We are all familiar with Jonah’s story. In chapter 1, Jonah gets sent to Nineveh to warn it of impending disaster because of its evil, but Jonah runs away instead of obeying. He gets on a ship and there is a big storm. Jonah knows it is his fault and tells them to throw him overboard. They do and God rescues him by fish transport.

I asked the Lord where He was during all this. Let’s look.

The word of the Lord comes to Jonah. There Jesus is in the beginning of the story. Jesus is the Word, but also, the next thing that happens is that Jonah flees “from the presence of the Lord.” God’s presence was in His word, whatever form that took.

Jonah thinks he can get away from God’s presence in Tarshish, but the Lord stays with him and hurls the wind at the sea.

Psalm 139 talks about the inability to flee God’s presence. You can’t do it. David would have penned that song long before Jonah was running from God. Jonah would have known it. He wasn’t taking the lesson to heart, though.

The sailors are all calling out to their gods and want Jonah to do the same, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t admit that the storm is his fault either, until the lot falls to him. I would say that’s God showing up again. He controls how the lot falls.

Jonah says he fears the Lord, but not enough. It’s the sailors who fear God and acknowledge Him and ask His mercy and recognize His power and control both before, but especially after God calms the sea. God’s sovereign hand was clear to them because they recognized His power.

The Lord shows up one final time in the chapter and appoints a fish to swallow Jonah. That is an act of mercy. God wasn’t out to destroy Jonah. He was out to restore Jonah. It was a kindness intended to lead to repentance.