Most of us know the story of Jonah and the whale from when we were young, but have you read the story lately?
Jonah is told by God to go and speak to this group of people called the Ninevites. Jonah thinks about it for about zero seconds, flashes God the two finger peace sign and bolted in the total opposite direction. He hops on a boat that is heading out for sea and doesn't look back.
In an attempt to get Jonah's attention he sends in a ferocious wind. So ferocious that the sailors who no doubt had tons of experience sailing in storms, were freaking out. The Bible says that each one cried out to his "own god".
Then the sailors started questioning Jonah about who he was and Jonah said, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land."
Now the sailors were afraid for their lives. Not only was the storm great, but they had a man on the ship who obviously did something to make the real God upset.
The storm was getting even worse and the sailors asked Jonah, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?"
Jonah basically tells them to toss him in the sea or it is going to end badly for all of them too.
The sailors listened to Jonah and they picked him up and dumped his storm following rear end over the side of the boat.
Then the bible says that the sea grew calm.
Now, forget about the stupid whale this is the meat of the story.
Verse 16 says this, "At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.
Don’t miss this.
God wanted Jonah to bring people into a relationship with Him.
Jonah ran the other way………..and people were still brought into a relationship with God. The sailors went from following their "own god" to following the "God of heaven, who made the sea and the land."
The point is this: You can run from God your whole life, and He is still going to get what He wants and you are only going to get troubled waters.
The other option is to run towards God. He will then get what he wants and you can avoid an untold number of storms.
I kinda like option 2.
