Letting Go

Last week, we began a new sermon series studying the book of Jonah. We can summarise the series in this way: rather than being resistant, reluctant, and resigned, our salvation in Jesus Christ compels us to be responsive, receptive, and rejoicing as we go willingly into this world with the Good News!

Jesus himself referred to the prophet Jonah, saying that he was a sign pointing to the Messiah, Jesus. The three days and nights that Jonah spent in the belly of the whale, correspond to the three days and nights Jesus spent in the earth after his death and before his resurrection.

When we left Jonah last week, he was resisting God’s call to preach mercy and grace to the Ninevites, the sworn enemy of Israel. At this point, not only is Jonah, resistant—fleeing from God by going the opposite direction, he’s also reluctant. He sees what the storm is doing, he knows why there’s a storm, and he’s reluctantly realising his role in all of this.

Verse seven begins with the sailors seeking to figure out why this evil storm has come upon them. They are convinced that a god is angry at one them for some reason, so they cast lots to discover who is making the god or gods upset. The lot, surprise, surprise, fell to Jonah!

The Lord intentionally sent the storm to stop the boat dead. He was getting Jonah’s attention!

The sailors ask some very interesting questions: “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you? Because the lot went to Jonah, they’re trying to why. Did he do something to upset the sea god, or the storm god, or some other god. Why was he putting them in mortal danger? Who was he? Was he someone important? Why was this happening?

Jonah answers their last question first, telling them that he is a Hebrew. Now, think about that for a moment. What reputation does the Hebrew nation have? They were monotheistic—worshipping only one God, surrounded by polytheistic—worshipping many gods—people, including the god of the sea. Remember last week, we observed that they cast the cargo off the ship to lighten it for them—the lightening referred to offering a sacrifice so that the sea god would lighten, or end the storm, so that he would be appeased by their worship. But no matter what they sacrificed, nothing was working.

When Jonah told them he was a Hebrew, they would have remembered some of the stories of the Hebrew people. Here we are, over 2800 years after this historical event, and we still talk about an event that happened 600 years before that! It was another major event, on another major sea, involving the Hebrew people. Yes, that’s right, that was when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. We know all these stories, I’m very confident these sailors would have also!

Jonah goes on to say, “and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Consider these words, particularly if you worshipped the sea as though it was a god. That’s what they believed. That’s what they understood. But here is Jonah, telling them, that his God is the one who created the sea, and the dry land. That his God is the God of heaven! His God isn’t even constrained to a location, like sea, or land or even the sky. He is beyond the sea, land and sky, He is in heaven. He’s greater even than the sun and the moon.

Have you ever wondered why Genesis chapter 1 doesn’t name either the sun or the moon? It refers to them as the greater and the lesser lights—the first rules the day, and the other rules the night. Have you ever wondered why they are not named? Think about when Genesis was written. It was written by Moses, during the journey through the wilderness. God had just brought them up out of slavery and bondage in Egypt. Who was the chief god in the Egyptian pantheon? It was the god Ra, the sun god. By not naming the sun or the moon, it de-deified those created objects. It was a subtle, but clear teaching for the Hebrew people—Worship God, the one true God, the one who created the universe and everything in it. Don’t worship Ra, the sun, or any created thing. This is why Exodus 20:3 and 4 state, “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”

Upon hearing who Jonah was, where he came from, what country he belonged to, and who his people were, they were exceedingly afraid. The wind, the waves, the storm, its ferocity, were one thing. But faced with the reality of the one true God, who has power over everything, well, that was worth getting exceedingly afraid.

They said to him, “Are you totally crazy? Are you trying to get us all killed?” Oh, wait, that’s what Hollywood would have put in there. They said, “What is this you have done!” For Jonah had also explained to them that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord.

It was one thing to play around with the sea god, and the earth god, and even the sun god. You could get away with a lot, because, in their experience, those gods didn’t really care how much brandy you poured over the side of the ship before setting sail vs how much you kept for yourself. You know, a little superstitious act, here and there. The gods didn’t really care, because no such gods exist. Well, actually, the gods they worshipped were demons parading about as gods. Promising to give good things, but only delivering evil, of course.

