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Studies in the Book of Jonah
God’s Mercy, Mission, and Majestic Sovereignty
Man’s Misery and Selfishness
The Lord’s Great Pursuit
By Gustavo Barros
Text: Jonah 1:4-6 4 But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on
the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his
god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone
down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and
said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a
thought to us, that we may not perish.”
Outline:
I – The Lord’s Great Wind (v. 4)
II – The Sailors’ Great Desperation (v. 5)
III - Jonah’s Great Sleep (v. 5c)
IV – The Lord’s Great Awakening (v. 6)
Context:
Structure of verse 3:
A - Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD/Yahweh
B - He went down (descended) to Joppa
X – He found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid its hire
B’ – He went down (descended) into it
A’ - to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD/Yahweh
In our last study in verse 3 we saw that Jonah’s action was shocking in view
of his ministry and in comparison with the other prophets. Jonah broke the biblical
pattern of hearing and obeying the Word of the Lord. The Lord had called him to rise
and go to Nineveh (east) and call the Ninevites to repentance (v. 2), but Jonah arose
resolved to go to Tarshish (west). The son of Amittai (faithfulness) showed himself to be
in reality the “son of disobedience.” He was eager to speak about God’s grace and favor
to his own nation, but when the Lord called him to leave the comfort of his home and
go to a sinful and threatening nation to bring the good news of forgiveness through
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faith and repentance, Jonah refused to obey the Lord. Jonah has left an evil legacy that
many of us are prone to follow after, the legacy of hiding ourselves and ignoring God
when He calls us to do things contrary to our own selfish desires and aspirations.
His blunt defiance is emphasized by the repetition of the word “Tarshish” in
verse 3. The escape to Tarshish is, in reality, an attempt to escape the calling of the Lord.
Jonah is planning on going to Tarshish in order to stay away from the revealed presence
of Yahweh in Israel. He believes that in Tarshish he will not hear the word of the Lord
and the calling to go to Nineveh. Maybe the Lord will forget about him and the
Assyrians all together.
Another important word in verse 3 is the verb “to go down,” the escape to
Tarshish is in reality a descent in Jonah’s spiritual life. Disobedience will always drive
us away from the gracious presence of the Lord. Defiance is the shovel that we use to
dig our own spiritual grave.
Verse 3 ended with the appearance that everything is working out great for
Jonah. No hindrances or obstacles! The circumstances seem to show God’s favor and
permission in relation to his change of plans. The verse ended raising an important
question: Will Jonah be able to simply run away from God’s calling and mission
without consequences?
Starting in verse 4 we see the beauty of the Gospel as the Lord starts to move
His hand to pursue Jonah and cause him to accomplish His plan of redemption.
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I – The Lord’s Great Wind (v. 4)
4 But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the
ship threatened to break up.
v. 4 But
the Lord --- In Hebrew syntax the usual order is verb-subject-object, but here the
sentence is modified by having the subject first in order to shift the focus from the
activity (verb) to the person (Yahweh)1. The author wants us to notice that the spotlight
is on Yahweh. He is the main actor in this scene. Youngblood writes, “The construction
shifts attention abruptly from Jonah’s action to YHWH’s action, indicating an escalation of
tension between the two characters.2” Jonah thought that by hiring the ship and moving to
Tarshish he would be able to break up his relationship with the Lord. But instead of
saying “good-bye” to his relationship he is about to enter into a whole new level of
relationship with the Lord.
God’s purposes are never thwarted or manipulated because of our selfish
actions and “tantrums.” He is an inescapable God!
But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea --- The great wind is a powerful storm
that will have a domino effect. Throughout Scriptures the wind is often used by the
Lord as a weapon to protect His people and to reprehend Israel (Ex. 15:10; Ps 48:7;
Ezekiel 13:11-13; Hos 13:15). Jeremiah 23 might shed some light on the story of Jonah:
Jeremiah 23:18-22 For who among them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and to hear
his word, or who has paid attention to his word and obeyed it? 19 Behold, the storm of the
LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked. 20
The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of
his heart. In the latter days you will understand it clearly. 21 “I did not send the prophets, yet
they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. 22 But if they had stood in my council,
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2
See Lessing, p. 99.
Youngblood, p. 60.
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then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them
from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.
