RUNAWAY JONAH AND THE CONVENIENT SHIP – Charles Spurgeon
RUNAWAY JONAH AND THE CONVENIENT SHIP
“But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish.” Jonah 1:3.
Introduction: The Disobedient Prophet
Sad sight! Here is a servant of God running away from his work. As well see the stars wandering from their spheres! When we read that he fled from the presence of God, we do not suppose that Jonah thought that he could get away from God as to His Omnipresence, but he wanted to escape serving in the Divine Presence—he wished to avoid being employed by God in his special service as a Prophet. He thought that the Lord might call him and send him upon errands if he went to Nineveh, for Assyria had some measure of evident relationship to the Lord and His people. But if he could once travel as far as Tarshish, he would be out of the world altogether and would no more have to speak in the name of the Lord. He imagined that there could be no relationship between Tarshish and Israel and he would not be expected to do any further prophetic work. Or, if he did, he would not suffer in repute, for the report would not reach Jerusalem. If he did not want to get away from the toilsome and self-denying duty of prophecy, he did, at least, wish to avoid an expedition to the heathen of Nineveh—an expedition which, he foresaw, would not be for his own honor.
Now, why did he desire to get away from his work? Whatever reason he had, it must have been a bad one, for no servant of God ought, on any account whatever, to think of quitting the service of his Lord. We should not wish to avoid the doing of the Lord’s will. When we know what our duty is, we ought to follow it with unswerving determination. We must not wish to leave our post, no, not even to go to Heaven. We ought not to be sighing to be gone. Employers do not like a man who is always looking for Saturday night! Let him attend to the work of Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and the week will end quite soon enough. One does not like to see a fellow standing about, stretching his arms upward and sighing, “The week is very long. I wish it were Saturday.” You like a man who means to do a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage and who does not watch till you turn your back that he may slacken his labor. We must not be crying, “Oh that I had wings like a dove!” What should we do with them if we had them? Such heavy mortals as some of us are had better keep nearer the ground! Whatever reason anyone thinks he has for avoiding the Lord’s work, the reason is as vicious as the thing he is aiming at, for children of God have no right to leave the service of their heavenly Father and, when they do so, it is at their own peril.
Reasons for Jonah’s Escape
What was his reason? Was it, in part, that he considered the work to be too great for him? Certainly he had a great task appointed him. “Nineveh, an exceedingly great city of three days’ journey”—how was one man to admonish and evangelize the whole of it? Preposterous! Might he not have been aided by at least one colleague? Even Moses had his Aaron! Why did not the Lord send forth a college of Prophets, or an army of preachers and bid them go and divide the vast city into districts? Then they could hold services in all the large halls, at the street corners, or even visit from house to house! Just one man is pitted against hundreds of thousands? Would a single voice be heard amid the noise of a city which was full of tumult? The odds were great against the lone man. Was that why Jonah ran away?
I think not—but it has been the cause of the flight of many others. Is there a servant of God here who feels unequal to his work and therefore wishes he could escape from it? My dear Brother, you are unequal to your work, for you have no sufficiency of your own! I know, also, that I am, in and of myself, unequal to my own calling—shall we, therefore, run away? No, no! That is not the true line of argument. This is the reason why we should stick to our work all the more closely. Every hard thing can be cut by something harder and the most difficult work can be done by stern resolution. But if the work cannot be well done by us, how will it be done without us? If our diligence seems too little, what will our negligence be? If there is too much for us to do, should we therefore leave undone what we can do? God forbid! Pluck up courage, my Brother, and in your own personal weakness find a strong reason for getting to your work, for, “When I am weak, then am I strong” and the strength of God is made perfect in our weakness! With more prayer we shall have more power. I hardly think that fear of being overdone was Jonah’s reason for deserting his post.
The Root of Jonah’s Rebellion
Why did Jonah wish to run away? Because he did not like the Ninevites? I think that there was something of that on his mind. He was a stern old Jew and he loved his race—and he felt no desire to see anything done for the Gentiles or for the heathen outside the Abrahamic Covenant—therefore he had no passion for a mission to Nineveh. Is there anybody here who does not want to go to a certain service because he does not like the people? Will you flee to Tarshish to get away from a dreaded sphere? Are you backing out of your duty because those with whom you are to serve are not quite to your taste—too ignorant or too cultured, too countrified or too polite? Come, my dear Brother, this must not be! Be not of a cross, morose disposition as Jonah undoubtedly was. If the men to whom you are sent are worse than others, let that be a call for you to go to them, first, even as the Apostles were to “begin at Jerusalem.” If those to whom you are sent are greater sinners than others, they need Christ all the more! And if you have heard a very bad report of them, surely there is a call for you to elevate them. However, I am not sure that this was very much Jonah’s case, though it may have been one of the many arguments that worked together to produce his undutiful behavior.
