You can run but you can't hide.

Probably no one in the Bible tried harder to run away from God than the prophet Jonah. When he is told by God to go to Nineveh, he not only doesn't go, he heads in the opposite direction. He's afraid that God will be too compassionate and forgiving of the city's inhabitants. Jonah runs away from God to go to Tarshish, a place that for the Hebrews represented the far end of the world. Jonah tries to go as far as he can to escape his duty.

Reluctance, fear, and the desire to run away are the frequent human reactions in Hebrew scripture to the entrance of God into one's life, perhaps illustrating that the entrance of God into one's life is no laughing matter.

Moses offers a variety of reasons why he should not be the one to lead God's people, "Who am I to go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?... What if they will not believe me or listen to my words and say to me, 'Yahweh has not appeared to you'? ... But, Lord, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence, either before or since You have spoken to your servant. I am a slow speaker and am not able to speak well" (Exod. 3-4). After all of his objections have been answered, Moses pleads with God to "send anyone You will" (Exod. 4:14).

This same kind of resistance is found in the opening words of the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah: "The word of Yahweh was addressed to me saying, 'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you came to birth I consecrated you; I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.'

"I said, 'Ah, Lord Yahweh, look. I do not know how to speak; I am a child.' But Yahweh replied, 'Do not say, "I am a child." Go now to those to whom I send you and say whatever I shall command you. Do not be afraid of them for I am with you to protect you--it is Yahweh who speaks'" (Jer. 1:4-8).

The very words do not be afraid indicate that the one being spoken to is afraid and wants to run the other way. There's quite a difference between the fear and reluctance expressed by Moses and Jeremiah, on the one hand, and the behavior of Jonah on the other. Moses and Jeremiah express fear and hesitation but then proceed to do what God has commanded them.

Jonah's reaction is quite different. When it becomes clear to Jonah what God wants of Jonah, where God wants Jonah to go, and what God wants Jonah to do, he doesn't argue or plead his case. He just takes off. Jonah "found a ship bound for Tarshish; he paid his fare and went aboard, to go with them to Tarshish, to get away from Yahweh" (Jon. 1:4).

Jonah, however, finds out that running away from God can be exhausting, frustrating, and even risky. The ship runs into a violent storm and those on board cast lots to find out who was responsible for this misfortune. "So they cast lots and the lot fell to Jonah" (Jon. 1:8). The sailors judge Jonah to be responsible for their plight. "The sailors were seized with terror at this and said, 'What have you done?' They knew that he was trying to escape from Yahweh, because he had told them so" (Jon. 1:10).

Having decided that Jonah is the cause of their troubles, the sailors conclude there's only one course of action to take: get rid of Jonah. Nothing personal in this, Jonah, but we can't afford to have you around here anymore, they tell him. "And taking hold of Jonah, they threw him into the sea" (Jon. 1:15). Jonah survived his near-death experience as "Yahweh had arranged that a great fish should be there to swallow Jonah, and Jonah remained in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights" (Jon. 2:1).

In Man for Himself (Henry Holt & Co., 1990), psychiatrist Erich Fromm comments upon Jonah and the whale: "The element of care and responsibility in productive love has been described in the Book of Jonah.... Jonah runs away from his mission because he is afraid that the people of Nineveh will repent and that God will forgive them. He is a man with a strong sense of law and order but without love. However, in his attempt to escape, he finds himself in the belly of a whale, symbolizing the state of isolation and imprisonment which his lack of love and solidarity have brought upon him."

Jonah being swallowed by a large fish is his conversion experience. His close call with death leads him to conclude that it's time to stop running away.

Jonah turns to prayer in his crisis, "From the belly of the fish he prayed to Yahweh... 'Out of my distress I cried to Yahweh and He answered me... You lifted my life from the pit, Yahweh, my God'" (Jon. 2:3,7). Jonah's conversion experience begins where it so often begins for us: standing in the midst of our own ruins when everything else has failed and there's nowhere else to turn.

The huge fish deposits Jonah on dry land so that his life-threatening crisis is now over. What can be described as his conversion experience is that change in him that causes Jonah to no longer run away. "The word of Yahweh was addressed a second time to Jonah, 'Up!...Go to Nineveh, the great city and preach to them as I told you to'" (Jon. 3:1). Now Jonah is agreeing, reluctantly, to bring the message to Nineveh.

It has been said that in the Book of Genesis God created human beings in God's own image, and ever since then human beings have been returning God the favor. We tend to create God in our personal image. This can be beneficial to us as long as we remain aware that images and their meanings and the feelings they elicit fall short of the Mystery we call God.

