Waking Up to the Storm

Introduction

Last week we looked at the foolish fleeing of someone trying to do the impossible: escape the presence of God. Like running into a blizzard from the warmth of a tent in Siberia (or maybe, going camping in Siberia in the first place), it doesn’t make any sense. God is the source of life, happiness, joy, and all that we were created to experience. To be in the presence of God is the greatest delight and honour we could have. But Jonah ran away from it, why? Well, we can hardly throw Jonah under the bus because any time we run away from God’s plans or go against his will. Just as Adam and Eve had to leave God’s presence when they ate of the forbidden fruit, sin banishes us from God’s presence. Only by his grace do we have the chance to come near him, and that is a chance we should not take for granted.

Jonah was a prophet of the people of God, one who received direct revelation from God. When he didn’t like what he heard, he left, but God wasn’t about to let him go so easily.

The Storm: God’s Gracious Obstacles

Jonah seems to believe that being as far away from the place of God’s habitation will take him away from the presence of God.

You Cannot Escape the Presence of God.

God’s opposition to Jonah’s running: the storm

God’s control over the uncontrollable and chaotic

God’s hand insights fear in the sailors. Every natural force is in God’s hands and all the people fear, God controls.

They call out to their gods.

Their gods are not gods of all creation.

Their guilt is not what caused this storm.

Their calling to other gods (being apparently ignorant of the One True God) they acknowledge their inability to help themselves and must rely on something outside themselves. They are unable to sail their ship while Jonah thought he could escape form God.

The Awakening: God’s Gentle Call

God’s call to Jonah comes in a literal call from the captain. An unbeliever comes and literally tells Jonah to call upon his god. It is shameful for Jonah to hear this from an unbeliever who cannot possibly understand what Jonah is going through.

Verse 6 is worded in a similar way to

Ephesians 5:14 ESV

for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

This rude awakening really is a grace for Jonah. His sleeping would see him sink with the ship into the depth of judgement and destruction. But God gave him the grace to disturb his comfortable sleep and shine the truth upon him.

A picture of election: the world is like a ship full of sleeping souls in a deadly storm.

God’s irresistible call: wake up and see your peril! Jonathan Edwards spoke of the unconverted in this way:

“That they were always exposed to destruction; as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall...the reason why they are not fallen already and do not fall now is only that God’s appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time, or appointed time comes, their foot shall slide. Then they shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then, at that very instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands on such slippery declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost.”

And spoke of awakening from this wrath later on in the same sermon:

“The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ.—That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell’s wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.”

Sinners are not aware of the danger of their predicament until they are awake. Like someone asleep at the wheel cannot see the 40 tons of semi-truck barreling towards them, they cannot imagine the great danger they are in.

The only reason that Jonah woke up was because he was God’s, and God won’t let him run.

Why God Won’t Let us Run

There are many that God does not stop from running into destruction, so why does he stop some? Throughout Scripture, we see God go to unbelievable lengths to make himself known to people blindly making their way to destruction and death. In the death of Christ, he sealed his elect for himself as those who belong to him in every capacity and sense.

We belong to him and he has the right over what we do and who we are.

He is devoted to his own glory and will work it through us if he so chooses.

He is devoted to loving his people.

Conclusion

God deals with rebellion effectively, and if the storm doesn’t stop you today an eternal lake of fire will. Today’s storm is a grace.

Do not overlook the wake up call. Perhaps this text or the words of Edwards stir your own heart in a most uncomfortable way. Oh the grace of a rude awakening in the storm of God’s wrath. It is infinitely better to be hung our of the plane for a moment and let the reality of 10,000 feet hit your senses then to be thrown out asleep in your sin.

All will be held accountable for their sin, but how much greater is the danger of the one who had been wakened and instead of facing the danger of eternal destruction, they go back to bed.

Hebrews 6:4–6 ESV

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

But how are we to reconcile the words of Christ.

Mark 4:38–40 ESV

But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”

While Christ was in a similar situation, the contrast could not be more stark. Jesus slept in the boat the one who had power over the wind and the waves. While we remain in a storm as God’s judgement comes upon this world, we are as safe from it as Israel was from the plagues God sent on Egypt. In the storm, a sleeping Christ in our boat is as good as a calm sea.

If you are awakened to the storm, to the wrath of God against your sin and the manifestation of that wrath in the curse, in war, in disease, in loss, even in the guilt of your own conscience only one thing matters: is Christ in your boat? Are you sailing in him, united with him, submitted to him, and trusting in him? Then the one who is Lord of the wind and the waves will keep you, for you are safe as long as you are with him.

But if not, take advantage of this wake-up call while your vessel still floats above the waves. If you go back to sleep, you may never wake again.