Traveling Into A New Year with Jonah: Escape or Obedience (Part I)

January 14, 2026

Jonah 1: 1-3 (NIV) - The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai:  “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”  

But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

“Jonah ran away from the Lord.”

Why?  Why did Jonah flee?  What was God asking Jonah to do?  God was asking Jonah to go and preach to the Ninevites.  The Ninevites were international terrorists, who along with the Assyrian nation were asserting themselves in menacing ways upon Israel.  In the seventh century BC, the empire had annexed the northern kingdom of Israel and forced Judah to pay tribute.  The Ninevites were Gentiles, outside God’s favored people, Israel…Throughout the scriptures, prophets such as Nahum and Zephaniah predicted their destruction.

Why did Jonah flee?  Fear.  Why did Jonah flee?  Prejudice.  Why did Jonah flee?  God was asking him to step out of his comfort zone.

Escape or Obedience?  Which will characterize your behavior, your actions, your walk with God in this new year?

God is a God of challenge…challenging us often to step out of our comfort zones…perhaps not in as radical a way as Jonah, but certainly in ways that will test, try, and push us beyond where we want to go…What will you do?  What do you do?  Like Jonah do you try to escape or do you obey and “step out”?

Escape or Obedience? 

What does it mean to obey?  Certainly, our greatest model of obedience is Jesus Christ.  Certainly, Jesus felt fear as he knelt in the garden of Gethsemane, knowing what he would go through in the hours ahead.  Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me…”  Yet, Jesus, despite his fear, despite his emotions of that evening, went to the cross.  Jesus chose to obey His Father in heaven instead of giving into his fear.  Jesus prayed, “Yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Obedience is a willingness to follow God’s will for our lives even when it goes in a direction that is out of our comfort zone, a direction that is not in our plans or desires.

As Dwight L. Moody writes, “Obedience means marching right on whether we feel like it or not.  Many times we go against our feelings.  Faith is one thing, feeling is another.”

Are we willing to obey…willing to follow God where He wants to take us, lead us, guide us?  Are we ready to obey God?  Is there an area of your life…smoking, alcohol, your marriage, raising your children, serving in the church, getting into God’s Word, following a certain direction for your life, where you are NOT obeying God?  Is there a direction in which fear, insecurity, feelings of unworthiness, feelings of inadequacy, reluctance, prejudice, and/or selfishness is holding you back from obeying God, going where God is leading you?

God is asking us to step out of our comfort zone.

Jonah 1: 4-12 (NIV) - Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.  All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. 

But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.  The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god!

Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”  Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”  

He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 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.)

The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”  “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”

And they threw Jonah into the sea.

What do you notice here about Jonah?  Jonah admits to another that he is running…Jonah confesses before others that he is running away from the Lord…

This is the first step…it is the first step toward any goal, toward any change, toward any direction…

• It is where the alcoholic begins his journey toward freedom…by admitting that he is an addict…that he is running to alcohol for comfort…

• It is where the broken marriage begins its healing…admitting that the relationship has moved toward isolation…that one or both are running in opposite directions…

• It is where one finally steps up into a ministry that will change and impact lives for Christ…admitting they have been afraid, felt insecure…admitting they have been running from the responsibility…

We must be honest with ourselves, admitting where we are and where we need to go…sharing our fears, our failings, and our insecurities with another…with our small groups, our friends…and thanking God that most likely our small groups, our friends, will not throw us overboard into the sea…

Jonah 2: 1-10 (NIV) - From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.  I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever.

But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.

Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.  But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you.  What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”  

And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Here is where Jonah really pulls it together and obeys the Lord.  What has made the change? 

Besides the fact that Jonah admitted he was running and faced his fears, Jonah prayed.  I’m sure three days in a belly of a fish is a great motivator to listen to what God is telling you to do, but I don’t believe that is what caused Jonah to finally march boldly into Nineveh, the city of his enemies.

Jonah 3:1-3 (NIV) - Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time:  “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”  Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. 

Jonah took his focus off the task, the issue, the fear, and prayed, placing his focus on God.  Chapter 2 of the book of Jonah is a beautiful prayer where Jonah cries out, “I have been banished from your sight; YET I will look again toward your holy temple…When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you…I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you…”

Jonah was given a “Big Dream,” a Big Task and after much running Jonah discovered that his success didn’t rest on him…so Jonah cried out to God and discovered that God was ready to use Jonah, someone who was unworthy (filled with prejudice) and unable (fearful), and God was ready to use him to save an entire city of 120,000 people.

God is ready to use you…unworthy and unable as you are…to change the world, to impact this community, to help this church reach people for His Son, Jesus Christ.  Take the focus off the task at hand…off the fear…and PUT IT ON GOD.  This is what prayer does…prayer puts our focus on God.