“But Jonah arose 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 down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”
and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish
Jonah “went down” into the ship. He thought he could hide from the presence of the Lord. Each step he took was spiritual deterioration.
Jonah wanted to “go with” the sea mariners. Later, they were sorry that they took this fellow on board. This rebellious prophet caused the whole ship a lot of headaches.
Tarshish was a merchant port in southern Spain, 2500 miles from Israel. Jonah headed for the far west.
PRINCIPLE:
One believer out of tune with God can cause a work of God to languish.
APPLICATION:
One believer out of fellowship can cause havoc in the local church. There is nothing more miserable than having a backslider onboard a local church that is attempting to do the work of God. All trouble in local churches comes from people out of fellowship.
