But imagine trying to run from… God.
That’s precisely the pickle Jonah found himself in.
We all know the story of Jonah and the whale. But let's rewind a bit, because the beginning is just as telling. The Book of Jonah tells us that God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh, a great city, and preach repentance. But Jonah, for reasons we can only speculate on – maybe fear, maybe stubbornness, maybe even a misguided sense of nationalism – decided, “Nope.”
He’s going in the opposite direction.
The text from Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating early medieval Jewish text, elaborates on Jonah's escape. It pictures him approaching a group of sailors. "We will embark with you," he says, ready to hop aboard their ship.
"Behold, we are going to the islands of the sea, to Tarshish," they reply. Tarshish, in this context, represents a far-off, almost mythical location, the absolute opposite direction from Nineveh.
Undeterred, Jonah repeats, "We will go with you."
Now, here's where it gets interesting. Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer points out a peculiar detail: "Now (this) is the custom on all ships that when a man disembarks therefrom he pays his fare; but Jonah, in the joy of his heart, paid his fare in advance."
Why is this detail so important? It highlights Jonah's eagerness to escape. He wasn't just going to pay; he was going to pay ahead of time. He was so desperate to get away from God's command that he threw caution – and perhaps common sense – to the wind.
The verse from Jonah itself (Jonah 1:3) underscores this: "But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord; and he went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them." He “went down” – a phrase that carries a double meaning, suggesting both a physical descent into the ship and a spiritual descent. What lengths have you gone to avoid something unpleasant? Have you ever prepaid just to make sure there was no turning back?
Jonah's story is a powerful reminder that we can run, but we can't hide. Sooner or later, we have to face what we're running from. And maybe, just maybe, embracing our responsibilities – even the ones we dread – is the only way to truly find ourselves.