On their own, people do not change. Everyone is broken, riddled with sin and rebellion. Yet God wants to see mankind restored to a good relationship with Him. Sometimes His people stand in the way of His Will. Jonah did…or at least tried to.

The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. -Jonah 1:1-3

Jonah was not suffering from the Bugs Bunny syndrome! You know, always needing to take the left turn at Albuquerque. Jonah was running the other direction because he HATED the Assyrians. After all, Assyria was the most powerful nation at the time and constantly a thorn in Israel’s side. Jonah’s nationalism and hatred were getting in the way of his obedience to God. He even admits this to God after Ninevah repents!

He prayed to the LORD and said, “Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.” -Jonah 4:2

Through all the disobedience and rebellion, God still took care of His wayward prophet. First God provided a great fish to save Jonah from drowning. Then He provided a large plant for shade to keep Jonah from roasting.

God gives His people hard tasks today—talking to and serving people we do not deem worthy of His saving message. Doing God’s Will in these moments can make Christians uncomfortable (at the very least) or defiant. God has not changed. His Words to Jonah still echo today.

Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals? -Jonah 4:11

After all, God has gone to great measures to restore a relationship between mankind and Himself.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. -Romans 5:8-11

If God was willing to go to such lengths to save a sin-riddled, rebellious race, do His people have any right to stand in His way? Jonah thought so. It didn’t work out too well for him though!