Jonah 1:1-3
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” 3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
Jonah is a pretty classic example of what not to do if God gives you a message. He was given a particular message and told what to do with it, yet he did precisely the opposite and wound up paying a pretty good price for his disobedience. Then, he still had to go do what he was told.
The simple message in these verses is that we better do what we are told. Often, the Father teaches something with the intent that we share, in love, what He has taught us. Sometimes He impresses us to speak to a particular person, or study a particular subject. Rebelling against the Almighty because we don’t like the message, the recipient or the possible result is a recipe for a whoopin’. Ask Jonah. He managed to have a ship captain lose all his cargo, nearly lose his vessel and crew then Jonah forced them to go through the angst of feeding him to the sharks before enduring the misery of the belly of a great fish for 72 hours +/-.
I’m not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but I’m pretty sure that wrestling with the Almighty only causes one to get hurt and He will still get His way.
Why do we do that? -Tell Him what we will and won’t do? Negotiate with the Creator of the universe? Do we really think we’ll fare better than Jonah?
Maybe the message scares us. Maybe we are afraid of what others will think. Maybe we would rather be doing something else.
Maybe, the best course of action is to be obedient…
What are you supposed to be studying? What are you supposed to be teaching? Who are you supposed to be going to? What has the Father given you to do that terrifies you?
Get going and quit the rebellion, else you may learn the lesson of Jonah the hard way.
Shalom
natsab 
Pete, this is Elizabeth Vanier. We emailed previously re. my referral from Kimberly Rogers-Brown for me to go on day tours with you during Pesach. I will be with Kimberly’s Bnb group at HaRav Kuk Street 7 7, Jerusalem. Do you have your itinerary? Thank you for your information.
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