Jonah runs the other way
“He prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please, Yahweh, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm.”Jonah 4:2 · WEB
God tells Jonah to preach to Nineveh, capital of the empire that will one day destroy his country, and Jonah buys a ticket in the opposite direction. A storm, a confession, a sea, a fish, three days, and a very undignified return to shore. He preaches the shortest sermon in the Bible — forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown — and the entire city repents, from the king to the cattle. And Jonah is furious. His complaint, at the end, is the confession the whole book is built on: I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and relent from doing harm. He did not run because he feared failure. He ran because he feared success. The book ends with a question God asks Jonah, and never answers for him.