute, to pay lots of money and gold.

In order to pay tribute to them.

They were a people known for their violence and cruelty.

They were an economic rival in the region.

They were a constant military threat.

They were constantly trying to expand their own borders.

And they had this reputation of being a violent people, of being a cruel people.

Both on the military front and in their own society.

But above all, Nineveh represented a society that was a pagan nation, that worshipped pagan gods.

That worshipped false gods.

And so Nineveh was a city that embodied everything that Israel was against.

Everything that Israel feared.

And everything that Israel hated.

Needless to say, Nineveh was not on Jonah's summer vacation destination list.

Nineveh was not on Jonah's bucket list.

It was the last place that he would ever want to go.

But God told Jonah, that is exactly where I want you to go.

And so what does Jonah do?

He jumps in the car and he heads to Nineveh straight away.

No.

What does he do?

He runs in the complete opposite direction.

Nineveh is to the northeast.

And he goes west.

Or rather, northeast for you and west over here.

And he finds, he goes to a town on the west coast of Israel called Joppa.

And he finds a ship headed to Tarshish.

A place that was across the Mediterranean Sea to the west.

Jonah goes as far away from Nineveh as he could go in direct disobedience to God's word.

Direct disobedience to God's word.

And so what do we learn from the first part of this story?

What do we learn from the opening of the story of Jonah?

Well, we learn that there is more than one way to run from God.

That there's more than one way to run from God.

If you're here this morning and maybe you would consider yourself more of a secular person,

you wouldn't consider yourself a Christian,

you wouldn't consider yourself very religious,

chances are that when you hear somebody like me,

some pastor or a person in a collar,

when you hear a person like me talk about running from God,

chances are you imagine them to talk about living a life of immorality and sin

and self-indulgence, perhaps a life of hedonistic pleasure,

apart from church, apart from religion.

And of course, that is for sure one way to run from God,

but it's not the only way.

And it's not, in fact, the way that Jonah runs from God here in this story.

Jonah's not abandoning his faith.

He's not pursuing a life of hedonistic, sinful pleasure and autonomy.

So why is he running?

Why is Jonah running?

Well, we're going to have to wait for the story to unfold to get a fuller answer to that question.

Jonah gives us a more specific answer to why he runs in Jonah chapter 3,

Jonah 3 · chapter mention

but for now, we get a preview of that answer here in chapter 1

by thinking about Jonah as a prophet.

As a prophet.

What would it have meant for a prophet from Israel to go to a city like Nineveh?

Well, of course, it would have meant that he would have had to go

and confront one of Israel's national enemies in the flesh.

He would have had to go and confront his cultural enemies,

people that he feared and hated.

But it also meant the possibility that the people in Nineveh

would hear a message from God.

Prophets were people who spoke God's word to people.

They revealed the truth about who God was.

And so if Jonah was going to go and preach a message to the people of Nineveh,

it meant that they could hear a message about the truth of God.

And if they could hear a message from God,

then it also meant that they could respond to that message.

It meant that they could hear the message

and that they could also respond to it in ways that involved repentance,

in ways that involved change,

in ways that involved turning from sin,

turning from their wickedness and their evil

and their violent ways that they were known for.

It meant the possibility, not the guarantee,

but it meant the possibility that those people,

those Assyrians,

would potentially receive the same mercy

and the same compassion from God

that Jonah had experienced

and that all of Israel had experienced.

Jonah runs perhaps partially because of fear,

but he runs primarily

because of his own national and cultural and religious pride.

He's not running because he's immoral

or because he's deconstructed his faith.

He's running because he cannot imagine

those people

having the same relationship with God

that he has based on grace.

And the Bible teaches that this is the default operating system

of every human heart.

The human condition

is that we all run from God.

That we all run from God

in disobedience to his word.

That's what sin is.

That's sin in a nutshell.

All of us run from God.

And some people run from God

in ways that look more immoral, irreligious.

But others of us run from God

in ways that look very moral, very religious.

It looks like we're actually being a good person

and doing good things.

There's a character in one of Flannery O'Connor's novels.

Flannery O'Connor wrote a novel called Wise Blood.

And, um,

and one of Flannery O'Connor's characters

is a man named Hazel Motes

in her novel Wise Blood.

