Jonah 1.14-The Crew Urgently Requests That The Lord Spare Their Lives And Not Hold Them Accountable For Jonah's Death
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday October 5, 2010
Jonah: Jonah 1:14-The Crew Urgently Requests That The Lord Spare Their Lives And Not Hold Them Accountable For Jonah’s Death
Lesson # 19
Please turn in your Bibles to Jonah 1:1.
This evening in Jonah 1:14, we will study the crew urgently requesting that the Lord spare their lives and not hold them accountable for Jonah’s death when they take his advice and throw him overboard.
Jonah 1:1, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2 ‘Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.’ 3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 4 The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. 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. 6 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.’ 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.” (NASU)
Jonah 1:14 presents the result of the crew being unable to row successfully to dry land and presents two prayer requests that the crew offered up to the Lord.
“They called” is third person masculine plural qal active imperfect form of the verb qā∙rā(ʾ) (קָרָא) (kaw-raw), which means “to cry out urgently for help” and is a reference to prayer.
“On the Lord” is composed of the preposition ʾěl (אַל) (al), “on” and the masculine singular proper noun Yahweh (יהוה) (yeh-ho-vaw), “the Lord.”
The proper noun Yahweh is the covenant-keeping personal name of God used in connection with man’s salvation and emphasizing that the crew was now believers in Jonah’s God as demonstrated by their exercising faith in Him to deliver them from death and being held accountable for Jonah’s death.
It indicates that now the entire crew had a personal relationship with God just like Jonah since unbelievers in the Old Testament never use this word in addressing God.
It also reminds the reader of the “immanency” of God meaning that He involves Himself in and concerns Himself with and intervenes in the affairs of men.
Thus, it reminds the reader that the Lord is now going to intervene in the lives of the entire crew as a result of their faith in Him.
“We earnestly pray” is the particle of entreaty nā(ʾ) (נָא) (naw), which emphasizes their desire to not die and be held accountable for taking Jonah’s advice and throwing him overboard to end the storm and expresses their urgency and the intensity of their prayer.
This first prayer request “do not let us die on account of this man’s life” expresses the crew’s desire that the Lord would not kill them along with Jonah with this storm.
It expresses the fact that they believe that the Lord intends to kill Jonah for his disobedience, which he has just admitted to them.
They are suffering because of Jonah’s sin against the Lord and they are begging that the Lord would not punish them along with Jonah.
The circumstances appear that the Lord was intending to kill them along with Jonah because the storm was growing increasingly worse.
This petition also reveals that the crew are now believers in Jonah’s God, which is indicated by the fact that unbelievers never address God in the Old Testament as Yahweh, only believers and also these men no longer are praying to their gods but rather to Yahweh.
This terrible adversity has led to their salvation, i.e. deliverance, not only from the storm and death but also eternal condemnation.
The irony is that the crew who knew nothing of Yahweh prior to their experiencing this storm and meeting Jonah, are exercising faith in Him by petitioning Him to deliver them from death whereas Jonah does not pray.
Jonah 1:14, “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.” (NASU)
This second request “do not put innocent blood on us” makes clear that the crew has decided at this point in the narrative to heed Jonah’s advice and throw him overboard.
However, it also reveals that they possess a moral conscience by respecting the sanctity of human life since it acknowledges that murder is a capital crime worthy of death.
This second request “do not hold us accountable for the murder of an innocent person” does not indicate that the crew thought Jonah was innocent or expresses their uncertainty that he was since Jonah already acknowledged to them he was guilty of running away from his commission from the Lord as noted in verse 10.
Also, indicating that this is the case is that they knew he was guilty since he admitted that the storm was because of him as noted in verse 12, his lot was chosen as noted in verse 7, and Jonah told them to throw him overboard as recorded in verse 12.
This second petition expresses the crew’s desire that the Lord would not hold them accountable for Jonah’s death and would not consider this act of throwing him overboard and drowning him as cold blooded murder and worthy of death.
They are in effect saying to the Lord with this request that by throwing Jonah overboard they are carrying out His will, which is indicated by the causal that follows this request, “for You, O Lord, have done as You have pleased.”
Further indicating this is that the Lord who controls the weather prevented them from reaching the shore as recorded in verse 13.
So the crew is caught between a rock and a hard place and a no win situation.
They are suffering because of Jonah’s bad decision and don’t want to die because of it, however they don’t want to be guilty of murder by taking Jonah’s advice and throwing him overboard, which according to Jonah would calm the stormy sea.
They wanted to live but not by committing murder and so consequently, they pray that by throwing Jonah overboard, they are doing the will of the Lord.
As far as the crew is concerned all the evidence pointed to the fact that the Lord wanted to execute Jonah for his disobedience.
First of all, the lot fell to Jonah and he admitted to fleeing from his commission from the Lord and then Jonah advised they throw him overboard and the Lord who controls the weather prevented them from reaching the shore.
Therefore, we have another irony, the crew, which did not know Yahweh as Jonah did, was very concerned about doing the Lord’s will, whereas Jonah was not.
Jonah 1:14, “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.” (NASU)
“For You, O Lord, have done as You have pleased” presents the reason why the crew made the previous request that the Lord would not judge them as guilty of murder because they take Jonah’s advice and throw him overboard.
This causal clause echoes other Old Testament passages (Isaiah 46:9-11; Psalm 13:5).
Psalm 115:3, “Our God is in heaven! He does whatever he pleases!” (NET Bible)
This causal clause at the end of Jonah 1:14 indicates that the crew’s act in throwing Jonah overboard is according to Yahweh’s will or desire.
It also expresses the crew’s faith in Yahweh in that they now recognize Him as superior to the idols they formerly worshipped.
This clause is an expression not only of faith in the Lord but also is an expression of worship.
Undoubtedly, Jonah must have been rebuked by this expression of faith and worship in the Lord by the newly saved crew.
It taught Jonah that his God was the God of not only the Jews but also the Gentiles (Romans 3:29).