1. Jonah’s Futile Flight Jonah 1:3

2. 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.

3. Maybe It Was Prejudice The Ninevites were enemies of Israel – May not have wanted to preach to them – Many have not wanted to teach people of other races, nationalities, or classes – Jesus said - Matt. 28:18-20

4. Maybe It Was Prejudice Prejudice in the first century - Acts 10:34-35 Prejudice is a form of partiality - Jas. 2:1-4

5. May Have Felt Unequal To The Task Certainly, the Lord has a big job for His people - Lk. 24:46-47 Many Christians look at the vastness of the job – Conclude that since they can’t do it all, they won’t do anything – Like the one-talent man - Matt. 25:24-27

6. May Have Felt Unequal To The Task Remember, when God gives a responsibility, He will give us the ability to do it - Phil. 4:13, 19

7. May Have Felt He Was Doing Enough Was already a prophet – Possibly thought that His prophesying to Israel was sufficient – He didn’t need to go to Nineveh - 2 Ki. 14:23-25

8. May Have Felt He Was Doing Enough Some may think, “I go to church, I give, etc., so that’s enough,” – Given what God has done for us – We can never “do enough” for Him - Lk. 17:10

9. May Have Felt He Was Doing Enough The command is NOT just “be faithful up to a certain point” - Rev. 2:10 (cf. Matt. 25:21, 1 Cor. 4:2)

10. May Have Considered The Task Too Unpleasant The message of Jonah wasn’t pleasant (cf. 3:4) – There have been other times when God’s message has been unpopular - Matt. 14:1-4ff

11. May Have Considered The Task Too Unpleasant The gospel contains good news – Also contains a warning of punishment for sin which is not always popular - Rom. 1:18, 2:4-9 We must preach and teach it anyway - 2 Tim. 4:1-5

12. May Have Felt That He Did Not Have The Time May have felt that he was so busy – We all know how limited our time is - Psa. 90:9-12 But knowing that this is so – We need to use our time wisely to do what God wants us to do - Eph. 5:15- 16

13. May Have Felt That He Did Not Have The Time This means not putting off till tomorrow what needs to be done today – We don’t know what the future holds - Jas. 4:13-14

14. Whatever Jonah’s reasons were for running away, He learned that it was futile to flee from God. In like manner, we need to realize that regardless of the excuses that we may offer for not doing God’s will, it’s folly to try running away from the Lord.