Man Overboard!

Introduction

Last week we were introduced to Jonah - the prophet whom God called to go to Nineveh and tell the people to repent. As we examined last week, Jonah not only refused to go north to Nineveh, but rather he fled southwest towards Joppa and eventually he planned to reach Tarshish. Jonah quickly learned, as we must learn today, that it is impossible to outrun and hide from God. He disobeyed and there was a consequence: a storm sent from God to bring about His plan rather than Jonah’s. Sometimes God sends a storm our way in order to redirect our lives back to where we are supposed to go. What we see in our text today is that God’s storm had a purpose and even though Jonah disobeyed God initially, God works in spite of our failures to bring about His plan.

Do you believe that God can use you despite your failures and weaknesses? You’d better believe so! We see this throughout Scripture. God uses those who are weak and unqualified to illustrate His strength and power. We see this in the Old and New Testaments with people like Abraham, Moses, David, Jonah, Peter, Paul and others. What must we do whenever God calls us to do something and whenever we find ourselves in the midst of a storm? We must trust in the Lord, not in idols or in ourselves. We must be obedient to His calling and we must acknowledge that He knows best.

Jonah 1:7–17 NASB95

7 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. 8 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?” 9 He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 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. 11 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. 12 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.” 13 However, the men rowed desperately to return to land but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them. 14 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.” 15 So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

Responsibility for the problem (7-10)

What was the initial problem in last week’s study of Jonah 1:1-6? Jonah disobeyed God’s call and we see a storm wreck havoc upon these expert sailors while Jonah was sound asleep. After waking up, Jonah see’s the situation and had to have known that he was responsible for what was going on. Can you imagine the look on Jonah’s face in between verses 6 and 7? It’s kind of like how it is in movies whenever the audience knows what is really going on but the character is absolutely confused and has no idea what to do. This is what is happening with Jonah and the other sailors. Now, in verse 7 we see the sailors cast lots to see who is at fault. We see in several places in Scripture that people used to cast lots. There are a couple different ways that this could have been done. The people likely took turns tossing the pebbles/rocks which were colored in order to see if they fell on a particular color or towards a particular person. If the pebbles landed on the dark side, the answer was no but if they landed on the light side, the answer was yes. A combination meant that you had to go again. This sounds very random in our mind, but we see this in Scripture in places like Joshua 7, Joshua 18, 1 Samuel 10 and several times in the book of Proverbs. Some independent fundamental baptists view dice as of the devil but we see them as vitally important in Scripture.

Do you believe that God has absolute power and authority? We often talk about that fact in relation to severe health situations, right? If someone is struggling with cancer or is facing an upcoming surgery, we trust that God is all powerful and that God can heal the person fully, regardless of what the medical personal might say beforehand. We trust in His power and plan there, but we see a story about men rolling a dice or a pebble and often we think that this is a simple random event. Think about everything to this point, God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, He sent this storm to bring about that plan. God has been in control and He is still in control today. We, like Jonah, often disobey though. The men cast the pebbles and of course, they fall on Jonah. Is this a random result? Is this the result of chance? Of course not. Jonah was the guilty party and the pebbles falling upon him was not a freak event, God certainly had His hand in this. To some this is confusing and something we are uncomfortable with. To others, this is so obvious to see. Let’s be careful not to overreact to this opening verse, though. The next time you have an important decision to make and you’re trying to seek God’s guidance and plan, don’t grab a dice and say, “God if this is a 6 then I will do this thing but if it’s not then I won’t.” God *can* answer that, but often times in my experience and in Scripture we see that His answers come in time and are not necessarily immediate. Therefore we pray a lot and seek God’s will along the way.

The dice land on Jonah and they expect an answer, they want to know all about Jonah! Can you imagine being in Jonah’s situation here? Jonah has to own his mistake and disobedience against the one true God. I’m sure Jonah’s face was a little red and he was embarrassed by this. Verse 9 is the first time Jonah speaks in this book and what does he say? “I am a Hebrew and I worship/fear the Lord.” Whenever you are put on trial, if you will, by others for your faith, how would/do you answer? We should all answer as openly and honestly as Jonah did here! I am a Christian and I fear/worship the one trust living God! Not only does God tell them that his God is the God of heaven, but he also is the one who made the sea and the dry land.

