And the word of Jehovah came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
The book of Jonah opens without a date, without a vision, and without a sermon — only with God speaking to one man from a small northern town. That one line raises the questions the whole book answers. What does it mean for God's word to come to someone? Who was this son of Amittai? Why does his story stand apart from every other prophet's?
One writer picks up a detail about how the book names Jonah, and asks what "prophet" really means:
In this little book, Jonah is never called a "prophet." The Holy Spirit uses the writer of 2 Kings to give him that title. What does the word "prophet" mean in Scripture? Perhaps we will find God's own definition by comparing Exodus 4:16 and 7:1. In the first Scripture God says of Aaron, "He shall be your spokesman to the people"; and in the second, God says, "Aaron your brother shall be your prophet." Perhaps this gives us the clearest definition of a prophet according to the Word of God: he is God's "spokesman to the people." Very often God speaks of judgment or blessing to come, and then the spokesman speaks of what will happen in the future. But his first duty is to be God's spokesman.
(In Exodus 4:16 the ESV reads, "He shall speak for you to the people"; older translations say "spokesman," the word this writer builds on.)
The verse does not present Jonah as a legend. It places him in a family, a town, and a period of Israel's history:
Jonah was born in Gath-hepher, in the northern part of Palestine. He probably lived at the same time as Elisha, or followed him soon after. We learn this from 2 Kings 14:25-27. It tells us that Israel won back its coastlands from the Syrians, just as Jonah had predicted earlier. That fact, and the character and contents of the book itself, let us date this prophecy very early indeed. It is a prophecy of judgment on proud and haughty Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian kingdom and the ruling city of the earth. It is perhaps the earliest prophetical book we have.
One writer takes the meaning of the two names in this verse and reads the book's message in them:
People say the name "Jonah" means "a dove." A dove is the symbol of peace, and the book is in reality an offer of peace from the Lord Himself… They also say the name "Amittai" (Jonah's father) means "Truth." Could it be that in these two names we have the same precious message as John 1:17, "grace and truth came through Jesus Christ"? Truth is the light that shows our sins. Grace provides the means to cover our sins.
Read on and you find something odd. The book keeps almost none of the prophet's words. What God preserved was his conduct.
What makes this book unusual is that it does not contain a single prophecy. There is the message to Nineveh — if that can be called a prophecy — but beyond this we have no record of what God used Jonah to communicate… When we examine the book, we discover that its teaching lies in Jonah's own history. Or rather, it lies in how he behaved when the Lord sent him to go and cry against Nineveh, because its wickedness had come up before Him. The book therefore has, we might say, a parable-like character.
There is more. God gives a prophet with strong Jewish feelings a message for the world power of his day:
Jonah himself might have been strongly Jewish in his feeling. Still, God used him for a final Old Testament testimony to the Gentiles. Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian kingdom, was the great power of the world at that time… The whole history of Jonah is a sign. It is not simply what he said but what he did, and the ways of God with him.
The same opening words come back after Jonah has tried to escape:
In Jonah 3 we come to another point. The word of the Lord comes to Jonah again. How persistent is His goodness, and how useless for His servant to think of escaping!
- Word. The book begins with God speaking. A prophet is first of all God's spokesman to people, not mainly someone who predicts the future.
- Man. That word came to a real man: Jonah of Gath-hepher in northern Israel, son of Amittai. 2 Kings 14:25 records his earlier work for Israel.
- Names. "Jonah" means dove and "Amittai" means truth. One writer finds in that pair the same message as grace and truth coming through Jesus Christ.
- Life. Almost none of Jonah's preaching survives. God taught through his conduct instead, so the whole history became a sign.
- Reach. The message reached past Israel to the world's leading city. When the runaway prophet ran, the same word came to him a second time. God's goodness is that persistent.
Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
God speaks first in this book, and His first words send His prophet away from Israel to a great pagan city. One sentence gives both His reason for acting ("their evil has come up before me") and the errand itself ("call out against it").
Jonah was not a new preacher. He had already served God at home, and this fresh order broke the pattern of his life's work.
Jonah had already carried messages from the LORD to Israel (2 Kings 14:25); now God gives him a unique distinction and sends him "far away to the Gentiles" (Acts 22:21). It is an unspeakable honour to be a messenger for God at any time. Have we all learned this? Are we all in the spirit of Isaiah's words "Here I am, send me?"
Two things set Jonah apart: who he was sent to, and what he was sent to say.
Unlike every other prophet of the Old Testament, he served the pagan people of Nineveh and not the people of Israel. The only message Jonah announced was the one about the coming judgment on Nineveh (Jonah 1:2; 3:2,4). So Jonah is the only prophet of the Old Testament who shows God's grace to the nations outside Israel.
God calls Nineveh great. Where did the city come from?
What of Nineveh — "that great city"? We first read of it in Genesis 10:6-13, where Ham's line produces Nimrod, and Nimrod goes to Assyria and builds Nineveh. So the descendants of a man under a curse founded it, and God Himself must say of it, "their evil has come up before me."
Why does evil "come up" before God? Nineveh is not the first place where Scripture says it did.
It is a solemn truth, reader: sin has a voice. It cries to heaven for God's righteous judgment, and the word of God confirms it. God says to Cain, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground." God then pronounces judgment upon Cain. To Abraham the Lord said, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see…"
What God saw in a city, He sees in one person.
God took notice of the wickedness of the men of Nineveh, just as He takes notice of your wickedness. Do not think that His eye is not on you. It is. His hand may not be on you yet, but His eye is on you.
Jonah is told to call out against the city, not to plead with it. Set that beside the message preachers carry today.
How striking is the difference between Jonah's message and ours! Jonah's message was entirely one of judgment without a word of mercy. Yet both preacher and hearers read in this message, and read correctly, an offer of mercy. Otherwise, why send the warning of judgment? It is well for us to remember that in every message of judgment, there is hidden an offer of mercy, if the guilty ones will only take warning and repent.
Nahum later prophesied against the same city. Read the two books together.
The book of Jonah teaches that God is patient and merciful. Where there is repentance, God will hold back His judgment. The book of Nahum teaches something else. The God who sees the end from the beginning will carry out the judgment He pronounced, once He counts the time of His patience finished.
The command is two plain verbs. The next verse shows what Jonah did with them.
The LORD told him to go east, and he hurries west at once. He runs straight against God's command. To some this seems hard to explain in a prophet… But we have to learn that flesh is no better in a prophet than in ourselves. The real difference between people is not that one man's flesh is better than another's. It is that some have learned to distrust themselves completely, and to live another life — a life by faith, not by flesh.
Notice also that God did not leave the destination open.
The Lord did not only tell Jonah to "Arise, go." He told him just where to go. He did not say, "Arise, go anywhere you like." The Lord will tell us where to go too. He may send us to someone in our own family, or to our neighbours. He may send us to people of a different nation, speech and language, at the other end of the earth.
- Cause. Sin has a voice. Nineveh's evil came up before God, just as Cain's murder and Sodom's outcry did.
- Notice. What God saw in a whole city He sees in one person — His hand may not be on you yet, but His eye is.
- Gift. The command to call out against the city was all judgment, yet sending a warning was itself an offer of mercy.
- Reach. God sent His prophet out of Israel to a pagan city, and He named the destination Himself. The errand is His to give, near or far.
- Result. Jonah heard "go east" and ran west. A prophet's flesh is no better than ours; only distrust of self and a life of faith keep a servant going.
But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah; and he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish, from the presence of Jehovah.
God tells Jonah to go east to Nineveh; he heads west instead. Two questions hang over the verse: what did he think he could escape, and why would a prophet of God try?
Jonah does not stall. He moves in the exact opposite direction to the one God named.
But in Jonah we see the stubbornness of man. Jehovah told him to go east, and he at once hurries west. He flies straight in the face of God's command… We have to learn that flesh is no better in a prophet than in ourselves. The real difference between people is not that the flesh of some is better than the flesh of others. It is that some have learned to distrust themselves completely, and to live another life — a life by faith, not by flesh.