Jeremiah speaks of the wrath of the Lord directed towards the false prophets
of Judah. In verse 19 we see that the Lord promises to send a life-threatening storm
upon the disobedient prophets. Jonah is as culpable and guilty of refusing to speak
God’s clear revelation as those who speak a false revelation that has not come from
God.
Yahweh is pictured here as a warrior coming to battle in a gracious and
loving way against Jonah’s defiance. The verb to hurl (Heb. ‫ )טּול‬is sometimes used for
the throwing of a javelin (1 Sam 18:11; 20:33). The Lord is using the wind as His weapon
to chasten Jonah. Yahweh is angry and He will fight for His cause! His arrow is the
wind and He never misses the target!
It is hopeless to have a God who doesn’t care about defiance and sin. It is a
glorious hope to be certain that the Lord will be engaged in chastening the disobedient.
He is not an inactive and sleepy God, and this is our hope!
This great wind hurled by the Lord is setting in motion a chain of events (it
has a domino effect) that will change history. The throwing of this great wind will result
in the throwing of all the cargo overboard and finally the throwing of Jonah into the sea.
Let us behold the majestic power and sovereignty of our Lord! The wind and
the ocean are not controlled by chance or by “mother nature.” No, the Lord God, creator
of heaven and earth, is the one in charge of the weather, the winds and the sea – Psalm
77:16-19 When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; indeed,
the deep trembled. 17 The clouds poured out water; the skies gave forth thunder; your arrows
flashed on every side. 18 The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings
lighted up the world; the earth trembled and shook.
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The Lord does not operate miracles and work wonders for no purpose. His
works are directed to the manifestation of His glory in the revelation of His name. The
“throwing” of the wind has a specific purpose and this purpose is to have His name
magnified!
The Lord is on a restless pursuit after Jonah and the Ninevites. He will use
whatever it takes to accomplish His plans.
and there was a mighty tempest on the sea --- From heaven to the sea. The wind hurled
by the Lord created a mighty tempest on the sea. We can only picture the violence of the
waves as they crushed against the powerful ship of Tarshish.
The wind and the tempest on the sea are the results of a man’s disobedience. Under
God’s mighty and active involvement and providence, man’s disobedience affects
creation. As Lessing puts, “God has woven into his creation a moral fabric that results in
reciprocal relationship between human morality and natural consequences.3”
so that the ship threatened to break up --- There are 2 important grammatical devices
here: 1) prosopopoeia – when we attribute human characteristics to objects (it
personalizes objects); 2) onomatopoeia – the use of words that sound like their meaning
(here, the boards of the ship breaking because of the pounding of the waves - ḥiš-šə-vāh
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Lessing, p. 118.
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lə-hiš-šā-vêr)4. In the Hebrew it literally says, “The ship considered itself to be broken.” The
verb ‫( ָשַׁשב‬chashab) literally means to calculate or think. It is never used for an inanimate
object in the OT, only here. The personification of objects is to bring irony5. The ship is
more thoughtful and responsive than Jonah. While the ship considers itself to be falling
apart by the crash of the waves sent by Yahweh, Jonah doesn’t have any consideration
about the Lord’s calling.
Verse 4 ends with Jonah’s attempt to go his own way and take control of his
own life in total disaster. If verse 3 painted for us an autonomous and self-sufficient
Jonah, here in verse 4 we see that there is only One who is autonomous and selfsufficient, the Lord. Jonah thought that the wind, the sea, and the ship would be helpful
in his escape, but little did he know that the wind, the sea, and the ship were on God’s
side. In His mercy and grace the Lord doesn’t leave us alone in our selfishness and
disobedience! The pursuit of Jonah has only started.
II – The Sailors’ Great Desperation (v. 5)
5 Then the sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the
ship into the sea to lighten it for them.
v.5 Then
the sailors were afraid --- One of the worst flight experiences I have ever had
was on a trip to Brazil, when we were flying over the Amazon jungle and the airplane
went through severe turbulence. I remember looking at the flight attendants and seeing
the fear in their faces and that was when my fear started to increase. The sailors in the
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Lessing, p. 117 and Youngblood, pp. 72-73.
In Leviticus 18:25 we are told that the land would vomit the nation.
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story of Jonah were, probably, very experienced mariners and they had been through
many storms before, but they had never been in a storm like this one.
