Man Overboard

In our last message we saw that Jonah’s sin caught up with him. God, in His grace, used a group of lost sailors to:

Wake him up

Compel him to pray

Confess his sin

Cause him to contemplate why he had put himself and others in danger

But if we are thinking this will be a life-changing moment for Jonah we would be wrong. There is no hint of real repentance. As we will see today, Jonah is still intent on separating himself from God.

v. 11 In verse 8 Jonah was peppered with questions about himself. In verse 11 the sailors ask Jonah what they must do to get the sea to quiet down.

It’s clear Jonah isn’t going to do anything. It’s up to them.

Jonah wouldn’t talk to them.

Jonah wouldn’t pray.

Jonah wouldn’t throw out cargo to lighten the ship.

All he wanted to do was sleep.

Notice the phrase “The sea grew more and more tempestuous.”

Things were not going to get better. We tell ourselves that sometimes. We think “If I can just make it a few days…”

There’s only a couple of reasons the discipline of God in the life of a disobedient child of God would cease:

God stops loving them.

God forgets about them.

Neither of those things are possible.

We’re not going to ride out the storm of God’s discipline.

Let’s go back to the question the sailors asked Jonah:

What shall we do to you so the storm will stop?

There is a respect for Jonah. They are willing to:

Take his advice.

Spare him.

It seems they believed he was a prophet of God, and they respected his position.

v. 12 His answer is surprising.

“Pick me up and hurl me into the sea”

Then Jonah tells them he is the problem.

“it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”

Jonah could have given at least two different answers that would have solved this problem:

Take me back to the port so I can obey God.

Take me to Nineveh so I can obey God.

I believe either of those two decisions would have caused the storm to stop.

Instead, his answer is for them to kill him.

Make no mistake about it, Jonah would rather die than do the will of God.

Notice he’s not willing to kill himself. The problem could have been solved had Jonah jumped overboard. We see both a stubbornness and a cowardice in the life of Jonah.

Not only has he put these men at risk through his disobedience. Now he is tempting them to kill him.

v. 13 “Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get back to dry land”

Look at how hard these guys are working. Jonah could not have found a better group of sailors. They are doing everything to save Jonah’s life. Even though:

It’s his fault they are in the predicament.

He showed no concern for them at all.

He didn’t pray or work when the storm came.

He gave them permission to throw him overboard.

It’s likely very few people if anyone knew he was on that boat. I’m not sure if they did or not. It seems to me Jonah left quickly and was leaving everything he knew behind. Surely, he didn’t tell his friends and fellow prophets he was going to run from God. These sailors could have tossed him overboard and likely never got in trouble for it at all.

These men care about Jonah. They are trying to save his life. They are doing their best to get the boat to shore. Notice it doesn’t say Jonah was rowing!

“but they could not”

When we try and help a person run from God we will fail too. When we help a child of God live in disobedience to God we are fighting against God Himself.

The Bible talks about delivering a person over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.

1 Timothy 1:18-20

This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

1 Cor. 5:5

you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

I don’t have time to flesh all of this out so I will summarize. To deliver someone to Satan is to remove them from the church. The protection and blessings of the local church are greater than you can imagine. Removed from the church places the person in Satan’s realm. Satan may even be allowed to afflict the person in severe ways. The purpose is to bring about repentance and restoration.

There comes a time when we must stop:

Coddling

Enabling

Justifying

The sin of a believer. We can’t change a person’s heart, only God can. When we have done all we can do to point them to God we are to let go and pray.

v. 14 “Therefore they called out to the LORD”

These men prayed to Jonah’s God.

Do not let us die. Jonah may have wanted to die but they didn’t!

Lay not upon us innocent blood. These sailors were used to seeing men flee justice. It was common for criminals to try and op on a boat and flee to a new land, so they didn’t have to pay for a crime they committed. In those days it was much easier to relocate and start a new life. Some sailors were even paid to give criminals safe passage.

They recognized Jonah was not the average fugitive. He was a sinner, but not a criminal. That is what they meant by “innocent blood”. They were about to exercise capital; punishment on a man whose sins were immoral but not illegal.

For you, O LORD, have done as it pleased You. They saw that it was clearly the will of God that Jonah be thrown out of the boat. In their mind that meant to kill him. No one could survive that far out at sea whether there was a storm or not.

Imagine how Jonah must have felt watching these men pray to his God. He should have been leading them in prayer. Instead God was accomplishing a great work without him.

v. 15 “So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea”

It was not just one sailor. The group was involved. I wonder if was sitting in the corner. As I said earlier, he could have made it easy for them:

He could have jumped.

He could have stood on the bow, and they pushed him.

They must physically pick him up and throw him out.

“the sea ceased from its raging”

The storm stopped immediately. It was clear they made the right decision. In their minds, Jonah was dead. They killed this man.

Notice something. What the prophet said was true. Look back at verse 12:

“Hurl me into the sea then the sea will be quiet”

This is important because it likely convinced them that Jonah was truly a prophet of God and that his God is the One true God.

v. 16 Now we see a dramatic change in the pagan sailors. I think they were converted. Some believe this is an example of syncretism and they merely added Jonah’s God to the mixture of God’s they served already. It appears to me this is genuine conversion.

They feared the Lord exceedingly. Through this event they had a great reverence for the God of Israel.

They offered sacrifice. We don’t know what they offered. Much had already been thrown overboard. They felt it necessary to engage in some sort of sacrificial service to God. It’s likely they were aware of the Jewish customs and did their best to replicate one.

They made vows. This is an important part. They promised God some things. They probably promised Him they would live for Him. The timing of this is important.

We have all known of people who made vows to God insincerely during a trial. Normally those vows are forgotten after the trial passes. These vows are not made until after the storm is gone. That tells me the vows were sincere.

The salvation of the sailors is an important part of the story.

God saved their lives.

God saved their souls.

The sad part is Jonah was not there to see these men worship his God. Any prophet would have rejoiced to see hardened pagans come to repentance and faith. Jonah missed that blessing because of his disobedience.

When we waste a part of our life in disobedience, we will miss some blessings from God. Blessings from God are too precious to throw away because we are stubborn.

Jesus has told us to God into the world and make disciples. We are His body. He is reaching the world through us. If we choose to live in disobedience, He will not overlook it. He will continue to save people despite our disobedience. But He will not forget about us. He will discipline us and restore us by His grace.