Jonah 1:7-16
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“They kept it up to the very end. Only the engulfing ocean had power to drown them into silence. The band was playing ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee.’ I could hear it distinctly. The end was very close.” —CHARLOTTE COLLYER, TITANIC SURVIVOR
There was a book written about 8 people who were employed by the Titanic to play music the night the Titanic sunk.
Charlotte Collyer says that the band continued to play.
If you’ve watched the movie, you know the scene.
The band is playing and the camera zooms out to see the chaos around the band, but they seem oblivious.
Toward the end of that scene The lead violinist at the end of the song “Nearer My God to Thee” says this as he stares at the ocean water that will certainly soon become his grave. He says “Gentlemen, its been a privilege playing with you tonight.”
in that moment he seems oblivious. The band seems not to care. They seem content to die while those around them also perish.
That scene reminds me of Jonah.
Jonah is oblivious- He seems not to care. Content to die- while the rest of the ship in panic.
Let me remind you of the context this morning
Jonah has been sent to Nineveh.
Arise
Go to Nineveh
Cry Against it.
We’ve gone through Jonah’s rebellion.
Instead of doing what the Word of the Lord told him to do, he has gone his own way.
he defies the God of all Creation, and leaves for Tarshish.
And the disciplining hand of God then begins to act.
Jonah is aboard the ship, sleeping comfortably not because he is at peace with God but because he is at peace with his decision to defy God.
He sleeps.
God acts. God sends a storm, one like these sailors had never seen before.
The ship was breaking up.
The unbelieving sailors after having dumped the contents of the ship have now resorted to praying to their worthless gods who cannot hear them, who cannot see them, who don’t even exist as actual gods. So there prayers end up being worthless because their gods are worthless.
The capain of the ship understands how desperate the situation is. His prayers have failed. The means of righting the ship by dumping cargo has failed.
This ship is going down.
We left off last week with Jonah having to be woken up from his sleep and called upon to pray to His God.
But the Scriptures don’t say anything about Jonah participating in the emergency prayer meeting.
Look what it says
So the captain approached him and said, “How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.” Each man said to his mate, “Come, let us cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us.” So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.
And at this point in the story, The Scripture doesn’t mention Jonah praying or offering any suggestion as to why the ship is about to go down.
But Jonah knows why. I believe in the deep recesses of this rebellious man’s heart, he knows.
But he stays silent. The people around him are about to die because of his and he doesn’t utter a word.
So they cast lots and the lot falls on Jonah.
We know this was obviously by the providence of God. We are told elsewhere in Scripture.
The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the Lord.
The Lord reveals the man who has caused all this. And the men then immediately turn their attention and desperation toward Jonah.
And now, Jonah will be forced to speak up.
Isn’t it amazing that it often takes something tragic and painful in our lives and other for us to speak up?
Many times, I feel we as believers are content to remain silent and asleep as the world around us perishes.
The problem with churches and Christians today, at least in our area, is not lack of buildings or places to meet. The problem is not an antiquated and old message. No. The Gospel is still true and it is still the power of God unto salvation.
The problem is not the lighting or the organ or the music in the church.
Our biggest problem is that we are asleep and content to remain silent as the world around us perishes.
These men are desperate. Jonah is asleep.
Look in verse 8 and hear their desperation.
Then they said to him, “Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
They ask him 5 questions.
Tell us now! They’ve figured it out. They want to ascertain exactly why this is happening.
So again they ask him 5 questions.
Who has caused this?
What is your occupation?
Where do you come from?
What is your country?
What people are you?
Now to be honest, I’m sure this is time for twenty questions. They probably just have went ahead and tossed this joker into the sea. But nevertheless, they ask in depression.
And Jonah, for the first time in this book, will speak.
He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.”
Interestingly enough, Jonah with this short answer, answers every question but one.
Where do you come from?
What is your country?
What people are you?
He answers when he says, I am a Hebrew. In that confession, he has told them where is from, what country he is apart of, and of what people he is apart.
The next part of his answer he answers the first question:
Who has caused this? Who is responsible for the storm?
And that is answered when he says:
I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.
In other words, the sea is doing this because the God I serve created it and He is making it that way.
It is God who commands the winds, the waves, the mountains, the sea. Everything in creation is at His disposal. Jonah tells these idolatrous sailors who have spent the last bit praying to worthless gods, that His God actually is the one in charge.
And while we must be thankful that Jonah finally speaks
Theres one question Jonah doesn’t answer.
Its the second question: What is your occupation Jonah?
And here we see a heart breaking reality.
Jonah can no longer even bring himself to admit that he is a prophet of God.
Reason:
Prophets speak the Word of God.
