Jonah Week 2

Pray
Read Jonah 1:4-6

In preparing for this study I had some help. first of all if you are interested in digging deeper into the story of Jonah I would encourage you to pick up the book "Surprised by Grace" by Tullian Tchividjian. Secondly thanks to my good friend Dan Adams for helping me with this study as well. So let's get started.


v.4 - We pick up the story of Jonah right after he gets on the boat to head to Tarshish as he is fleeing from the presence of the Lord. It says that God hurled a great wind upon the sea and there was a mighty tempest. This was no small storm. Jonah was most likely on a ship that was tested and tried on the open waters, well-made and crafted to handle the days out at sea even through the storms. But we clearly see that the ship was in danger of being torn apart by the wind and waves. God was fiercely trying to get Jonah’s attention. By going to these lengths to gain Jonah’s attention, God was also gaining the attention of the others on the boat.

v. 5 - We see the affect this tempest was having on the sailors. We have to understand that these were not first time sailors, they were hardy, seasoned men who had weathered many a storm on this very ship, yet they were afraid. So afraid that they were praying to their own gods, with no response, and jettisoning the very cargo they were probably being paid to transport. A light ship sits higher on the water and can ride out a storm easier. So they were tossing everything not bolted down, they were taking desperate measures to stay alive throughout this very dangerous, very scary storm. So where is Jonah in the midst of this storm? Well, Jonah, while everyone else is scared for their lives, is down in the bottom of the ship, sleeping. We notice here a trend in the life of Jonah. He is literally on a ‘downward spiral’. Jonah went “down” to Joppa; he went “down” to the ships hold and lay “down” to sleep. Jonah is making his way further from the presence of the Lord and down to the pit. We can contrast Jonah’s reaction in the midst of the storm with the Apostle Paul’s reaction in a storm on the Mediterranean sea. Paul in Acts 27 encounters a bad storm as well. Paul, in the midst of the storm, “encourages the crew, speaking boldly and convincingly of God’s assurance to him that all of them will indeed come out alive. He steps into a leadership vacuum to direct the ship’s officers and mean and ultimately helps save every life on board.” Jonah was not the man of God that he should have been in the situation. Jonah did nothing to encourage or help those he was sailing with. He became useless in light of the circumstances, far removed from his glory days as prophet of Israel Jonah hid in the bowels of the ship trying to get away from his God. Because of his actions Jonah put others in danger and he was not willing to accept that at first.

v.6 - The captain of the ship comes down, probably looking for more cargo to offload, and finds Jonah sleeping and he tears into him. The captain was probably a bit upset that this man was sleeping while the rest of the men were praying like never before and doing everything in their power to keep the ship afloat. So the captain wakes Jonah and demands that he pray to his God. This was no mere suggestion, the captain was adamant that Jonah wake up and join the others in praying for their rescue.

After these few verses we see the depths to which Jonah has decided to go to flee from God and the lengths to which God is willing to go to pursue those who are running from Him. When we run from God our actions don’t just affect us. They affect those around us. They affect those who love and care for us. When we run from God, we put ourselves in a place that we don’t want to be and more often than not we drag others there with us as well. We will pick up and finish the rest of chapter one next week.

**This is not an exhaustive study on these verses. these are just my notes for the talk that I gave this past Wednesday night to the students in my ministry. If you have questions or comments or would like to discuss what I have posted feel free, in fact I encourage it. thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog!!**