Jonah Runs from God Bible story for kids

Somebody paid good money that day to go the wrong way.

God had said go to Nineveh. And a man called Jonah counted out the fare from his own hand — for a ship going as far in the opposite direction as a ship could go.

Nineveh was a great city, far off to the east. Enormous. Loud. Crowded. God had told Jonah to go there and speak in its streets, because something had gone wrong in that city, and God had noticed.

So Jonah went west instead. To a harbor town called Joppa, where the boats were.

The Bible doesn't tell us here why he ran. Not one word of it — not yet. I wonder about that too, little one.

Down to the harbor, then. Down onto the ship. And then down again, into the very lowest part of it, underneath everybody. Three times the Bible says he went down.

But I don't want you down there in the dark with him. Not for this story. I want you up on the deck, with the sailors — they are the ones who saw what happened.

They were ordinary working men. They knew ropes and knots and weather, and they had a cargo to carry a long way. And they had a passenger who had paid his fare, gone below, and fallen fast asleep.

Then God sent the wind.

The Bible uses a strong word for it. God hurled a great wind down onto the sea. And the sea stood up.

Those sailors had been out in rough weather before. This was not that. The ship climbed, and dropped, and climbed again. Creeeeak, went the timbers. Creeeeak. And the men began to think the whole ship was going to come apart underneath their feet.

So they did the two things sailors do. They prayed — every man to his own god, all of them calling out at once. And they threw the cargo over the side. Barrel after bundle after box — everything they had meant to sell at the far end, gone into the water, just to make the ship lighter.

And Jonah slept through it.

The captain went down and found him, curled up in the dark. "How can you be sleeping? Get up! Call on your god! Maybe your god will think of us, so that we don't go down."

Up on the deck, the sailors had decided something: somebody on this ship was the reason for this storm. And they cast lots to find out who — like drawing straws, little one, in the wind and the spray.

The lot fell on Jonah.

Every face on that deck turned to look at him. The questions came tumbling out. Tell us — whose fault is this? What is your work? Where do you come from? What country? What people?

And Jonah told them the truth. All of it. He said: I am a Hebrew. And I worship the Lord, the God of heaven — the God who made the sea... and the dry land.

The sea. And the dry land... He was standing on a ship in the middle of the one, running away from the God who had made them both.

And the sailors were terrified. Not of Jonah. Of that. "What have you done?" they said — because he had already told them he was running.

And the water kept getting worse.

"What should we do with you," they shouted over the noise, "so the sea will go quiet for us?"

Now listen carefully, little one. This part matters.

Jonah answered them himself. He said: pick me up, and throw me into the sea. Then it will go quiet for you. I know this great storm came because of me, and not because of you.

It was Jonah's own idea. Jonah's own words. Nobody on that ship asked for it, and nobody wanted it.

Because look at what those sailors did next. They didn't do it. They got on the oars instead, and they rowed — rowed for the shore, in a sea like that. They rowed until their hands were raw. They were trying to save him.

But they could not get the ship one length closer. The water would not let them.

So at last they prayed. And this time, not to their own gods. They prayed to the Lord, Jonah's God, and they asked Him not to hold this against them — because they did not want to do it at all.

Then they lifted Jonah up, and over the side, the way he had asked them to.

And the sea went still.

Not slowly. Not over an hour. Still — as if a hand had been laid flat on the water. The wind stopped pulling. Little waves slapped against the wood the way they do in a harbor on a calm afternoon.

And those sailors stood on that quiet deck, more amazed now than they had ever been afraid. They gave thanks to the Lord, right there, and they made Him promises. They had sailed out of Joppa with their own gods. They sailed on knowing His name.

Now. You are wondering about Jonah.

So am I. And here is the wonder of it. God had already sent a fish.

Not a monster, little one. The Bible calls it a great fish. An enormous one. And the Bible says God sent it — God had it ready before Jonah ever went over the side. Down there in the deep, dark water, something huge was already on its way, because God had told it to come.

Do you remember the ravens? The big scruffy black birds that brought a hungry man his breakfast and his dinner, beside a brook? God doesn't always send help the way you'd expect. Sometimes help has feathers. And sometimes help has fins.

So Jonah went down into the water — and Jonah did not drown. He was caught. And for three days and three nights, in the strangest, quietest place anybody has ever been, Jonah was safe.

What he said down there, and what God did about it — that, little one, is a story for another night.

Down to the harbor. Down into the ship. Down into the bottom of the ship. Down under the waves. And God went all the way down after him. There was no down far enough.

And God was with him. God was with her. God is with you, too.

Nothing to fear, little one. May the same God who told a great fish exactly where to be, and exactly when... catch you, too.