Jonah 1:3-14 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.

⁴But 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. ⁵Then 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. ⁶So 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.”

⁷And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” ⁹And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” ¹⁰Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

¹¹Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. ¹²He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”

¹³Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. ¹⁴Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.”

The journey away from God at first appears harmless on the outset. Jonah goes to the port, finds a ship going to Tarshish and pays the fare. It may have appeared way too easy, there just happened to be a ship and he just happened to have the money. It all seemed like the right thing to do for him. Which proves the point, when you really want to disobey the Lord there is always a way. You don’t have to look hard to find an alternative path to flee from the presence of the Lord.

But as I mentioned in an earlier post, if you choose to take that alternative path, there is a cost. The fare Jonah paid to get a ride was only the beginning of what he would have to pay for running from God.

The Bible says he was fast asleep in the ship. He was so distressed, rebellious, depressed, and freaked out that he had no interest in life and no energy to face his circumstances. You could say he was dying in his sleep trying to escape his troubles. The captain comes down to where he was sleeping through a crazy storm and shouts at him, “What are you doing, you sleeper!?”

Have you ever been so depressed like Jonah that all you want to do is sleep your problems away? Men and women who have spent time in jail or prison know this feeling very well. There are countless stories of inmates who were released after some time of being locked up whose sleep schedule is totally out of whack because they slept through most of their sentence. When they get a job, they struggle to make it on time because of their wrecked sleeping schedule. Depression, specifically brought on from rebellion, might begin as only a mental state, but it costs a person physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually.

And it all happens because God has wired you in a specific way. He has a plan for you, and when you choose to follow your own plan, it’s like a lion choosing to cage itself. The lion needs to hunt and roar. Those caged lions at the circus all look depressed because they’re not getting the adventure they’re wired for.

That’s exactly what happens to us when we try to do things our own way. Sure it looks a lot like freedom and it might even feel a lot like freedom. But only for a while. Soon you’ll slowly begin to realize you’ve put yourself in a cage and you’ll find yourself increasingly unsatisfied with the life you chose. That’s when depression sets in. But your stubborn sin nature will continue to fight it. Forcing you to run further and faster in search of something satisfying, not realizing that the only thing that can satisfy you is waiting just behind you with His arms wide open.

The personal cost of running from Christ is great and it’s not worth it. If you don’t want to take my word for it, you’ll find out soon enough the hard way. But you need to understand, it doesn’t just hurt you.

The storm of Jonah’s consequences brought trouble upon a lot of innocent people. The storm was so great that the most experienced sailors were terrified. Remember this…

When I was about 18 years old, I went on a mission trip to the desert lands of Utah to do some work at a ranch camp. On one of the days there we got to have a little fun on a horseback adventure. We were told to meet at the barn where the horses were, and they would help us get saddled up.

So once we were all saddled up we set off on our adventure, my friends all leading the way with me and my dusty steed, Billy, taking up the rear. The trail just took us around some rocky hills and through a couple fields. It was a pretty simple trail really. But Billy, the old horse, didn’t really like to follow in the line and he didn’t really want to listen to me. Instead he wanted to walk into the field and eat the wheat. Several times we were just walking along and he would lose his step and stumble just a little and my heart would jump into my throat. I was fully expecting this old boy to fall over on my leg and crush me and I would have to whisper my final words before I died in the dessert like a western movie. But he always caught his footing, and we kept moseying on behind everybody.

I also soon found out that this old, clumsy horse didn’t like other horses either. The reason we fell into the back of the line was because he didn’t like having another horse beside him. Once or twice we would end up beside the next horse and he would swing his head and try to bite the other horse. This made me fear for my life and start pleading with him to love his neighbor like he should.

Eventually we all wound up on top of a hill to catch an astounding view of the sunset. Sunsets in the desert are stunning to say the least. We all sat there gazing in wonder from the top of this tall hill. We could see far across the desert and watch the shadows growing. That’s when I realized… what goes up a hill must also go down a hill. Right then the tour guide, sitting on the precipice looks back at us and says, “Just lean back!” and he and his perfectly graceful horse plunged over the ledge.

One by one all of the others started slowly downhill, leaning as far back as they could, and their horses elegantly tiptoed down the hill. And then it was just me and Billy... “Billy, I know we’ve had our differences. But I ask, that just this time, you please follow the rest of them.” But Billy is old and Billy is clumsy. And Billy doesn’t like other horses. So with all of my faith in this horse, I lean back and he starts down the hill. All is going well. Billy is behaving like a true gentleman. Until the clumsy old man stumbled.

He quickly caught himself, but it sent us down the hill at a slightly quicker trot. It wasn’t long until we came up alongside the rider in front of us. Which Billy doesn’t approve of one bit. So Billy does what can only be expected from a grumpy, stubborn, clumsy horse. He starts bucking, kicking, and running down the hill full speed. Rocks are being kicked up in the air. We’re nearly beginning a land slide. We’re whizzing past all of the other riders. And all I can feel is my spine being whipped back and forth like a maraca.

No amount of pulling, tugging, or screaming would stop Billy. He was on a rampage. Over my own screaming and the laughing of all the others I hear the voice of the tour guide. “Pull back!!!” So for the sake of my own survival I pull back with all of my might on the reign and Billy slides to a halt at the bottom of the hill. Dust clouds swirling all around me. Knuckles white. Heart beating like a jungle war-drum. Prayers still echoing through the hills. And a justifiable anger in my heart towards Billy the grumpy horse. I didn’t talk to him the rest of the trip.

Billy basically made his own life miserable. He was unhappy and couldn’t get along with other horses. He refused to follow the path that was set before him. And every time he tried to take his own route, things got uncomfortable. But it wasn’t just Billy who suffered. The other horses suffered from his grumpiness and the rider most definitely suffered from his stubbornness.

Your rebellion doesn’t just affect you. Others are hurt when we try to forge our own trail. It happened with me and Billy. It happened with Jonah and the sailors. And it happens with you and those closest to you. So this is the final cost of running from God: The pain of sin and correction enter your life. Not only do you have to deal with the consequences but those around you, most often those who care for you the most, have to deal with the pain as well.

The good news is, there is a person who took the ultimate consequence of your sins so you could be restored to your Heavenly Father. Next month, we’ll examine the cure to running.