The Jonah Syndrome - by Jacques Kotze

When something hits our world and causes widespread affects for humanity, such as the Covid-19 virus, the world stops and people suddenly begin to listen. Business stops, shops close, schools are disrupted and social media is saturated with videos, posts, jokes and the works (Don’t worry, this is not just another post like those mentioned above).

What if I were to tell you that there is a disease much more frightening, deadly and disruptive to our society, schools, business and us as individuals? What if I were to tell you that this disease and the syndrome it causes have been around for thousands of years, but the good news is, we also have the cure?

The disease is hardness of heart, other names for it include rebellion, death, disobedience etc. The germ or the root of it is sin. The syndrome that is caused by this disease, I would like to call the Jonah syndrome.

An online definition of syndrome is as follows:

A syndrome is a set of medical signs and symptoms which are correlated with each other and often associated with a particular disease or disorder. The word derives from the Greek σύνδρομον, meaning “concurrence”.

For thousands of years, there has been a concurrence/consistency between the effects of disobedience to the Lord and how us as humans react to it. Thus the Jonah syndrome:

Jonah 1:1-3 “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. But Jonah rose 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 the fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.”

The book of Jonah starts with Jonah being called to ‘arise‘, there is a call towards God. There is a call to obedience, that will influence us and others for the better. This call is for us to walk with the Lord (in an intimate relationship with Him) and for our walk with the Lord to influence others, to show them the disease that we all need healing from and to bring to them that healing that we receive ourselves.

‘But‘ Jonah decided against it, the disease (hardness of heart/rebellion) causes him to do something ‘instead‘. Instead of running towards the open arms of a loving Father, he runs… away… It doesn’t matter where he runs, he runs away. In this case he runs to down to Joppa and then ultimately to Tarshish. The point is this, he is trying to run away from the presence of the Lord. If you read the rest of the book, you realise that no matter how far Jonah went, he couldn’t escape the presence of the Lord. How many times do we run away to Tarshish? To a place where we think the presence of the Lord is not? The thing is, wherever our Tarshish might be, whether it be television, pornography, social networks, pubs or clubs or even our relationships, there we will not escape the presence of our Father. Tarshish does not allow us to escape the presence of the Lord, in fact, it only shows us that He is still running after us and we become aware of how far we have run.

Jonah 1:4-6 “But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”

What then happened is quite sad, Jonah became aware that he was trying to run from the Lord’s presence, which brings joy, peace, hope and love. This spiritual decay began to affect Jonah’s emotions and then ultimately his actions. If we look at the text quoted above, the word ‘down‘ occurs a few times (as well as in other verses). Jonah went down to Joppa and then down into the lowest part of the ship and then had lain down and was fast asleep. How do you sleep during a terrifying, deadly storm?

Well, when you are scared that you have already gone to far from the presence of the Lord, then there is no more hope left. When all hope is gone, it is easy to sleep (or run to other numbing agents) in order to try and avoid the feeling that you are too far gone and out of options. Just like Jonah slept in a storm because he was down and fleeing from the Lord, sometimes we sleep during a storm. This storm might be certain things or circumstances in our life caused by us (or others) running from the presence of the Lord and losing hope.

The answer is not a good nap or any other numbing agent to help you forget the hopelessness of the situation by offering temporary joy. The answer is to STOP running, to see the situation for what it is and then throwing yourself to the Lord, because He is not far off, He is not where you think you started to flee from Him. He isn’t where you started to run and head towards the ship, you don’t have to head all the way back before He will meet you. You don’t even have to meet Him halfway, because He doesn’t do halfway. He came all the way. He came all the way for Jonah, He came all the way for us also.

Jonah 1:17 and 2:1-2 “And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.”

Jesus came all the way for us, so that we don’t have to go to where we started to run from Him. When we realise we have been running/are running from Him, we shouldn’t run more, we should run less. We should stop and throw ourselves to Him. Because He is there waiting. Just like a fish was appointed to save Jonah and bring Him back to where he was in the beginning, Jesus was appointed for us, to bring us back to the Father. Jesus was appointed to meet us, not halfway, but where we are. He died to take all our guilt, shame and sin upon Him. He bore it and He buried it and He rose again so that we can have a new life with Him, free from the disease that cause Jonah syndrome, free from the need to run away. We can run towards God, because Jesus made the way.

He gives second (or more) chances. His kindness is meant to lead us to repentance. He come to us again with the proposal: Arise! He invites us to live with Him, in a relationship with Him, seeking His face and His voice every day and then also to live for Him in reaching others. There are second chances.

Jonah 3:1-3 “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.”

This morning, during my time of having fellowship with the Lord, I saw a picture of the following: One by one people were running away, like embarrassed little children. Then I saw a Father figure running behind them, eventually reaching them, wrapping His arms around them and bringing them to a sudden halt. One by one, Father is chasing us down and stopping us by wrapping us in His open arms.

He doesn’t care where we are running to, it doesn’t matter. The fact is that He cares that we are running away from Him. God’s desire is not only for us to not run to things that are wrong and harm us, but also to run towards Him. If you are not running to Him, it doesn’t matter to where you are running, whether it be good or bad, He will stop and arrest you with His love and turn you towards Him.

We are like a small little boy running from His father after he spilled some juice on a blanket, we are like a bride running from her husband. Sure, if juice gets spilled it needs to be cleaned, but the Father has already paid for it to be clean, we do not need to run away from Him. The groom wants His bride, she doesn’t need to run away.

Think about it for a minute, God doesn’t just want us out of hell, He wants us WITH Him (in Heaven). God didn’t just come to save us from something, but for something. To be love by Him and love Him.

This is the Jonah syndrome and the cure in one sentence:

God calls us to arise towards and for Him, but instead we run away, we godown, trying to escape His presence, we realise this and try to run even more,but God sends and calls for us again and gives us a second (or third or fourth or … ) chance to arise and turn to Him, by praying and calling out to the Lord Jesus, who came for us and He will hear our call.

If you are, like all of us, affected by the disease that causes Jonah syndrome, I have good news for you. There is a cure. Maybe you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and saviour, maybe not. Accept the cure, search for it, give up anything that stops you from getting that cure. The door is open.

John 1:12-13 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.