Running From God Warps Your Sense of Justice (Jonah)

A runaway prophet, a repenting city, and a God who refuses to be less merciful than He is—Jonah’s story hits closer to home than we like to admit. We open the book not to argue about a fish, but to wrestle with why a man who knows God’s heart would sprint in the opposite direction. The answer uncovers a tangle of anger, fear, and the ache for justice that feels righteous until grace walks in.

We explore the prophetic context that made Jonah’s assignment to Nineveh so provocative, why the storm at sea mirrors his inner turmoil, and how a ship full of pagan sailors end up modeling reverence. Inside the fish, time slows into a hard reset where despair begins to thaw. 

Then comes the shock: a five-word sermon that topples a city’s pride. Nineveh repents; heaven relents. Instead of celebration, Jonah fumes, quoting Exodus 34 as a complaint. He knows God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love—and that is exactly what he cannot stomach for people he views as dangerous and cruel.

The plant and the worm expose how narrow our compassion can be when comfort sets the boundaries. We talk candidly about mental health, mood swings, and why volatility doesn’t disqualify a person from being used by God. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage: Jonah Beyond The Fish
• 3:20 Calling, Resistance, And Prophetic Context
• 7:40 Running To Tarshish And The Storm
• 12:00 The Sailors, The Sea, And Costly Grace
• 16:10 Three Days To Reconsider: Inside The Fish
• 19:30 Nineveh Repents And Jonah Fumes
• 24:00 God’s Character: Mercy Over Vengeance
• 28:20 The Plant, The Worm, And Jonah’s Anger

Transcript

Dave Quak: 0:00

Alright, Jessica, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack. How you going? You love it when I do that. You know you had a choice to choose any last name and you chose mine.

Jess Quak: 0:08

Well, that's not quite true.

Dave Quak: 0:10

That means you have to marry someone else.

Jess Quak: 0:12

Yeah.

Dave Quak: 0:12

That's okay, don't do that. Today we're talking about Jonah here on Sunburnt Souls, and unfortunately, I know I'm gonna resonate with a lot of his villainism. Because I really recognise that Jonah is someone who gets picked on mainly about the fish, but there's so much else going on in his life.

Jess Quak: 0:30

Yeah, I know I used to very much dislike Jonah and um think he was just awful. Um, and as I've grown and matured in my faith, I have learned to resonate a little bit more with Jonah because there's actually a lot of depth in here as to why Jonah did what he did and how he's responded the way he has, and there's a lot to say about how we can move forward as well.

Dave Quak: 0:57

Yeah, so as we look at Jonah, this is our series on biblical heroes who struggle with their mental well-being. Jess and I have been at this for about four or five weeks already, and we've got a couple weeks left because we really wanted to explore what it's like to be fully alive in Christ or following God and wrestling with our mental well-being, and Jonah definitely fits that category because if you've ever been angry about the way God's called you or or you know resentful about his mission for your life or anything like that, you're gonna you you're in good company with Jonah.

Jess Quak: 1:27

Yeah, so much of Jonah is we often think about Jonah and we think about Jonah got swallowed by a big fish, and that's sort of what we wrestle with with this book, but that's really a side play for what's actually going on here and the wrestle that Jonah really has. It's it's not that much to do with the big fish. Um, and so yeah, we we've got a lot we can cover in this day.

Dave Quak: 1:52

And I think part of why I resonate with Jonah is he got told to do something he didn't want to do.

Jess Quak: 1:57

Yeah.

Dave Quak: 1:57

By God. If you've ever been told to do something you don't want to do by God, it's actually quite hard. I know as a pastor, so many of the things I do are fantastic, 90%. But there's this weird 10% of things that I am required to do that I feel have nothing to do with me.

SPEAKER_02: 2:14

Yeah.

Dave Quak: 2:14

You know, like there's this little jobs. Like I remember getting to church one day and someone's like, David, why is there seven bottles of tomato sauce in the fridge? No, I don't know, man. Why what who cares? Chuck them in the bin, get seven more. I do not care. And there's something about being frustrated when you feel like you've got the call of God on your life, but you've got to do something annoying. Now, I mean, tomato sauce is a stupid example, but it's big things as well. Take care of people that aren't part of your congregation, do weddings for people that you've never met before, all these things where you're like, I don't why do I have to do this?

