Jonah Week 3

October 5, 2011
Pray
Read Jonah 1:7-16

v.7 - we pick up Jonah’s story in the midst of the storm. The sailors had done all they knew to do in order to save themselves. They are now so desperate they are asking even Jonah to pray to his God that they might not perish. So they do the only thing that is sensible to them, nothing else is working, so they cast lots to find out who is the cause of this terrible storm.
Casting lots was a way in ancient times for the people to determine the will of the divine. Those who feared God, Israelites, believed that when they cast lots, God determined the outcome (Proverbs 16:33). And in this case God did influence the outcome, the lot fell on Jonah.

v.8- Once the lot was cast and it fell on Jonah the sailors began to question him, this man who needed to get away from something, this man with the shady look in his eye. What had he done to bring this storm down on them?

v.9 - When Jonah answers the men, he starts by stating his nationality. He is a Hebrew. This will be important as we continue in this book. Then he goes on to say that he fears the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. Jonah is servant of the God who can fix their problem, this revelation shocks the men.

v.10 - The men go from being afraid to being exceedingly afraid. This was not the answer they wanted to hear. Jonah had obviously upset this very powerful God, so much so that all their prayers to their false gods were useless to sway the will of Jonah’s God. They get pretty upset at Jonah exclaiming, “What is this that you have done!” The men now knew the extent of the danger they were in my letting this man who is fleeing from God on their ship.

v.11 - After identifying the culprit, the sailors know that something must be done to assuage the wrath of this omnipotent being because the sea is growing more tempestuous. They ask Jonah, the fleeing prophet, what they should do. Instead of instantly taking a rash course of action and killing Jonah for bringing this on them, they show love and kindness not expected from pagan people. They don’t want to do anything to this man that would bring down any greater wrath from God.

v.12-13 - Jonah tells them that they must hurl him into the sea. Just as God hurled the storm and the sailors hurled the cargo, now they must hurl Jonah overboard to save themselves. Still the sailors want to try and save Jonah. Instead of immediately throwing him off the ship they try to row back to shore again. But the sea grows more tempestuous, they can’t make it back.

v.14-15 - Still the sailors show us more of their character than Jonah has this whole time. They turn their backs on their own gods and now call out to the Lord. They see that God has acted how he pleased to get the attention of his prodigal prophet. So they beg God to not hold this man’s life against them, they hurl Jonah into the sea, and the sea stopped it’s raging.

v.16 - Now we see an amazing thing happen. These unbelieving pagan men now believe in and fear the Lord. They went from being mildly afraid, to exceedingly afraid and now that fear has transformed into the fear of the Lord that leads to faith. These pagan worshipping men, after experiencing the full fury of the Lord are now believers in Him and make sacrifices and vows to God.

We see in these verses in Jonah a sharp contrast between 2 different types of people. The first group of people is the pagan sailors. These men did not have anything to do with God. They were perfectly content with their lives away from Him. Then we have Jonah, this man who is supposed to be a follower of God, a prophet who fears and obeys. Both of these are examples of people running from God, Jonah’s “morality and correct religion have brought him no closer to God than the sailors’ worldliness and false religion.” We see that even those of us who are born again have the potential to be as rebellious and wrong in our actions as the person who had never heard the name of Christ. Our response to God in the midst of our rebellion is what makes the difference. “Whenever we try to run from God, He’s committed to making our lives miserable--for our sakes. And so often He’ll use some kind of storm to do it, not to punish but to mercifully intervene.” The sailors responded rightfully, with fear and eventually worship for God. Jonah did not respond well. He ran from God in the good times in his life when things were looking up. Jonah was afraid that God’s plan for his life would mess up his perfect life. So he ran. He did not respond with fear and obedience when God commanded him to go. And he ends up drowning in the ocean because of his disobedience.

**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!!**