4 Phases of Jonah's Run: God's Compassion and Mercy

If you are at all like me, raised in a church-going home, you've been quite familiar since childhood with the story of Jonah and the whale. As a child, the story fascinated me. As an adult though I realize this story is about so much more than just Jonah and some great big fish. It's about identification, God’s call, and the struggle to obey and trust Him. It's about all that and more.

The story is rich with layers and application. This short, 4-chapter book is packed with a number of phases that Jonah struggles through. These phases can even be reflected in our own lives.

​I was recently reading through the book of Jonah and discovered the most amazing thing. On so many levels I can completely identify the worst of myself in this story. When I read Jonah I feel as if I'm holding up a mirror and seeing my own reflection.

The 4 Phases of Jonah's Run

I see the turn-and-run-when-life-gets-tough girl. I see the desperately-looking-for-a-way-out girl. I see the compliant-obedient girl, I see the angry-when-God-seems-to-care-more-about-my-enemies girl. Finally, and most importantly, I see God, full of compassion and mercy, for me!

​Life is full of difficult situations, hard places that you and I journey to and through. But there are good things waiting for us in those hard places. There is compassion and there is mercy!

I am intrigued, as I read through the four chapters of Jonah, to see the four different phases he goes through with God. We see him running away from God, running towards God, running with God, and finally, running ahead of God. If you're like me, you have found yourself in all four of these phases at some point in your Christian life. 

​Let's look today at the four phases of Jonah's run:

1. ​In the first chapter of Jonah, we see the turn-and-run-when-life-gets-tough Jonah. God asks Jonah to go to the wicked city Nineveh and preach against it. Instead, Jonah turns and runs hopping aboard a ship bound for Tarshish. That's the complete opposite direction. How many times has this happened in my own life? God says go there and I argue that "there" is way outside my comfort zone. Instead of going "there" I turn and run, just like Jonah. Can you relate?
2. In the second chapter of Jonah, we see the desperately-looking-for-a-way-out Jonah. We find him stuck in the belly of a whale praying for a way out. God puts Jonah in a position where his only hope is God Himself. How often does God have to do that with us? 
3. In the third chapter of Jonah, we see the compliant-obedient Jonah. He goes to Nineveh and preaches against it's wicked ways as God called him to do. This is where God wants all of us―running with Him, instead of from Him, or ahead of him! 
4. In the fourth chapter of Jonah, we see the angry-when-God-seems-to-care-more-about-my-enemies Jonah. He becomes angry with God because God has offered the wicked people of Nineveh salvation. Jonah does not understand the concept of God's mercy.

Finally, and most importantly, what we see in the book of Jonah is God, full of compassion and mercy, Full of compassion and mercy for Jonah. Full of compassion and mercy for the wicked people of Nineveh. And full of compassion and mercy for you and me!​

​Quite often we are sent by God to hard places. But there are good things waiting for us in those hard places! There is compassion, and there is mercy.

As I was reading the book of Jonah I came across this new book by Tim Keller, The Prodigal Prophet. His comparison of Jonah to the prodigal son and the parallel between the two is fascinating. Both speak to the mystery of God's mercy. Something Jonah clearly had difficulty coming to terms with.

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The Prodigal Prophet

“The classic Old Testament example of these two ways to run from God is right here in the book of Jonah. Jonah takes turns acting as both the “younger brother” and the “older brother.” In the first two chapters of the book, Jonah disobeys and runs away from the Lord and yet ultimately repents and asks for God’s grace, just as the younger brother leaves home but returns repentant.

In the last two chapters, however, Jonah obeys God’s command to go and preach to Nineveh. In both cases, however, he’s trying to get control of the agenda. When God accepts the repentance of the Ninevites, just like the older brother in Luke 15, Jonah bristles with self-righteous anger at God’s graciousness and mercy to sinners. And that is the problem facing Jonah, namely, the mystery of God’s mercy.

It is a theological problem, but it is at the same time a heart problem. Unless Jonah can see his own sin, and see himself as living wholly by the mercy of God, he will never understand how God can be merciful to evil people and still be just and faithful.

​The story of Jonah, with all its twists and turns, is about how God takes Jonah, sometimes by the hand, other times by the scruff of the neck, to show him these things.”  ―Tim Keller, The Prodigal Prophet

"The story of Jonah is one of the most well-known parables in the Bible. It is also the most misunderstood. Many people, even those who are nonreligious, are familiar with Jonah: A rebellious prophet who defies God and is swallowed by a whale. But there's much more to Jonah's story than most of us realize.

In The Prodigal Prophet, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller reveals the hidden depths within the book of Jonah. Keller makes the case that Jonah was one of the worst prophets in the entire Bible. ​​

And yet there are unmistakably clear connections between Jonah, the prodigal son, and Jesus. Jesus in fact saw himself in Jonah. How could one of the most defiant and disobedient prophets in the Bible be compared to Jesus?

Jonah's journey also doesn't end when he is freed from the belly of the fish. There is an entire second half to his story―but it is left unresolved within the text of the Bible. Why does the book of Jonah end on what is essentially a cliffhanger? In these pages, Timothy Keller provides an answer to the extraordinary conclusion of this biblical parable―and shares the powerful Christian message at the heart of Jonah's story." ―goodreads

"Jonah wants a God of his own making, a God who simply smites the bad people and blesses the good people... he can’t reconcile the mercy of God with His justice.

How, Jonah asks, can God be merciful and forgiving to people who have done such violence and evil? How can God be both merciful and just?
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That question isn’t answered in the book of Jonah. As part of the entire Bible, however, the book of Jonah is like a chapter that drives the Scripture’s overall plot line forward. It teaches us to look ahead to how God saved the world through the One who called Himself the ultimate Jonah (Matthew 12:41) so that He could be both just and the Justifier of those who believe (Romans 3:26).

​Only when we readers fully grasp this gospel will we be neither cruel exploiters like the Ninevites nor Pharisaical believers like Jonah, but rather Spirit-changed, Christ-like women and men." ―Tim Keller, The Prodigal Prophet

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Have you been sent by God to a hard place? Are you struggling, as Jonah did, to comprehend God's mercy? Which of the 4 phases of Jonah's run do you find yourself in today? And what can you do to ensure you are running with or towards God and not away from or ahead of Him?