KESWICK AT PORTSTEWART
BIBLE READING - TUESDAY 8 JULY 2025 - SAM ALLBERRY
JONAH CHAPTER 1 verses 7 - 17
Life doesn't always go as we expect it to. Jesus said to people who were trusting in religiosity that tax collectors and prostitutes are going into the kingdom ahead of them. Some times it is people we don't expect who going into the kingdom of God. In our reading we see a faithless man of God and pagans who trust God.
First we see a man of God who seems to lack faith in God. We see a number of features of Jonah's faithfulness. First his prayerless. He doesn't pray. The captain told him to "arise". It is the same word God said to him in verse 2. There was not much chance of him doing that. It was not a word he responded to even though his life is at risk. The captain asks him to call out to his God. His life is on the line. He does not pray for his own sake or for others. He might have grudgingly said "I know I have issues but think of these other people who need prayer." Jonah doesn't pray. It was apparent to the sailors that this was no natural storm but something supernatural. Verse 7. They recognized some supernatural force behind this storm. It was as insurance forms put it "an act of God". Something unpredictable and unpreventable. These people are thinking more along the lines of God having hurled this storm at the ship. They recognized that it was very uncanny. It seems to be hurled directly at them. Something is going on here. This must be of a supernatural nature. They started to ask "who has been offended?" They decided to cast lots. It was the only thing they could do in the circumstances. Who is to blame? Then they could work out what to do about it. The lot was cast on Jonah. It may have been some coloured stones that were used each representing a different person on the ship. It might have kept coming back as Jonah. The God who is able to counter weather storms is also able to counter the details of who is to blame. Jonah comes up each time. He may not have been entirely surprised. He had been asleep when everyone was desperately trying to save their lives. There was something unusual about this man. It is no surprise that he is the problem. They pepper him with questions. Verse 8. "What's your occupation? Where are you from? Who are you? Why has this happened?" They could have decided immediately to throw him overboard but they wanted to get their facts straight. It is not the only time we see them being deliberate and careful whereas Jonah was impulsive and reckless. We actually see for the first time Jonah talking.
Verse 9. "I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land." We see Jonah's identity, how he perceives himself. Now he says "I am a Hebrew". This is uppermost in his consciousness. This is the way he thinks. Jonah is mentioned in the book of 2 Kings and chapter 14. We hear about the reign of Jeroboam the second. He was not Israel's finest king. He was bad spiritually but militarily very successful. Under his reign Israel's borders were pushed backwards and expanded. We read at the heart was Jonah's preaching and ministry. That became his identity but here he says "I am a Hebrew." It may well be that in the case of Jonah allegiance to his country and to his God had been confused. Maybe we begin to see his loyalty to his nation is ending before his loyalty to God. Was it because he was told to preach to his enemies and that is why he is fleeing? Is he a prop[het of the Lord first and a Hebrew second or is he a Hebrew first and a prophet second?
Now we see Jonah's theology. Jonah then says "I fear the Lord, the God of heaven which hath made the sea and the dry land." Finally he speaks of God. The irony is - this is the very thing he had been trying to avoid, speaking to pagans about God. He is now forced to do the thing he didn't want to. "I fear the Lord". He uses the personal name for God. The name God gave his people so they could know him. It identified the covenant relationship with God. He describes him as being God of heaven. He is not like the pagan gods who have limited domains. For some pagans they have the domain of a particular god but if you travelled outside of that domain you came under a new domain of another god. The God I believe in is the God of heaven, he is the God of everything. He made the sea and the dry land. Maybe these are significant emotions. He refers first to God who made the ocean that is about to kill them. Jonah knows the God who sent this storm, that is threatening their lives. Jonah said "I fear this God". He is being sincere. This is the God I am trying to get away from. Jonah has ticked all the correct theoretical boxes and has had a fruitful ministry, When God's way clashes with how he thinks things ought to be he will not back down. This passage reminds me of Peter when he confesses Christ. You remember Jesus asked his disciples "whom do men say that I am?" The reply came back "some say John the Baptist, others one of the prophets." Jesus said "but who do you say I am?" Peter immediately replied "you are the Christ." Peter confesses Jesus is the Anointed One, the Messiah. Then the very first thing he does is correct his Messiah. He rebukes him. I know that you are the Christ but let me explain what you are supposed to do. We see the same in Jonah, "you are God but you are not doing what I want you to do." We have a tendency to think we are more theoretically correct than God is. Jonah does not believe God is doing his job properly. Jonah does not see himself as contradicting the God he fears, the one he should be obeying. He made the sea and land. He is using the sea to escape from his commission to a different land. He was prophesying faith while failing to obey. In James chapter 2 James talks about people who profess faith and says "you believe that there is one God; you do well, the devils also believe and tremble." None of us can see ourselves fully therefore all of us need other people to help us see what we are not seeing - in ourselves and in our walk with God. God made us so that we cannot see our whole selves physically speaking. The same is true spiritually. Which is why we need honest Christian friends. We need people who we can be honest with. About the parts of our lives we cannot see. We see a man of God being faithless, living in profound contradiction of belief and obedience. At the same time the one who is faithful to God is failing to repent and pray. There is a danger for us too. We all have Jonah within us. The very faith he is professing is being used as a cover up for a lack of faith. Sometimes we too profess faith and yet do not trust God fully.
