“But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.” Jonah 1:4-6
Charles Wesley wrote these words that could apply to any one of us, but they certainly apply to Jonah:
O Jesus, full of truth and grace, More full of grace than I of sin, Yet once again I seek Thy face; Open Thine arms and take me in, And freely my backslidings heal, And love the faithless sinner still. Thou know’st the way to bring me back, My fallen spirit to restore: O for Thy truth and mercy’s sake, Forgive, and bid me sin no more; The ruins of my soul repair, And make my heart a house of prayer.
The Latin phrase “Facilis Descensus Averno” means the descent to Hell is easy. Jesus said it this way,
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Matt. 7:13-14
The Author of Hebrews says, “we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” An older gentleman that I served on a board with a while back would say, “Andy, if people are looking for trouble they will always find it right there in front of them….it’s not like they need to go looking for it.”
The great Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon once told a story about a school friend that had a terrible temper, and whenever he would get angry he would throw something…Spurgeon said,
“What struck me forcibly was not that he got angry; nor that he threw something when he was angry. But that whenever he was angry there was always something at hand to throw.”
We’ve already met Jonah the runaway prophet…it’s been said of Jonah, that he was the one prophet in Israel who was successful & was unhappy about it. Jonah is a prophet of God and the book begins with him receiving direct revelation from God.
Jonah is symbolic prophecy, in that what we see in Jonah (in his actions) is clearly what we are meant to see in Israel as a nation at the time. Jonah is stubborn, proud and self-willed.
Jonah as an ambassador of God is to follow the Lord’s will. Jonah is more than willing to overlook the filth of his own people, believing them to be deserving of grace, but certainly not willing to extend that same grace to the Ninevites. Now, Jonah may have some motivations that any sane human would understand, but that’s just it – it’s not for us to say, and God’s way are higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts. We simply lack the capacity, that we think we have, and often find ourselves in the damnable position of telling God how to do His job.
Jonah is also a book filled with irony…we see this is the opening words…Jonah son of Amittai which means Dove son of Truth is running from God & refuses to give the Spirit’s testimony which is truth.
He was given a simple charge directly from God, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah”…there is no statement that could ever be more authoritative, or come with more weight into your life than that one: “arise, go to Nineveh that great city and call out against it”…It’s not unclear…Jonah’s problem is not intellectual, his problem is moral…The fact of the matter is, we don’t do what God tells us to do because we don’t want to because we think we know better.
Jonah was told, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” So what’s he do…He goes to not Nineveh. “But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.”
Three times we are told - Not Nineveh. He was going to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord…He is getting out of dodge and wants nothing to do with the Lord’s command. He went “down” to Joppa, which is a port city and found a ship and paid the fair…which means that Jonah made a significant financial investment to get out of dodge. Some estimate that the fair he paid would have been equivalent to a year’s wages, with the voyage also taking a significant amount of time. Jonah is not neutral here, and his time and his money reflect that.
“When a person decides to run from the Lord, Satan always provides complete transportation facilities.” William Banks
Jonah had no problem finding the money for the voyage. He had no problem finding Joppa or a ship, that just so happened to be going in the opposite direction that he was told to go.
Most evangelicals today would conclude that it must have been the Lord’s will because we
believe that if things are easy that must be a sign of God’s blessings and if they are difficult that must be a sign of God’s curse. However, the book of Jonah shows us the exact opposite of that, as does the rest of the Bible for that matter.
We see something here of sins descent. That is also seen in Psalm 1:1-2,
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.”
We are given a visual of a perpetual hardening…we move from walking to standing to sitting…
What do we see in verse three? Jonah “went down” and then in verse five, Jonah had “gone down” …and then further, he had “lain down.” The descent of sin is always smooth and easy and may even end with a nice nap, like it did for Jonah. However, it always comes at a cost…in resources and repercussions not just to ourselves but also to others. There are a lot of other people on that ship that are going to suffer as a result of Jonah’s actions.
The word of the Lord comes to Jonah but we read in v.3 “But Jonah flees”. But then v.4 begins with the following phrase, “But the LORD”…God’s word will come to pass. Jonah will go to Nineveh, it is just a matter of how uncomfortable he wants to be between A and B.
God pursues us because He loves us and desires to draw us into relationship with Himself…like a loving parent that would pursue their wayward child that is running from their presence. God always acts in a way that is consistent with His nature, and for our good.
What does the Lord do? He hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up…the sea becomes so violent that all the sea-hardened mariners are terrified. Just to put this into perspective, these are not men who are known for being daisies…we have phrases like, “he curses like a drunken sailor,” for a reason.
These men have never seen a storm like this before and they know it is supernatural in nature. What do they do? The most logical thing to do – they call out to their gods, and they begin dumping cargo. This just illustrates how scared they were…the dumping of cargo was a huge financial loss for them, and would have to be explained to someone – namely, the person whose cargo they we transporting, and it’s not like they had insurance.
Where is Jonah? Jonah is sleeping. Let’s just breathe in all the delicious irony shall we? Jonah went to Joppa and got on a ship full of pagan sailor, approx. 40ish men on the ship, because he didn’t want to bring to the word of the Lord to pagan Nineveh. Jonah the good Hebrew prophet, is sleeping while these pagan sailors are crying out to their gods. It’s a sad thought to think that the pagan world is crying out for help, while the people are God are getting some shuteye.
The captain wants all hands-on-deck and he notices that he is missing one. The captain hollers at Jonah to wake up, and calls him a sleeper, which was not meant to be a term of endearment. When he calls him a sleeper, it’s a jab at, “his person” as though he doesn’t care about helping others. Again, notice the irony of a captain pagan sailor calling out the integrity of a Hebrew prophet…not a good look for Jonah, nor for Israel.
What does the captain say? “arise, call out to your god”…he fully realizes that whatever this is, it is beyond human ability to control. The power of the storm brings these pagan sailors in touch with the reality that God is there and He is not silent.
Think of all the things that are presupposed by the sailors: God is personal and that He hears them, otherwise crying out to Him would be ridiculous. That He is not only all-powerful, at least over the sea, but that He is also compassionate – that He may give a thought to them that they may not perish. And also, that He is righteous, because whatever has come upon them has come upon them as a result of some evil that has been done.
It's been said that there are no atheists in foxholes. This is true, however, it is also true that there are no real polytheists in foxholes either. The truth we suppress in unrighteousness always has a way of rearing its head.
These pagan sailors also know that their only hope for survival is being made right with this God. Something wrong has been done, and that something needs to be made right. Jonah remains silent. Let me just do something I never do and say something controversial. Maybe, just maybe the discomfort and pain you’re experiencing, or the hardship and struggle that you’re going through or have gone through or will go through is, has been, or will be God’s greatest sign of blessing on your life. God is pursuing you and has not left you to your own devices.
“Thou know’st the way to bring me back, My fallen spirit to restore: O for Thy truth and mercy’s sake, Forgive, and bid me sin no more; The ruins of my soul repair, And make my heart a house of prayer.” Charles Wesley
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