Jonah was not so foolish as to think he could out-travel God. The phrase has a narrower sense.
Tarshish in Spain was his goal… This cannot mean that he fled from the presence of God, whom he knew to be everywhere: "Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence?" (Psalm 139:7). He did not flee from the presence of the Lord in the sense of escaping His knowledge and authority. It means that he left the land of Israel where Jehovah dwelt; he fled from the task he had been given.
The chapter says it three times over, and one writer reads the repetition as deliberate:
Three times in our chapter (as three times also in the first) the Holy Spirit mentions the prophet's useless attempt to flee from the presence of the Lord, as if to point out the folly of such an attempt.
Commentators differ on the motive. One traces it to Jonah's reputation as a prophet:
Jonah was afraid that God would be too good! If Nineveh repented, he suspected He would show it mercy. He feared, then, that his own standing as a prophet would suffer… Even a prophet's heart is a selfish thing, except so far as he walks by faith!
Another traces it to national pride:
Jonah's fear, as a Jew, was that if the Gentile nations turned to God, his own nation would lose its unique place. Israel was the chosen nation, and Jehovah had revealed Himself to Israel alone. So he went to Joppa, booked passage on a ship bound for Tarshish, and never reached it.
A ship bound for Tarshish, ready to sail, can look like God's approval. It is not.
No doubt our Lord may and does at times show His mind and mark out our path by His providence. But we must stay close enough to Him to read that providence correctly. Otherwise what people call "an opening of providence" may prove to be an opening by which we slip off the holy path of obedience… Jonah might have thought it a remarkable providence to find a ship going to Tarshish. But had he been in communion with God, he would not have needed a ship.
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Down to Joppa, down into the ship — and later further still.
It is always going down when we seek to leave the Lord. This was his first outward step down, but it was by no means his last. An inward or spiritual step down usually comes first. It is easier to go down than to go up, whether for body or soul. Beware, dear fellow-Christian, when the path begins to slope down, when the travel is easy and there is no hill to climb. Then we can be fairly sure we are on the wrong road.
Running from God is never free.
The fare must have been very high for that long journey… If we go in the service of the Lord, we can be sure He will see to "the fare". But if we go to please ourselves, we pay the fare ourselves! … Jonah paid the fare to Tarshish, yet we never hear that he got a refund, even though he never reached his destination.
There is another road, and another fare:
The Christian is on the upward road to heaven, and he does not pay his own fare. Thank God, another paid it for him — Jesus the Saviour.
The story does not end at the harbour. God repeats Himself, word for word.
God, in His great patience and grace, now repeats the same words of command He had spoken to Jonah the first time. But by then the prophet had learned obedience, the chief requirement for every servant. What a difference from the verse we started with! Now we read: "So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD."
- Direction: Told to go east, Jonah hurried west — flesh in a prophet is no better than flesh in anyone else.
- Distance: He never escaped God's knowledge. He was fleeing the land he served in and the task he was given.
- Down: Down to Joppa, down into the ship. The outward step down follows an inward one, and the easy road is the road to suspect.
- Debt: He paid the fare and never got it back. Disobedience charges full price. Another paid the Christian's fare to glory.
- Do-over: A waiting ship was no sign of God's will. The same command came a second time, and this time Jonah went to Nineveh.
But Jehovah sent out a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest upon the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
Jonah has paid his fare and boarded a ship headed the opposite way from Nineveh. So far nothing has stopped him. Then one sentence turns the story: the sea rises, and it rises because God sent it.
One writer stops on the verb. Older translations say the LORD "sent out" the wind, where the ESV says He "hurled" it.
Notice those words, "The LORD sent out a great wind." Later we see the various things God "prepared" for Jonah's sake: the "great fish," "a plant," "a worm" and a "scorching east wind." But it does not say that God prepared the "great wind" of verse 4. Psalm 135:7 tells us that God "brings forth the wind from His storehouses." So instead of saying He prepared the wind, it says: "The LORD sent out a great wind into the sea." That word "sent" is not used here by accident. What a sad and solemn contrast to Jonah that "great wind" presents! The same LORD sent both. The stormy wind goes when and where it is sent, "fulfilling His word." (Ps. 148:8) Man, the highest work of His creation, chooses his own will and refuses to go when his Lord and Master sends him!
Jonah boarded the ship to get away. The ship delivered him exactly where he did not want to be.
He went down into that ship to flee from the presence of the LORD, but he did not escape. The ship carried him into the middle of that tempest. There, among the storm and the waves, alone on the vast deep, Jonah was to meet the Lord. He found himself in the very presence of the One he was trying to escape.
Sailors meet bad weather often. This storm had one intended hearer, and it would not let up until he heard it.
This wind had a solemn voice in it for the prophet's ear, if he had been awake to hear it. Jonah was the one who needed to be taught; God sent the messenger out for him. The poor pagan sailors had no doubt often met a storm. To them it was nothing new, nothing special, nothing but what comes to every sailor. Yet it was special and extraordinary for one man on board — and that one was asleep in the sides of the ship. The sailors fought the storm in vain. Nothing would help until the Lord's message reached the ears of the man it was sent to.
The purpose behind the tempest was not to finish Jonah off. It was to wake him up.
The servant under temptation may try to forget God. But God does not forget His servant, and He cannot allow him to disregard His authority. So He pursues him with His storm. He commanded and raised the stormy wind — not to destroy His servant, but to wake him to his position and danger. Yes, the Lord loves His servants too well to let them continue in rebellion. But while He is active in pursuit of Jonah, Jonah is asleep in the middle of the signs of His presence and power. Who will not recall, by way of contrast, the storm on another sea, during which He who had made the sea lay asleep on a pillow!
God sent the wind for Jonah, but the whole crew was caught in it. It raises a question about any believer's influence.
A Christian, a saint of God — and every true Christian really is "a saint" — should be a blessing to any group of people... but Jonah was very different. Rather than being a blessing to the company of men on that ship, he brought a curse with him. It was he who brought that storm, or at least God sent it for his sake... The Bible says truly, "None of us lives to himself." (Rom. 14:7) We cannot say, "This is my own business and makes no difference to anybody else." Jonah's disobedience made a great difference to those sailors.
Some writers read Jonah as a picture of the nation of Israel: sent to carry God's message to the world, and running from it instead.
Israel, like the prophet, turned their back toward the Lord instead of their face. They refused the warnings of His grace and patience, and so they fell under the chastening and judgments of His hand. Our chapter pictures this: the great wind on the sea, and the ship in danger of breaking up.
Nothing the sailors did calmed the water. One writer names the one price the storm would take.
That storm required a great sacrifice. No one could ignore its claims. Only one price could turn it to a calm and bring peace: Jonah must go into it. He must sink down into that raging flood. Nothing else could help. So they "picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging."
- Sent — the same Lord who sent the prophet sent the wind; the wind went, the prophet would not.
- Sought — the ship meant to carry Jonah away from God carried him straight into meeting Him.
- Spared — the storm chased Jonah; it did not destroy him. God loves His servants too well to leave them in rebellion.
- Shared — one man's disobedience put a whole crew in danger; none of us lives to himself.
- Stilled — the storm took only one price: Jonah went down into it, and the sea grew calm.
And the mariners were afraid, and cried every one unto his god; and they cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to be lightened of them. But Jonah had gone down into the lower part of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
A storm has caught Jonah's ship, and the scene splits in two: sailors awake, praying to gods who cannot hear, and the one man who knows the living God asleep below deck. It raises a hard question — how can a servant of God sleep through a crisis his own disobedience caused?
The crew do two things at once: they pray to their gods and they throw the cargo overboard. Both fail for the same reason, one commentator says: they have never heard of the God they are dealing with.