Jess Quak: 2:45

Yeah, and even though Jonah was a prophet and he had a call to ministry, really, this is for the life of every Christian. There are going to be sometimes there are things where you're being called to obedience by God and you don't agree with what he's saying, you don't want to do what he's saying, and you might think, no, this is not what I want to do. And yet Jonah teaches us how to meet with God in that space, or how by example not to meet with God in that space.

Dave Quak: 3:12

That's right. And I like as well that they kind of jump straight in. How many verses is it till he runs away from God? Is it three? Can you just read the first couple of verses for us?

Jess Quak: 3:21

Yeah, he's right in there. So now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amitai, saying, Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. Verse three. But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid his fare and went on board to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

Dave Quak: 3:52

Yeah, so he wasn't just fleeing geographically, even though he did go the opposite direction. He was fleeing specifically from the presence of the Lord.

SPEAKER_03: 3:59

Yes.

Dave Quak: 4:00

The prophets in those days, we've got to explain this a little bit. Like the presence of the Lord rested on the prophets. It didn't rest the same way on everybody as it did on the prophets. You know, it was different till now. So right now, post-Pentecost, you're a Christian, you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you have access to the fullness of the Holy Spirit. The prophets were a little different. They operated in this office where they heard from God more clearly and frequently than the majority of everybody else.

Jess Quak: 4:26

Yeah, they were called to be the mouthpiece of God. But not only that, they were called to then intercede for the people before God as well. They were sort of the midway people.

Dave Quak: 4:37

So was it usual for someone to pull a Jonah where they get told, hey, this is what I say, and they just nick off the other way. Like, was this usual?

Jess Quak: 4:46

No, not at all. And there were some prophets who were called to do some far weirder, more awful things than Jonah was.

SPEAKER_03: 4:54

Yeah.

Jess Quak: 4:54

But Jonah really struggled with this instruction from God for a good reason. I I know that in my past, and I was a teenager, I'd look at Jonah and I would feel like you have actually heard the voice of God calling you to do something very specific. It's made very easy for you. You can hear what he says and go do what he wants and know that God is going to be pleased with what you're doing. Um, and yet you choose to go the other way. How dare you? Um and I was really sort of like, I I don't get Joan, but why would you do that uh when you know God? Because he does know God. And yet, when you look at the context of this as well, and it does hint of it within the text, where Nineveh is not just a massive city, it says it's a three-day walk from one end to the other, but they're filled with great wickedness. Now, in the scheme, big scheme of things, we can think um our own thoughts of what that might look like. But when you look at the biblical context of what great wickedness looks like, and it is horrific the things that humans can do to one another. Um and it's all going down in Nineveh. And it also means that for Jonah, he's he's grown up in a place where the Ninevehites are the bad guys, they're they're the people who do horrific things and also display bring about a sense of uh a lack of safety for the nations around them too, because these people with great wickedness could at any time come against God's people. And so for Jonah, there's this sense of like no, I don't want to go to these guys, and we can have our own versions of that today, like we can think that this is for him, for them, but you know, the political situation in many countries at the moment has taken center stage, yeah. And it's very easy as someone sort of not in that, or even for people who are in it, to be pointing the finger at those are the bad guys, get 'em, God.

SPEAKER_04: 7:12

Yeah.

Jess Quak: 7:12

Um we don't want to have grace for these people. What they're doing is so wrong. Get them.

Dave Quak: 7:19

Yeah. And we always think that our kind of vengeance is the right vengeance. You know, because we feel it so strongly.

SPEAKER_03: 7:25

Yeah.

Dave Quak: 7:26

You know? Okay, so he gets down to Tarshish and starts, uh, jumps on the boat, nicks off, has a snooze. Yes. Which is funny because later on with Jesus they talk about him being like the son sign of Jonah and he's asleep in the back of the boat like Jesus was a couple of thousand years later. What happens then?

