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| Sperm whale (Physeter microcephalus) illustration by Uko Gorter |
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| To Part 1 |
Arise, call on your God; perhaps
your God will consider us, so that we may not perish (Jon 1:6b).
There is nothing unusual in pulling out all of the stops if you think that you
are going to die! From the shipmaster’s point of view, what do you got to lose,
right? It is rather odd though that the captain was wanting Jonah to call upon the very
God that he was running from (Jon 1:10b)! The Cap could counter the oddity,
“What good is running if you’re dead?”
(Jon 1:7) And they said to one another, Come, let us cast lots,
that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us. So they
cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
This casting of lots by the
crew, in my opinion, was not an exercise in finger-pointing; that would serve
no purpose. They were troubleshooting for survival. They had done everything
humanly possible. The fact that Jonah was sleeping through all of this and
would have slept to the bottom of the sea raised eyebrows among the crew; this
was a bizarre thing to do at a time like this. If we were part of the crew, we
might be thinking,
“Maybe, this guy has a death
wish. He could be suicidal and psychotic not caring who he takes with him. He
admitted that he was running from his god, and he looked as if he was
miserable, tired, and weary. It is obvious he doesn’t care about himself or us.
Why else would he be sleeping at such a time as this?”
The crew desperately needed to
find out who or what was the cause of all of this; they were terrified and
racking their brains for a solution to prevent perishing in the sea. We know
that they were on the right track. To keep from sinking, it was imperative for
them to discover the root cause of their trouble and immediately address
it if it is not too late.
(Jon 1:7) And they said
to one another, Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this
trouble has come upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
This casting of lots was a
fairly common method in making a determination of Yahweh’s will in the Old
Testament prior to Pentecost. Acts 1:26, by the way, is the last example of the casting of lots to
know God’s will in a matter. With the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, there
was no further need for the casting of lots because the Holy Spirit made this
practice totally unnecessary. This doesn’t mean that pagan usage of this method
in determining the will of a deity [demon] discontinued.
Whenever there was an important determination to be made, if the Scriptures were silent on a matter, if wisdom or common sense was of no use, rather than go with a gut call, the
casting of lots was used to avoid bias. We find no condemnation of the casting of lots
during the Old Testament economy (Lev16:8-10; Prov 16:33; 18:18).
When pagans were superstitiously
casting lots, it was obviously not for the purpose of finding out what the will
of Yahweh was, as in the case of the mariners, but the will of their god, not
knowing that there was a demon/s parading to be their deity. That’s scary
stuff! They had no idea that demons were lurking behind every single deaf,
dumb, and dead idol. Yahweh interjected Himself into the results of their
superstitious practice so that – the lot
fell on Jonah.
Hope springs eternal, yes? A pessimist would counter, “No matter how dark the hour, it is darker than you think!” They finally found the root cause of their troubles – Jonah! But they will never get closure after all is said and done for Jonah will deprive them of ever knowing the why of it all!
Jon 1:8 Then they said to him,
Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your
occupation? And where do you come from? What is your
country? And of what people are you?
You get the impression that all
five questions were in the same breath or asked by different members of the
crew in rapid-fire! None of them had the luxury of time on their hands. The
storm showed no subsidence; if anything, it was growing
more tempestuous (v11)!
I am not going to delve into why
Jonah decided to only answer three of the eight questions other than what I
have already briefly commented, but Q2 (in v8) and Q8 (in v11) were answered by
Jonah in Jon 1:12 (see chart, part 1). The answer to Q6 is going to elevate their fear. Q6 was
about Jonah’s nationality, and here is his answer,
So he said to them, I am
a Hebrew (Jon 1:9a).
The only thing they knew about
Jonah was that he was fleeing from the presence of his god (Jon 1:10). At that time, it would
appear they failed to connect the dots or could care less about Jonah’s god
or religion. He paid the fare and that apparently satisfied the shipmaster for
no further inquiry was made about Jonah.
and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea
and the land (Jon 1:9b).
Notice that Jonah didn’t say, “I
fear God.” He was more definitive than when he first stepped aboard though He had disclosed the name of His God (cf. Jon 1:10).
People commonly speak of God without definition observed Francis Schaeffer.
Today, when we hear someone say, “In God we trust,” we have to ask, “What God
are we talking about?”
