"When we choose a path that is opposite of the one God wants us to walk, one of the biggest lies is that it only affects us."

The Ancient Path opens with the story everyone thinks they know — and the backstory almost no one preaches. Before the ship, the storm, and the fish, Jonah was a nationalistic prophet in the pocket of an evil king (2 Kings 14), discredited by his contemporary Amos, carrying real hatred for the Assyrians. He was the worst possible choice for Nineveh. So why did God pick him?

In this episode, Pastor Cliff Johnson rebuilds the world of Jonah chapter 1: who the Assyrians really were, why Scripture puts Nineveh in the same category as Sodom and Gomorrah, what fleeing to Tarshish actually cost (the end of the known world — a year at sea, his whole life packed on a chartered ship), the storm that terrified seasoned sailors while the prophet slept, and the stunning turn where Jonah's rebellion becomes the very thing that brings pagan sailors to the living God — pointing straight ahead to Jesus, the perfect Jonah.

A question to carry into your week: where are you running — and who else is paying the price?

Next time: Jonah chapter 2. The prophet is in the water, and God is not finished with him.

Keep walking: Still Waters is a free 10-day devotional journey through the Psalms — learning to pray the way God's people have prayed for three thousand years.

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