These sailors did not know Jehovah, the true God, the God who made the sea and the dry land, the God whom Jonah knew. In their trouble they turned to the false gods of the nations... They did not know Jehovah, and could not call on Him. Scripture rightly asks, "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? ... And how are they to hear without someone preaching?" These men had not heard, so they could not believe in the true God. Instead of calling on Him, they each called on his own god. Since such gods could neither save nor help them, they turned to their own methods — throwing the cargo overboard. But their prayers, their wisdom and their works were all useless.
This is the third stage of a journey that has gone downward from the start. And the one man on board who knew God was the one man not praying.
Still a third step down for Jonah: down to Joppa, down into the ship, down into the lower part of the ship. Sadly for Jonah, he was to go still further down. On a downward path we cannot stop when and where we suppose we can. What a strange sight! The sailors were in terrible danger, calling on their gods to save them. Meanwhile the one and only man on board who knew the true and living God did not trouble to call on Him. He lay fast asleep.
Commentators differ on what the sleep means. One weighs several possibilities and settles on the least flattering.
We do not read anything about Jonah calling on his God. Was it a bad conscience that led him to seek sleep in the lower part of the ship? Or did he seek sleep because he was in despair? Or did he act out of the calm of faith, knowing himself safe in the Lord's hands? Perhaps his action shows, more than anything, indifference and an astonishing self-security.
Another reads the sleep as a deliberate escape from a conscience that was starting to speak — and warns that believers are not immune.
His conscience began to wake up, and he wanted to sleep it off, and he succeeded. How deep is the numbness of a conscience lulled to sleep by Satan, the world and the flesh! It may be the conscience of a saint who has left the path of obedience and is walking in wilful disobedience, or that of a backslider. In the second case the sleep is heavier, deeper and usually longer.
The lost cargo was the sailors', not Jonah's. One writer turns that into a question about our own influence.
How very solemn it is when God, in dealing with us for our unfaithfulness and sin, has to bring trouble and distress on those around us! The Bible truly says, "For none of us lives to himself." We cannot say, "This is my own business and makes no difference to anybody else." Jonah's disobedience made a great difference to those sailors. They were caught in a terrible storm. They lost their cargo by throwing it overboard to try to save the ship. And all because of the sin of a saint of God. It is a very searching question to ask ourselves, "Am I a blessing or a curse in the circle where I move?"
One writer reads the whole scene as a picture of Israel, running from the job of carrying God's message to the world.
Jonah escaped to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. In this he is a true picture of Israel fleeing from God instead of carrying His message to the world... But the guilty nation felt nothing. The onlookers — the sailors — were afraid, and each cried to his god in awe at the terrible storm. Israel, though, lay as it were fast asleep, undisturbed by the roar of the storm that threatened to destroy them.
Another storm in the Bible has a sleeping passenger, and one writer sets the two side by side.
In the middle of the storm, while others were praying, Jonah was sleeping. His self-will was stifling his conscience. How different with the Lord Jesus! When the storm broke on the Sea of Galilee, He slept peacefully in the stern of the boat. As the perfect Man of faith, He could rest His weary head, sure of the Father's care. His sleep astonished the disciples as much as Jonah's sleep astonished the sailors. But what a contrast between the runaway prophet and the Man Christ Jesus!
- Down — Joppa, then the ship, then the hold: self-will has stages, and a downward path is not one we stop when we choose.
- Asleep — his conscience had begun to wake, and he slept it off. The man who knew God was the one man not praying.
- Overboard — the sailors prayed to gods who could not hear and dumped their cargo. Their prayers, wisdom and works were all useless.
- Others — his sin cost the sailors their cargo. None of us lives to himself, and every believer is a blessing or a curse where he moves.
- Awake — the Lord Jesus slept in another storm, not from a stifled conscience but in perfect trust in His Father's care.
And the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, sleeper? arise, call upon thy God; perhaps God will think upon us, that we perish not.
Jonah has run from God's call, boarded a ship, and gone below deck to sleep while a storm sent by God tears at the vessel. The verse gives us a strange reversal: a pagan sea captain shaking a prophet awake and telling him to pray.
The irony of the scene is that the only person on board who knows the true God is the only one not calling on Him. One writer traces the direction Jonah has been travelling all along.
Still a third step down for Jonah: down to Joppa, down into the ship, down into the lower part of the ship. What a strange position! The pagan sailors were in terrible danger, calling on their gods to save them. Meanwhile the one and only man on board that ship who knew the true and living God did not trouble to call upon Him. He lay fast asleep.
The text does not say why he slept. One writer weighs the possibilities.
Was it a bad conscience that led him to seek sleep in the sides of the ship? Or did he seek sleep because he was in despair? Or was his action produced by the calmness of faith, knowing himself in the hands of the Lord? Perhaps his action shows more than anything indifference and an astonishing self-security.
The rebuke comes from an outsider — a working sailor who does not know Jonah's God.
The Gentile captain of the ship must come and rouse him from his sleep with these words. What humiliating words to hear from an unconverted man of the world, as sometimes happens, when he grabs a Christian out of his sleep! Can there be anything more humbling for a child of God?
The captain tells him to pray. One writer explains why Jonah could not.
after
Good, sensible shipmaster! He knew well what Jonah ought to be doing — surely not sleeping at such a time! It is a message from the pagan world around us that we would all do well to hear. How could Jonah call on the name of the very One from whose presence he was at that moment fleeing? Sin and prayer do not go together: we must give up one or the other. Sadly, Jonah had chosen sin, and he could not pray. This was not a time for prayer, but a time for confession.
The captain can only say "perhaps." Jonah knew for certain the God the captain could only guess at.
after
The captain did not know God as Jonah knew Him. Who could give a truer and more glorious picture of God's character than Jonah: "I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster." Jonah could truly say he "knew" God, but the shipmaster did not know a God like that. Later we hear the sailors pray. Not each man to his own god, but this time to the Lord Himself: "Let us not perish for this man's life." Later again the king of Nineveh, another pagan, urges his people to turn from their sins: "Who knows? God may turn... so that we may not perish." Their turning to the true God may have been the feeblest and most ignorant kind. They had nothing in view but that they should not perish. Yet how richly God met them in each case.
The storm that terrifies the crew is God pursuing the man asleep below. One writer sets Jonah's sleep beside a very different sleep on another sea.
While He is pursuing Jonah, Jonah sleeps in the middle of the signs of His presence and power. Who will not recall, by contrast, the storm on another sea, during which He who had made the sea lay asleep on a pillow! In the first case only one thing calms the storm: throwing Jonah into the sea. In the second, the disciples wake the Lord, and He shows His glory by rebuking the wind and commanding the sea to be still.
The same sleep can settle on anyone. One writer turns the captain's shout on the reader.
How often God draws near to a man and the man knows nothing of it! He is fast asleep — Satan has lulled him to sleep. The pleasures of sin lull some to sleep. Others sleep because they think they are not so bad, that they are better than their neighbours — orderly, religious, careful, moral people. If this is your condition, may the Lord rouse you!
- Down — Jonah's flight moves in one direction. Down to Joppa, down into the ship, down into its lowest part, down into sleep.
- Silent — the one man who knew the true God was the only one not praying. The pagan crew did what the prophet would not do.
- Blocked — he could not call on the God he was running from. Sin and prayer do not go together. What he owed first was confession.
- Roused — the rebuke came from an unconverted sea captain. Nothing is more humbling for a believer out of step with God.
- Spared — "Perhaps... that we may not perish" is a feeble, half-informed hope, and God met it richly every time.
And they said each one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. And they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
A violent storm is battering the ship, and the crew want to know who brought it on them. Two questions run through the verse: was the lot chance or God's hand, and why did Jonah stay silent until it fell on him?
The sailors were outsiders who did not know Israel's God. Even so, the outcome of a lot belongs to Him.