Jess Quak: 7:46

It's interesting how Jonah is so it all or nothing as a as a personality. He he doesn't just like disobey God, he completely tries to run from God. He's settled, he's willing to not just give up, but to die, like actually put his life on the line because he re the people the soldiers are not soldiers, sorry, the sailors around him, uh say, Is it you? What have you done? Who's your God that this God has come up against us and and we're put in danger because of it? What have you done? And he says, My God is the God who controls everything. So he's sent this because of me. But then he does a weird thing too, where he's like, I want you to throw me overboard. Instead of jumping overboard himself, he almost wants to implicate them. Um, which is kind of weak, I reckon, but you know, human. Um but but but the it's even cool that the sailors have their moment here to get to know who God is through this because they come before God and say, please don't put his death on our hands.

Dave Quak: 9:03

And then they even try to row back to shore, too.

Jess Quak: 9:05

Yeah, and they after he's gone, then they they also come to the to the Lord that says, you know, they then have their own thing with God going on as a result of all of this, seeing who God really is. Uh Joni goes overboard, gets swallowed by a fish, and he kind of has this moment of maybe I didn't really want to die. I came to a place where I was nearly dead, and then the fish got me, and God, you rescued me. Actually, you're great. I am gonna do what you said.

Dave Quak: 9:40

Yeah. A lot of the commentators just say that time in the fish was just a time to stop and reflect and think about it. You know, like to sort of recalibrate you're a prophet. You know, obviously we don't know this from scripture, but like, you know, God's like, you're a prophet, you've been called by me, you're about to be resurrected onto the land that you ran from. Yeah, you know, like it is, yeah. I feel like there's grace in the way God deals with Jonah.

Jess Quak: 10:05

Oh, absolutely.

Dave Quak: 10:06

Like, because he actually killed other prophets. Do you know what I mean? And got rid of other prophets and false prophets and things. And so, to give Jonah this grace, anyway, he gets back onto the shore. I just think he would have looked wacko, man. Like, what does it do to your appearance, like laying in a fish for a few days?

Jess Quak: 10:22

Just the smell.

Dave Quak: 10:23

He just would have looked like a lunatic. He was already a lunatic, but he's walking through Nineveh, you know, calling out repentance, and then they start repenting, they start coming to God, and then he gets mad again. Yeah, I'd be scared of getting picked up by something else, let alone a fish. Like, if you disobey God a couple of times, people cut start getting uh start, you know, meeting God, he gets upset.

Jess Quak: 10:43

Yes. But it's really cool here because you would think that the voice of one prophet, how is that voice gonna turn around an entire nation? And yet it does, because God's called him to go and do that, even though he's reluctant, God still uses him to completely turn around the culture of a nation. And so Jonah just basically is walking through the place going, You've got 40 days and you're gonna be wiped out. And he gets to the king, and then the whole nation goes through a time of repentance and fasting.

Dave Quak: 11:19

Yeah, the whole nation, it's in Jonah 3, like everybody, yeah.

Jess Quak: 11:24

And they yeah, they submit themselves to God and say, you know, you might maybe he'll have mercy on us, and he does, and then that's not the end of the story. Often that sort of, you know, kids' Bible stories or whatever will stop there, but the rest of it's very significant, yeah.

Dave Quak: 11:45

Yeah, from Jonah 4, he gets all mad. Yeah, like they repent, and then he's like praying, What the heck, God? How could you do this to me?

Jess Quak: 11:53

Yeah, he's angry, yeah. And it's interesting in chapter four, he's when everyone else is rejoicing, Jonah is angry at God, and he says, I knew you. And he actually repeats what God has said about himself in Exodus 34. Yeah, because God reveals himself, he says, This is who I am, and Jonah says, This is why I fled at the beginning. I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. So we can often look at the Old Testament and think wrongly that God is a God who's just so absolutely willing to just slaughter and kill that he's just heavy-handed and angry, whereas Jonah completely flips that on its head and goes, actually, God is just waiting for just even the smallest little inkling for someone to turn to him, and then he wants to just show grace and pour that out on everyone. And this is hard for Jonah because Jonah wants justice. He's not even necessarily out for revenge, he's like, I want you to do what's just, God. I don't want you to show grace. And that can be a really hard place to be in, you know, people who struggle, who have been through times of abuse, who live through, you know, PTSD, and where God has shown grace, where God has shown patience, where we're like, God just wipe them off the face. God just completely take down this uh person or this nation. It's a genuine struggle because there is real pain in that.