Jonah’s Fear of God’s Mercy
Was it not, possibly, because Jonah knew that God was merciful? “Now,” said he to himself, “if I have to go through Nineveh and say, ‘Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown,’ and if these people repent, it will not be overthrown! And then they will say, ‘Pretty Prophet that Jonah! He is a man that cries, ‘Wolf,’ when there is no wolf,’ and I shall lose my reputation.”
Do I address any servant of God here who is afraid of losing his reputation? This is not a reason which will stand examination. My Brother, that is a fear which does not trouble me. I have lost my reputation several times and I would not go across the street to pick it up! It has often seemed to me to be a thing that I should like to lose—that I might no longer be pressed with this huge throng—but might preach to two or three hundred people in a country village, look after their souls and stand clear, at last, to God about each one of them. Whereas, here I am tied to a work I cannot accomplish—pastor to more than 5,000 people! A sheer impossibility! How can I watch over all your souls? I should have an easy conscience if I had a Church of moderate size which I could efficiently look after. If a reputation gets one into the position I now occupy, it certainly is not a blessing to be coveted. But if you have to do anything for Christ which will lose you the respect of good people and yet you feel bound to do it, never give two thoughts to your reputation for, if you do, it is already gone in that secret place where you should most of all cherish it.
A False Understanding of God’s Character
The highest reputation in the world is to be faithful—faithful to God and your own conscience. As to the approbation of the unconverted multitude, or of worldly professors, do not care the turn of a button for it—it may be a deadly heritage. Many a man is more a slave to his admirers than he dreams of—the love of approbation is more a bondage than an inner dungeon would be. If you have done the right thing before God and are not afraid of His great judgment seat, fear nothing, but go forward!
I think that there was a little of regard for reputation in Jonah—possibly a great deal. But still there was a higher and a better motive, though even that was a bad one, for anything is bad, however true and excellent in itself, that leads a man to run contrary to God’s mind. It was this. He thought that the Character of God Himself would suffer, for if he went down to Nineveh and proclaimed, “Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” then the people might repent and Jehovah would allow them to live. and then, after a while, the people would say, “Who is Jehovah? His Word does not stand fast. He does not carry out His judgments. He lays His hand on the hilt of His sword and then pushes it back into the scabbard.” Thus the Lord Himself, by His mercy, would lose His name for Truth and Immutability. Jonah would have preferred the destruction of Nineveh to the least dishonor to the name of the Lord.
Have you ever felt as if you could wish that God would execute judgment on deadly forms of error and cruel forms of oppression? Have you not been half weary of His longsuffering?
The Temptation to Justify Wrongdoing
I stood at the bottom of Pilate’s staircase in Rome. Pretentious imposition! It is said to be the staircase from which our Lord came down from Pilate’s Hall—and there are certain holes in the wood which covers the marble wherein are said to be seen the drops of blood which fell from our Lord’s bleeding shoulders. As I saw people going up those stairs on their knees and the priests looking on, it occurred to me that if the Judge of all would lend me His thunderbolts for about five minutes, I would have made a wonderful clearance. It was the Jonah spirit stirring me and I felt I did well to be angry. But, you see, the good Lord did not empower me to be an executioner—and I am right glad that He did not! Have you ever felt a zeal for the Lord of Hosts which led you, like John, to wish to call fire from Heaven? Did you not feel half sorry that the Lord withheld His anger when it seemed necessary to execute vengeance in order to maintain the honor of His Gospel? Have you not almost said, “Oh, that He would punish such tremendous iniquities”? Not long ago, when these streets of ours were ringing with stories of licentious infamy, did you not feel as if something must be done, something terrible, to sweep away the dens of lust and cleanse the Augean stables of pollution? But God did nothing in the way of plague, or war, or famine. In His longsuffering He passed by the transgressors and allowed them, still, to go on in their wickedness as He has done these many years, bearing and forbearing, if haply men may come to repentance. This is a trial to righteous souls! That, I think, was the great fear that lay in the heart of Jonah, for he said to God, when God had spared the city, “I pray You, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that You are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repent You of the evil. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech You, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.” This was not because the people were spared, but because he thought God had lost His honor by not fulfilling His threats.