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| Sperm whale (Physeter microcephalus) illustration by Uko Gorter |
(Jon 1:4) But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.
(Jon 1:5) Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to
his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship
into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest
parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.
In vv1-2 we have Jonah’s
commission from Yahweh. The centerpiece in v3 was But Jonah. After a slow walk through v3, we come to the Divine
response of vv1-3 in v4. Jonah is in a ship on the Mediterranean Sea heading
west to Tarshish; Nineveh was in the east still under the threat of destruction
unbeknownst to them.
Jonah was supposed to be updating them on
current events affecting them. We get more specifics on that in Jonah 3:4; there
was a timeline of forty days, and Nineveh would be no more. The “clock” would
begin ticking once Jonah began making his pronouncement in Nineveh.
We assume,
and rightly so, that we shouldn’t expect Jonah to shed any tears or lose any
sleep over their demise because of his bias and animus toward the Assyrians; he
simply didn’t care. By virtue of being on a ship heading a greater distance away
from Nineveh than he was while in Jerusalem indicated he disagreed with Yahweh
on the content of his mission and refused to carry it out, and attempted to run
from the will of God.
But the LORD
One thing we can count on is
when the will of God is intentionally disobeyed, there will be a divine
response; the timing of that is known only to Yahweh. So much for the idea that
God is not involved in the affairs of man. You get the impression that Yahweh
is going to put an end to this nonsense of Jonah going in the opposite direction
from His will. Smooth sailing was about to turn into
“We really shouldn’t be out here” in these conditions.
There was no advance warning of
an impending storm. Recall the adage, “Red sky at night sailors delight; red
sky in the morning sailors take warning” (cf. Mt 16:2-3). It looked like a go
when they rowed out of the harbor and set sail for Tarshish. This weather
system developed quickly, seemingly out of nowhere. We know why.
The LORD sent out
The Creator God used the
elements of “nature” to accomplish His will, but nature wasn’t the cause of
this storm.
Sent out [lit., hurled, Heb., tul] a great wind
on the sea. This Heb verb tul is also translated threw (v5, 15) and throw (v12).
A great wind on the sea [known as the Great Sea, later referred to as the Mediterranean Sea], and there was a mighty tempest
on the sea
How easy is this for the Creator
God to do such a thing in His omnipotence? He spoke the world into existence
out of nothing (ex nihilo). Even the wind obeyed Him! And so
will that great fish… Should that be surprising to us? No, it’s just a fact.
This was a kind of sea condition where the sails had to be lowered.
We do not know for sure how many days
elapsed in their journey to Tarshish before sailing into the storm. Somewhere
along the way, the weather conditions radically changed in a heartbeat. They
were now confronted with very strong surface winds and wave heights that were
threatening the safety of the crew, cargo, and ship,
So that the ship was about to be broken up
The seaworthiness of the sailing
vessel was now in question. The seamen had every right to be in fear of dying,
Then the mariners were afraid (Jon 1:5)
If these salty sea dogs were afraid that can only
mean that going down was a real possibility. They were in deep trouble, and
they knew it. The straining of the ship under pressure sang the song of peril
with its haunting sounds of creaking and cracking, the ship was about to be broken up.
And every man cried out to his
god
This suggests to me that the
crew did not worship the same god. This reminds me of when I was attending a
business meeting in Canada. One of the attendees was rather bombastic and
self-referential, stood up, and interrupted the speaker, “I have to go to
divorce court, now. Please pray to whatever god you worship that he would let
me win my case.” She reminded me of the
captain of the ship that Jonah was a passenger on, ordering the crew to pray
to their gods (cf. Jon 1:6).
This was a practical prayer
ordered by the captain. Pray first before jettisoning the cargo. In their thinking, prayer doesn’t hurt and costs them nothing. Throwing the cargo overboard was the last resort for that was how they got paid by delivering the goods in the same way it was received. The sights and
sounds of their situation may have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience in future sea stories. Apparently, the prayers of the crew were ineffective,
and threw the cargo that was
in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load.
If it wasn’t for Jonah, these
mariners would not be in this predicament, however, it was because of Jonah
they would not perish. How hopeless and pitiful are the prayers of the lost
that their faith is not directed toward Yahweh, the One and only true God and
Deliverer, but demons masquerading to be some kind of god. This crew will soon
get a privileged perspective on Yahweh shortly as they are being tossed to and
fro.
Above deck, there was a mighty
tempest raging, and the ship was on the verge of breaking apart. Every sailor
was crying out to his own god (Jon 1:5), the cargo was being jettisoned in an
attempt to raise the ship a little higher out of the water for fear of sinking
(Jon 1:5), and a most unusual situation was happening below deck,
But Jonah had gone down into the
lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.
Apparently, Jonah was berthing
in the lowest parts of the ship, segregated from any cargo and the rowers. Figuratively
speaking, Jonah was in a coma, oblivious to what was going on around and above
him. Jonah knew he was under a great deal of pressure for refusing to do the
Creator God’s bidding; this is just another example of creation-versus-the-Creator.
There is no need for Yahweh to get Jonah to realize where he was in relation to
Him by asking him those kinds of questions to ponder upon, “What are you doing here, Jonah?”
There was no misunderstanding;
Jonah knew exactly where he was in relation to Yahweh; he was in a state of
rebellion. He was already physically depleted and mentally fatigued with this
flee-business. Since he was not on the same page as Yahweh in agreeing to go to
Nineveh, He finally crashed below deck. So, it is possible they were only a day
into their journey (cf. Jon 1:13a).
The crew had done everything
they knew to do; all they could do was hope and attempt to row the ship back to
Joppa before succumbing to the sea. You cannot help but sympathize with their situation, but had they done everything humanly possible? Then it dawned on the
captain of the ship, “Where is our passenger?
When Jonah entered the
temple at Jerusalem before receiving his commission to go to Nineveh, I wonder
if he ever thought in the very near future that he was going to be out in The Mediterranean or the Great Sea heading for Spain? Strange as it may sound, our unwillingness
to love (agape) will take us places we never dreamed of (cf. Rom 5:5).
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