I can relate to Jonah well. Not that I’ve spent a weekend in the bowels of a giant fish, but because there is part of me that actually believes fleeing from the presence of the Lord is a valid option. As God’s word confirms, it’s not.
One barrier that a well-known narrative such as Jonah presents is that we gloss over it and think we have extracted all of its available meaning. We can’t make this mistake with Jonah. Our tendency would be to hyper-focus on Jonah’s disobedience and walk away with a moral assignment that looks something like, "Obey God or avoid sea travel." However, the emphasis of this narrative is not on the rebel’s rebellion. The emphasis leans heavily on the persistent and lavish grace of a pursuing God.
So what does this have to do with life? Go read Jonah. Again. No, seriously. What I pray you find is not an old childhood memory of an odd story, but that you will see the unfolding grace in the life of a fleeing servant (you and me), and that the story of God’s pursuit of His people is far beyond anything we would have ever written for ourselves.
