Jonah 1:4 - Meaning and Application

When Jonah boarded the ship and set sail for Tarshish, he probably thought he was safe. But here we see that God pursued him, overtook him, and exposed him as a deserter from his duty. He had run from God, and now God sent after him with judgment.

God sent a great storm on the sea, as Jonah 1:4 says. God has the winds stored up in his treasury (Psalm 135:7), and he let one loose, with force and power, into the sea. Stormy winds carry out his word, and they often serve as messengers of his anger. He gathers the winds in his fist (Proverbs 30:4), holding them back or sending them out whenever he wills. To us, the wind blows wherever it wants, but to God it goes where he directs.

The result was a violent tempest. When the winds rise, the waves rise too. Sin brings storms into the soul, into homes, into churches, and into nations. It is a troubling and disturbing thing. The storm became so severe that the ship seemed ready to break apart. Some understand the phrase to mean that this ship, and no other, was in such danger. Other ships were on the same sea, but it seems that the one carrying Jonah was tossed more than the rest. This wind was sent after Jonah to bring him back to God and back to his duty. It is a great mercy to be called home when we wander, even if the way home is through a storm.

The ship’s crew were alarmed by the storm, but Jonah, the man most involved, was unconcerned, Jonah 1:5. The sailors were shaken by the danger, though God’s quarrel was not with them. First, they were afraid. They were used to dangerous weather, so they usually did not panic. But now even the strongest and oldest among them began to tremble, because this storm rose so suddenly and raged so fiercely. God can strike fear into the boldest people and make even commanders and captains look for shelter.

Then each man cried out to his own god. Fear drove them to prayer. Many people will not pray until trouble frightens them into it. If a person wants to learn how to pray, let him go to sea. In trouble, they sought the Lord. Each man prayed. They were not divided, with some praying and others cursing. All of them called out, because the danger touched them all. No single man prayed for the whole group; each one cried out for himself.

They cried to their own gods, meaning the gods of their country, city, or personal choice. This shows the truth against atheism, because each man believed there was a god. But it also shows the foolishness of pagan religion, because they had many gods, each person choosing the one he liked. Yet there can be only one true God. Still, although they had lost the clear truth that there is only one God, they kept the natural duty of praying to God. Should not a people seek their God? (Isaiah 8:19). And they should especially pray when they are in danger. Call on me in the day of trouble. If anyone is suffering, or afraid, let him pray.

Their prayers were joined with action. After calling on their gods for help, they did what they could to help themselves. They threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship, just as Paul’s sailors later did in a similar crisis, throwing out even the ship’s equipment and the wheat (Acts 27:18, Acts 27:19, Acts 27:38). They were on a trading voyage and had much merchandise on board, goods they hoped would bring them profit. But now they were willing to lose all that to save their lives.

See how strong the natural love of life is. People will give up almost anything to keep their bodies alive. How much more should we value spiritual life, the life of the soul? The gain of the whole world cannot make up for the loss of the soul. This also shows how empty worldly wealth is, and how uncertain it is. Riches can fly away like birds. In some cases, we may even have to drive them away ourselves, as these sailors did, because keeping them would only hurt us. They were glad to be rid of the cargo, even though they had no hope of getting it back. Oh that people would show the same wisdom for their souls, and be willing to part with wealth, pleasure, and honor if those things would keep them from faith and a good conscience and ruin their souls forever! Those who give up temporary things to secure their spiritual well-being will be rich at last. What they lose for that reason, they will find again in eternal life.

But where was Jonah during all this? We would expect him to be down in his cabin, or even in the hold, but he was asleep. Neither the noise outside nor the guilt inside woke him. Perhaps for a while he had been avoiding sleep because he feared God might speak to him in a dream again. Now that he thought he was out of reach, he slept all the more deeply. Sin has a dulling effect, and we must watch carefully so that our hearts are not hardened by its deceitfulness. Satan’s plan, once he has drawn people away from God and duty, is to lull them into careless security so they do not feel their danger. We all need to stay awake.

The ship’s captain then called Jonah to prayer, Jonah 1:6. The captain came to him and told him, in effect, to get up and pray for his life, and get ready for death too. He gave Jonah a fair and needed rebuke: “What do you mean, O sleeper?” We should respect the captain for this warning. Though he was a stranger to Jonah, he was, for the moment, part of the same crew. Anyone with a precious soul should be helped, as far as we can help, to escape death.

We also pity Jonah, because he needed such a rebuke. As a prophet of the Lord, if he had been faithful, he might have been reproving the king of Nineveh. But because he had left the path of duty, he was open to correction from a plain ship captain. See how sin and foolishness can lower a person and make him seem small. At the same time, we should admire God’s kindness in sending this timely rebuke, because it was the first step in Jonah’s recovery, as the rooster’s crow was for Peter. Those who sleep through a storm have every reason to be asked what they mean.

A useful word of advice follows: “Get up and call on your God. We are each crying to our own god, so why do you not rise and cry to yours? Are you not as concerned as the rest of us, both in the danger we fear and in the rescue we want?” The prayers of others should stir us to pray ourselves. And those who hope to share in one common mercy should do their part in the prayers that seek it.

In public trouble, if we have any access to God’s throne of grace, we should use it for the good of all. Even God’s own servants sometimes need to be called and urged to do this duty. The shipmaster gives a good reason for his advice: “If perhaps God will think on us, so that we do not die.” It seems these sailors thought of their many gods as only mediators, that is, go-betweens, between them and the highest God, who alone could truly help them.

To encourage prayer, he points to how great and urgent the danger is. “We are likely to perish,” he says, “there is only a short step between us and death.” Yet he also leaves room for hope. As long as there is life, there is hope. As long as there is hope, there is room for prayer. He also makes clear that only God can save them, by his power and his pity. If God thinks on them and acts for them, they may yet be rescued. So when danger is near, we must still look to him and trust him.

Jonah is then found to be the cause of the storm. The sailors noticed something so unusual in the storm, or in their own misery, that they believed it was a message of divine justice. They thought God was seizing one person on the ship because of some great sin. Like the people Paul met on Malta, who first thought he must be a murderer because of the viper (Acts 28:4), they reasoned that one of them must be guilty of some serious crime such as murder, sacrilege, or perjury. Even natural reason teaches that special judgments often point to special sins and sinners.

Whatever evil comes on us, we should conclude that there is a reason for it. Either we have done evil, or else this trouble would not be upon us. There is a cause for God’s dispute with us. So the sailors decided to cast lots to find out who had caused the storm. “Let us cast lots,” they said, “so we may know for whose sake this evil is upon us.” They did not first suspect themselves or say, “Is it I, Lord?” Instead, they looked at one another and wanted to identify the guilty man.

When trouble comes, it is a good thing to know why it has come, so what is wrong may be set right and the grief may be taken away. For that, we should look up to heaven and pray, “Lord, show me why you are contending with me. Teach me what I do not see.” The sailors wanted to find the man who was like a dead weight in the ship, the guilty thing that threatened all their lives. This would not only be useful, but just. So they cast lots, appealing to God’s judgment, since he sees all hearts and nothing is hidden from him.

They agreed to accept his decision and treat the lot’s result as true, because they knew, as Scripture also teaches, that “the lot is cast into the lap, but every decision is from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:33). Even the heathen treated casting lots as something sacred, to be done seriously, not as a game. It is a shame if Christians do not show the same respect when they appeal to Providence.

The lot fell on Jonah, who could have spared them this trouble if he had confessed what his conscience already told him, “You are the man.” But, as is often true with criminals, he did not confess until he could do nothing else. The lot landed on him. Others on the ship may have been greater sinners in some respects, but Jonah was the man the storm pursued. He was God’s own child and servant, and God disciplines his own when they go wrong, while leaving others to the law. The storm was sent after Jonah because God had work for him to do, and it was sent to bring him back to it.

God has many ways to bring hidden sins and sinners into the light and to expose the foolishness people thought was covered from everyone else. God’s right hand will find all who leave him, and all who plot against him, even if they flee to the farthest sea or go down to the deepest part of the ship.

