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Basic Bible: Jonah Runs and Is Found Out

Jonah 1:7-17

The book of Jonah opens with little introduction. The word of the Lord came to Jonah. The scriptures before us do not reveal if this were the first occasion that the Lord spoke to Jonah but the word before us makes it clear that Jonah was certain that God spoke to him and that Jonah fully understood that which God would have him to do.

Jonah knew his mission was to go Nineveh and to cry against it. In an act of disobedience, Jonah sought to flee from the presence of the Lord. God wanted Jonah to cry out against Nineveh such that the great city would turn from its wicked ways. Jonah did not want what God wanted. Jonah wanted Nineveh to be punished; God wanted Nineveh to repent.

God reveals Himself to us through that which He causes to pass. In Jonah’s case, God wanted men who did not know Him to realize that He was disciplining His prophet. God sent a violent storm which threatened to break up the ship upon which Jonah was a passenger.

The nature of the storm gave the mariners cause to believe that it was of supernatural origin. They believed the storm to be the consequence of the actions of some member of the crew or that of a passenger. They cast lots to determine the identity of the one who had offended his God. The lot fell upon Jonah.

In verse 17, we learn that God had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. There are a multitude of possible scenarios by which the sleeping Jonah of verse 5 could have arrived at God’s intended destination (the belly of a great fish) which scenarios do not require all aboard ship to know of Jonah’s iniquity. The storm happened because God wanted the men aboard that ship to know what Jonah had done and God wanted them to act upon that knowledge.

All men aboard the ship learned that Jonah was a Hebrew, that Jonah feared the Lord God who made the sea and the dry land, and that Jonah had fled from the presence of the Lord.

Knowing only that the ship and all aboard were threatened, the mariners did all that they could to survive. Every man had cried out to his god and they had thrown cargo overboard to lighten the load. These actions were inappropriate because the God of Jonah required no less than Jonah himself.

Having established that the rough sea was of Jonah’s God, they asked Jonah what they should do. Jonah told them the waters would calm if he were cast into the sea. Jonah said, “for my sake this great tempest is upon you.”

They did not like the answer. The choice which God forced upon them was to execute one man (cast Jonah overboard into the roaring waters and certain death) and live or for all to perish. They attempted an alternative action. They rowed hard but this failed to bring the ship to safety. God, through the raging sea, made it known to the mariners that the only means by which they could survive would be by the death of one man.

They called out to God, begging that the death of this one man be not counted against them — that they not be guilty of shedding innocent blood. They addressed God saying: “for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee.”

The mariners called out to God whom they did not know begging for mercy, begging that their casting Jonah into the sea not be counted against them. They then cast Jonah into the sea and the sea ceased to rage.

They had just witnessed an act of Jonah’s God, an act of the God of heaven who created the sea and the dry land. They knew that they had been delivered from the raging sea by Jonah’s God. They beheld His power and they were much in fear. They responded to God’s act of calming the sea by offering sacrifices and making vows unto Him.

In verse 14, the mariners beseeched the Lord that Jonah’s life not be counted against them. Unknown to them, God had already answered that prayer. God had already made provision to deliver Jonah from the waters of death. God had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah so that he might be delivered for God’s purposes.

In the text before us, God reveals that He has no desire to take the lives of men who do not know Him or to take the life of Jonah who disobeyed Him. God did not take the lives of the mariners because they did not resist His will. God did not take Jonah’s life because He had work for him to do.

God had better things for the mariners — they were to declare the God who delivered them; and God had better things for Jonah — he was to declare the righteousness of God to Nineveh. God, in His love for men, provides the means by which men may become agents of His love.

God, in His love, revealed Himself to the mariners by delivering them. God, in His love, was not willing that Jonah should perish. God, in His love, has revealed that He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (II Peter 3:9). Let us declare the love of Him who died that we might live.

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