What does First B Jackson teach about running from god?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on running from God begins with the observation that Jonah is not a children's story about a fish. Every message on the book presses the same uncomfortable point: Jonah knew exactly who God was and ran anyway. He did not flee out of ignorance. He fled because he knew what God was likely to do with Nineveh if a prophet showed up, and he wanted no part of it. The direction of his disobedience is telling. God said go northeast; Jonah paid his own fare and went as far west as the known world reached. Ron Turpin traced the repeated downward movement in the text, down to Joppa, down into the ship, down into sleep, as a picture of the direction disobedience always takes a person.
The teaching is equally honest about what running from God looks like on the inside. Van Jones, who was being considered for the associate pastor role when he preached through the book, traced Jonah's prayer from inside the fish carefully. The repentance there is real enough for God to act on, but it is only partial. Jonah quotes the right things about God and even critiques idol worshippers, but he never names his own idol, which Van identified as his nationalism, his commitment to his people over his obedience to God. Pastor Mark made the same observation, describing the prayer as almost repentant, skirting the line. Jonah rehearses his distress and God's rescue but there is nothing in it like the confession of Psalm 51. The rest of the book proves the repentance was incomplete, because when God spares Nineveh, Jonah is furious rather than glad.
What First B Jackson consistently draws from this story is that God does not abandon the person who runs. He sends a storm, a fish, a second call in nearly identical words, a plant, a worm, and a question. The patience is not soft. Ron pointed out that the Bible records no prayer from Jonah until day three inside the fish, and he invited the congregation to recognize that pattern in their own lives, knowing something is wrong, knowing what God is asking, and holding out until there is nowhere left to turn. The greater comfort the messages offer is that the grace God showed Nineveh, and showed Jonah repeatedly, is the same grace every person in the room depends on.
Taught from Jonah 1:1-3 · Jonah 2:5-9 · Jonah 3:1-2 · Jonah 4:2 · Matthew 12:38-41
The passage taught · Exodus 34:6-7
6 Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth,
7 keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation.”
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- August 17, 2025 God Calls Jonah to Do Hard Things Van Jones walks through the entire book of Jonah, showing how God pursues stubborn people through hard things and calls us to obey, repent, and love our enemies.
- August 17, 2025 No and Lord Van Jones walks through the entire book of Jonah, showing how God patiently pursues a reluctant, angry prophet and calls us to love even the people we most want to see judged.
- March 27, 2022 The Book of Jonah - Sunday, March 27, 2022 - 11am Service The pastor walks through the entire book of Jonah, showing how God's mercy toward enemies challenges our own willingness to share the gospel with people we would rather see judged.
- March 27, 2022 Nobody Acts Like You Expect In This Story Jonah is more than a fish story. A Wyoming pastor walks through the whole book to ask: when God shows mercy to your enemies, how do you respond?
Mentioned along the way
- November 20, 2011 The Sign of Jonah Ron Turpin walks through the book of Jonah to show how God pursues the disobedient, waits patiently for repentance, and points every detail toward the death and resurrection of Jesus.