God overruled among His people how the lot should fall. Proverbs 16:33 says: "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD." He could also direct it among the nations to work out His own purposes, as He did with Haman: the lot delayed his plan long enough for Esther to act, and for new orders to go out across the kingdom so that the Jews were saved from destruction. The names to choose between were marked on pieces of wood or pottery. These "lots" were then shaken together in a container, or in the fold of a garment, until one came out.
For Jonah, that meant his last way out was gone.
Now Jonah is left with no other choice. Surely it was God Himself who directed that lot, and Jonah knew it. He can cover his sin no longer, but God Himself has forced the confession he would not make of his own free will.
Jonah could have spoken at any point — during the tempest, or when the captain woke him. He said nothing, and one writer traces that to something familiar in all of us.
Jonah knew what the matter was, though he had never dared to look right to the bottom of it. Men with a bad conscience never do… When men are ashamed, and their will is still active and unjudged, it takes a great deal of discipline to set them right again. So Jonah held his tongue as long as he could, though he knew quite well who the culprit was.
The storm had already got Jonah out of bed. The lot did something the storm could not.
The storm and the Gentile shipmaster had shaken him out of his sleep, but his conscience had not yet woken up. Something more was needed for that. Even these Gentile sailors seem to have seen how extraordinary that storm was. They felt that a higher hand was at work here, to reach some unknown sinner they were sheltering. So they cast lots to learn for whose sake that disastrous tempest had come upon them. Instead of finding an Achan in the camp, we have a Jonah in the ship. And as in that earlier case, so here the lot fell on the right man — Jonah. Now his conscience, as well as his body, is fully awake.
Being found out looks like the worst thing that could happen to Jonah. One writer reads it the other way round. It is God's kindness, because sin that stays hidden cannot be forgiven.
It is good when God acts the same way with us, as He often does. "Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper" (Proverbs 28:13). If we will not confess our sin willingly, it is good that God should use His own means to force that sin into the open. Only then can He bring blessing to us. "For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me… I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity… and you forgave the iniquity of my sin."
Another writer turns the same moment on his hearers.
It is a good thing when the lot falls on a man and he feels that he is the sinner.
One writer reads Jonah's voyage as a picture of Israel's history. Outsiders are caught up in a judgment that someone else's unfaithfulness brought on.
The unfaithfulness of Israel involves the Gentiles also in the judgments of God. Instead of being the means of light and blessing, they become the occasion of judgment. But, second, the wrath of a holy God falls on His people, the cause of it is learned, and the storm is stilled. Then the Gentiles turn to the Lord and acknowledge His power and glory. "The men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows."
- Directed — The lot was not luck. God can direct a lot even in the hands of unbelievers, and Jonah knew whose hand had pointed at him.
- Delayed — Jonah knew the answer before the lot was cast and kept quiet. A bad conscience avoids looking at itself, and it takes real discipline to reverse that.
- Detected — The storm woke his body; the lot woke his conscience. As with Achan, the lot fell on the right man.
- Disclosed — Covered sin never prospers. God forcing sin into the open is not cruelty but the only route to forgiveness and blessing.
- Discovered — One man's disobedience dragged a whole crew into danger, just as Israel's did. Yet those same sailors ended up fearing the LORD and worshipping Him.
And they said unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us what is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?
The lot has fallen on Jonah. Now the sailors demand the facts he hid while he slept below deck: his work, his origin, his country, his people.
Jonah knew who was to blame for the storm, yet he stayed silent until he was cornered:
But Jonah knew what the matter was. He had never dared to face it honestly, right to the bottom, as men with a bad conscience never do… When men are ashamed, and their will is still active and unjudged, it takes a great deal of discipline to set them right again. So Jonah held his tongue as long as he could, though he knew exactly who the culprit was.
The lot that singled him out was not chance, and now he has nowhere left to hide:
Now Jonah is left without any other choice. Surely it was God Himself who directed that lot, and Jonah knew it. He can cover his sin no longer, but God Himself has forced that confession that he would not make of his own free will.
The captain had already shaken him awake. That was not enough to wake his conscience:
The storm and the Gentile shipmaster had shaken him out of his sleep. But his conscience was still not fully awake. That took something more. Even these Gentile sailors seem to have seen that this storm was no ordinary one. They felt that a higher hand was at work here, to reach some unknown sinner they were sheltering. So they cast lots to learn for whose sake that disastrous tempest had come upon them. Instead of finding an Achan in the camp, we have a Jonah in the ship. And as in that earlier case, so here the lot fell on the right man — Jonah. Now his conscience, as well as his body, is fully awake.
(Achan hid stolen goods in Israel, a whole nation suffered for it, and the lot exposed him.)
The sailors' first question is who brought this trouble on them. The answer reaches far beyond Jonah himself:
A Christian, a saint of God, should be a blessing to any group of people he is with… but Jonah was very different. Instead of being a blessing to the men on that ship, he brought a curse with him… How solemn it is if God, in dealing with our unfaithfulness and sin, must bring trouble and distress to those around us! The Bible truly says, "For none of us lives to himself" (Romans 14:7). We cannot say, "This is my own business and makes no difference to anybody else."… God did bring blessing out of all this sin and trouble, and those sailors learned to know the true God through the disobedient prophet. That does not excuse him at all.
Taken one by one, the sailors' questions test whether a person's life matches what he claims. On the question about his work:
The second question is a searching one too. Let us face it honestly: "What is your occupation?" You may have heard of the man someone described like this: "Yes, that man is a Christian, but he is not working at it." How many of us are Christians, but not working at it! The world would find it hard to tell, looking at some of us, that our first occupation down here is "to the praise of His glory" (Ephesians 1:14).
And on the question about his homeland — one that a foreigner abroad still hears today:
"What is your country?" This is a common question in China. People often ask foreigners, "What is your honourable country?" Can we truthfully reply, "My honourable country is heaven"? Does the way we live show it?
Another writer turns the four questions outward and puts them to the reader:
Then they ask Jonah four questions, which I will also ask you. (1) "What is your occupation?" Sinning. That has been your occupation since you came into the world. Do you say that is a terrible charge? God says, "The devising of folly is sin" (Proverbs 24:9). (2) "Where do you come from?" It is a terrible thing when the Lord has to say to people what He said on earth: "You are from below" (John 8:23). (3) "What is your country?" There is no mistake about your country. You belong to the world: "you are of this world" (John 8:23). (4) "And of what people are you?" The enemies of the Lord. All unbelievers are such, though they may not like to admit it.
- Hidden — Jonah knew the cause of the storm and stayed quiet; a bad conscience never looks its own case in the face.
- Exposed — God directed the lot and forced out the confession Jonah would never have made on his own.
- Awakened — the shipmaster woke his body, but only these questions woke his conscience.
- Costly — one man's disobedience put a whole crew in danger; none of us lives to himself.
- Searching — occupation, origin, country, people. A faithful life answers these questions before anyone asks. They still expose anyone living without God.
And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear Jehovah, the God of the heavens, who hath made the sea and the dry [land].
A storm has cornered Jonah, and the lot has picked him out. The sailors ask four questions — his job, his journey, his country, his people — and he answers only the last, then names the God he is running from.
The word Jonah picks for himself has a history. It began as a description of a man on the move, away from home and settled nowhere:
The root of the word is 'to pass over,' as when one passes over a river, or from one region to another. God told Abraham to leave his country and his relatives and go into the land of Canaan. The word Hebrew is not used until Abraham had left his country and was in the land of Canaan (Genesis 14:13). When he was there he was a 'sojourner,' in a strange country, living in tents (Hebrews 11:9)… The name Hebrew does not occur in the Old Testament after 1 Samuel, except in Jeremiah 34:9, 14 and once in Jonah 1:9.
There was a grander title available to him, and he passed it by:
The name "Hebrew" seems to have been one of contempt. Compare 1 Samuel 14:11. The name of dignity was "Israelite." "Israel," you will recall, means "A Prince with God." On his downward path, away from God, he had lost the sense of the dignity of his position and citizenship. He took the name that Israel's enemies used for them in scorn.