And, uh,

as we read the story,

we learn that Hazel,

Hazel Motes learns,

uh,

he learns,

he says,

that the way to avoid Jesus

was to avoid sin.

That the way to avoid Jesus

was to avoid sin.

In other words,

if we're a moral person,

if we're a good religious person,

if we've fulfilled our religious obligations,

then we've paid our dues.

And if we've paid our dues, uh,

to God,

then, uh,

he is obligated to bless us.

He's obligated to answer our prayers.

Um,

he's obligated to do things for us

on the basis of our own,

uh,

good works.

The way to avoid Jesus

was to avoid sin.

But this is in direct contradiction

to what Christianity teaches.

It's, uh,

at the heart of our faith,

uh,

we believe that our relationship with God

is based on something called grace.

It's not based on our own culture,

it's not based on our own morality

or good works,

but it's based on an undeserved gift.

A gift that he initiates,

a gift that he freely offers us,

and a gift that he purchases

and earns for us.

And so even though Jonah is God's prophet,

even though he's a religious person,

even though he speaks for God

for his job,

he has a deficient understanding

of God's grace.

He has a deficient understanding

of God's grace.

At his core,

he's still,

at this point in the story,

he still basically believes

that it's his culture,

it's his morality

that allows him

to receive God's blessing

and approval,

and that's why he runs.

Because it's that,

it's that belief,

it's that orientation to the world

that makes him,

uh,

fearful,

it makes him say,

I can't imagine

that those people might

experience the same relationship

with God that I have.

And so whether you would consider yourself

a secular person

or whether you would say

that you've been a Christian

your whole life,

um,

wherever you're at

on that spectrum,

like Jonah,

all of us

are blind in some way

to God's grace.

We're all blind in some way

to God's grace.

We all have blind spots.

Even if your theology

of justification

is impeccable.

Even if you can explain

justification

clearly and articulately,

all of us have blind spots

to God's grace.

If Jonah had blind spots,

if a prophet from Israel

had blind spots,

then we all have blind spots

about God's grace.

Um,

we might be blind

to,

like Hazel Motes,

we might be blind

to ways that we

see our own spiritual life

as a way of paying our dues

and getting God to bless us

and answer our prayers.

Uh,

we might be blind

to our,

our own patterns of sin,

uh,

to our own unhealthy ways

of relating with other people.

Uh,

but like Jonah,

we might also,

uh,

be blind to ways

that deep town

we actually feel superior

to other people.

Um,

hardly anybody

thinks to themselves,

hardly anybody

says out loud,

you know,

I'm really better

than those people.

I'm just so great,

I'm so superior,

I'm really better

than those people.

But if you've ever thought

or if you've ever said,

uh,

things like this,

you know,

I,

I can't believe

that those people

or that that person

would think about

politics that way.

I can't believe

that he or she

would see the issues

that way,

would see the world

that way.

I can't believe

that they would vote

for this person

or that person.

I can't believe

that they would send

their kids to that school.

I can't believe

that they would live

in that part of the city

or live in that neighborhood.

I can't believe

they would live

in the suburbs.

If you've ever

said something like that

or thought about

something like that

in your heart,

that's the,

that's the seed

of superiority.

It's the seed

of pride.

And that's a blind spot.

That's a blind spot

that shows

a deficient understanding

of God's grace.

And one of the secrets

of the Christian life,

one of the secrets

of living as a Christian,

as a disciple of Jesus,

is learning

how to discover

your own blind spots.

And none of us

can do that

by ourselves.

But we,

whoops,

sorry,

we all need to discover

our own blind spots

in ways that are

particular to us,

particular to our own

temperament,

our own personality,

our own temptations,

our own story.

And we do that,

we absolutely need

other people

to help us do that.

We need community,

we need friendships,

we need other people

in our life

to help point out

blind spots

that we have.

We also need

spiritual disciplines,

the regular means

of grace,

prayer,

study of God's word,

silence,

solitude,

and fasting.

We need all of these things

to help us discover

our own blind spots.

And unless you're

actively doing that,

unless you're actively

uncovering

your own blind spots

about God's grace,

our hearts will start

to wander.

We'll start believing

things that aren't

true about God

and our hearts

will start to wander

away from the reality

of a relationship

with God

based on grace.

