Jonah 1.16-The Crew Worships The Lord With Great Intensity And Earnestly Vows To Offer A Sacrifice On His Behalf As A Result Of Him Calming The Sea
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday October 7, 2010
Jonah: Jonah 1:16-The Crew Worships The Lord With Great Intensity And Earnestly Vows To Offer A Sacrifice On His Behalf As A Result Of Him Calming The Sea
Lesson # 21
Please turn in your Bibles to Jonah 1:1.
This evening we will study Jonah 1:16 and in this passage in response to the Lord calming the sea, the crew worships Him with great intensity and in addition earnestly vows to offer Him sacrifices when they reach Jerusalem.
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. 16 Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.” (NASU)
Jonah 1:16 presents the results of the Lord calming the sea from its raging as a result of the crew throwing Jonah into the sea.
“The men” is the articular masculine plural form of the noun ʾĕnôš (אֱנוֹשׁ) (en-oshe), which refers to the crew and emphasizes their weakness, mortality and impotence as human beings reminding the reader of man’s transience and his dependence upon the omnipotent, transcendent God.
“Feared greatly” is the third person masculine plural qal active imperfect form of the verb yā∙rē(ʾ) (יָרֵא) (yaw-ray) and the feminine singular form of the noun yir∙ʾā(h)(יִרְאָה) (yir-aw), which is modified by the feminine singular form of the adjective gā∙ḏôl (גָּדֹול) (ga-dol).
The verb yā∙rē(ʾ) means, “to have reverence and respect for, to worship” the Lord expressing the fact that the crew had “reverence” and “respect” for the Lord, or in other words, they “worshipped” Him because He commanded the storm to cease immediately.
“The Lord” is the masculine singular form of the proper noun Yahweh (יהוה) (yeh-ho-vaw), which is the covenant-keeping personal name of God used in connection with man’s salvation and emphasizing that this crew was experiencing a personal relationship with the God of Jonah.
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 had intervened in the lives of this Phoenician crew.
This worship of the Lord by the Phoenician crew was the appropriate response by these men to the manifestation of the Lord’s omnipotence and sovereign rulership over creation.
The crew’s response to the Lord silencing the raging sea was to possess an attitude of deep respect and awe for Him.
They were esteeming the excellence of the Person of God as manifested through His personal qualities or attributes such as His omnipotence and sovereignty.
The crew’s response to the Lord silencing the raging sea was to possess an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration for the Lord and was one of being filled with admiration, amazement and awe.
It reached right into their hearts and shook them up and enriched their lives and overwhelmed them with an emotion that was a mixture of gratitude, adoration, reverence, fear and love for the Lord.
The crew wasn’t looking for explanations since they were lost in the wonder of God.
Therefore, the crew manifested an attitude of deep reverence, respect and awe of the Lord for saving their lives with such a magnificent display of His power and sovereign rulership over creation.
When the crew offered sacrifices to the Lord, they were worshipping Him and expressing their thanks to Him for saving their lives by silencing the raging ocean that threatened their lives a few moments before.
The crew is worshipping the Lord in that they are responding in their minds, emotions, and bodies to what the Lord is and did silencing the storm.
Psalm 95:6-7, “Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.”
Jonah 1:16, “Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.” (NASU)
“They offered a sacrifice to the Lord” is composed of the the third person masculine plural qal active imperfect form of the verb zā∙ḇǎḥ (זָבַח) (zaw-bakh), “they offered” and the masculine singular form of the noun zě∙ḇǎḥ (זֶבַח) (zeh-bakh), “a sacrifice” and the preposition le (לְ) (le), “to” and the masculine singular form of the proper noun Yahweh (יהוה) (yeh-ho-vaw), “the Lord.”
The verb zā∙ḇǎḥ means, “to sacrifice, slaughter” referring to the act of killing an animal as an act of worship and the noun zě∙ḇǎḥ refers to the animals that were killed for this act of worship.
This animal sacrifice was a collective act of worship of the Lord by the crew since the noun is in the singular and undoubtedly took place once the crew reached land and did not take place on board the ship.
Lessing writes, “It is improbable that the sailors made burnt offerings on board a wooden vessel that earlier was emptied of most, if not all, of its cargo, and ‘thought itself to be broken’ (1:4). They offered worship and made vows immediately while at sea, and those vows likely included promises to offer sacrifice. Then once on land, they offered their sacrifices and again worshiped Yahweh.” (Concordia Commentary: Jonah; page 140)
“Made vows” is composed of the third person masculine plural qal active imperfect form of the verb nā∙ḏǎr (נָדַר) (nay-der) and the masculine plural form of the noun nē∙ḏěr (נֵדֶר) (nay-der).
The verb nā∙ḏǎr means “to make a vow” and its cognate noun nē∙ḏěr refers to the thing vowed.
The verb refers to making a binding promise to the Lord and was an act of voluntarily and verbally dedicating and devoting oneself to the service of the Lord whereas the noun form of the word represents the thing offered to fulfill a vow.
In our context, because of the figure of hendiadys the crew earnestly vowed to offer a sacrifice to the Lord.
These two words form an emphatic effected accusative construction which is used to emphasize the earnestness and zeal of the crew in making vows to worship the God who had just spared their lives from certain death.
Vows were not contracts or limited agreements but rather they were verbal and voluntary acts of submission to the Lord and the reorientation of one’s life to meet the Lord’s standards.
Therefore, we see that this Phoenician crew will reorient their lives as a result of this encounter with the true and living God.
The crew left home as heathens worshipping vain idols and now after this encounter with the Lord their lives have taken on a whole new different meaning since the Lord has revealed Himself to them in a mighty way.
Since the Lord has revealed Himself to this crew by exercising His omnipotence and sovereign rulership over creation and the storm the crew has committed themselves to living according to the standards of the living God.
Therefore, we see that the crew collectively has had a life changing experience.
The two verbs zā∙ḇǎḥ and nā∙ḏǎr form a hendiadys meaning they express one idea or concept, namely, that the crew “earnestly vowed to offered a sacrifice” to the Lord when they reached land and in particular when they reached Jerusalem after landing in Joppa.
The NET Bible writes, “According to Jewish tradition, the heathen are not allowed to make sacrifice to the God of Israel outside Jerusalem, so the Targum modified the text by making it a promise to sacrifice: ‘they promised to offer a sacrifice before the Lord and they made vows’ (see B. Levine, The Aramaic Version of Jonah, 70; K. Cathcart and R. Gordon, The Targum of the Minor Prophets [ArBib], 14:106, n. 29).”