Jonah 1.15-The Crew Throws Jonah Into The Sea And It Immediately Stops Raging Demonstrating Yahweh's Sovereignty Over Creation
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday October 6, 2010
Jonah: Jonah 1:15-The Crew Throws Jonah Into the Sea And It Immediately Stops Raging Demonstrating Yahweh’s Sovereignty Over Creation
Lesson # 20
Please turn in your Bibles to Jonah 1:1.
This evening we will note Jonah 1:15 and in this passage in response to Jonah’s advice recorded in verse 12, the crew hurls Jonah into the sea and immediately it stops raging demonstrating to them that Yahweh is sovereign over creation.
The calming of the sea was an answer to the crew’s first prayer request recorded in verse 14 that Yahweh would spare their lives.
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.’ 15 So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.” (NASU)
Jonah 1:15 records the crew throwing Jonah into the sea in response to Jonah’s instructions to do so recorded in verse 12 but only after praying to the Lord to spare their lives and not hold them accountable for murder.
This action resulted in the Mediterranean Sea ceasing from its raging, which is personified expressing to the reader the Lord’s righteous indignation against Jonah indicating that the prophet is being disciplined by the storm.
“They picked up” is the third person masculine plural qal active imperfect form of the verb nā∙śā(ʾ) (נָשָׂא) (naw-saw), which is used here in a literal sense with the crew as its subject and means “to lift up, pick up” in the sense of lifting up an object, which in our context is Jonah.
The use of this verb in verse 15 echoes the verb’s usage in verse 12 where it was used with respect to Jonah’s instructions to the crew.
“Threw him” is composed of the third person masculine plural hiphil active imperfect form of the verb ṭûl (טוּל) (tool), “threw” and the third person masculine singular pronomial suffix –hû (־הוּ) (who), “him.”
The use of this verb in verse 15 echoes the verb’s usage in verse 12 where it was used with respect to Jonah’s instructions to the crew.
This verb is used here with the crew as its subject and Jonah as its object and means “to throw” referring to the crew obeying Jonah’s instructions and throwing him into the Mediterranean in order to calm the storm and save their lives.
“And the sea stopped its raging” presents the result of the crew obeying Jonah’s command to pick him up and throw him into the sea to calm the sea.
“Stopped” is the third person masculine singular qal active imperfect form of the verb ʿā∙mǎḏ (עָמַד) (aw-mad), which is used with the preposition min (מִן) (min) (not translated) and the masculine singular construct form of the noun zā∙ʿǎp̄ (זָעַף) (zaw-af), “raging” and the third person masculine singular pronomial suffix –hû (־הוּ) (who), “its.”
Since the noun zā∙ʿǎp̄ is always used in the Old Testament of a person’s anger or the Lord’s, the word here in Jonah 1:15 is personifying the Mediterranean Sea as “raging.”
Specifically, since the storm was caused by the Lord Himself, the word is actually personifying the Mediterranean Sea as exercising “righteous indignation” against the prophet Jonah.
“Personification” is the ascribing of human characteristics or actions to inanimate objects or ideas or to animals.
Jonah is ascribing the human action of raging in anger or exercising righteous indignation to the Mediterranean Sea.
This is to convey to the reader that the Lord is not happy with Jonah and is in fact disciplining him with this storm.
There are two categories of divine discipline that are an expression of God’s love: (1) Negative: God expresses His love for His children by disciplining them in the sense that He “punishes” them when they are disobedient to His will. (2) Positive: God expresses His love for His children by disciplining them in the sense of “training” them when they are obedient to His will and in fellowship.
Both categories of divine discipline are designed to keep the believer on track in executing the Father’s will by becoming like Christ.
The Word of God is employed in both positive and negative categories of discipline (Hebrews 4:12).
2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
The Holy Spirit disciplines the disobedient child of God by rebuking them with the Word of God as it is communicated by the pastor-teacher in the local assembly and the purpose of such rebuke is to conform the believer to the will of his heavenly Father, which results in blessing and true happiness.
Jeremiah 32:33, “They have turned their back to Me and not their face; though I taught them, teaching again and again, they would not listen and receive instruction.”
The Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the pastor-teacher who is the delegated authority in the local assembly, to reprove and rebuke the children of God from the pulpit with the Word of God as an expression of His love (2 Timothy 4:1-4).
God disciplines His disobedient children by permitting adversity, trials, and irritations to come into their lives that are beyond their capacity to handle in order to get their attention and to focus upon their number one priority in life as children of God, which is conformity to the Father’s will.
God disciplines His disobedient children by permitting them to reap the fruits of their bad decisions so that they might learn that conformity to His will is the only way to true joy and happiness and blessing in life (Ezek. 16:43; Gal. 6:7-8).
God disciplines His “obedient” children through adversity and underserved suffering in order to build the believer’s confidence in his relationship with God and to get him to depend on God for his security and protection rather than money and human relationships.
God disciplines His “obedient” children through adversity and underserved suffering in order to demonstrate to the believer the sufficiency of God’s Word in handling any problem or difficulty in life.
The Lord Jesus Christ disciplines the believer in the sense that He rebukes, punishes and trains the believer because He personally and affectionately loves the believer (Revelation 3:14-19).
We are not to get angry or bitter when God disciplines us through the Word, or adversity and underserved suffering but rather we are to listen to what God is trying to say to us and to learn the lesson that He is teaching us so that we might acquire the character of our heavenly Father.
In order to receive discipline without getting bitter and complaining, the believer must recognize and submit to the authority of the Word of God, the delegated authority of the pastor-teacher and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ who controls history and therefore our circumstances.
Proverbs 3:11-12, “My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD or loathe His reproof, for whom the LORD loves He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.”
In Jonah 1:15, the calming of the sea upon throwing Jonah into it demonstrated to the crew that Yahweh is sovereign over creation (Psalm 93:1-4; 107).
Psalm 89:9, “You rule over the proud sea. When its waves surge, you calm them.” (NET Bible)
The Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated to His disciples that He was the Yahweh of the Old Testament by doing the very same thing He did in Jonah’s day in calming the stormy sea (See Luke 8:22-25).
In Jonah 1:15, the calming of the sea was an answer to the crew’s first prayer request recorded in verse 14 that the Lord would spare their lives.
The fact that their prayer was answered by the Lord indicates that the crew prayed in faith, which appropriates the power of God (Matt. 8:10; Luke 7:9; Matt. 9:22; Mark 5:34; Luke 8:48; Matt. 9:29; 17:20; Luke 17:5; Mark 9:29; Matt. 21:22; Mark 11:24; 1 John 3:21-22; James 1:5-8; 5:15).