And if we let our hearts

wander for too long,

if we let our hearts

wander long enough

and hard enough,

we'll find ourselves

running away from God,

not running towards Him

and His purposes

and His call

on our lives,

but like Jonah,

running in the complete

opposite direction

and direct disobedience.

And that is where

Jonah found himself.

Even though he was

a prophet of Israel,

he found himself

running from God

in direct disobedience

to Him.

But how does God respond?

How does God respond

to Jonah's flight,

to his disobedience,

to him running?

Well, second of all,

we see God's grace

in the storm.

We see God's grace

in the storm.

Jonah goes to Joppa

and he boards a ship

that heads out

across the Mediterranean Sea

and the ship gets out there

in the middle of the sea

and suddenly,

this violent storm

breaks out.

And it threatens the lives

of everybody on board

the ship.

The sailors,

the captain,

and panic starts to set in.

And the sailors

become desperate.

They start throwing

and heaving stuff overboard,

supplies overboard

in order to make the ship lighter,

to make it more buoyant.

And they start praying

and they start crying out

to their gods.

They start crying out

to their pagan gods

to save them

and rescue them.

And meanwhile,

what is Jonah doing?

He's sleeping.

He's sleeping.

And the captain says to Jonah,

Jonah,

what are you doing?

Get up.

We are all calling

on our gods.

You need to wake up

and call upon your God.

We're about to go down.

We need all the help

that we can get.

And then verse seven,

the sailors said to one another,

come,

let us cast lots

that we may know

on whose account

this evil

has come upon us.

And they cast lots

and the lot

fell to Jonah.

Now,

without explaining

the logistics

of how lots work,

Jonah,

as God's prophet,

would have been familiar

with Proverbs 16.33,

which says,

the lot is cast

into the lap,

but it's every decision

is from the Lord.

Jonah knew.

The lot fell to him.

Jonah knows

he's the reason.

Jonah knows

even without the lot

being cast to him.

Jonah knows

the reason

why the storm has come

is because of him.

He's the reason.

And the sailors say to him,

who are you?

Where are you from?

Why is all this happening to us?

What have you done?

Verse nine,

and he said to them,

I am a Hebrew

and I fear the Lord,

the God of heaven,

who made the sea

and the dry land.

And then the men

were exceedingly afraid

and said to him,

what is this

that you have done?

And you can't help

but notice

the incredible irony

that's going on

in this moment.

You can't help

but notice

the incredible irony

that is happening

in this scene.

Jonah's a prophet.

He's the one

who's supposed

to reveal

the truth about God.

He's the one

who's supposed

to preach God's word.

He's the one

who's supposed

to tell other people

about the truth

of who God is.

But who is it

that's actually

revealing the truth

about who God is

in this situation?

It's the pagan sailors.

The pagan sailors

are actually revealing

the truth about God.

The pagan sailors

are more in touch with,

they're more consistent

with Jonah's theology

than Jonah is.

Jonah says,

I worship the Lord

and yet he runs

from him.

Jonah says,

I worship the God

who made all things,

the God who made

the earth and the sea.

And the sailors

say to Jonah,

Jonah,

if you worship

the God

who made the sea,

then how could you

run from him

and try to escape

from him

in the sea?

If your God

made the sea,

how could you

possibly run from God

and get away from him

in the sea?

It's an incredible irony

and it shows

that it was an illusion

for Jonah

to think

that he could escape

from Yahweh,

from the one

who had made

all things.

And the storm

and the sailors

were showing Jonah

that that was

an illusion

and that illusion

was starting to fade.

And friends,

here is a

hard

but beautiful truth

from the book

of Jonah

that sometimes

the most loving

and gracious thing

that God can do

when we are running

from him

is to send a storm

into our lives,

to send difficult

circumstances

that make us aware

that we are fragile,

that we're dependent

upon him,

where the illusion

that we are in control

is wiped away.

And perhaps

even when our rebellion

and our

disobedience

is unmasked.

