Jonah 1:11-12
“Then they said to him, ‘What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?’ For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, ‘Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.’”
I love this turn of events in Jonah’s life, it’s similar to what we see in the lives of other great Bible personalities; people like Samson, when he was blinded and placed between the two pillars of the temple, and David, when Nathan the Prophet confronted him, and Jacob, when he was returning to Canaan knowing Esau was on the way to meet him with 400 men. Jonah, like Samson, David and Jacob, they all had reached a point in their lives where they could do nothing but say to God “do with me as you want, God, I’ve come to my end.”
Jonah was willing that the sailors toss him into the sea to spare the lives of those on the ship—Jonah was a broken man. I doubt that Jonah knew that God would send a giant fish to swallow him; I think Jonah was just assuming life was over for him if the sailors did what he was encouraging them to do.
Some times God has to empty us of everything that is in us; all our energy, all our resources, all our self-reliance, all our self-will, all our self-confidence, all our resistance, all our desire to turn and run the other direction. I don’t think it’s ever easy or comfortable or pleasant or painless; but it is always necessary, and it was necessary with Jonah.
“Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.” (v13)
There something rather amazing in this verse about the sailors—they don’t want to throw Jonah overboard. The amazing thing is that these men in this moment are more righteous than Jonah; the men don’t want evil to happen to Jonah, they want good for him, they really don’t seem to want God to punish Jonah, I mean, they could have said “yeah, this guy’s the problem, let’s throw him overboard and appease his God and the sea will calm down.” These appear to be genuinely good guys; they even rowed harder trying to get the ship back to land.
But, the sailors discover something very quickly, and it was some of same things Jonah was learning; you can’t resist God when he is intent on seeing something happen. No matter how much the sailors wanted to keep Jonah, their passenger, safe, no matter how much they wanted to save the ship, the more they struggled against God the stronger the storm became. That’s what was happening with Jonah—the further he ran away from God, the more he resisted, the worse things got, until he surrendered.
“Therefore they called out to the LORD, ‘O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.’ So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.” (v14-15)
This part of the story of Jonah is like a good Michael Crichton book (Congo, The Andromeda Strain, The Lost World), the tension becomes so thick that you realize that something has to give, the defining moment of the story is about to occur. The sailors are trying everything they know, and with all their might to save ship and soul, and in that moment they themselves begin to cry out to God. Imagine that, men who aren’t believers in Jonah’s God begin to pray to his God; they don’t want to be responsible for throwing Jonah overboard, they don’t want to kill a man.
There is a story within the story, God’s attempting to get Jonah’s full attention, and in doing so he’s gotten the sailors’ full attention. God used even the events of Jonah running from him and his journey on this ship to impact the lives of others, others who don’t know God. And, the sailors have great insight to God’s character and work in this moment when they say “for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.” The sailors, during this short, tempestuous trip, came to know some things about God.
Jonah is thrown into the sea and it stops raging. Do we see what happens at our time of surrender? When Samson was fully surrendered to God, even though his life would come to an end, Samson would have peace in knowing that he had taken the Philistines down with him, and that God would be glorified. When David was fully surrendered to God, even though he would suffer with consequences of his sin, he would be at peace with God again. When Jacob was fully surrendered to God, even though he didn’t know how his brother Esau would respond to him, he was at peace with God about returning to Canaan, at peace with whatever the outcome would be.
This reminds me of my son at two or three years old. I remember us going to the Rec Center pool to swim. I stood in about three feet of water as my son teetered on the very edge of the pool wanting so badly to jump into the water with me. He was uncertain about the whole thing; he knew the water was over his head, he knew that there was something really desirable about the water also. He would fidget, hesitate, have second thoughts, but ultimately he would jump, knowing that I would catch him. He could enjoy the threat of water being over his head and deeper than he was tall because as he landed in my arms I would only let he sink so far into the water before abruptly pulling him up; it was the best adrenaline rush a two or three year old could know—all because he had surrendered his fears, his uncertainty and his desire.
“Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.” (v16)
We’re not told explicitly so, but it seems like some of these pagan sailors become followers of The God of Jonah—they feared the LORD, offered sacrifices to the LORD and made vows the LORD. Those were all things that a good follower of Jehovah God did.
“And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” (v17)
My wife and I have a saying that we often remind one another of; “our worst fears seldom come to pass.” That thing that we fear most, that thing of dread that causes us to be petrified with the possibility of an outcome, that thing that we just can’t get our minds around because the thought of it seems too painful, rarely actually happens. We end up worrying about something and fearing something so much, that most of the time when a thing actually happens we look back and wonder what all the fuss and fear was about.
Jonah was about to discover how good surrender to God could be; he discovered that a person can get really close to God cruising around the sea in the belly of a gargantuan fish. And to think, that all God wants of me sometimes is to sit and talk.
