I tell this story all the time, even though it makes me cringe and makes me look like a fool.
I was 22 years old, and I had just gotten my first cell phone. "Way back then", people had cell phones when they had jobs, and I had a job, so I had a cell phone. It was a giant, black, Nextel brick-of-a-phone which was colloquially called, "the brick", because it was intended to be indesctructible. All of the low-level employees who were just important enough to get a phone but not important enough to get their phone replaced got the phone that they couldn't destroy. I was on that list.
But I didn't want to be on that list. I wanted to have a nice phone, with the color screen.
In those days, a color screen literally meant just that–it had a color screen. Exact same features. Maybe a slightly nicer profile. Color screen. Much, much, more expensive.
This particular Nextel phone had a color screen and the body type was a "flip" phone, which meant it folded in on itself on a clam shell design and–this was the killer feature–it would show you who was calling you even when the phone was closed via a little tiny LCD on the exterior.
I found a kid in our youth ministry who was selling one (long story short–it was probably lifted. But that's not the point) and I bought it. $200 dollars cash money right out of my pocket. I activated it, turned it on, and that was it. The excitement was over. I got exactly what I wanted, and all I got was disappointment. For $200.
Jonah got exactly what he wanted to, but it turned out much worse. His goal was to flee from the presence of the Lord, and by the time we get to verse 16 of the first chapter, it looks like he's about to get what he wants. "Hurl me over the side", Jonah tells the sailors. They'll be safe, and Jonah will be dead, which was better than following God's plans–or at least, he thought it was.
As he's sinking to the floor of the sea, however, he comes to the conclusion that he may have made a big mistake. He got exactly what he wanted, and it turns out, it's not what he wanted at all. It was a giant disaster.
The main point of Jonah's prayer in chapter 2 highlights this reality: " Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love."
At some point in Jonah's descent to death he realized that even though he got what he really wanted, it wasn't what he was actually looking for. By getting what he wanted, he actually gave up his hope of "steadfast love".
Jonah's point is profound. He's letting us know that the heart of rebellion against God is really idolatry. It's pursuing other things and devoting attention to other things more than we pursue and devote our time to God. It's putting created things, created assignments, created laws, created value, in the place of the Creator.
Jonah's idol may have been independence. Maybe he was tired of dealing with God and being God's servant. He wanted to do his own thing for a while.
Maybe Jonah's idol was leisure. Jonah may have been headed to Tarshish before the Lord called, and God's assignment at the beginning of chapter 1 only accelerated the trip. He was ready to retire before God called, but now that he knew what God wanted him to do, he was going to pursue it at all costs!
"Idolatry" isn't about putting up a statue in our yard and bowing down to it. Idolatry is taking anything and putting it into the place in our lives that God is supposed to fill. When we do that, Jonah says that we are putting our regard in something that can never fulfill what it promises–the definition of "vanity". It is fleeting, here for a moment, and then gone.
Our idols might be success or wealth or celebrity or comfort. We pursue them at all costs. But when we get them–have they actually fulfilled what they promised?
The problem, as Jonah points out, is that as long as we insist on chasing down these vain idols, we'll be giving up the only thing that we really do want, and even need: Steadfast love.
Ask anyone who desires success, wealth, celebrity, comfort, leisure, independence, and ask them–would you rather keep chasing that down at great personal cost, or would you rather know that you are okay, just the way you are? Would you rather know that you are accepted and loved with an unending love?
They'll say love.
And if they don't, it's probably because their plans haven't yet ended in disaster. But give it time. Eventually they may get what they want, and they'll find that it wasn't what they were looking for after all.