A few years ago,

I was living in Charlottesville,

I was working

at the University of Virginia

and one afternoon

I was driving home

from campus

and I was stopped

at a light,

I was stopped

at an intersection

and the car

in front of me

was about to make

a left-hand turn

and the light

turned green

and over to my left

there was

a man

with his son

who was about

six or seven years old

and his son

was on a bike

and when the crosswalk

sign changed,

the son started

to pedal his bike

across the intersection.

Only the car

in front of me

did not see

that this was happening

and the car

started to turn left

and the boy

started to pedal

his bike

across the intersection

and the father

saw what was happening

and he saw

the ongoing terror

that was about

to happen

and with his

best dad reflexes,

he ran after him,

he jumped out

in the middle

of the intersection

between his son

and between the car

and he grabs his son

and he grabs his bike

and he violently,

quickly pulls him back

to the sidewalk

out of safety.

The father

in that moment

caused

a mini storm

in that kid's life.

He was thrown

off balance,

he was jostled around,

he was prevented

from going

in the direction

that he wanted to go.

You can imagine

that even for the

first few seconds

he was angry

that his dad

was pulling him back,

that he was preventing

him from going

where he wanted to go.

He didn't understand

what was happening,

he couldn't see,

he had blind spots.

But the father saw

that the mini storm

that he created

in his son's life

was ultimately

for his good.

It was ultimately

out of love

and it saved him

from experiencing

a much bigger storm.

And sometimes,

like with Jonah,

that is what God

does in our lives.

Now let's be

crystal clear on this,

not every situation

of difficulty

in our lives

is related to us

running from God.

But sometimes it is.

Sometimes it is.

The Bible is clear,

difficult circumstances

happen all the time

to people

who haven't done

anything to deserve it.

It's not because

of their sin.

But the difficult

circumstances have happened

just because we live

in a fallen world.

And that's what happens

to people who live

in a fallen world.

We know from Scripture

that people who love

and trust

and worship

and obey God

can suffer greatly.

And it has absolutely

nothing to do

with their sin.

It has absolutely

nothing to do

with their disobedience.

But sometimes,

storms in our lives

do happen

because we are running

from God.

And rather than

allowing us

to experience

the ultimate storm

of death

and separation

from Him,

God sends a mini-storm

in our life.

He sends a kindness,

a mercy,

in order to wake us up

and to help us see

our need for Him.

And the reason

why we know that

is because that is

exactly what happened

to Jonah.

Verse 11,

Then they said to Him,

What shall we do to you

that the sea

may quiet down for us?

For the sea grew

more and more tempestuous.

Nothing that they were doing

was working.

And it's at this moment

that Jonah decides

to stop running.

He realizes

he is the reason

for the storm.

He realizes

he cannot outrun God.

And he realizes

that his decisions

have had consequences,

that they've put

the lives of others

in dangers.

And he says

to the sailors,

Pick me up

and throw me

into the sea.

I'm the one

to blame.

I'm the one

who deserves

God's judgment.

I'll take on

the wrath of the storm

so you don't have to.

I'll die

so that you can live.

I'm the one

to blame.

Jonah understands

that his running

from God

wasn't just a momentary

lapse in judgment

but that it was

rebellion against

the king of heaven

and earth

and that what he deserved

was death.

And so the sailors

pick him up

and they throw him

overboard

into the sea.

And the sea

grows calm.

And Jonah goes down

to the bottom

of the sea.

Only

Jonah doesn't

die.

He's

rescued.

The Lord provides

a great fish

to swallow

Jonah.

Was it

a whale?

Was it some other

great fish?

Was it some other

marine creature?

We don't know.

But what we do know

is that the great fish,

the large fish

was a refuge

amidst a raging storm.

It was in the very

center of the storm

that God revealed

his grace,

that he revealed

his mercy.

The same God

who caused the wind

and the waves

to stir up

also called the wind

and the waves

to calm down.

The same God

who brought

the storm

also brought

the fish.

The same God

who brought judgment

also brought

salvation.

And this is a shadow

of what would happen

centuries later

through another prophet

from Israel.

In Matthew chapter 12,

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

Jesus is talking

to people

who wanted him

to perform

a miraculous sign.

And in the gospel

reading we read

in Matthew 12,

Jesus says,

no sign will be given

to this generation

except the sign

of Jonah.

For as Jonah

was three days

and three nights

in the belly

of a huge fish,

so the Son of Man

will be three days

and three nights

in the heart

of the earth.

