Jonah 1:1-3 - The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."
But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.
Why Tarshish? It seems to be in the opposite direction from where he was supposed to go, but why go somewhere that required sailing? I think I remember reading a generalization once that said something to the effect that Jews don't like being on the sea.
Did Jonah have friends in Tarshish? Or was that a distant place where he knew he didn't have any friends? Was it the farthest place from where he was that he'd ever heard of? For that matter, how had he heard of this distant place? Why was there even a ship going there? For trade, probably. Trading what? Was Tarshish the most ungodly place Jonah knew of?
If you were going to run away from God today, where would you go?
Did Jonah really think he could leave God behind?
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