The pagans who trusted in God. They did not have an apparent background to faith in God but we see them responding in increasing spiritually and faith. Jonah has become hardened to that faith. In verse 10 we see they are exceedingly afraid. The men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because Jonah told them. No wonder they are afraid. They asked Jonah "what have you done that God doesn't like?" Verse 11 "Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought and was tempestuous." The whole sea is getting wilder and wilder, becoming tempestuous. They asked Jonah "what can we do to get us out of this? You have got us into this mess, is there something we can do that will get us out of this storm?" Verse 12 "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 for my sake this great tempest is upon you." Jonah told them "you have been throwing cargo overboard, now throw me overboard." Immediately when they did that the sea calmed. Jonah is at least acknowledging that it is his own sin against the Lord, his own disobedience that has caused these problems for other people. Our sin often does offend the people around us. Jonah suggests that they throw him overboard. We might think he is being compassionate. This is being done for himself. He didn't want to drag others in. He wanted to take one for the team. Throw me over the ship. Jonah has no other options. He does but he would rather die than repent. He could repent, humble himself before the Lord. Instead Jonah feels defeated. It is a choice he has to make. It is the only option available other than obedience. Psalm 32 verses 3 and 4 "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer." There is a sense of profound exhaustion. I have nothing left in me. It seems to be where Jonah is right now. The only option seems to be to be thrown into the water. Here we see something of the character of the pagan sailors. Verse 13 " Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them." The sailors would do anything to avoid harming Jonah. They were trying to find something to do that doesn't involve turning Jonah into the sea. They know it is his fault but they want to help him out of this mess. You cannot out row God. Verse 14 "Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee." They were moved from compassion to prayer. Earlier in the chapter we had been told they were praying to their gods - verse 5. They had their own portfolio of different gods. Now they pray not to their generic gods but to God himself. The very god Jonah has described, the personal covenant God of Israel. What they pray is prayed in view of what Jonah has already said about his God. His words are fruitful. They recognized the sovereign God who has power over their lives. Their perishing or not is in their hands. "You have done as it pleased you" - recognizing God's sovereignty. This God cannot be frustrated. They also recognized moral authority - "let us not perish for this man's life." They know they have to do what has been suggested by Jonah - to pick him up and hurl him into the sea. The sea ceased from its raging, supernaturally and suddenly as it began God now stopped a big storm that normally takes days to blow out. If the God who can hurl a storm at a boat he can also stop it. Verse 16 "Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows." The result is fear not relief. The men fear the Lord exceedingly. Jonah claims to fear the Lord, these men actually did. They are more fearful of one who can stop a storm than the storm itself. That fear now leads them to worship. They offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. They are worshipping this God. They had feared him, prayed to him and now make offerings to him. They are expressing their faith in this God they don't know. They fear the Lord because of his power and offering sacrifices and make vows to him. James 2 verse 18 "Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works." Faith is something that is meant to be visible. With these sailors we see the evidence of faith. In Mark 2 and the healing of the paralytic it was the faith of his friends that led Jesus to say to the man "your sins are forgiven." These sailors worshipped God. They were in the grip of death when Jonah was thrown into the sea. They went immediately to peace and calm. It is the pagan sailors not the prophet of God who ends up showing true fear of the Lord. What do we do with our own lack of faith? The message of Jonah is not don't be like Jonah but we are like Jonah in our hearts. There are certain things of the Lord that we are determined to run away from. Yesterday we talked about the parallel of Jesus in a boat and how like it is to Jonah's story. Jesus himself said "one greater than Jonah is here." Jonah is the only prophet he compares himself to. Jesus was thrown into the ultimate spiritual storm to bring us peace. When Jonah was thrown into the sea it was for his guilt. Jesus was thrown into the ocean of God's wrath for you and me that we might have peace with God. One of the features of Jonah fleeing from God is the concept of going down. Verse 3 he was going down to Joppa. In verse 5 he was going down into the lower part of the ship. Verse 15 he was now cast down into the depth of the ocean. In verse 17 he was going down into the belly of the fish. Jesus went down for us but he went further into the very depths of hell for us so we would never have to. There is grace for the ignorant pagans like these sailors. For faithless rebellious people of God like us. Grace for those who should have known better.
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