Jonah’s story is a familiar one, mainly because of the “great fish” that swallows him at the end of chapter 1 and spits him out at the end of chapter 2. But the fish is only mentioned in three of the book’s forty-eight verses, so let’s not be distracted by that part of the story. As G. Campbell Morgan said, “Men have looked so hard at the great fish that they have failed to see the great God.” Throughout Jonah 1, the prophet is on the run from this great God. The LORD called him to go to Nineveh and confront them about their evil ways. But Jonah wasn't interested in the assignment. Nineveh was the royal capital of Assyria (modern-day Iraq). Not only were they Israel’s arch enemies, Assyria was a terrorist state, one of the most cruel and violent empires of antiquity. This was truly an unlikely mission. And Jonah was an unwilling messenger. His prior experience marked him as a patriotic, nationalistic prophet. How could he betray his own country’s interests? And what difference could one man make anyway, in the midst of a large pagan city? So Jonah does the exact opposite of what God told him to do! Instead of travelling east, he goes west, boarding a ship that was headed across the Mediterranean Sea, with the intended destination of Tarshish, on the southern coast of Spain. His strategy is to make himself physically unavailable, so that he can’t possibly fulfill his commission and God will have to find someone else! (v 1-3). Jonah soon learns that he can’t hide from God, and his disobedience was putting others in harm’s way. God sends a life-threatening storm to get Jonah’s attention. Having fallen asleep below deck, he's rudely awakened by the ship’s captain, who wants to know why Jonah is doing nothing to help the crew, not even praying! Though he is supposedly a man of faith, Jonah is oblivious to the needs of his neighbors, and an unbeliever rebukes him for it! When the sailors start asking questions, Jonah delivers a solid testimony on behalf of the LORD God of heaven, but his actions were a direct contradiction. He said he feared the LORD, but the sailors seem to fear Him more than Jonah did (v 4-10). When they ask him what should be done to appease his God, Jonah instructs them to throw him overboard. Jonah has decided he would rather die than obey God’s will! Reluctantly, they do so, praying for mercy to the God whom Jonah has been ignoring. Suddenly the storm was quiet and the sea was calm. The sailors respond in reverential awe, surrendering their lives to the LORD. Sadly, Jonah wasn’t around to witness their conversion. But God can even use disobedient people to accomplish His purposes. Meanwhile, as Jonah goes beneath the water, he is picked up by his own private submarine! (v 11-17). For further meditation: