Jonah 1:4-6 But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken, etc. "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!" God is never at a loss for means of conquering opposition and bringing erring men to their senses - he arrests Balaam by means of a sword, David through a parable, Peter by a look, the Philippian jailor by an earthquake, Jonah by a storm. All nature is at his command. "The whole world lull of invisible couriers, robed and ready for their service." I. THE STORM SENT OUT BY GOD. Connection between the physical and moral world is so adjusted that the former accomplishes purposes of moral government. Storms in a sense are results of fixed law, yet instruments of Divine will - "stormy wind fulfilling his word" (Psalm 148:8) refitted to show men their helplessness and dependence - to reprove them for rebelling against him whose their breath is, and whose are all their ways. Many things else have same purpose - illness, frustration of plans, etc. "In the day of adversity, consider." Sin often causes storms - "in one's heart, in families, in Churches, in towns, and in nations (James 4:1)" (Jones). The storm was adjusted so as to answer precisely the purpose of God. The ship was not actually broken, but like to be broken - literally, "thought to be broken" - vivid image, as if creaks and groans were those of a living thing, as if the ship itself dreaded destruction. II. CONDUCT OF THE MARINERS. "Then the mariners were afraid." Mariners usually an intrepid race - "a stiffer kind of men than most are" - are now afraid. Fear drives to prayer. In a storm the forces against man are overwhelming; in such a case fear becomes inevitable, and prayer an instinct. "No man," it has been said, "was ever an atheist in a shipwreck." Herein is testimony to the existence of God - man in conscious helplessness invokes a higher Power. The mariners took a double course - they both prayed and used the means available for the safety of the ship. 1. They cried every man to his god. Ignorance and superstition may mingle with more genuine feelings. "I think we have no ground for uttering one word of reproach or blame against these men. They would contrast but too favourably with many a ship's crew that sails out of London or Liverpool. These poor heathen men prayed to their gods. Many a British sailor only swears and curses by his. They did what they could. They were true to the best instincts of the human mind" (Raleigh). The prayer of fear is not necessarily the prayer of faith; fear may be the beginning of a godly life, but is not its essence; love is the essence of true religion and of true communion with God; "perfect love casteth out fear." If fear sets us at first to pray for ourselves, our families, our Church, our country, it must advance to something higher. 2. "They cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them." How worthless are all earthly possessions in comparison of life! "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath, he will give for his life;" "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own life?" There are moments when utter worthlessness of all earthly things irresistibly flashes even on the worldly mind. Would that men thought oftener of this! Contrast the security of the Christian treasure - immovability of the Christian hope. III. CONDUCT OF JONAH. "But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep." Apparently he avoided prayer when the mariners took to it - he could not pray. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me;" "Your sins have separated between you and your God." A guilty conscience makes prayer impossible, till a breakdown takes place, and contrition bursts out. Note the misery of Jonah - he cannot bear to see the men praying while he himself cannot pray - he goes down to the sides of the ship. "The most wretched man in the world is the man who is afflicted, and cannot pray." He was fast asleep. This was not unnatural - he had been under a great strain; now comes a recoil. Sisera slept in the tent of Jael - the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane. Jonah's sleep was not a sign of insensibility, but a proof of the terrible constraint under which he had been acting. He had utterly exhausted himself in his struggle with God, and the very storm cannot keep him awake. Yet surely this was a strange sight - the heathen mariners praying, and the servant of God sleeping. This, indeed, was typical of the purpose for which God had sent him to Nineveh, viz. that the repentance of Nineveh might be a reproof to Israel; so the prayers of these heathen were a reproof to Jonah - he was provoked to jealousy by them that were not God's people. Sometimes the Church is rebuked by the world; at least a contrast to the crooked ways, cross temper, and ungracious talk of professing Christians is sometimes found in the integrity, gentleness, and charity of some who make no profession. Earnestness of heathen in their religious observances is often a reproof to Christians. "Why should the Church allow the world to bear away the palm in reference to any one element of excellence whatsoever - candour, courtesy, charity, kindliness, large-mindedness, liberality, self-denial, any virtue whatsoever? Why should there be one single department of what is good - good in any sphere, moral, physical, social, scientific, concerning which the world can with any show of fairness profess to school the Church, or say, Stand aside, for we are more at home here than you?" (Martin). IV. CONDUCT OF THE SHIPMASTER. The absence of Jonah in time of prayer had arrested attention, and was felt to be strange and unseemly. Even the world expects Christians to do their duty. Shipmaster reproves him sharply, cries aloud against him, "What meanest thou, O sleeper?" for his sleep was not the sleep that God gives to his beloved. A rebuke often applicable still to many other classes to all at ease in Zion, to neglecters of the great salvation, to open transgressors, to worldlings, to forgetters of God, to those who think not of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come! "Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not." Jonah is called to prayer - earnest prayer; he must "arise" - a recumbent attitude not suitable for such prayer - rather the attitude of Jacob wrestling at Peniel. A reason is given why Jonah should pray, but a hesitating reason, "if so be" - if there be even a chance of prayer prevailing; this is very different from the full assurance of faith. Faith knows that God will hear, and that he ever thinks upon his own, and that they cannot perish, in the deepest sense of the word. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and they shall never perish." The name and work of Christ, unknown to this mariner, give confidence in prayer. The heathen mariner is here the preacher to the prophet, not the prophet to the mariner. "Let us listen to his awakening call. These words of his have aroused many a sleeper besides Jonah Hear them, sleeping soul, today. What meanest thou, O sleeper? - sleeping here in this great battlefield, where souls are lost and won? In this vineyard of noblest work, where God-given talents are doubled or forfeited forever? In this treacherous sea of life, girt round with storms which might so easily break the strongest ships that float? What meanest thou? - sleeping now, with noonday lights above thee, and about thee men who strive and men who pray?... While the gates of heaven and hell stand open, the murky shadows of the one gathering in deeper folds, the joy bells of the other waiting to peal?" (Raleigh). Oh the unreasonableness of spiritual sleep - sleep of unbelief - sleep of backsliding! "Now it is high time to awake out of sleep" (Romans 13:11). - W.G.B. Parallel Verses KJV: But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. |
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