The Pilgrim Path---Jonah 1: 3 – 6 

But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.

But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”

“…AND WAS FAST ASLEEP”

Running from the LORD is physically, emotionally---and spiritually exhausting. Jonah is a man of action---but he often “acts” contrary to the revealed will of God. Well, we have all joined him. Not obeying the Spirit of the Living Christ---prompting us through the Holy Scripture. The LORD throws a storm his way. That is the meaning of the Hebrew. The Sovereign of the Seas---pinpoints a terrible storm towards Jonah’s escape vessel. Yet, whom the LORD loves---he chastens---and the prophet has work to do (even though he hates people in Nineveh). Jehovah-Jesus is bigger than our disobedience---and stupidity…Thanks be to God!

From Charles Haddon Spurgeon: Here is one who is favored with a divine commission---one who knows God and fears him---yet, for all that, he ventures on the fool’s errand of endeavoring to escape from the omnipresent One. Learn from this that providence alone is not a sufficient guide for our actions. He may have said, “It was remarkable that a ship was going to Tarshish just when I reached the port. I gather from this that God was not disinclined for me to go to Tarshish.” Precepts, not providences, are to guide believers. And when Christians quote a providence against a precept---which is to set God against God---they act most strangely. There are devil’s providences as well as divine providences, and there are tempting providences as well as assisting providences, so learn to judge between the one and the other.

Grace & Peace in Jesus, the Only Redeemer of broken and wretched souls, Pastor Jason