Jonah 1

"Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.”  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." vv.1-3

Read chapter 1.
If you had a direct, personal word from God would you obey?  No matter what?  It's easy to look at Jonah and think he's ridiculous disobeying the Lord, and while yes he is, what would you have done in his shoes?  We learn later in the book of Jonah why he chose to flee.  In 4:2 in that he saw the repentance of the city and knew the mercy of God that would be shown to them.  That sounds like a good thing, so why would Jonah not want that for a people?  Well for one Nineveh was the capitol of Assyria and Jonah knew that they were God's sword of judgment against Israel, so perhaps he thought that if Nineveh perished Israel might be saved.  Nineveh was also a great city with no doubt much sin and Jonah perhaps being afraid and jealous wanting for them punishment than grace.  It's hard for most people to have the courage to go and proclaim the gospel in such a difficult culture.  When we've been given a command by the Lord we also need His Spirit to bring every thought into obedience.  Jonah knew he couldn't hide from God, but rather him fleeing from the presence of the Lord was him fleeing before standing before Him as a servant and minister of God's duties, going the farthest west from being commissioned to the  northeast of his home.  Today you can't move from ministry as we should minister to everyone no matter where we are, overseas or in our home town.  How can you relate to Jonah's attitude of jealous or fear or holding back ministering?