Rediscovering Jonah--Jonah 1:11-16
Day 5
So far, I have discovered that like Jonah, I have disobeyed God’s will numerous times, that I’m probably not doing enough with my faith, perpetually, and that I “other” people furiously and serially and rather seem to enjoy it.
I’m not rediscovering Jonah as Timothy Keller does in Rediscovering Jonah: The Secret of God’s Mercy because I never knew the prophet in the first place.
Only the part where Jonah gets swallowed by a big fish and I haven’t got to that yet. 🙂
But that’s very soon, right after Jonah gets himself thrown from the storm ravaged boat.
Jonah 1:11-16 11 So they said to him, “What should we do to you so that the sea will become calm for us?”—for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. 12 And he said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, because I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you.” 13 However, the men rowed desperately to return to land, but they could not, because the sea was becoming even stormier against them. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord and said, “We earnestly pray, O Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life, and do not put innocent blood on us; for You, Lord, have done as You pleased.”15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. 16 Then the men became extremely afraid of the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
I can’t help but notice that the pagan sailors out of Joppa seem to have more concern for Jonah than Jonah seems to have for the Ninehvites that he figures God is going to zap anyway–so why bother going and sharing the Word with them?
I sort of live that way too.
I’m here. They’re there.
Let’s keep it that way.
The sailors try to ROW and WORK their way out of trouble–for their sakes and for Jonah’s–even after Jonah finally owns up to his disobedience toward God.
Charles Spurgeon, he of at least 10 sermons on Jonah, writes on the futility of trying to work your way to salvation as the pagan sailors did:
“I have met with many who are in this kind of case. They are constantly starting objections to their own salvation and trying to answer them. They have comfort for a moment, and they say, “Yes, this is very sweet, but;” and then they will spend a week or two in trying to split up that but. When they are rid of this but, a mercy will come to them from another quarter, and they are sure to meet it with, “Ah! blessed be God for that, but.” They are always pulling away at these buts; these big waves come sweeping up to the side of their vessel, and they try to dig their oars into them. Friend, if you are never saved until you, an unpardoned sinner, have answered all objections, you will never be saved, because there are a thousand objections to the salvation of any man, which can only be met by one argument, and that is the blood of Jesus.”
Surely, this has also been me.
Until I accepted Christ into my heart neither all of my mental hijinks and positive talking nor all the Netflix, bourbon, and golf in the world eased the pain of my grief.
Finally, the sailors realize the jig is up.
They are going to their cold, watery graves because of Jonah’s disobedience.
These pagan sailors recognize the sovereignty of Jonah’s God and pray not to incur God’s wrath when they toss Jonah overboard at Jonah’s insistence.
Hmmm.
Does Jonah earn any kind of praise here for finally admitting he’s the cause of the storm and if the sailors throw him overboard they will be saved?
Keller thinks so:
“Jonah’s pity arouses in him one of the most primordial of human institutions, namely; that the truest pattern of love is substitutionary. Jonah is saying, “I’ll fully take the wrath of the waves so you won’t have to.” True love meets the needs of the loved ones no matter the cost to oneself. All life-changing love is some kind of substitutionary sacrifice.”
I did note that Jonah doesn’t say anything to the sailors about OBEYING God and going back to port to continue on to Nineveh.
Yeah, Jonah sacrifices himself to save the pagans (which is what God wanted him to do in the first place), but was his action the Christian way?
Jacques Ellul seems to think so. He writes in The Judgment of Jonah:
“At this point Jonah takes up the role of the scapegoat. The sacrifice he makes saves them. The sea calms down. He saves them humanly and materially. Jonah is an example of the Christian way. What counts is that this story is in reality the precise intimation of an infinitely vaster story and one which concerns us directly. What Jonah could not do, but his attitude announces, is done by Jesus Christ. He is who accepts total condemnation…Jonah is not Jesus Christ, but he is one of the long line of types of Jesus, each representing an aspect of what the Son of God will be in totality and if it is true that the sacrifice of a man who takes his condemnation can save other around him, then this is far more true when the one sacrificed is the Son of God himself. It is solely because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that the sacrifice of Jonah avails and saves.”
So Jonah is a TYPE of Jesus.
Jonah sacrifices himself so the pagan sailors will live, but it was Jonah’s disobedience to God that put them in harm’s way to begin with.
There is no doubt in my mind and in my heart that I would sacrifice my life for my family and loved ones.
Burning buildings, sinking boats, drowning in the waves.
I feel like I would JUST DO IT.
Substitutionary, sacrificial love.
Especially, if I CAUSED the disaster in my loved one’s lives.
(Anyone who has lived through a divorce with children, feels this acutely).
I haven’t even got to the part where Jonah gets swallowed by a big fish. (I think it's next, actually), and already my head is stuffed with lessons from his story that I didn’t really know until this week.
Amazing.
Lord, we recognize the power of confession like Jonah and the Your sovereignty over the seas of our lives.
Lord, forgive us for the times we have resisted Your guidance and insisted on our own way. Help us to surrender to Your will, trusting in Your wisdom and goodness.
Amen.