SPEAKER_04: 13:59

Yeah.

Jess Quak: 14:00

And um when we think of grace, it's not a cheap grace, it's uh it comes at a at a real price through Jesus, but also God, as we've spoken about before, God's heart breaks with the brokenhearted. Yeah and his heart is for the those who are down, those who, you know, the orphan and the widow, he's he's very much for them. Yeah. But he still sees the humanity and his image in you know all of his children, and his desire is yes, for justice, but he he wants restoration more than anything.

Dave Quak: 14:43

Yeah. And it's interesting for Jonah to call down or call God out, give him what you know, wreck them after what he's just done. Like it's not like his resume is a good one.

SPEAKER_03: 14:55

Yes.

Dave Quak: 14:56

Do you know what I mean? So he doesn't even want them to get justice because otherwise he's wiped out as well.

Jess Quak: 15:01

Well, he wants grace for himself and justice for them.

Dave Quak: 15:04

That's right. And so often that's the case, right? We want grace for us and justice for others. Call down others and make them the you know the ones that uh they've crossed the line.

unknown: 15:13

Yeah.

Dave Quak: 15:14

The line that we made. Yeah. It's got nothing to do with what the scripture says.

Jess Quak: 15:17

Yeah.

Dave Quak: 15:18

Yeah.

Jess Quak: 15:18

Yeah. And it's it's cool then that God sort of meets Jonah where he's at with this and gives him a different lesson. So as Jonah's there, just in his anger and his despair, God causes a plant to grow up and give him shade.

SPEAKER_04: 15:38

Yeah.

Jess Quak: 15:39

And he's loving it because things are going well for him. So he's praising God. This is awesome.

Dave Quak: 15:44

And it says it's like a leafy plant, like a really nice, shady plant.

Jess Quak: 15:48

Yes. Uh, and then God sends a worm uh to eat away the plant.

Dave Quak: 15:53

And an east wind to blow hot air on him.

Jess Quak: 15:55

And so he's uncomfortable again, and he gets angry again, and he's and he's the suicidal ideation here is massive. He's like, I would rather, it's not just like I'm uncomfortable, I don't like this. He's like, kill me, I am ready to end this life. He's he's really um got this volatile space in his mind where if things aren't going the way that he thinks that they should go, in order for the world to work in the way that he thinks it should, he's willing to throw it all in. Yeah, he's willing to um take it out with God and just um sort of throw down but look, I'm not saying Jonah had bipolar, because we're not qualified to say that.

Dave Quak: 16:46

But I do, and I resonate with a lot of his mood swings and anger and happiness at the small reprieve and then anger that that reprieve gets taken away. And like he wasn't a stable character, Jonah. No, he wasn't, you know, and we can't diagnose we're not qualified to, but you know, that that in a way it's kind of cool that somebody who was unstable was still a prophet. Yeah, you know, yeah, because so often we think that the unstable are disqualified.

Jess Quak: 17:14

We're just gonna do it a different way, yeah, you know, and it's amazing that God will use him in this way. Yeah like he hated the people of Nineveh, yeah, and yet the people of Nineveh would have celebrated him because he was God's mouthpiece to save them all.

Dave Quak: 17:30

The lunatic who smelt like fish.

Jess Quak: 17:32

He was their hero, yeah, and yet he hated them. Yeah, but God still used him because he loved the people of Nineveh and he loved Jonah, yeah, and he was showing Jonah his heart, and he when he goes to say, like, look, look how you're feeling about this plant that you had absolutely nothing to do with. You're so concerned about this plant, but you don't have concern for all of these human and animal lives in this in this place, like your heart is really misaligned with my heart here. Um so Journey even as someone who is used so mightily by God is still learning and still being humbled and still growing. And you know, we don't hear much of what happens there. It kind of leaves you in this space of like, this is God's heart for people, and leaves sort of the reader to go, okay, just meditate on this. What do you think about the value of human life? What about human lives that are being misused for evil rather than good? How should we respond to that? It's not a cut and dry answer because later on he never does actually get destroyed.

