Jonah 1:1-17 Jonah Runs from God's Call
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Summary of passage
Jonah, the mouth piece of God, refuses God's mission to redeem Nineveh. Not only does he refuse, he catches a boat headed to Tarshish with sailors who don't believe in God or his mission. As a huge storm hits, the pagan sailors react with more fear of God than God's supposed mouth piece. This shows how far Jonah has run from God and God's mission.
Original Context & Exegesis
A. Passage Boundaries (why are these verses grouped together in this chapter or pericope?)
B. Exegesis of passage as a whole (or verse-by-verse, if helpful).
1:2 The wickedness of Ninevah had “come up before” God. The HCSB renders it “their wickedness has confronted Me.” Our sin is not just a failure to meet God’s standards, it is a direct confrontation to the holiness of God and literally “gets in His face.”
1:4 Yahweh sends a storm. Often Christians speak of God “allowing” hard times. This shows Him intentionally sending a storm for the express purpose of redirecting a wayward believer (and reaching some pagan sailors.)
1:4-5 Many times I have heard people say that they knew they were in the will of God because they “had a peace about it.” I’ve said this myself before. This passage certainly casts doubt on that theory. Picture this scene with me for a moment: a storm comes out of nowhere. It is perhaps the worst storm these seasoned sailors had ever seen. They cry out for help and throw the cargo overboard, willing to sacrifice their livelihood for their lives. They would not have thrown the cargo overboard unless they were convinced that it was necessary. Amidst the noise of the storm and the noise of the sailors running back and forth and crying out to their gods, Jonah was sleeping. One would have to be pretty peaceful to sleep through that storm, yet here he was. He apparently had peace, yet he was horribly out of God’s will. God’s will is revealed to us in Scripture, and anything He doesn’t speak on falls in the category of liberty. We don’t need procedures and protocols to find God’s will.
1:6 We get a bit of an insight into the minds of these sailors as they ask Jonah to call on “his god.” They worshipped any god they thought might be able to help. It didn’t matter if they didn’t really believe in that god or even had never heard of him. They wanted “all of their bases covered.” This reminds me a bit of the pluralism of today. Any god one worships seems to be acceptable as long as that god doesn’t demand exclusive worship. The most offensive faith today is one with the courage to say that all of the others are wrong.
1:7 It is interesting to note that God directed the seemingly chance event of casting lots. He did this obviously a number of times in Scripture, but because everything is under His sovereign control, He still does today. That means that there is no such thing as chance – even the lottery numbers are chosen by God.
1:9 Jonah says that he fears God and acknowledges His power, yet he’s running away from Him!
1:10 The sailors seem to fear God more than Jonah. Apparently they knew that he was fleeing from “his god”, but didn’t realize that that “god” was Yahweh. When they find this out, they are even more terrified of this than the storm.
1:12 Jonah tells them that the only way to calm the storm is to throw him in. They don’t want to, but what strikes me is that if he knew that this was the only solution, why didn’t he jump in?
1:13 Despite the best efforts of the sailors, the storm grew worse and worse (literally “walked towards the end” – it progressed on as if to kill them) God does not allow us to override His plan. He made the storm get enough worse with each thing they tried that they could not overpower it, yet didn’t make it strong enough to destroy them – He still had a plan for the sailors too. We often try to row against the storms sent by God, often believing that it is “just a storm” and not realizing that it is divinely ordained by God. Not all of these “storms” however are sent because we are out of God’s will. Some are sent to strengthen us or to glorify Him in some other way. They are all sent by a God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving. Part of His love is that He loves us too much to allow us to remain the same. Also note that Jonah, knowing God, knew that it was fruitless to try to overpower Him, yet he still doesn’t jump!
1:14 The sailors cry out to the Lord now. The word literally means “to shriek from anguish or danger.” I believe that they felt both in this case. Above the storm they shriek to God out of fear for their lives and fear of retribution for the death of Jonah, as well as anguish over the thought of taking a human life. They show how even in people who did not know Yahweh the image of God, though marred, still existed. They realized that the shedding of innocent blood was wrong and deserved punishment and beg for mercy. This sense of justice is a remnant of the image of God that we still bear.
1:15-16 The sailors finally toss Jonah into the sea and it stops raging. The sailors become instant converts. In this we see one of the sub-plots in the master plan of God. God knew that Jonah would flee and thus ordained that he would be on this ship with these sailors so that his life (and apparent death) would preach a sermon to them on the superiority of Yahweh, the God of Israel. Our lives will glorify God, either by reflecting Him or by showing His attributes as He makes us what the Bible refers to as a “signpost and a byword.” That means that through our sin and punishment, we become a sign that points to Christ just as Jonah did here. A byword is when our name becomes synonymous with a colossal failure, which warns others against it. For instance, if you were about to flee God’s clearly revealed will, and someone said, “don’t pull a Jonah” you would know exactly what was meant. In this case, his name would be a byword.
C. Literary Features--What genre is it? What literary devices (e.g, metaphor) does it use?
D. Connections to the rest of book—what purpose does this pericope serve in the bigger picture of the book?
E. Connections to the rest of Scripture--How is it referenced or alluded to elsewhere?
Jesus Christ: The Redemptive-Historical Context
A. Where is Christ and the Gospel present in this passage?
Here we see Jonah as a type, or picture, of Christ. Although he was guilty, unlike Christ, he sacrificed his life to prevent the deaths of the sailors. He later spent three days in the belly of the great fish as Christ spent in the grave (Christ Himself made this comparison in Matthew 12:40.) He came out with a powerful message of repentance as Christ arose with proof of the validity of His message.
B. How does this passage point to Christ or depend on Christ? How does Christ fulfill this passage? How was it fulfilled already? How will it be fulfilled?
C. What does this passage tell us about God’s plan of redemption in Christ?
Current Context
A. What does this tell us about ourselves, our world, and the human condition?
B. What are some modern parallels to the original situation?
C. What is the call/command/invitation of this passage?
D. How does Christ & the Gospel in this passage enable us to see, think, and live differently?
Links/References/Bibliography
A. Representative sermons on the passage
B. Examples and Illustrations
C. Commentaries on this book
D. Articles on this book or passage
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