Jonah 1:7
“And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.’ So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.”
Casting lots seems like a rather superstitious way of getting an answer for something; it seems like it might be right up there with looking into a crystal ball or reading somebody’s palms or reading tea leaves. However, without knowing the God who created everything and knows the beginning from the end, one would tend to look anywhere and everywhere for some help, especially if your ship is about to sink.
I came across an interesting website last week called Stumble Upon. The site allows you to build a profile of Interests you have; it puts a small toolbar on your computer then allows you to click a button that will provide you with random websites based upon your Interests. In my Interests I constructed things like religion, Christianity, philosophy, writing, God, Jesus, books and a few others. I’ve spent a little time stumbling upon random websites to discover a vast number of people who don’t know God or Jesus.
What I’ve discovered is this; when somebody doesn’t know the God of Creation they tend to create their own gods, and some of those gods are; metaphysics, agnosticism, atheism, Taoism, Jainism, humanism, Islam, Buddhism and the list goes on. I stumbled upon one site that was sort of a clearing house for atheistic organizations. The site had a map of the world that showed countries and continents divided by simple black lines, and then there was what looked like a red teardrop about the size of a pea used to indicate where affiliated atheistic organizations were located across the globe. There were a few of the red teardrops scattered across Europe, an occasional one in the far east and Australia, many more in Canada, and the map of the United States could not be seen because of the number of red teardrops covering it.
The sailors on Jonah’s ship had all prayed to their gods seeking relief from the storm, they were convinced there had to be an answer out there somewhere—if they implored enough gods surely they would stumble upon the one that was causing the maelstrom. That kind of sums up our world too; lots of people are looking to lots of gods for their peace. Even though the atheists say they don’t believe in God they’re on as much as a quest to find answers as anybody. After reading a few of their sites it’s very clear to see that their god is themselves—they have the answers for everything.
“Then they said to him, ‘Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?’” (v8)
Once the lot had fallen to Jonah the sailors want to know on whose account the storm (evil) had come upon them. They supposed that somebody somewhere did something to make God angry. The sailors begin peppering Jonah with questions trying to get an answer out of him. “What’s your occupation?” “Where do you come from?” “What’s your country?” “What people are you a part of?” There’s an implication here among the sailors that if we just ask enough questions, we’ll eventually come up with the answer we’re looking for. That kind of reminds me of Fortune Tellers and some TV prosperity preachers; if they cast a broad enough net, surely something will land in it.
“And he said to them, ‘I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.’ Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, ‘What is this that you have done!’ For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.” (v9-10)
Jonah makes a rather simple statement; I’m a Hebrew, and I fear God! Jonah knows exactly why this is happening, and it doesn’t have anything to do with the pagan beliefs or pagan gods of the sailors; this whole thing is about Jonah and he can’t deny it.
At some point, from the time Jonah got on the ship until he was now having this conversation with the sailors, he had mentioned to some of them that he was running away from God; “fleeing from the presence of the Lord.” I think it’s really interesting that Jonah would tell some sailor “uh, yeah, I’m kind of like trying to get free of God because he’s asked me to do something that I don’t wanna do, ya know?”
I can’t help but think, in some ways Jonah either wanted somebody to feel sorry for him, or he’s making himself out to be some kind of martyr figure. I’ve found myself trying to do that before. I look back and I think, “man, Dillman; that was strange of you to do that kind of stuff. That totally didn’t make any sense!” What didn’t make sense, now that I look back on it, is that I was having conversations with people who couldn’t do anything about my circumstances, rather than having conversation with God, who could do something about my circumstances. These sailors couldn’t help Jonah in the least, except to affirm his complaint that God wanted him to do something he didn’t want to do.
That’s how I’ve used other people as sounding boards too; I simply wanted somebody to agree with me, even though I wasn’t right. And that’s what Jonah is doing here too; he wanted the sailors to empathize with him even though he was disobeying God and doing his own thing.
As I stumbled upon various websites the other day almost all of them had one thing in common; they all were looking for other people to agree with them in what their belief was; atheists wanted to find more atheists who would affirm their beliefs; agnostics wanted to find more agnostics to affirm their beliefs; and humanists wanted to find more humanists to affirm their beliefs.
I’m certain that God has placed in the human conscience something that tells us there is a God; Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men.” In order for us humans to quiet our God-consciousness we often need others to help us do that; others who are doing that same thing—trying to eradicate God from their conscience. That might explain why Jonah at some point had had a conversation with some of the sailors explaining the fact that he was running away from God.
Just because Jonah was running away from God, it didn’t cause God to stop existing, nor did it stop God from pursuing Jonah to do what God wanted him to do. And just because atheists claim there is no God, it doesn’t impact God’s existence either.
