> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.dashhouse.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Running from God (Jonah 1)
- URL: https://www.dashhouse.com/200354running-from-god-jonah-1-html/
- Published: 2003-05-04T04:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2024-10-31T20:28:07.000Z
- Description: Running from the Lord leads to poor choices, impacts others, and shows that one can never truly escape God.
- Author: Darryl Dash
- Tags: Jonah, Sermons, 2003

**Big Idea:** Running from the Lord leads to poor choices, impacts others, and shows that one can never truly escape God.

---

Open your Bibles to Jonah 1

Familiar story – many people know bits or pieces, perhaps have seen the movie

### Background

800-750 BC; A contemporary of Amos, shortly after Elijah and Elisha; Israel secure and spiritually smug; Assyria a threat from the north.

Did it really happen? Matthew 12 – Jesus thought it was historical and not allegorical

It’s the story of us – it’s all of our stories; the story of runners

> *But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish.* (Jonah 1:3)

> *This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.)* (Jonah 1:10)

## 1\. There’s a story behind the running (vv.1-3)

> Something powerful but unspoken precedes his decision to run. God wants us to do something difficult, perhaps unreasonable. Self surrender vs. selfishness

## 2\. Runners make the strangest choices (v. 3)

> Joppa – where people weren’t likely to be Israelite

> Tarshish – Nineveh 500 miles to the East in modern-day Mosul, Iraq; Tarshish, possibly 2,500 miles in the opposite direction (southern Spain); unknown, the opposite direction, as far away as possible

> Boat – probably first time in a boat

## 3\. Runners affect others (vv.4-16)

> Endangers them – Phoenician sailors

> Jonah sleeping (no conscience?); they’re awake losing their payload

> They’re worried about his survival; Jonah isn’t worried about Nineveh

> They worship God (imperfectly); Jonah continues to run

## 4\. God will let you run, but you can never outrun him (v. 17)

> God sent a wind that caused a storm (v.4)

> God sent a great fish (v.17)

> God waits, but God allows you to experience the full consequence of your actions.

We’ve all been runners; we may not be ready to give up running. Your experience is not unique. Running as far away as you can get. Running will hurt; you can’t outrun God.

As we’ll see this month, you can’t outrun God.

> Pray – those who are tired of running; for those still on the run, that you would send the wind that causes the storms