The words are true, but they arrive late. He spoke only when he could hide no longer:
Jonah knew what the matter was. He had never dared to look at it honestly, right to the bottom — men with a bad conscience never do… When men are ashamed and their will is still active and unjudged, it takes no small discipline to set them right again. So Jonah held his tongue as long as he could, though he knew perfectly well who the guilty man was.
Jonah's description of God is not random. It is how God had made Himself known to Israel. Where the ESV says "the LORD," older translations print His name as "Jehovah":
Here God is known as Jehovah, the covenant name of God in relationship with Israel. The words "which made heaven and earth" are added as well. This was the revelation God made of Himself to His earthly people… The Christian is in the light as God is in the light, for God is now fully revealed in and through the Lord Jesus Christ… So we know God in a far more intimate way. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our God and Father (John 20:17; Ephesians 1:3-5).
The crew were praying about the sea. Jonah named the God who made it:
He began to get his eyes off himself, and what a difference it made… The sailors had been crying, every man to his own god. But they did not know Jehovah, the God of the heavens. They prayed for the raging sea to be still. But they did not know the God who had made the sea… He may have lost the sense of the dignity of the place God gave him. But he had not lost the sense of the God whom he feared.
Watch which name the sailors use before this verse, and which one after:
When the sailors first spoke of God, they called Him "Elohim." They were not aware of any special relation to Him. But they acknowledged Him as the Supreme Being who could quiet the storm if it pleased Him… After they heard Jonah's confession of faith in Jonah 1:9, "they cried to Jehovah," "they feared Jehovah," "they offered sacrifice to Jehovah and made vows." This looks like true conversion. "The God of heaven, Who made the sea and the dry land" became something more to them than a mere Creator.
One line of Jonah's answer was still true of him, and it separates two kinds of people:
The mark of a converted man is that he fears the Lord; that of the unconverted, that "there is no fear of God before their eyes" (Romans 3:18).
Yet the same fear made his flight absurd, and the sailors saw it before he did:
He had far more knowledge of the greatness and glory and holiness of the true and living God, who had made the sea and the dry land, than these poor ignorant sailors. Yet they took a far truer view of Jonah's action than he took of it himself.
- Name. "Hebrew" means a man who has crossed over and lives as a sojourner; Jonah chose the low name, not the name of dignity.
- Cornered. He spoke only when the lot exposed him — a bad conscience hides as long as it can.
- Creator. "The God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land" was how God revealed Himself to His earthly people. Believers now know Him as Father through Jesus Christ.
- Testimony. His eyes came off himself and onto God, and the sailors who prayed about the sea met the God who made it.
- Result. Their "Elohim" became "Jehovah." They feared Him, sacrificed and made vows. The fear of the Lord that Jonah still had became theirs too.
Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, What is this thou hast done? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of Jehovah for he had told them.
Jonah has just told the sailors who he is and which God he fears. Their terror rises at once, and their cry — “What is this that you have done!” — is a rebuke from men who already knew he was running from the Lord.
Jonah boarded that ship with one aim, and he told the crew what it was.
Jonah, when he was shut up inside the fish, said, "I am driven away from Your sight" (Jonah 2:4). He really had no ground for complaint here. He fled to Tarshish for the express purpose of getting away from the presence of Jehovah! He even told the sailors that this was the meaning of his voyage in their ship.
One writer pictures what Jonah must have said as he came aboard.
When he got on board the ship going to Tarshish he evidently said, "The Lord told me to go east to Nineveh and preach a sermon I did not want to preach. So I took my own way." The truth came out. The truth always has to come out sooner or later.
Yet once the storm hit, Jonah stayed silent as long as he could. The reason lay in a conscience he would not face.
Jonah knew what the matter was. But he had never dared to look at it honestly, right to the bottom. Men never do when their conscience is bad… When men are ashamed, and their will is still active and unjudged, it takes no small discipline to set them right again. So Jonah held his tongue as long as he could, though he knew very well who the guilty one was.
Notice who trembles here. The men who know least about God are the ones who are afraid.
How often the men of this world seem to have a truer sense of what suits a Christian than the Christian himself. How was it that Jonah was not "exceedingly afraid"? He knew far more about the greatness and glory and holiness of the true and living God, who had made the sea and the dry land, than these poor, ignorant, heathen sailors did. Yet they took a far truer view of Jonah's action than he took of it himself. It was an awful thing for a mere man to try to flee from the presence of such a God!
Their fear grows for a reason they can now work out for themselves.
By his confession of God — the true God, "Jehovah the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land" — he increases the alarm of his fellow travellers. For it now appears that no hope of escape from His storm is possible. They have His rebellious, disobedient servant on board. They now become exceedingly afraid — terrified, panic-stricken in fact. Their case is clearly a hopeless one.
The confession that frightened them also taught them a name they had not known. Their view of God changes across the chapter, and Jonah's words caused the change.
In the book of Jonah we notice that when the sailors first spoke of God it was as "Elohim." They were not aware of any special relationship to Him. But they acknowledged Him as the Supreme Being who could calm the storm if it pleased Him… Then His divine hand became plainly visible, and they heard Jonah's confession of faith in Jonah 1:9. After that, "they cried to Jehovah," "they feared Jehovah," "they offered sacrifice to Jehovah and made vows." This looks like real conversion… The simple faith of those seamen might well shame many of Jonah's own countrymen.
For anyone running from God, this verse marks the first step back, not the last.
If we are disobedient like Jonah, and the storm comes from God rather than Satan, His arm is still stretched out to save us. If we confess our sins (Jonah 1:10), and repent (Jonah 2:7), He will bring us through to dry land (Jonah 2:10).
- Told — Jonah had already announced why he was on that ship: to get away from the presence of the Lord. His own words became the evidence.
- Hidden — Once the storm hit, he kept quiet as long as he could. A bad conscience avoids looking at itself, and it takes real discipline to bring it back.
- Feared — The sailors, who knew far less of God, were the ones exceedingly afraid. The world often judges a believer's conduct more accurately than the believer does.
- Used — Even from a runaway's mouth, the truth about the God who made the sea and dry land reached them. They moved from a vague sense of a supreme God to fearing the Lord by name.
- Confessed — The same honesty that exposes the guilt opens the road home. Confess, repent, and God brings you through to dry land.
And they said unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea grew more and more tempestuous.
The sailors have questioned their passenger and learned that he is running from the God who made the sea. Now they ask him what they should do to quiet the water, and the reason for their urgency comes in the same breath: the sea was only getting worse.
The sailors' question puts Jonah face to face with the results of his own choice.
The matter is being pressed close home to Jonah now. "What shall we do to you?" Jonah knew well that the awful storm around them was all his fault. It was getting worse every moment. Jonah had not "feared exceedingly" when he should have. Now he began to find out that God is not mocked. It is no light thing to try to trifle with Him.
The same writer will not leave the lesson with Jonah. He hands it to the reader.
Have not most of us had to learn the same bitter lesson? How natural to the heart of man is the thought, and how eager the enemy is to tell us, that we may sin and "get away with it." Whether it was Jonah, or whether it is you or I, "God is not mocked." "Be sure your sin will find you out." (Numbers 32:23) Sin will surely bring bitter, bitter fruit.
Their question is not a first move but a last one.
It was a mighty storm, and the wind that caused it came from God. Nothing that those pagan sailors could think of could satisfy its demands. They threw their costly goods into it and still it raged. They worked hard to escape its grip and reach port. They cried to their gods. But it paid as little attention to their toil and their anguished cries as it did to their wealth. It worked against them, was tempestuous, and reduced them to despair.
The men are not cruel. The remedy Jonah gives them is the one thing their feelings cannot accept. The sea keeps rising while they hesitate.
Jonah goes on to instruct them about their only hope of safety, but their human feelings recoil from what he tells them to do. How can they throw a living man, a fellow human being, into these boiling waves? They grow more and more tempestuous every moment.
