Christchurch Parish News, August 2016
The end of Chapter 1 of Jonah and the change in the sailors’ worldview before and after throwing Jonah into the sea.
Last month we examined the sailors’ surprising response to Jonah giving them his permission to throw him overboard in order to calm storm. As you’ll recall, instead of throwing him overboard straight away, they chose to row as hard as they could to bring the ship back to land and thereby save Jonah from his impending watery grave, ‘but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them’. This month we’re going to look at what happens immediately afterwards.
At each stage of the plot, as I pointed out last month, it’s important to remember that the original audience of the story of Jonah would have been the Israelites, the people of God. On hearing the beginning of the narrative, they would have most easily identified with Jonah himself, for he is depicted as a prophet of the God of Israel. But, as we have seen, Jonah’s response to the call of the LORD, namely to go to Nineveh and preach a message of repentance to the Ninevites, has not exactly been marked by willing obedience. Instead he’s doing everything he can to avoid fulfilling this commission. This has led him to board this ship heading for Tarshish, which is as far away as possible from Nineveh as he can hope to get. But now he and the sailors find themselves caught up in this almighty storm that threatens to sink the ship.
Remember, too, that when we first met the sailors in the story, they were described as each worshipping their own god. The sharp contrast with Jonah/Israel, called to worship and serve the LORD, deliberate. That’s why what happens next is so important. In spite of all their hard rowing as they attempt to bring the ship back to land, the sailors are failing. They just can’t do it. The storm is too great. ‘Then they cried out to the LORD, “Please, O LORD, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.”’
The first thing to note here is whom they are now addressing their prayers. Gone is each sailor praying to his own god. Instead, now they are all addressing the LORD, the God of Israel. In other words, they are acknowledging the LORD’s sovereignty over their situation. No point messing about praying to this or that god. Instead, pray to the One who is really in charge and on whom, they have now come to see, their lives depend.
Step back for a minute. On the one hand, you have Jonah, who represents the Israelites, doing everything he can not to obey the LORD. On the other hand you have the sailors, who at this stage of the story function as the representatives of everyone other than the people of God, by contrast immediately acknowledging the LORD as sovereign and re-ordering their hearts and minds accordingly.
Imagine yourself as an Israelite hearing this. This story would bring you up short. You’d think something along the lines of, ‘This is a strange story. I’m on Jonah’s side, because he’s a God-fearing Israelite. But the ones who are actually fearing the God of Israel and who are addressing Him as sovereign and are praying to Him are these foreigners, these people who aren’t even the people of God. What’s going on? What’s the point of this story?’ And as we’ll see, such thoughts wouldn’t go away for exactly the same thing happens in precisely the same way in the second half of the story: when Jonah finally reaches Nineveh, the Ninevites full-heartedly respond to his terse message and turn to the LORD without hesitation. With that in mind, what we can say is this: in this story, everybody who isn’t a member of the people of God responds to the LORD positively and changes direction in their lives (in other words, they repent). The only one who doesn’t is Jonah…
Not only do the sailors address the LORD but they also recognise that the LORD may well hold them guilty for what they are about to do to Jonah. They realise that they need to stay on the right side of the LORD, that there’s no messing with him. They are praying that they’re not making a huge mistake by throwing Jonah overboard to his certain death, given the storm that’s raging. They recognise that everything falls under the LORD’s sovereignty, ‘for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.’ And with that, they pick Jonah up and throw him into the sea.
‘And the sea ceased from its raging.’ Straight away, the storm stops. The LORD is sovereign over all creation (and we see this same attribute being accorded to Jesus in the gospels, when he stills the storms, thereby clearly signalling that the identity of Jesus is understood as being the same as that of the God of Israel). Jonah has been thrown overboard and the storm stops. ‘Then the men feared the LORD even more’. I bet they did! You can imagine that there would have been a strong element of doubt in their minds as they picked up their passenger and threw him overboard, which is why they prayed to the LORD, ‘Do not make us guilty of innocent blood’ – this may not be the right thing we’re doing here, LORD, so please don’t hold us responsible if we’ve got it all horribly wrong.’ But once they’ve thrown Jonah overboard and the storm ceases immediately, they know they haven’t got it wrong and the LORD is the LORD! So what do they then do? They do what any righteous, LORD-fearing Israelite would have done (and remember again that these sailors are notpart of the people of God), namely they offer a sacrifice to the LORD and make vows. No point offering sacrifices to any old god for getting them out of that tight scrape. Henceforth, for these sailors, such is the implication of the story, there is but one God, ruler of all creation, the LORD, the God of Israel, and it is to this God that the sailors make their vows. They have turned. They have repented. And their role in this first half of the story is at an end.
But what about Jonah? Thrown overboard, in the middle of the Mediterranean sea, the ship that was taking him to Tarshish disappearing over the horizon, smoke from the sacrifice the sailors have made on deck spiralling up to the heavens. Miles from land, exhaustedly treading water, Jonah’s remembering the words of the LORD. ‘Go at once to Nineveh…’ Choking on the sea water. ‘…that great city…’ His body numb with cold. ‘… and cry out against it…’ Losing consciousness. ‘… for their wickedness…’ Slipping under the water. ‘… has come up before me…’ And down he goes, disappearing under the waves. Going down, down, down… Left for dead.
But not by God.