Dave Quak: 18:47

No, that's right, and it's interesting, just the gabbot of emotions he goes through. Like, think about okay, so you've been asked to by God to do something. There's anger, there's fear, there's anxiety, there's what else is in there? Like desire, what's the desire to just flee? Just fright, you know, and just get out of there. Escape. Escape, hide, you know, curse God, thank God when the tree's there, curse God again when the tree's gone. Yeah. You know, like all of that comes at the request of God for him to do something.

SPEAKER_03: 19:22

Yeah.

Dave Quak: 19:22

And so I think when we are asked by God to do something, that gabbot of emotions isn't intrinsically evil. It's your way of processing stuff. Now, obviously, obedience and getting after it will be the first and most um obvious and ideal option. But not all of us fall there straight away.

SPEAKER_03: 19:43

Yeah.

Dave Quak: 19:43

Like I know for myself there's been so many times God's asked of me things and I don't want to do 'em.

SPEAKER_03: 19:48

Yeah.

Dave Quak: 19:48

I really don't want to do 'em. And I do 'em begrudgingly or just whatever, angrily, you know. And God at the end of it is still a God of grace.

SPEAKER_03: 19:58

Yeah.

Dave Quak: 19:59

You know. Yeah. And it's not just about what God calls you to do, it's even just the human responsibility. Like I know a lot of dudes my age have lost their marriages because they got tired of the responsibility that comes with being a dad in your 40s. The money goes to everyone else, the time goes to everyone else, you're answering questions all day long at work, at home. You're the responsible person at work, home, and everywhere else. And some of them just get sick of it and and leave. And it's a similar principle that in those moments, God's asking us to respond as a godly man, you know, to to to to do things we may not necessarily like, to man up when we may not necessarily want to do it. Yeah. You know, in order to see other people blessed rather than ourselves be blessed. And that's the thing with Jonah. I mean, yeah, it's about Jonah, but more it's about Nineveh.

SPEAKER_03: 20:51

Yeah.

Dave Quak: 20:51

You know, like God doesn't want to see one person miss out on the kingdom. He doesn't want to see one person separated from himself. And so that's what the prophet existed for. And if anything, man, it was the price to pay that Jonah signed up to when once upon a time when he was maybe 12, said, Yeah, God, I'll be a prophet, when he was initially nudged.

SPEAKER_03: 21:11

Yeah.

Dave Quak: 21:12

Like it shouldn't have been a surprise to him, really.

Jess Quak: 21:14

Yeah.

Dave Quak: 21:14

Isn't that the prophet's job?

Jess Quak: 21:16

Yeah.

Dave Quak: 21:16

Go and prophesy.

Jess Quak: 21:17

Yeah.

Dave Quak: 21:18

You know?

Jess Quak: 21:19

Yeah. But it doesn't rule out the fact that he does have very human emotions. And I think Jonah's also good for those people who have been through a time when you very clearly felt God has asked you to do something and you've been disobedient. And you haven't done it. For a lot of people, their response after that is then I messed up, I failed, I'm done. Like God can't use me now. I'm out of the game. I've I've been sidelined because that point in my life, God said, do this, and I didn't do it. Um but we see with Jonah, just as much as with the Ninevehites, he's been called to come and respond to the grace of God. Yeah. And so for people who are sort of in that space where they're feeling like, no, this is this is it for me. I I've I've had my chance and it's gone. God is still calling, like, come back. Let me pour out my grace and show you how I can use you.

Dave Quak: 22:18

I love that.

Jess Quak: 22:18

And how you can be on side with this. Because the thing is as well, like this is for Jonah, he could have straight away gone, done this task that God had given him, rejoiced with the Ninevites, had a great party with them, gone on praising how good is God, and really loved it. He didn't. He had his own sort of way to go about it. Um that's the ideal. So that's a good point. We want to sort of be pulling ourselves back to to go, God's gonna do what he's gonna do. I can choose to fight it or I can enjoy the ride.

SPEAKER_04: 23:02

Yeah.

Jess Quak: 23:02

Um, but then there'll be other times when we go, look, sometimes I'm finding it really hard to enjoy this ride, but God is good and he will have the grace to to pull me along and do good things even out of my messed upness.