Let's apply this to Jonah. Jonah's personal image of God is drawn from looking in the mirror. And Jonah's notion of what "God ought to be" is just as narrow, just as intolerant, just as self-righteous as Jonah himself. This negative image of God, these negative notions of God, affect everything Jonah does.

In the light of the fact that God does spare the city of Nineveh, is it not likely that the message God gave to Jonah contained not only the threat of punishment but also some basis for hope? Is it not likely that Jonah distorted the message God gave him, ignoring the part of the message dealing with the possibility of change, forgiveness, and hope? Is it not likely that he twisted God's message to fit in with his own narrow-mindedness and intolerance? (A trick that human beings have been using with considerable success ever since.)

Jonah does not tell the Ninevites anything about the possibility of hope or pardon. Instead all he gives them is his personal message of gloom and doom. He does not qualify his statement in any way--no ifs, ands, or buts. He just lets them have it: Nineveh is going to be destroyed and he's glad.

It is said that God can write straight with crooked lines. Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of Jonah and Nineveh. Word of what Jonah has said reaches the king. A fast is ordered by the king. The Ninevites turn from their evil ways, and Nineveh is spared.

But Jonah is miserable. "Jonah was very indignant at this; he fell into a rage ... 'Ah, Yahweh, is not this just as I said would happen when I was still at home? ... I knew that You were a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness, relenting from evil'" (Jon. 4:1-2).

By the end of the story Jonah shows no sign of breaking through his self-imposed prison of anger and rage at the forgiveness of God to the Ninevites. He spends a day in the shade of a plant. The next day when the plant has withered, Jonah is in a rage again, this time because the plant that gave him shelter has withered. To which God replies, "You are upset about a castor-oil plant...and am I not to feel sorry for Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left?" (Jon. 4:10-11).

In today's jargon: Jonah doesn't get it. He is no closer to expanding his idea of God beyond that of the God who punishes all those other people than he was when he first ran away.

Some prayers don't get answered. Our God does not leave us alone forever. In fact our God does not leave us alone ever--as Jonah, to his chagrin and disappointment, found out.

It's easy to smile at the character of Jonah and dismiss him. It's easy to forget that something of Jonah can be found in ourselves. When we consciously or unconsciously endow our own particular point of view with an aura of personal infallibility, our name is Jonah. When we are tolerant of the views of others only to the extent that their views coincide with our own, we become a Jonah. When our way of looking at people makes it impossible for us to understand another's viewpoint, we are a Jonah.

This is not to say that we ought to lack convictions. But it does mean that even the best of our convictions have an underside--namely, the potential for breeding within us an intolerance toward others.

The Jerusalem Bible offers this commentary on the Book of Jonah, "Rejecting ... the narrow racialism into which the postexilic community was tempted to withdraw, it proclaims an astonishingly broadminded catholicity. All the characters of this story are likable, the pagan sailors, the king, the populace, even the animals of Nineveh, all except the only Israelite on the stage--and he a prophet!... We are on the threshold of the gospel."

Jonah receives explicit mention in the words of Jesus, "This is a wicked generation: it is asking for a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign for the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation ... On judgment day the people of Nineveh will stand up with this generation and condemn it because when Jonah preached, they repented; and there is something greater than Jonah here'" (Luke 11:29-32).

The Jerusalem Bible tells us, "This use of the story of Jonah should not be invoked as a proof of its history. Jesus employs the Old Testament story as Christian preachers use the New Testament parables; the intention is the same: to teach by means of well-known illustrations without implying any opinion as to the historical reality of the facts."

Jonah's final chapter ends on the note of God's mercy on all creatures. He has mercy on Jonah in the sea, on the repentant city of Nineveh, on the prophet in his self-absorption. And at the conclusion, God explains to Jonah with an ironic touch how God is thoughtful even to the animals--even more to men, women, and children.

The picture of our tendency to run away from God is telling us something about ourselves. It reminds us that we have an attraction for yet a fear of union with God. We have an attraction because we see union with God as good and desirable, and we fear because we're afraid that we may get in over our heads or get more than we bargained for.

Running away from God reveals one of the ways in which Christianity is different from some other religions. Some religions go looking for God; in Christianity God comes looking for us. We are invited to stop running away from ourselves, to stop running away from what is within ourselves, and to stop running away from the Christ who is coming. In the words of Dag Hammarskjold from Markings (Knopf, 1964), "Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one accomplishment is possible--not to have run away."