Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ² “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil^[a] has come up before me.” ³ But Jonah rose to flee.. (Jonah 1:1-2)

I found it interesting that Jonah’s actions seemed contradictory to the fact that he knew what God required.

Points from Jonah:

• Jonah ran from God, but did he believe he could run from God? (Jonah 1:3).
• Jonah knew that the storm on the sea was because of him (Jonah 1:12).
• Jonah prayed to God from the belly of the fish, and he knew that God was hearing him (Jonah 2:2).
• Jonah said that Yahweh raised his life from the pit as if he just knew that God would rescue him. His prayer for help was also praise and thanks to Yahweh (in advance) for recusing him. (Jonah 2:6, 9).
• Jonah clearly stated that God is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. (Jonah 4:2)

This tells me that Jonah knew God to some extent. He knew how great our God is, and he knew that God is merciful. And even though he knew this, he still made poor choices which contradicted what he knew. He should have known he could not run away from God. He should have known that God would have mercy upon his people when they repented. But his actions say otherwise.

This lesson can directly map to us today. We can so easily fall into this trap—the trap of making decisions contrary to what we know about God. We know that there is nothing too hard for God (Genesis 18:14) and we know that He loves us (John 3:16), so why is it so hard to trust Him to be in control. In the heat of the moment, even though we know who God is and what he is capable of, we panic and try to make decisions to save ourselves. We forget to trust God, to call upon him at that moment, and we forget that if we truly believe in him, we will not have to worry about anything that comes our way.