Reflections on Jonah 1

 Jonah 01  (Contemporary English Version)

1. One day the LORD told Jonah, the son of Amittai,
   
2. to go to the great city of Nineveh and say to the people, "The LORD has seen your terrible sins. You are doomed!"
   
3. Instead, Jonah ran from the LORD. He went to the seaport of Joppa and bought a ticket on a ship that was going to Spain. Then he got on the ship and sailed away to escape.
   
4. But the LORD made a strong wind blow, and such a bad storm came up that the ship was about to be broken to pieces.
   
5. The sailors were frightened, and they all started praying to their gods. They even threw the ship's cargo overboard to make the ship lighter. All this time, Jonah was down below deck, sound asleep.
   
6. The ship's captain went to him and said, "How can you sleep at a time like this? Get up and pray to your God! Maybe he will have pity on us and keep us from drowning."
   
7. Finally, the sailors got together and said, "Let's ask our gods to show us who caused all this trouble." It turned out to be Jonah.
   
8. They started asking him, "Are you the one who brought all this trouble on us? What business are you in? Where do you come from? What is your country? Who are your people?"
   
9. Jonah answered, "I'm a Hebrew, and I worship the LORD God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."
   
10. When the sailors heard this, they were frightened, because Jonah had already told them he was running from the LORD. Then they said, "Do you know what you have done?"
    
11. The storm kept getting worse, until finally the sailors asked him, "What should we do with you to make the sea calm down?"
    
12. Jonah told them, "Throw me into the sea, and it will calm down. I'm the cause of this terrible storm."
    
13. The sailors tried their best to row to the shore. But they could not do it, and the storm kept getting worse every minute.
    
14. So they prayed to the LORD, "Please don't let us drown for taking this man's life. Don't hold us guilty for killing an innocent man. All of this happened because you wanted it to."
    
15. Then they threw Jonah overboard, and the sea calmed down.
    
16. The sailors were so terrified that they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made all kinds of promises.
    
17. The LORD sent a big fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

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God chose Jonah to be His messenger to the city of Nineveh, a major city in Assyria, which became the capital of Assyria following Jonah's time. This is the only record in scripture of God sending a prophet to a non-Israelite nation for the purpose of repentance. Other prophecies against non-Israelite nations speak of judgment on them due primarily to their atrocities against Israel. Jonah was told to "preach against it (Nineveh)" because "their wickedness has confronted Me." (1:1)

Verse 3 tells us simply that Jonah "got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord's presence." It is foolish to be disobedient to the Lord, but Jonah was especially foolish to think he could flee from the Lord's presence. Did he truly think this or was it a figure of speech? It was Jonah's understanding of God, as we discover later, that caused his disobedience. He surely knew there was nowhere he could go to escape God's presence. Or is it our unconscious thinking that by fleeing the instructions God gives us we are also getting away from God? Though we cannot hide from God our disobedience does separate us from God relationally. To flee God's presence, Jonah boarded a ship headed the opposite direction from Nineveh and as far away from the city as he could reasonably go.

Jonah could not so easily escape from a God who has command of all nature, and God called upon nature to stop Jonah's escape. He did this by causing a violent storm that threatened to break up the ship on which Jonah was fleeing. Being a religious lot, the ship's crew began calling out to their various gods to rescue them. The ship's captain was not pleased to find Jonah asleep when he could also have been calling to his god for help as well. Who knows, thought the captain, "Maybe this god (Jonah's God) will consider us, and we won't perish." (1:6)

To the sailors, the storm was an act of god, they just didn't know which god. Furthermore, their theology followed a common line of thinking, "If the storm was an act of god it is to punish someone who has done something wrong." Therefore, the sailors thought to take the situation into their own hands and determine who was to blame - with whom were the gods angry? They thought to do this by casting lots. God used their superstitions to point the finger at Jonah, and so the "lot singled out Jonah."

When confronted by the sailors about his role in the plight of the ship and all aboard, Jonah responded with no uncertainty. He was the cause. And, the God he worshiped was capable of causing this storm for He is the "God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land." (1:9) The sailors already knew Jonah was fleeing the Lord's presence so they recognized Jonah was their culprit and asked him, "What should we do to you to calm this sea that's against us?" (1:11) Whether from guilt or resignation, Jonah was man enough to face the consequences of his disobedience. He told them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea so it may quiet down for you, for I know that I'm to blame for this violent storm that is against you." (1:12)

The sailors were not inclined to take a man's life, so instead they attempted to row the boat to dry land. Failing at this they saw they had no choice but to do as Jonah had told them - throw him overboard. They called out to Jonah's God not to hold them responsible for taking his life and "threw him into the sea." (1:15) Immediately the sea "stopped its raging." Even in his disobedience, Jonah brought a witness of his God to these pagan sailors. When they saw what happened, they feared the Lord and offered sacrifice to Him.

This was not the end for Jonah, though. God was not through with him nor with the assignment He had given Jonah. Again, God drew upon His power over nature and "appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah." There, inside the fish, Jonah stayed "three days and three nights." (1:17)