S147P8 – Lost to disobedience: direction
Jon. 1:13-16
Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they called out to the LORD, “O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.” So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.
The story did not start here. Jonah’s journey began with a word from the Lord asking for his help. God wanted Jonah to deliver a necessary word of judgment to an evil people. His task was to go to Nineveh, but he instead took a last-minute ship to Tarshish. The geography here matters. God wanted Jonah to travel several hundred miles east to Nineveh. Jonah simply could have stayed where he was in disobedience, but he fled. It seems as if fleeing his hometown was his way of fleeing from the Lord. In fact, his destination was considered the farthest place west of him. His goal was to flee as far away from God as he could with no real destination in mind.
This passage shows us that a ship on the high seas is no place to hide from the Lord. God had a destination and a purpose in mind for Jonah. There was a clear path from where Jonah was to where God wanted to take him, although that path became a little convoluted as a result of Jonah’s resistance. Where God was focused on taking Jonah to Nineveh, Jonah was focused on going anywhere else. He had no direction and no destination. He only wanted to get away from God. The result of this disobedience was that God would stop Jonah in his tracks. God would not let him go to Tarshish. His escape would be frustrated, and he would go to Nineveh one way or another.
It would seem that God was bent on frustrating all of Jonah’s efforts until he fulfilled his task. He could have tried to go anywhere, and he would have ended up nowhere. God’s interference was such that Jonah ended up in the belly of a fish. When our disobedience results in God frustrating our plans, we end up getting nowhere. We feel like we have lost direction, but that is only the redirection of the Lord. When we reject what God has chosen for us, we cannot be surprised when our way leads nowhere. Father, help us to be obedient regardless of where You call us to go, that we would not frustrate your plans and force You to frustrate ours.