Then Jonah is brought before the master and the sailors for questioning. He was a stranger to them, and none of them could claim they already knew him or had anything against him. So they had to draw out a confession from him and judge him by his own words. No torture was needed, because the fear of shipwreck was enough to make him speak the truth. Even though the lot had shown that he was the one whose sake they were in danger, they did not attack him wildly, as people might have expected. Instead, they calmly and gently asked about his case.

There is a kindness that should be shown to offenders when they are found out and proven guilty. They did not use harsh words. They simply said, “Tell us, we pray you, what this means.” They ask him two things. First, whether he would admit that he was indeed the one for whose sake the storm had come, as the lot had shown. “Tell us whose cause this evil is upon us. Is it truly because of you? And if so, for what reason? What is this offense that has brought you into such trouble?” Perhaps Jonah’s serious and proper manner made them wonder whether the lot had missed its mark, so they would not rely on it unless he himself confessed. Therefore they urged him to make the matter clear.

If we want to find the cause of our troubles, we must not stop with a first thought. We must keep searching, go into the details, and do a careful examination. Second, they ask about his identity, both his work and his country. They begin with his work: “What is your occupation?” This was a fitting question to ask a wandering man.

They may have suspected that Jonah’s calling was the kind that could bring trouble on them. “Are you a diviner, a sorcerer, someone who practices dark arts? Have you been working spells to cause this wind? Or where are you going now? Is this like Balaam, who tried to curse God’s people, and is this wind sent to stop you?”

They then asked about his country. One man asked, “Where do you come from?” Another did not wait for an answer and asked, “What is your country?” A third asked the same thing in different words, “What people are you from?” They may have meant, “Are you from the Chaldeans, who were known for divination, or the Arabians, who were known for stealing?” They wanted to know his homeland, so they could guess which god his people served and whether he might be able to help them in the storm.

Jonah answered them fully. When they asked about his country, he told them he was a Hebrew (Jonah 1:9), not only an Israelite by nation, but also one who belonged to the faith his fathers had received. He was a Hebrew, and that made his guilt even more shameful, because the sins of people who make a profession of religion and enjoy special privileges are more serious than the sins of others.

When they asked about his work, Jonah answered by speaking about his religion, because that was his true calling and business. “I fear the Lord Jehovah,” he said, meaning the God he worships and prays to, the God of heaven, the sovereign Lord over all, who made the sea and the dry land and rules both. He was not the god of one region, like the gods the sailors had been calling on, but the God of the whole earth. Since he made both sea and land, he does with them whatever he pleases.

Jonah said this not only to confess his own foolishness in fleeing from this God, but also to lead these sailors from their many gods to the one true God. When we are among people who do not know God, we should try to make him known to them. We can do that by being ready, whenever there is a chance, to own our relation to him and our reverence for him.

When they asked about his crime, Jonah admitted that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord. He was running from his duty, and the storm had been sent to bring him back. He likely said this with sorrow and shame, defending God and blaming himself. He was also showing the sailors how great Jehovah is, since he could send such a messenger as this storm after a runaway servant.

This made the sailors very afraid, and rightly so. They saw that God was angry, the same God who made the sea and the dry land. This storm came from offended justice, so they had good reason to fear what might happen to them. Judgments sent for a particular sin carry a special weight and terror.

They also saw that God was angry with a man who feared and worshiped him, only because he had run from a single duty. That made them fear for themselves. If a prophet of the Lord is punished so sharply for one offense, what will happen to them, with their many serious sins? If the righteous are saved only with difficulty, and are pursued so closely for one act of disobedience, where will the ungodly and sinner appear? (1 Peter 4:17, 18)

They said to Jonah, “Why have you done this? If you fear the God who made the sea and the dry land, why were you so foolish as to think you could run from his presence? What an unreasonable thing to do.” In this way he was rebuked, as Abraham was by Abimelech (Genesis 20:16). If people who profess religion do wrong, they should expect to hear about it from those who do not make that profession.

Their words may also mean, “Why have you done this to us? Why have you brought us into this danger?” Those who choose a willful sin do not know how far its harmful effects may spread, or how much damage it may do.