Hebrew Word Study – God’s Presence – Panah  פנה Pei Nun Hei 

Jonah 1:3 “But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”  KJV

Jonah 1:3: “But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.”  NIV

I remember as a six year old sitting in Sunday School in Beginner’s Church listening to my Sunday School teacher tell the story of Jonah. I remember how my Sunday School teacher said that Jonah ran away from God. She then said: “Now children, you know you cannot run away from God.” I shook my head, yes, I knew that. I also thought: “Gee, I’m smarter than Jonah. Jonah must have been pretty stupid. Why I am only six years old and I know more than Jonah. I know you can‘t run away from God.” But soft – you can.  

Let’s face it, Jonah was a prophet, a man of God for crying out loud. He should have known you can’t out run God. Now the King James Version says that he ran away from the “presence of God.” Problem with that rendering is that it contradicts Psalms 139:7-10 which tells us that we cannot even run from the presence of God. To avoid this contradiction the NIV ignored the word pani in the Hebrew text which is rendered as face or presence. Well, they didn’t ignore it, they simply said that pani could be translated as before which it can and therefore Jonah fled from before the Lord. In other words David fled from standing before the Lord as a minister and servant of God. Other commentators suggest that he was fleeing from the temple of God where the presence of God rested and getting as far away as he could from the temple. I am not sure what difference that would make.

Ok, that all sounds good, if that explains the extent of your relationship with God.  However, the word pani, like most Hebrew words, has a wide range of meanings as well as an esoteric meaning. Also, the word has the preposition from in front of it but not the definite article the. More telling is that fact that the word pani is in a plural form. So, literally the passage says that Jonah fled “faces of God.”  

You know I still hear some preachers who tell us that the word God Elohim is in a plural form and therefore speaks of the trinity and Jewish rabbis know this but won’t admit it.  Actually, Jewish rabbis know more than these preachers think. They understand that plural in Hebrew is different than plural in English. A plural may mean more than one like in English but it can also be used to show a priority or an emphasis. So, Jonah was not fleeing just from the presence of God, but from an overwhelming presence of God.  This could also mean everything that reminds him of God and the word pani also means to consider and contemplate. Hence, he fled the city of God where the temple was and all the religious men wearing their religious garb etc. Fleeing to Tarshish, which was a mercantile city, he would go somewhere where he could not contemplate God or be reminded of God.

I recall a story that took place in Romania many years ago when the Communist came in and took over a small Romania village. They went into the church and removed all the sacred objects, the Bibles, hymn books, prayer books, crosses etc. and threw them into a bonfire and then they burned the church down. One of the communist soldiers grabbed one of the Christians and made him look at their destruction and said: “See there, we are going to destroy your God and everything that reminds you of your God.” That Christian just looked up and began to smile. It made the soldier angry and shouted at the Christian, “Didn’t you hear me, we are going to destroy your God and everything that reminds you of your God.” This Christian answered: “I was just wondering how you’re going to manage to get the stars down.”  

The word for presence comes from the root word panah which is spelled Pei, Nun, and Hei. Esoterically the Pei is a sign of the powerful activities of speaking and communicating. The Pei calls us to speak from the heart. When God spoke to Jonah, He spoke from his heart. God’s heart cried out to Jonah to share His message of mercy for Nineveh. We forget in the Old Testament, that God also loved the Gentiles as much as he loved the Hebrew people.  

The Nun removes walls and barriers, the nun represents faith which brings the walls down. Joshua brought the walls of Jericho and the children of Israel down with the Nun that is words from the heart spoken in faith.  When God speaks with the Pei he tears down walls and barriers opening the door to the last letter which is Hei. This represents the presence of God. Jonah fled from the spoken word of God, the power of God to remove barriers to His presence. 

You see, it wasn’t the presence of God that Jonah was fleeing. It was the tool that Jonah would use to bring the presence of God to Nineveh. I remember when I was a caregiver and I had a client who was in Hospice with a brain tumor and was dying. I was hired to be with him so his wife could take a break and get out of the house. I spent up to three hours a day, alone with Bob who could only communicate with his eyes. My first thought was that he could not understand anything I spoke. But his eyes spoke differently. The idea of just mentioning the name of Jesus in front of this dying patient terrified me. I don’t know why but I knew God called me there to share His message of mercy with this dying man that He loved. But I was just too afraid (unreasonable fear) to simply tell him that God loved Him. I put on the TV just to get my mind off of what I was called to do.  I was like Jonah, running away to Tarshish, trying to escape the powerful tool that God had given me to deliver his message of mercy.

I realize now it was the enemy fighting like all get out to keep me from going to Nineveh.  I found like I am sure Jonah found that when you run away from the tool of His presence and power that you can share with a Nineveh, He realized that this presence is not just for yourself but to bring to a lost world 

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