Can you imagine being the sailors here? You see this storm, you’re afraid and you basically call Jonah out, “How on earth could you to this?!” How could you be so selfish and stupid!

I love what Frank Page says in his commentary on Jonah: “To run away from a god was foolish; but to run from “the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land” was suicidal. These sailors were frightened to the depths of their beings.”

Jonah is forced to take responsibility for his action and disobedience. This is a good reminder for us whenever we are caught doing something wrong - own it. Accept responsibility and repent of your disobedience.

Repentance for disobedience (11-16)

After finding out some more information about the situation from Jonah, the sailors naturally want to know what the solution is. How can we get the sea to calm down? They are facing a big problem and they need a big solution. Do you hear the parallels to our own life? We are facing a serious problem - our sin. We need a serious solution and thankfully we know that we have that in the person and work of Jesus Christ!

For those of us who are familiar with the New Testament, we know that Jesus simply tells the storm to stop and it ceases. That is the power of Almighty God! This is the God who Jonah knows, yet what does Jonah say to these people in verse 12? Does Jonah ever repent here? No. As Daniel Timmer points out, “Nowhere in this chapter, or anywhere else in Jonah for that matter, are we told that he repented of his disobedience.” Whenever we mess up and sin against God, we are called to repent. Jonah does not do this here, though. Rather he simply tells them to throw him overboard. Rather than believing that God can and does forgive, it appears that he believes that God will only judge. Thankfully, we know that God does both. He is a righteous judge, but He offers forgiveness as well. All we must do is repent and trust in Him. Whenever a difficult situation arises, our tendency is often self-preservation and thinking of how we can get out of something safely. The sailors do not exemplify this, though, they try to row back to save Jonah’s life. They’ve already thrown their cargo oversea and they don’t want to throw a person overboard. They know who Jonah serves and they know that they are against the one true God, yet they think that they can outsmart Him by rowing back towards safety. What do we see happen in verse 13? The storm gets even worse! Sometimes we have to take our own medicine rather than doubling down. They cry out to God and they are conflicted with what to do, should they throw Jonah overboard or do they keep him on and possibly perish?

What would you do in such a situation? It’s easy to do something with hindsight because it’s always 20/20. But in the heat of the moment, what would you do here? They know the power of Jonah’s God but they don’t want his blood to be on their hands. Because of this, they pray to the Lord and they note that the Lord has done as He has pleased. This is a theme in the book of Jonah and in the Bible as well, God is sovereign and He is the king. He has a plan and He has all power. These pagan sailors recognized this from a few short moments of experiencing His power while at sea. For many people today, we fail to see God in this way. People in our world view God as a genie or a butler of sorts who does exactly whatever we want. We have more power than God, at least in the mind of many people today, even in the church. Friends, may we not fall into this false view. God is king and Scripture is clear that He does whatever He pleases

Proverbs 21:1 NASB95

1 The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes.

Isaiah 55:11 NASB95

11 So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

This is good news! God has a plan and it will not be stopped - we must obey and repent whenever we disobey.

The sailors eventually throw Jonah into the sea in verse 15, the natural conclusion to this situation. Immediately, the sea stopped raging and Jonah was correct - they threw him overboard and God did in fact have the power over the seas! What is the result for the sailors? They feared the Lord too. Now I want to camp out in verse 16 for a little bit. Some scholars are confused as to how they could have offered a sacrifice on the ship because they had already thrown off their cargo and lacked the necessary things to offer a sacrifice. These scholars speculate that they made a vow and completed the sacrifice once they made it to land. This is interesting! Other scholars note that rather than making a traditional sacrifice, they simply threw their idols overboard and worshipped Yahweh. The main question we have is this, “What does it mean that they feared the Lord?” In other words, “Did they convert to monotheism and worship Yahweh and Him alone?”