Dave Quak: 23:18

Yeah, that's fantastic. We live in a weird time. You know, Trump just invaded Venezuela and people want each other's stuff all the time, and that's not new. People have been wanting each other's lands forever, and it's been prophets and anti-prophets and false prophets and everything else. Just on a practical, okay, we live. It's just a weird thing. It's weird looking at this while living two kilometres from Burley Beach, you know, where it's beautiful and looks like perfection, but there's an underlying kind of brokenness. Like, what are humans supposed to do? What can we learn from Jonah that can be applied in that sphere?

Jess Quak: 23:57

Yeah, I think this is super applicable for, you know, recently we had in Australia something that hasn't happened in in many years, and where at Bondi there was the shooting. Um, for some places in the world that is is very common, but for our nation, I think it kind of destabilized our sense of security a little bit. Um and there's been lots of different reactions to it. Some people have really demonized entire people groups or um, you know, seeing what's happening overseas, and then from their fear responded with a lot of hate and depersonalizing people and dehumanizing them by just putting people all on this ball of the these are the evil people, um, and we need to to eradicate them from the face of the earth in one way, shape, or form, especially online. It's so easy to depersonalize other people and just be these people are evil. If you think politically this way, you are from the devil. We need to treat you less than human because of X, Y, Z. Um, and I'm not saying don't be wise in the way that we live, but what Jonah really challenges us is to never look at another human being and not see the image of God in them. That yes, they may be doing great wickedness and great evil, but God is actually aware of that and he is going to deal with it, but that's not our responsibility to go and sort of make that judgment call on people, you know, taking away their humanity in the way that we not just the way that we treat people, but the way we we speak about people and the way that we um reflect our beliefs in our language. I think God calls us to see humans as people made in his image that he dearly, dearly loves, even when he's angry with what's going on because it's causing so much hurt and brokenness that we see all humans as people God cares about, and we should be fighting the good fight through the same way that Jesus did. And that is yeah, we need to be asking hard questions about you know what we should be doing, but um heading it up first through through prayer and through love and you know the spiritual entities that are behind the but the poor behaviors of other people, and seeing that we are actually in this spiritual battle, these people who are persecutors, these people who are evildoers, God hates what they're doing more than we do because he's more pure than we are, and he's a better judge of what's going on than we are. He will cause some people to respond in some ways and others to respond in other ways, but in all of that, to never not see the humanity in these people and to always do as Jesus did and treat everyone with respect and with love in all that we do.

Dave Quak: 27:33

Yeah, that's awesome. In a moment, Jess, I'm gonna get you to pray for both the Jonas and the Ninevites. Um, just a big shout out to tomorrow is not today for the studio use. This place is epic. Big shout out to Kingsley Collie. Yeah. Um, if you're still wanting to know more about Sunburnt Souls, we've got a whole bunch of episodes. Um, the last four or five have been on this topic of you know biblical heroes and their mental well-being. So it's been nice working with you on that, Jess. So if you could finish out today by praying for us, that would be the best.

Jess Quak: 28:06

Yeah. Lord God, I just lift up to you, every listener who is really struggling, being in that place where you're calling them to obedience, whether it be through forgiveness, through grace, through letting things go, just dealing with trauma that has happened to them, that legitimately just makes your heart just so broken for them, Lord God. I ask that the power of your Holy Spirit will come and meet them in this place and um and really reveal your love to them. And yet, Lord, we know that there is your will to come to pass for those who who are the persecutors, those who are the abusers, those and this is all of us in some way, shape, or form, Lord God, the sinful that are causing harm to others. We ask, Lord God, that your power will come, that your power will come with your grace, that we will see repentance, that we'll see lives truly turned around, that we'll see cultures changed to more reflect the beauty of the life you have called us to live. So, Lord, we ask for both healing and for revival. We ask that you would be sending your people to go and share about the goodness that you have in relationship with you and the goodness you have called us to live in. Help our hearts beat like your hearts, Lord. Help our moments where we just want to hate on someone, Lord. Help us to see them as your child. Help us to see them as your creation, who you have great concern for. And let us treat them with the same grace you've treated us. We know this can only be done by a work of your spirit in our lives, Lord. So we ask that you would move powerfully in that in Jesus' name. Amen.