STORY OF THE WEEK: Running from God: What Jonah’s Story Says About Us
The Prophet, the Whale, and the Prejudices We All Hide
Every so often, the news provides material so absurd it feels tailor-made for a blog post. This story is one of those gems. A few years back, The Times of Israel reported on an unusual case where an Israeli man sought a restraining order against none other than God, claiming he had been treated unfairly by the Almighty.
Representing himself in court, the man faced an unusual challenge: God, the defendant, did not appear at the hearing. The court didn’t elaborate on how it verified God’s absence, leaving open the possibility that the divine was either genuinely missing or simply exercising the right to remain silent — a well-documented tendency. God also had no legal representation to speak on his behalf.
The plaintiff alleged that for three years, he had tried unsuccessfully to get police intervention, with officers showing up at his home nearly a dozen times — apparently to apprehend the Almighty. He argued that during this period, God demonstrated a persistently negative attitude toward him. However, the specifics of the grievances weren’t detailed in the report.
According to news report, “The presiding Judge denied the request, which he said was ludicrous, and suggested that the applicant needed help, not from the court, but rather from other sources.”
Sometimes, the truth is stranger than fiction.
My life was fine until God came along!
This story got me thinking: if anyone in the Bible could have empathized with this man’s legal antics, it’s Jonah — the prophet who tried to outwit God himself. Yes, the reluctant “prophet” who was supposedly swallowed by a whale — the same one you were taught about in Sunday School as if she were a man of great faith — was actually a sniveling, self-serving coward.
I’ll explain why as we go along!
Needless to say, Jonah is a Bible character to which I can relate. You don’t have to believe that he was literally swallowed by a whale to get something out of his story. It exposes a common struggle for every person of faith and reveals some hard truths that all believers must face about their ulterior motives, hidden agendas, and the secret prejudices that they unknowingly harbor. There is so much to learn from this famous Bible anti-hero. To me, Jonah’s story is one of the most fascinating stories in the Bible. Let’s take a look at it together:
“One day, the word of the Eternal One came to the prophet Jonah (Amittai’s son).
Eternal One: Get up, and go to that powerful and notorious city of Nineveh. Call out My message against it because the wickedness of its people has come to My attention.
In hearing those instructions, Jonah got up and ran toward Tarshish from the Eternal’s presence. He went down to the port at Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. He climbed aboard, paid the fare, and made himself comfortable in the hold of the ship.”
Let’s just pause here for a second. I think to understand what Jonah has just done, it helps to look at it on the map:
When the Lord calls out to Jonah, Jonah is in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The Lord calls Jonah to go to Ninevah, approximately 600 miles to the northeast. But instead, Jonah purchases a one-way ticket to a place called Tarshish. Where was Tarshish? Well, it was in modern-day Spain — over 2000 miles in the other direction. This was about as far to the west as any Israelite had ever ventured back at that time — literally the end of the earth. You get the idea. God calls Jonah to one place, and Jonah goes about as far as he can go in the other direction. Back to the story:
“Not to be deterred, the Eternal One threw an intense wind at the sea. The violence of the storm put Jonah’s ship in jeopardy of breaking apart. The sailors panicked! They started running back and forth, throwing cargo overboard to lighten the boat; every man, out of desperation, cried to his own deity. Eventually, a sailor found Jonah down in the hold of the ship, where he had lain down and fallen into a deep slumber. When the captain heard, he went down and woke Jonah up.
Captain: How can you sleep so deeply? Get up, and call out to your deity! Maybe your deity will see what is happening and save us from this catastrophe.
Sailors (to one another): You know what we should do? We should cast lots to find out who is ultimately responsible for our distress! So they cast their lots, and Jonah’s name was chosen.
Sailors: Who are you? We must know who is responsible for this disaster that would swallow us in the sea. What do you do? Where are you from? What country is your home? Whom are you descended from?
Jonah: I am Hebrew, and the God whom I worship is the Eternal One, the God of heaven. He made the sea and the land, so He controls them.
After interrogating him, the sailors were terrified because Jonah had told them he was running away from the Eternal’s presence.
Sailors (to Jonah): What have you done? Because of you, we’re all going to be killed. (shouting over the building storm) What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?
Jonah (shouting back): God is using the sea to punish me, so pick me up and throw me into the sea! Then the sea will grow calm again, and you’ll be safe! This is all my fault! This great storm of my God’s anger has built against you because of me!
The sailors ignored Jonah’s advice and tried to row back to land. They made no headway because the violence of the storm kept growing.
Sailors (to God): Eternal One! Please, we beg You — do not kill us as if we had murdered this man. And don’t punish us as if we’d killed an innocent person. We understand that You, Eternal One, do as You please.
At that, they grabbed Jonah by his arms and legs and threw him overboard. And when they did, the raging sea grew calm. The sailors were even more terrified of the Eternal One. They offered sacrifices to Him and made promises to Him.
The Eternal didn’t let Jonah die. He chose a large fish to swallow Jonah; for three days and three nights the prophet Jonah sat safely inside the belly of this fish.”
We are not so different from Jonah
Whether or not you believe that an actual fish literally swallowed Jonah or whether you believe this story is some kind of fable or allegory is not the issue at hand. Rather, this fascinating story reveals three things about the nature of human beings when they are confronted with a situation where they are asked by God to do something that they do not want to do. The times may have changed, but our reasons for avoiding God have not. There are three reasons why Jonah refused to follow God’s leading, and they are the same three reasons we still use today. We are not so different from Jonah. Here is why:
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