What is the story

of Jonah about?

Well, as we looked

at earlier,

Jonah is about

a number of things.

It's about lots

of great themes.

But it's mainly

about Jesus.

It's mainly

about Jesus.

Jesus Christ

is the true

and better Jonah.

Though we have

all run from God,

though we have

all directly

disobeyed his word,

though we have

all rebelled

against his calling

on our lives,

though we all

have blind spots

to God's grace,

though we all

deserve the storm

of God's judgment

for sin on the cross,

Jesus Christ

hurled himself

into the depths

of that storm

for you

so that you

can experience

only the peaceful

calm of God's love

and his grace.

of God's grace.

The storm

that Jonah's face

was because

of his sin,

but the storm

that Jesus Christ

faced on the cross

was because

of our sin.

Just as Jonah

was buried

beneath the heart

of the sea

for three days

and three nights,

so Jesus Christ

was buried beneath

the infinite weight

of death

and hell

and evil

itself.

And just as Jonah

was resurrected

symbolically

after three days

by being

put back

onto the dry land,

so Jesus Christ

was resurrected

literally

in power

and victory

over death.

And the difference

that makes

is that all

who take refuge

in him,

all who take refuge

in Jesus Christ

in the same way

that Jonah took refuge

in the belly

of the fish,

all who take refuge

in him,

can face

any storm.

When you see

that Jesus Christ

faced the ultimate

storm of God's wrath

and judgment

for you,

when you see that,

you can know

that not only

is every storm

in your life

not that ultimate storm,

it's not that storm,

Jesus Christ already

faced it for you,

but you can also know

that every difficult

circumstance

within your life

is within his

sovereign control.

It's within his

sovereign care

and concern

for you

and can even

be a means

of experiencing

greater depths

of God's love,

of his grace,

of his presence.

And it can even

be a means

of how God

wants to work

through you

in your life

in the world.

And so friends,

we,

the human condition

is that we can

run from God

and we can run

from him

in a thousand

different ways.

Some of those ways

look quite moral

and look quite religious.

But the beauty

of the gospel,

according to Jonah,

is that though

we run from God,

God never stops

running after us.

in pursuing

the areas

of our lives,

pursuing the areas

of our hearts

that are blind

to his grace.

And the rest

of that story,

the rest of Jonah

chapters two

through four

is about

that reality,

the reality

of God's grace

sinking deep down

into Jonah's heart

and extending

out into Jonah's

life,

into the world.

Jonah's experience

of God's grace

in the middle

of the storm

takes him

on both

an inward journey

and an outward journey.

An inward journey

and an outward journey.

Chapter two,

which we'll look at

next week,

is about the inward journey.

Chapter two

is a prayer

that Jonah prays

from the belly

of the fish

and we see how

Jonah's experience

of grace

changes him

from the inside out.

It shows him

where his blind spots are.

It humbles him.

It brings about

repentance

and spiritual renewal.

It leads him

to greater love

for God

and greater worship

of God.

And then chapters

three and four

are about how

that inward transformation

works its way out

in Jonah's life.

It's about the outward journey

that Jonah goes on.

We learn how

Jonah's experience

of grace

sends Jonah back out

on mission

to obey God's calling

on his life

and to learn more

about God's heart

for the world,

to learn about

how God's mercy

and his compassion

extend

even to those people.

And so Jonah's

experience of grace

in the middle of the storm

takes him on this

deep inward journey

and it takes him

on this outward journey

to the world.

And if we let him,

he promises

to do the same for us.

But sometimes

it takes a storm.

But we don't have

to fear the storm.

And we don't have

to fear the storm

because the same God

who brings the wind

and the waves

also brings

the fish.

The same God

who brings the storm

also brings

the cross.

A place of refuge

infinitely better

than the refuge

that Jonah found.

Let's pray.

Our God and Father,

we thank you

for ways

that you

run after us

even when we run

from you.

Lord, help us

to see

our own blind spots.

Help us

to experience

your grace

at a deep level

in ways that

change us deep down.

Lord, help us

to know

that you're with us

in the midst

of the storm

because of what

Jesus Christ did

for us

who faced

the storm

for us.

And it's

in his name

we pray.

Amen.