Again, scholars are divided. Many, the overwhelming majority, say no. They note that the sailors saw the power of God on full display and they recognize Him as a true God, but there is nothing further known about them. We simply do not know if they left their false gods behind permanently and worshipped Yahweh exclusively as the Jews did. Most scholars say we simply don’t know if they converted or if they added Yahweh to their multiple gods. Sadly, we know people like this in our world today, right? Think of the polytheistic religions out there, Hinduism and Buddhism, Jesus is nothing more than a teacher and one of several different wise men out there. We know people who are atheists who add Jesus’ teachings to their beliefs about being a nice person yet they do not submit to Jesus being their Lord and Savior. There is a difference in acknowledging the power of God and calling upon Him to save you from your sins. In other words, there is a difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge as James 2 shares with us! Even the demons know of the power and existence of God and they shudder in fear of their impending doom! So, most scholars say no, these sailors did not necessarily convert and worship Yahweh exclusively.

Other scholars, though, say that they did. They see their situation and their need for saving. They see that they need a substitute - Jonah - so that they don’t have to die for their idolatry. They trust in what Jonah says and they pray that Jonah’s God would have mercy on them. They place their faith in God and they repent and turn from their idolatrous ways. They experience true conversion - in the eyes of some scholars.

So which one is it? These men probably were legitimate converts, but Scripture doesn’t tell us anything more about them after verse 16. Simply fearing the Lord and smashing their idols and making a vow does not equate to salvation and we are not told if the men added God to their group of gods or if they made the exclusive change from polytheism to monotheism. They *likely* did these things, but we do not know for certain.

Resolution to the situation (17)

Verse 17 brings us to one of the most popular and debated verses in all of Jonah. Jonah is swallowed by a fish (or was it a whale?).How on earth does this make sense? Our world demands answers that make sense. To our skeptical world, it doesn’t make sense that a fish would be able to swallow an adult human being. 2 thoughts for us to consider: a whale could have been considered a fish by these sailors and this is a miracle, it likely will never make sense to us, just as Jesus feeding 5000+ people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish makes zero sense outside of it being a miracle!

If we believe that God is sovereign and in control, we shouldn’t have as much of a problem accepting this as truth, yet many Christians find themselves not accepting the miraculous right now. The issue with this line of thought is that if you refuse to accept the miraculous in the Old Testament, how on earth can you explain the empty tomb in the Gospel accounts? Consider the similarities between Jesus and Jonah as noted by James Buckner,

“Both were from Galilee.

Both preached the Gospel of judgment and reconciliation to sinners

Both caused the storm to cease after sleeping (obviously through different means)

Jonah entered the jaws of the fish, Jesus the jaws of the grave

Both stayed 3 days and 3 nights

Both were raised up again by the Father”

This is an interesting typology and we see many similarities between the two. We see God use this fish to, again, bring about His plan of having Jonah go to Nineveh and call these people to repent of their wickedness. He threatens judgment but there always is an offer of mercy and forgiveness and that offer remains to people today. We must be faithful to share the good and the bad news with others.

Conclusion

Some people think that God is an angry God and all about destruction and death. What we see in our text today and throughout the book of Jonah is that God is a God of redemption and reconciliation! We must repent of our unrighteousness just as these sailors had to repent of their idolatry. We know that our God offers forgiveness and we must offer forgiveness to others as well.

Whenever we disobey God, what must we do? We must accept responsibility, repent from our wrongdoing and seek to resolve the situation. In all things we seek to bring God glory and honor, even in difficult situations. Think about your life tonight as we close. Again, consider what God is calling you to do and how you should respond. Do not respond like Jonah did by fleeing in the opposite direction, rather be obedient today! If you have gone the wrong way, like Jonah, own your mistake and repent today! God is merciful and He offers forgiveness right now. Trust in Him.