Their question exposes something wider than one man's guilt. Innocent travellers are asking how to survive a storm that was never aimed at them. One writer reads it as a picture of Israel, Jonah's own nation, and of the Gentiles — the nations outside Israel.
Israel's unfaithfulness draws the Gentiles too into the judgments of God. Instead of being the means of light and blessing, they become the occasion of judgment. But there is a second point. The wrath of a holy God falls on His people, the cause of it is learned, and the storm is stilled. Then the Gentiles turn to the Lord and acknowledge His power and glory.
The crew wanted the sea quiet. They got it, but not by any route they would have chosen. The order of events is the point.
It is often said that a calm comes before a storm... In this case the storm comes before the calm. That fits both the type and the One it pictures: the raging waters must be entered to bring the calm of peaceful deliverance... Jonah's case is a solemn picture. The only way to save those poor perishing sailors was to throw the disobedient servant into the sea.
Mawson turns the deck of that ship into a mirror. He makes the sailors' problem — a judgment they could not pay off — our own.
Many of us were like those sailors of Tarshish; we had no peace. We discovered that we were guilty before God; we had sinned against Him. His righteous judgment was against us and we could not meet its demands... No price we could pay could win our deliverance from judgment or buy our peace. Our labour to establish our own righteousness was in vain.
- Storm — The wind came from God, and Jonah knew the worsening sea was his own doing. Sin does not stay hidden, and it is no light thing to trifle with God.
- Struggle — Cargo thrown overboard, hard work to reach port, prayers to their gods: the sailors tried every remedy they had, and the sea ignored all of it.
- Summons — "What shall we do to you?" pressed the matter close home to Jonah, and the remedy had to come from the guilty man.
- Spread — One servant's disobedience pulled outsiders into God's judgment. Those same outsiders ended up turning to the Lord and owning His power.
- Stillness — The calm they asked for came only by way of the deep. Someone had to go into the raging waters before peaceful deliverance could come.
And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you for I know that because of me this great tempest is upon you.
Jonah's ship is breaking apart, and the crew has just asked the runaway prophet what to do. He answers by pronouncing his own death sentence — a full confession of guilt, and a shadow of a far greater sacrifice.
Here Jonah stops hiding and points to himself as the cause of the storm. One writer sets what the crew felt beside what Jonah felt.
Jonah comes to the conviction that he is the guilty one. It is a great moment when the soul gets to this point. I am truly guilty; I am so thoroughly guilty that I am only fit to die. Others felt that they should perish; Jonah felt that he deserved to perish.
Jonah does not try to fix the situation by his own effort. One writer makes his submission the pattern for anyone who has gone wrong.
To accept the punishment of our sin is the first duty of an erring soul. We are not to try to put ourselves right by an effort of our own when we have gone wrong... Our first duty is to accept the punishment of our sin in the spirit of confession, and to bow under God's mighty or chastening hand.
Jonah offers no defence of himself. One writer notes who wrote the record of this failure.
Brave Jonah! One cannot help but admire and love this man, despite all his failure. How many of us would have dared to pronounce our own death sentence so clearly? How many would own our guilt and its consequence so fully, without a single word of excuse or self-justification?... It must almost certainly have been Jonah himself who wrote this book which bears his name — a book which has not a syllable to his own credit. When you consider that, you cannot help but honour this brave and honest man.
Jonah hands his life to God at the very moment he admits he ran from Him. One writer looks at both sides of the man.
For all his shortcomings, his narrowness, and the self-importance of his office, he did not fear to trust himself in God's hands. Is it not clear and sad, the mixture one sees even in a real believer? It is plain that he has not the slightest doubt about his own relationship to God. He has no question that all will somehow be well with Jonah. Yet he had really been, as he was often in danger of being, impatient, self-willed, and presumptuous.
The sailors row hard for land instead. One writer turns their failure into a question for the reader.
His judgment was just, but "nevertheless the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not" (Jonah 1:13). And now what about you, my friend? You cannot row yourself to land. You cannot save yourself. What will you do? You had better accept and own the truth of your state. What is it? Utterly lost, and absolutely helpless in yourself.
Jonah says the sea will quiet down once they throw him in. Nothing else the crew tried had that effect.
That storm demanded a great sacrifice; its claims could not be ignored, and there was only one price that could turn it to a calm and secure peace. Jonah had to go into it; he had to sink down into that raging flood. Nothing else could work. So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, "and the sea ceased from its raging."
One writer sets Jonah's descent beside a greater one, and marks where the two differ.
Jonah went down into the depths of judgment, in figure, because of his disobedience. The result was that the storm calmed its fury, peace and salvation came to the sailors, and they feared the Lord and acknowledged His claims over them. JESUS WAS GREATER THAN JONAH in this. His one obedience (Rom. 5:19) meant being delivered up for our offences, and by it He went in reality into the depths of death and judgment. Through that, peace and salvation have come to us who were storm-tossed sailors on the sea of life, with nothing but destruction ahead of us.
- Cause. Jonah names himself as the reason for the storm. It is a great moment when a soul says: the guilt is mine.
- Confession. Do not try to repair the damage by your own effort. The first duty of a soul who has gone wrong is to accept the punishment.
- Courage. He speaks his own sentence with no excuse — and later writes the record that leaves him no credit.
- Cost. The crew's rowing could not save them; only one price could quiet that sea, and Jonah had to go into it.
- Contrast. Jonah sank because he disobeyed. Christ went into death by obedience, and that is how peace and salvation reach storm-tossed people.
But the men rowed hard to regain the land; but they could not; for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.
By this point Jonah has admitted that the storm is his fault, and he has named the remedy: throw him into the sea. Verse 13 is the pause before that happens — the sailors take up the oars instead, and the sea rises higher against them.
The sailors have every reason to be done with Jonah.
We now come to a lovely feature of these Gentile sailors. They owed to Jonah all their trouble and distress, the loss of the whole cargo, and their clear danger. Even so, they hesitate until the last moment to use the only means of saving themselves — throwing Jonah overboard, as the prophet himself had told them to do.
They knew what obeying Jonah would cost him.
The sailors knew well that the condemned prophet had no hope if they carried out his sentence, so they rowed hard to regain the land. We learn to love and admire those kind sailors as we follow them through this voyage. How easy it would have been to throw Jonah overboard and get a calm sea once more! But no, they would not do this without one more hard try. It was hopeless. God Himself was sending that storm — not against them, but against His disobedient servant — and it is useless to fight against God.
Their kindness could not change the outcome.
The sailors, in their kindness, may row hard, and harder still, but it will do no good. The sea cries, "Give, give." The fire on the altar demands the victim. A sin that leads to death has been committed, and all struggle or rowing for life is useless.
Another writer adds that the men were not wrong to try, only powerless to succeed.
These honest and gracious Gentile sailors tried, if they could, to save Jonah, the ship and themselves. But their efforts, however well meant, were in vain. God had to accomplish His wise, holy and gracious will and purpose for His prophet.
The harder they pulled, the more the sea fought them. That pressure drove them off their own strength and on to the God whose name they had just heard.
So once again they try to save themselves by their own desperate efforts. They row hard to bring the ship to land, but they cannot manage it. Then, baffled, beaten and in despair, they appeal to the true God. This time it is not each man to his own god, but to Jehovah, the God they have just heard about and learned of.
Until now their religion had been a mixture.
Up to this time they acknowledged God, but only in a natural way, because they called on their own gods as well. This was inconsistent enough. They did not see the serious contradiction of worshipping false gods and at the same time acknowledging the true God. That was exactly their state; but now they cried to the true God.
One writer reads the scene as a picture of a person who has just admitted his own guilt.
Though many learn that they are guilty, they still have deep lessons to learn before they find out what God's salvation is. When they have found that they are guilty, they often begin to try to mend. Here, at first, "the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not." It was all of no use. "So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging." ... The only way of escape now for him was through the life of another.