Exceedingly afraid is emphasized in the Hebraic language. Back in v5, the
mariners were in fear of dying. Jonah’s disclosure of the identity of his God
ratcheted their fear up a notch – from afraid (v5) to exceedingly
afraid (v10)! They quickly associated, and
rightly so, divine causality to this storm! Keep in mind these sailors were
spiritually blind, a broken clock is right twice a day, right?
By the way, we still connect
natural disasters to God today. Ever read your insurance policy closely? Any
“act of God” clause is referring to natural disasters. These are not deemed standard risks. I am surprised that atheists haven’t made a terrible fuss over
the insurance industry’s continuance of using the controversial phraseology!
It would have been awkward for
Jonah to explain to the crew that the God he was running from was gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abundant in
lovingkindness, and relents from doing harm. He
kept that from them when he came aboard. They had to have thought, “He
knew his God made the sea and land, and yet, rather than praying for us all, he
was sleeping!”
My thought would have been,
“Hey, man! If you want to die that’s between you and God, but don’t take us
with you!”
When Jonah took off, he left his intellect in Jerusalem and was running on pure adrenaline and emotions ever since. When emotions are dominating to that extent there is no appeal to the intellect, only to one who is subjective, irrational, and not subject to the truth. You might question what was irrational about Jonah? Whenever we run from God’s will, we are running off the edge of rationality.
When Jonah took off, he left his intellect in Jerusalem and was running on pure adrenaline and emotions ever since. When emotions are dominating to that extent there is no appeal to the intellect, only to one who is subjective, irrational, and not subject to the truth. You might question what was irrational about Jonah? Whenever we run from God’s will, we are running off the edge of rationality.
His lack of love was going to
take him to some very dark places. If he had repented before Yahweh in front of
these men, it is very possible that Yahweh would have granted the mariners
favorable wind to return Jonah to Joppa after witnessing Jonah
asking forgiveness and the immediate return to a calm sea. But that was not
going to be the way it went down. Yahweh was everywhere present on the boat,
but Jonah’s heart was still far away from obedience. The whale was nearing the
ship…
By the crew’s reaction, it
appears that these sailors did not know the God of the Hebrews (v10),
Then the men were exceedingly afraid
Think of the underpinning to their
response – exceedingly afraid. The prayers to their gods and the cargo thrown
overboard didn’t change a thing. The ship was about to break apart (v4); the
lot pointed to Jonah (7); they knew that their passenger fled from the presence
of His God because he had told them (v10b); they now know the identity of the
God that Jonah was fleeing from was the God of heaven, who made the sea and the
land (v9); and the sea conditions were only getting worse (v11)! Now comes the most
compelling question of the last six in v10,
Why have you done this?
Isn’t this the most nagging question unanswered even today, never finding out what was the motive?
No one had been washed overboard; there were no injuries or fatalities; and yet, hearts were pounding in the chest; the valuable cargo was lost to the sea, and the dreadful
feeling that the ship is losing its struggle to stay together and afloat, only exacerbated
their fears of dying and never seeing their loved ones again. They only sensed that
they were on the edge of taking their last breath, and at any moment, their lives, hopes, and dreams would be slipping into a watery grave.
Next comes the eighth and last
question they ever asked of Jonah,
What shall we do to you that the
sea may be calm for us? (Jon 1:11a).
These mariners had reached their bitter end – the sea was growing more tempestuous (v11b).
Jonah would offer them a solution, but it would be a startling and unacceptable answer to them! This prophet of God was going to suggest something to this Phoenician crew that he would never be willing, in a million years, to do for the Assyrians.
These mariners had reached their bitter end – the sea was growing more tempestuous (v11b).
Jonah would offer them a solution, but it would be a startling and unacceptable answer to them! This prophet of God was going to suggest something to this Phoenician crew that he would never be willing, in a million years, to do for the Assyrians.
I do not think that I could
handle putting the crew through all of this drama because of an arrogance in my thinking that I could successfully run from the will of God. In no way am I
suggesting that I am above such a thing; I’m not (cf. Jer 17:9).
God seeks our highest good, always! That highest good is to be like Him. The consideration to willfully sin against God is always self-driven; little thought, if any, is given to the collateral damage or fallout impacting others
in a negative way. That is a dead giveaway that it is all about me. Jonah’s one-man rebellion caused the crew to experience a living
nightmare. Have you ever done that to others? Lest we think too harshly of our dear brother Jonah, he is about to do something totally unexpected. <><
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| End of Jonah 1:6-11 |
