# Day 153

# Jonah Runs from the Creator

Jonah 1:1–11

Syria was losing power. But Assyria was rising up. Its capital city, Nineveh, was huge. A man would take three days to walk through it. Israel was in danger of falling under Assyria’s power. At that time, the Lord spoke to Jonah. “Go to Nineveh. Cry out and speak to them. I know of their wickedness.”

Jonah didn’t want to do this. Instead, he went the other way, to the seaport at Joppa. There he sailed for Tarshish, still further from Nineveh. But the Lord threw a great wind onto the sea. There was a mighty storm. The ship was in danger and her crew each prayed to his god.

They lightened the ship’s load by throwing cargo overboard. That’s when they discovered Jonah sleeping in the hold. “How can you sleep at a time like this? Get up. Call on your God to save us.”

“We must find the man who has caused our distress.” So the sailors decided to draw straws. Jonah lost the draw.

“I’m running away from the God who created the sea and land,” he told them. Then the sailors were even more afraid.

“No wonder this has happened.” They trembled.

Questions: What did God do when Jonah ran away? What did the sailors do when the storm came?