One writer applies this to how Christians treat a difficult person among them.
How many Christian sailors in the church's boat might learn something from these rough Gentile seamen! Think of the cases where there is ... a Jonah in the ship. Do we not too often hear the cry, "Overboard with him"? ... Such rowers hope in vain that the sea will be calm once they have thrown Jonah out of the ship. Usually the very opposite happens. Often it is not the supposed Jonah but one of these unhesitating sailors who ends up in the fish's belly, learning there the lessons he thought were meant for Jonah.
- Row — Jonah had caused all their trouble, yet the sailors pulled for shore rather than take his life. One writer calls this reluctance a lovely feature of these sailors.
- Fail — Their well-meant effort could not succeed. God Himself was sending that storm, and it is useless to fight against God.
- Cry — The rising sea stripped them of their own strength, and the men who had each called on his own god now called on the true one.
- Learn — The failed rowing pictures the person who feels his guilt and tries to mend himself. Escape came only through the life of another.
- Wait — Their hesitation is a warning. Throwing out a difficult person does not calm the sea; usually the opposite happens, and the eager rowers end up in the fish's belly themselves.
And they cried unto Jehovah and said, Ah, Jehovah, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood for thou, Jehovah, hast done as it pleased thee.
Jonah has named his own sentence, and the crew has rowed until rowing was useless. Now these pagan sailors stop and pray to Jonah's God before they throw him into the sea.
Earlier in the chapter each sailor called on his own god. This prayer breaks with that.
A remarkable change, as we may see here, takes place in them. Up to this time they acknowledged God, but only in a natural way, because they called on their gods as well. This was inconsistent enough. They did not see the deep contradiction in worshipping false gods while acknowledging the true God at the same time. That was exactly their state; but now they cried to the true God. They had heard His name was Jehovah. They were struck by how real His rule was, seen in Jonah's case right in front of them.
Their rowing had failed them, and so had their gods.
Then, baffled, beaten and in despair, they appeal to the true God. Not this time each man to his own god, but to Jehovah, the God they have just heard about and learned of. And they obey the word spoken to them. Pagan as they were, they now realise they are in the hand of Jehovah the God of heaven, Maker of the sea and the dry land. What deep exercises of spirit in so short a time! Their own gods are helpless. Faith came by hearing, by the report of who He was.
Jonah himself had told them to throw him in. Even so, they would not touch him until they had bowed before God and admitted that His will was being done.
These honest and gracious Gentile sailors tried, if they could, to save Jonah, the ship, and themselves. But their efforts, however well meant, were useless. God's wise, holy, and gracious will and purpose for His prophet had to be carried out. But these sailors — we can hardly call them unconverted any longer — did not go ahead with what the prophet had told them to do. First they bowed down before Jehovah for what they were about to do to His prophet.
Their plea about blood asks God not to charge them with this death. The word behind "lay" is the plain Hebrew word for "give" or "put."
The word is literally "give," which may be translated "put." In Jonah 1:14 it is used for "lay not on us innocent blood," that is, do not impute it to us.
In "for this man's life," English uses two words for what Hebrew says with one.
The Hebrew word commonly translated "soul" is nephesh. In many places this is translated "life," as in Jonah 1:14, "Let us not perish for this man's life," or soul.
The fear of perishing runs through the whole book. The same plea comes from three different sets of lips.
"Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish." Later we hear them pray, not every man to his god, but this time to Jehovah Himself. Later again, we hear the king of Nineveh, another pagan, urging his people to turn from their sins: "Who knows? God may turn and relent… so that we may not perish." Their turning to the true God may have been the feeblest and most ignorant kind. All they wanted was not to perish. But how richly God met them in each case!
The crew watched a man go down to death in their place.
They knew well that he was willingly going down into death to save their lives. They could truly say, "He gave Himself for us"; "He died that we might live."
One writer links what happened on this ship to something still future.
In the last days dreadful troubles will fall upon Israel, as judgment on the unfaithful witness of Jehovah. Their effect will be to make this God of judgment known, and to make the great name of Jehovah glorious in all the earth (Jonah 1:14-16).
- Hearing — Their faith came from the report of who Jehovah is. A few words from a disobedient prophet about the God who made the sea and the dry land were enough.
- Abandoning — They stopped calling on gods that could not help. They called on the one God whose name they had just heard.
- Asking — "Lay not on us innocent blood" means "do not charge this death to us." They would not shed blood before settling the matter with God.
- Bowing — They had rowed hard and failed. Their prayer ends by admitting that all of it was God's doing, not theirs.
- Living — God met every cry not to perish. The man who went down so the crew could live points to the One who gave Himself for us.
And they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea and the sea ceased from its raging.
The sailors had prayed to their own gods and rowed hard for shore. The storm only grew worse. In verse 15 they finally lift Jonah over the side, and the raging sea falls silent.
The rowing came first, and it came to nothing. One writer sees in that failure a picture of what guilty people do next: they try to mend themselves.
Many learn that they are guilty. But they still have deep lessons to learn before they find out what God's salvation is. Once they know they are guilty, they often start trying to mend themselves. Here, at first, "the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not." It was all of no use. "So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging." Then he would feel indeed that it was all over with him. And so, apart from God, it was. The only way of escape now for him was through the life of another.
The storm was not weather to sit out. It made a demand, and only one thing met it.
That storm required a great sacrifice. No one could ignore its claims. Only one price could turn it to a calm and secure peace. Jonah must go into it. He must sink down into that raging flood. Nothing else could do it. So they took up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, "and the sea ceased from its raging."
One writer traces the same order in the cross: the waters first, then the calm.
Here the storm comes before the calm. That fits both the picture and the One it pictures: the raging waters had to be entered to bring the calm of peaceful deliverance… How different it was with Jesus, the One the picture points to. As the Eternal Son He came from the holy calm of the divine glory into a world of sin and sorrow. He became a servant to do the will of God by obedience to death, even the death of the cross… There He met God alone and settled the question of sin. He exhausted the judgment due to it, and so brought about peace with God for all who believe — an eternal calm for guilty ruined man.
The verse credits the sailors with the act. Praying later, Jonah credits someone else. That shift starts his recovery.
Jonah 1:15 says of the sailors, "they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea." But in Jonah 2:3, Jonah says to God, "You cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas." So he owned the divine hand, and humbled himself under it… He was in the way of recovery. Deliverance can only come to souls in distress when they acknowledge the hand of God.
The quiet sea was only half the result. The other half was a change in the men who threw him.
The result — what was it? It was twofold. First, "the sea ceased from its raging." Then, "the men feared Jehovah exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to Jehovah, and made vows." For these pagan men the result was a complete turning to the true and living God… First, they were "afraid" of the storm, verse 5, and crying to their gods. Then they were "exceedingly afraid" as they heard for the first time of the God of the heavens, who had made the sea and the dry land. Third, they cried to Jehovah instead of to their gods… Fourth, they feared Jehovah exceedingly — a very different thing from being "exceedingly afraid."
Their fear of God deepened after the danger passed, not during it. One writer makes this a test of anyone who claims forgiveness.
They had cried to Him before; they feared Him now. If they cried to Him in their danger, they feared Him yet more when the danger was over. That is right, and shows reality. It happens often. Yet it is a fearful mockery when a man fears the Lord less after he claims that God's grace has forgiven his sins.
One writer sees a national picture in the man going over the side.
Jonah was cast overboard into the sea. The sea represents the nations; that is where the Jews were cast. As a result of Jonah being thrown out, the pagan sailors turned to the Lord and sacrificed to Him. In Romans 11:11 we read, "through their fall (the Jews) salvation came to the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy."
- Rowing fails. Human effort could not reach land. Trying to mend yourself cannot reach peace. The only escape was through the life of another.
- The storm has a price. The storm made a demand that hard rowing could not meet. One man had to go into it before it fell silent.
