Jonah 1:3

"But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah; and he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah."

"But Jonah rose up to flee ..." It is a mistake to suppose that Jonah did not know that God was in Tarshish as well as in Jerusalem; for it is impossible to associate such an ignorance as that with a true prophet of God. His conduct in this was exactly the same as that of Adam and Eve who, after their sin, hid themselves from the presence of God. Today, it is the same. When men renounce their sacred duty to the church, they flee as far away from it as possible, knowing full well that they cannot escape God's presence no matter what they do. Fleeing from the scene of one's duty is the reflexive action of a soul in a state of rebellion and disobedience to the Lord. And it is called in this passage, "fleeing from the presence of the Lord." Banks gave as plausible an explanation of this as any we have observed:

"Jonah knew that the Lord was unlike pagan deities whose power was believed not to extend beyond the boundaries of a given area; but he thought running away to a distant place would make it physically impossible for him to discharge his commission."[17]

Many have inquired as to why Jonah did not wish to obey the word of Jehovah regarding the commission to cry against Nineveh. Certainly, some of the reasons which might have influenced him may be surmised.

(1) Jonah doubtless knew of the sadistic cruelty of the hated Assyrians, and he could not have failed to confront an element of physical fear of what might befall him in a place like Nineveh, especially in the act of delivering a message which he supposed would be most unwelcome to all of them. Yet, the great physical courage exhibited by the prophet in this very chapter is an effective refutation of the notion that this was what caused him to run away.

(2) National prejudice certainly entered into it, because no true Israelite could imagine such a thing as preaching to Gentiles, notwithstanding the fact that God, from the beginning, had intended for Israel to be a light to all nations, a function which they had signally failed to honor.

(3) The reason given by Jonah himself (Jonah 4:3) was that he feared that Nineveh might repent and that God, after his usual gracious manner, would spare them and refrain from destroying their city. As to why such an eventuality was so distasteful to Jonah, there are two conjectures: (a) The prophet was mightily concerned with his own loss of face, including the prospect of his becoming widely known as a prophet whose words did not come to pass. (b) Keil thought that Jonah's real objection to Nineveh's conversion sprang out of the deep love he had for his own nation, "fearing lest the conversion of the Gentiles should infringe upon the privileges of Israel, and put an end to its election as the nation of God."[18] This latter observation strikes us as a genuine discernment of the truth. As a matter of fact, the conversion of Gentiles did typify the ultimate rejection of Israel as "the chosen people" and the receiving of Gentiles all over the earth in a "new Israel" which would include both Jews and Gentiles. Jonah seems to have sensed this; and out of the fierce love of his own country, he was loath to see Nineveh converted. Whatever the reasons that motivated him, he was wrong; and God would overrule his disobedience to accomplish his will despite the prophet's unwillingness to obey.

"To flee unto Tarshish ..." Present day commentators usually identify this place with a seaport just west of Gibralter on the southern coast of Spain, which was at the opposite extremity of the Mediterranean and exactly opposite from the direction of Nineveh. It is far from certain, however, that this is the place referred to. Josephus stated that it was Tarsus in Cilicia;[19] "Tarshish apparently refers to more than one place in the Old Testament (1 Kings 22:48)."[20] Myers thought it was, "more probably a place in Sardinia where there was a great iron smelter."[21] Many questions which excite human curiosity are left unanswered in Jonah, as is true throughout all the Bible.

"And he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish ..." Joppa was about the only seaport that Israel ever had until Herod built Caesarea Philippi hundreds of years after Jonah. Jonah might have been surprised to find ready transportation available for the very place to which he had decided to flee. Satan always provides transportation for the soul running away from the Lord. And, as Spurgeon once said, "Evil also has its mysterious providences, and it is not always right to do what seems to be convenient."

"So he paid the fare thereof ..." What an exciting text for a sermon is this! Whatever soul turns from the Lord finds always that a price is exacted. The prodigal son paid for his excursion into the far country with a sojourn in the swine pen; Judas paid for his "thirty pieces of silver" with a hangman's rope in the "field of blood" (Acts 1:19):

"Attempting to run away from God is like fleeing light and falling into darkness, relinguishing wealth and welcoming poverty, abandoning joy and receiving sorrow, or giving up peace in order to have chaos and confusion!"[22]

Every sinner on earth today is paying the fare!

"And went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish ..." There is a glimpse in this verse, and in Jonah 1:5, of the kind of ship Jonah boarded. "The Hebrew word for ship (Jonah 1: 5) is [~shephinah], and is found nowhere else; and from its derivation (from [~saphan] = "to cover") implies that the vessel was decked."[23] Thus, Jonah's going "down into it" indicates that he went below decks into the hold of the ship.