Jonah at least honest enough with himself to not be dishonest with the sailors.
The reality, at this moment, was that the Word and work that God had given Jonah to complete, he had not done.
In fact, he is dead set against doing it. He even tells them he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord.
Look at verse 10-11
Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, “How could you do this?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. So they said to him, “What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?”—for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy.
When Jonah reveals that his God is the God of all creation. They are fearful and they should be. They are being caught in the middle of God punishing one of His own.
And we have imagine here Jonah’s shame.
O Palmer Robertson says this.
“How low has Jonah sunk. Rather than glorifying the name of the one true living God before the entire metropolis of Nineveh, he has caused the shaming of the name of Yahweh by telling a few course sailors that he has been running from him, implying that his God was as limited as theirs.”
Jonah has messed up big time, and his sin brings shame and defames the name of the Lord.
Tom Elliff-
Help me never to do anything that would give anyone an opportunity to mock the name of my Lord.
Church, when we as believers sin and disobey God, we cannot expect to do that without having a profound negative impact on the watching world.
They notice when our words and our actions collide.
They notice when we say we have been saved from sin and yet live in it.
They are watching.
The sailors are appalled that Jonah would put them in danger through his disobedience. They got to do something
So they said to him, “What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?”—for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy.
They have to do something. What can we do?
Now here is where it becomes interesting. Because quite honestly, there are options here.
Jonah certainly could have prayed, repented, and ask the captain to turn the ship around and make a bee line to Nineveh, but thats not what he does.
He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you.”
Jonah says throw me in. Let me die. He’s not done running.
Jonah would rather die that obey God in preaching to Nineveh.
But the ship crew won’t give up that easy. They don’t want to throw him out. Its essentially killing Jonah. So they try even harder.
However, the men rowed desperately to return to land but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them.
They try, but they wont be able to handle this.
This is God’s storm. This is God’s hand of discipline, and no amount of running or rowing or whatever can stop it.
So they pray again. But this time its different.
Remember verse 5
Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep.
Now, there’s a different word used. LORD in all caps is the proper name of God- its Yahweh.
These sailors cry to Yahweh for mercy.
These sailors fear the wrath of God so they cry to him
Then they called on the Lord and said, “We earnestly pray, O Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life and do not put innocent blood on us; for You, O Lord, have done as You have pleased.”
We see a pretty significant change here in these men.
God has manifests his power, and in doing so, he has shattered their hope and faith in anything other than Him.
Jonah has fled from the face of the Lord to keep from being the one that preaches to wicked men so that they can be saved, and God has forced Jonah to be the preacher through which wicked men come to know Yahweh.
But Jonah is still in rebellion. Even asking to be hurled in the sea, Jonah is content to die, just so long as he doesn’t have to do what God has told him to do.
So the sailors throw him overboard.
So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.
I believe this was immediate. I believe the moment Jonah hit the water, the sea became still. Now this is mere speculation. We don’t see this in Scripture, but I believe that just as the Sailors had not ever a experienced a storm like they had faced over the past few minutes or hours or however long it was. I also believe that they had never the sea this calm before.
God proved himself to be God over creation to these men.
Look at verse 16.
Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
I don’t believe this was disingenuous at all. I believe these men all had become believers in Yahweh.
They feared the Lord.
They sacrificed to the LORD.
They made vows to the LORD.
And I have to believe that everywhere they would sail from this point forward, they would tell of the time that Yahweh exercised His sovereignty over all creation and brought them humbly to their knees.
What’s interesting here is that:
God desired to save a city through Jonah’s obedience.
God now has transform the lives of the sailor in spite of Jonah’s disobedience.
And thats often the case today. God is pleased to work through us, but often he works in spite of us.
I want God to work through me not in spite of me.
Whats it going to take for us?
God is going to get Jonah’s attention.
Jonah will cry to the Lord.
He will repent
He will ask the Lord for HIs mercy.
He will look for the Lord’s salvation.
He will do what God says, and God will use him.
Where are you at in this?
Jonah for at least a brief while is oblivious- He seems not to care. Content to die in disobedience to God- while the rest of the ship in panic.
Is that us today? As the church? Are we content to live in this world and just get by while there are thousand of people every day dying and meeting the God we know in judgment..
Are you living in such a way that you can unashamedly proclaimed when asked?
I am a Christian. I follow Christ, the Lord of All Creation, the Yahweh of the Old Testament. I’m a church member, I’m a Sunday School teacher, a deacon, a pastor.
Or is your disobedience in front of the world so that you can’t say those things anymore apart from feeling that you would somehow shame the name of Christ?
Repent. Turn and obey. Trust God and Obey.
Lets pray.