Still, they’re like, “If what you are saying is true, your God is of a totally different order. You have placed us all in grave danger. Why are you doing this, and what shall we do with you, that the sea may quiet down for us?”

All the while, as they are talking, the sea grew more and more tempestuous. Jonah says to them, “You’ve sacrificed all your cargo, now sacrifice me, throw me into the sea and it will quiet down for you. I’m the reason the storm rages.”

You have to give credit to those sailors. They believed Jonah, but they still tried valiantly to save him. they went back to the oars and tried to row, with all their strength, back to dry land. But the storm just intensified.

At this moment, something amazing happens. These sailors, these hard, tough, rough men turn aside from their useless, worthless, non-existent gods, and the turn to the Lord, address God, Yahweh, Jonah’s God, not Jonah! They call out to him in faith, imploring him to spare them, to not avenge Jonah’s sure and certain death that would come after they tossed him into the sea. They turned to God in faith.

Then, picking up Jonah, they hurled him into the sea. And immediately it stopped raging.

Imagine that! You’ve been sacrificing all your goods, throwing them overboard. Nothing happens. Then, you throw a man, a Hebrew overboard, and silent calm.

I can’t help thinking of Mark 4:35-41, where Jesus and his disciples decide to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. As they are crossing that evening, a storm, a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat, and it was filling with water. But Jesus was in the back of the boat, sleeping—just like Jonah.

But no one needed to be thrown into the sea to calm the storm. The Lord God, who created the sea and the dry land was there, on the boat. After he was awakened by his frightened disciples, the Lord God, simply command commanded, “Peace! Be still!” And turning to his disciples he said, “Why are you so afraid, Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” They, like those Sailors, were more afraid of God than the storm.

Who is this? He is Jesus, the one by whom all things were created. He is the one who calmed the storm when Jonah was thrown into the sea. He has all the power and all the authority.

The sailors feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

We don’t know what became of those men. But in that moment, they beheld the one true God, and worshipped him. It is my hope that they remained faithful to their vows ever afterward. That they came to faith in God, and put their trust in the promised Messiah, the one who would fulfil the sign of Jonah. We don’t know, but of course God knows.

Jonah, resistant, reluctant, is now resigned. “Okay Lord, I’m letting go of my plans, I am surrendering to your will. I know what I have to do, I have to let them throw me overboard. So be it.”

So this morning, let us ask ourselves, “Whom do we fear? Whom do we worship in our heart of hearts? Are we afraid of people? Are we afraid of disease? Are we afraid of persecution? Are we afraid we won’t be accepted? Are we afraid to tell people whom we serve?”

Look what the Lord did through Jonah! There he was, running away from God, sinning by doing the opposite of what God commanded him to do! And look what God did! He got Jonah’s attention, he scared a bunch of hardened sailors nearly to death, and he used Jonah, to bring them to faith, to worship God.

Jesus said, “I tell you , my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Lk 12:4–7).

While he was running away from preaching to the Ninevites, sinfully refusing to do God’s will, God used Jonah to preach to these sailors! God used Jonah, even in his sinful disobedience, to touch the hearts of these sailors.

God has called us to share the gospel with people. He wants to pour out his grace on this lost and desperate world. And he has graciously invited us to do it. But it requires us to let go. It requires us to let go of all the roadblocks we put up before God. It requires letting go of our preconceived notions, and letting God show us His will for our lives. Let go, and let God lead you and guide you and show you the way.

God sends grace like rain, sometimes it is a gentle, deep watering drizzle. Sometimes it is sideways, wind driven, pounding, unrelenting rain. Doesn’t COVID feel like a neverending storm?

Let’s not waste this opportunity to show God’s grace, telling the world, that His love, his amazing gracious love, washes away all our sins. Let’s tell people where their real hope lies! Amen.