- Waters, then calm. The same order points to Christ. He went into the judgment due to sin and won an eternal calm for guilty people.
- God's hand owned. The sailors threw him, but Jonah told God, "You cast me into the deep." Owning God's hand is where recovery begins.
- The calm converts. The crew moved from fear of the storm to fear of the Lord, with sacrifice and vows. Their fear of God grew after the danger passed.
And the men feared Jehovah exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto Jehovah, and made vows.
The storm stops the moment Jonah goes into the sea, and the sailors who had been crying to their own gods now turn together to the God of Israel. Was that a passing shock, or a real change of heart?
They had already called on the LORD while the waves were still rising. Here their fear deepens after the sea goes quiet. One writer takes that as the test of whether anything real happened.
They had cried to Him before; they feared Him now. If they cried to Him in their danger, they feared Him yet more when the danger was over. That is right, and shows reality. It happens often, but it is a fearful mockery when a man fears the Lord less after he claims that His grace has forgiven his sins. It is a terrible and dangerous thing when the goodness of God weakens, even a little, our reverence for Him and our zeal for His will.
Chapter one traces how their fear changes from verse to verse. The three actions in verse 16 are the last three steps of one movement. (These writers use "Jehovah" where the ESV has "the LORD.")
First, they were "afraid" of the storm in verse 5, and they cried to their gods. Then they were "exceedingly afraid" as they heard for the first time of the God of the heavens, who had made the sea and the dry land. Third, they cried to Jehovah instead of to their gods. They acknowledged His greatness and power, and bowed in submission to His will. Fourth, they feared Jehovah exceedingly — a very different thing from being "exceedingly afraid." Fifth, they came into Jehovah's presence with a sacrifice, God's own appointed way, and bowed before Him in worship and thanksgiving. Last, they made vows — a public acknowledgement of the debt they owed to the great God they had so recently come to know.
Earlier in the chapter the sailors think of God only as a supreme power. By verse 16 they call Him by the name Jehovah, and the change of words marks a change in what they know.
They were not aware of any special relationship with Him. But they acknowledged Him as the Supreme Being, who could calm the storm if He chose to. Many, sadly, in this day of gospel light have no higher thoughts of their Creator than these seamen. Then His divine hand became clear to them. They had heard Jonah's confession of faith in Jonah 1:9, and now "they cried to Jehovah," "they feared Jehovah," "they offered sacrifice to Jehovah and made vows." This looks like true conversion. ... The simple faith of those sailors might well shame many of Jonah's own countrymen.
Plenty of people pray hard in an emergency and forget it afterwards. The sacrifice and the vows come once the sea is calm and there is nothing left to be frightened of.
This looks like true conversion, for prayer in an hour of peril does not always yield results after the peril is past. How wonderfully God works in order to turn men's hearts to Himself! A storm at sea, an earthquake at midnight, and the quietness of a gospel meeting all serve His purpose. He works as seems good in His perfect wisdom.
Their calm cost them a man. What they saw was enough to convince them; what they could not see is where the story is pointing.
So great a peace, bought at such a price, was enough to open the blindest eyes. It could reach the hardest heart, and make the most hardened unbeliever cry out, This thing is of God! But what of the great reality of which that was a shadow and a contrast? Those men saw Jonah no more; he had perished while they were saved. That was all they knew; but a greater than Jonah is here. "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." "But the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land." And just as surely our Lord came out from the dead.
One writer reads the whole scene as a picture. God's people fail in their mission, judgment falls, and outsiders end up worshipping.
Israel's unfaithfulness draws the other nations into God's judgments too. Instead of being the means of light and blessing, Israel becomes the occasion of judgment. There is a second thing to notice as well. God's holy wrath falls on His people, the cause of it is learned, and the storm is stilled. Then the nations turn to the Lord, and acknowledge His power and glory. "Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows." So will it be after the Lord's appearing.
- Storm. Their fear began as panic at the weather. It ended as reverence for the God who made the sea and the dry land.
- Sacrifice. They came to Him in the way He appoints, not by an approach of their own. Men who once cried to their own gods now call Him by name.
- Vows. A public promise, made after the danger had passed. That is the mark of a real turning, not a frightened prayer soon forgotten.
- Substitute. One man went into the sea in their place, and that bought their calm. He is a shadow of a greater One, who went into death and came out again.
- Nations. Israel's failure brought the storm. The storm brought outsiders to worship. One writer sees here the pattern of the nations turning to God once His judgment is over.
And Jehovah prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
The sailors have just thrown Jonah into the raging sea, and they last saw him sinking. But the sea does not finish him: something was already waiting for him in the water, and Jesus later pointed back to this moment as a picture of His own death.
Older translations say the Lord "prepared" the fish. One writer weighs what that word carries.
Notice, also, that the Word of God says that God "prepared a great fish." … God is well able to prepare a great fish to keep His servant alive. He is able to have that special fish ready and waiting outside the boat, in exactly the right place, and at just the right time. This is not one miracle only, this is a combination of many miracles.
The same verb comes back three more times in the book.
How complete are His ways and His working! He who prepared the fish prepared the palm-plant and the worm and the fierce east wind. All things serve not His might only, but His gracious purposes.
Being swallowed sounds like the end of Jonah. One writer reads it as the moment God saves him.
He does not cancel the sentence; that would be to clear the guilty. But He does bring salvation… And so we read, "Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah!" The prophet is saved by the life of another — a life that can go down into the water where Jonah could not live. Beautiful picture of the salvation of Him who in grace took our judgment and endured it!
One writer ties Jonah's rescue to something Jonah had already admitted about himself.
Jonah could not have known of the great fish prepared for his reception and safety. Death was all he deserved, AND HE ACKNOWLEDGED THIS. It was because of this that God could save him from death.
One writer treats these three days as the hinge of the whole book.
The last verse of Jonah 1 tells us that Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. In this fact we find the key to interpreting chapter 2, because our Lord plainly connects it with His own death.
The two halves of the verse hold two pictures, and Jonah had no idea what God was giving him.
If those dark and stormy waters spoke of death, surely the belly of the fish tells us of the grave… Little did Jonah know the honour God was putting on him at that moment. From then on he would for ever be a sign of how his Lord and Master would later go down willingly into death and the grave, to save others.
Two objections come up again and again: no fish could swallow a man, and Jesus was not in the tomb for three full nights. On the first, one writer refuses to argue about species.
The Lord Jesus has referred to the fact that Jonah was swallowed up by the great fish, call it what you will. I am not going to argue with scientists over whether it was a shark, a sperm whale or something else. That is a matter of very small account. The one fact that matters for us to affirm is this: a great fish swallowed the prophet and afterwards gave him up alive. … There is no need to imagine that a fish was created for the purpose. There are many fish quite capable of swallowing a man whole.
On the timing, the answer lies in how the Jews counted days.
For them a part of a day always counted as the whole, so our Lord was simply using the ordinary way of speaking.
One writer hears in Jonah's cry from the depths a cry Israel has still to make.
God prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, for he was His servant. From the depths he cried to Jehovah, "out of the belly of Sheol." The remnant of Israel will plead in the same way when they feel that the sentence of death has fallen on them. Salvation is of the Lord. Jonah was raised out of death, as the Lord was raised after being in the grave.
- Prepared. The fish did not happen along; God had it in place. The same word covers the plant, the worm and the wind — every instrument in the book is under His hand.
- Prepared for mercy. Jonah went overboard under a sentence he had accepted himself. God did not cancel the sentence; He provided a life that could go where Jonah could not survive.
- Prepared as a sign. The waters picture death, the fish's belly the grave. Jesus tied this moment to His own death — three days in the grave, then raised.
- Prepared against objections. The species of fish is not the point. The fact is, and Christ's own words stamp it. "Three days and three nights" follows the ordinary Jewish way of counting.
- Prepared for more than Jonah. What happened to one runaway prophet maps onto a nation crying out of the depths — raised, like its Lord, out of death.