It was a terrifying scene, all those men in great despair, trying to find a way to
survive in that storm. We can picture the fear of those men as they saw the ship
breaking apart.
It is crucial to notice that this fear of the storm and death will change to the
fear and reverence of the Lord as they receive the revelation of Yahweh (1:16).
The fear of death now leads these men to two important steps: 1) They cry out
to their gods; and 2) They throw the cargo into the sea.
1) and each [sailor] cried out to his god --- Here we behold the religious instinct that is
inside of every person. God created man to have a relationship with Him, but because
of sin this relational aspect has been utterly affected and perverted. Man, in order to
satisfy this religious instinct, seeks false gods (gods created by sinful minds) instead of
the true and living God.
The Pantheistic Panic: These sailors were polytheistic, they believed in many
different gods. Each man cried out to his god for help. But we know that false gods are
not gods at all. Their gods could not help them because those gods were not gods. They
were simply the creation of other men.
Jeremiah 16:20 Can man make for himself gods? Such are not gods! I Cor. 8:4 Therefore, as to
the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there
is no God but one.”
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The picture of each man crying out to his own god is a chaotic picture. If their
gods were alive and true, how chaotic it would be if each god decided to act. We would
have a collision of attempts to rescue each sailor by the different gods.
As we look around us we see the same thing, people holding strong to their
own gods, expecting the god of money, the god of state, the god of family, the god of
status and title to rescue them. May our hearts break for these people!
2 Important Aspects About the “Praying” Sailors:
1 – Prayer apart from faith in the true and living God has no effect. The
prayers of those who do not believe and fear the Lord are not heard and accepted by
God. We live in a time when many Christians believe that God is hearing the prayers of
the Hindus, Buddhists, Mormons, Roman Catholics, and other unbelievers, but the
Bible is clear that prayer without true faith in God is not acceptable to Him.
Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden
His face from you, So that He will not hear; Isaiah 1:15 even though you make many prayers, I
will not listen, your hands are full of blood; James 1:6-7 But let him ask in faith, with no
doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not
that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; I Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the
Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is
against those who do evil.
If even the prayers of true believers are not always heard because of selfish motivations
and unresolved conflicts6, how much less will God hear the prayers of those who were
never born of the Spirit!
2 – These sailors resemble many Christians who prioritize prayer only when
the “ship of life” is sinking in the middle of a storm. So many of us despise times of
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1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as
the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
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prayers and only when a crises comes do we fall on our knees and pray, and like the
sailors, the prayers in times of crises are often selfish and self-centered.
The only reason why these sailors cried out to their gods is because they were scared of
dying and they wanted personal deliverance, and in like manner, many Christians only
pray in order to ask for personal security and comfort when things are becoming
uncomfortable.
Prayer has become an emergency button that we press when feel our comfort
being taken away. Instead of seeing prayer as a time of daily worship, many see prayer
as a way to achieve personal desires. So, let us not be like these sailors! Let us glorify the
Lord daily with our prayers.
2 ) And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them --The second action of desperation is the throwing of the cargo into the sea. The fear of
dying in the storm caused them to throw the cargo into the sea. The word for cargo here
refers to containers of various sorts – it could be their own belongings and some
supplies of food, water, and clothes.
The Hebrew here could mean that the sailors were either trying to make the
ship lighter so that they could reach a safe shore faster or that by throwing the cargo
into the sea they were trying to appease the sea – that is the gods of the sea. Many
Phoenicians believed that Yamm was the god of the sea and chaos. They believed that
someone might have offended Yamm and by throwing the cargo into the waters, they
would appease his wrath.
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Here we see that these men are so deeply enslaved by the fear of death that
they are willing to do whatever it takes to survive. The fear of death is described in the
Bible as a powerful master that controls the lives of those who have not been saved by
Christ:
Hebrews 2:14-15 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise
partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of
death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to
lifelong slavery.
The hope of these sailors is in the proclamation of the Gospel. The hope of these men,
just like the hope of all sinners, is in the preaching of the good news that God has
destroyed the power of death through the death of Jesus Christ. The fear of death can
only be exchanged by the fear of God when the Word of the Lord is proclaimed. But
where is the man who could proclaim the good news to these fearful and lost sailors?
Where is the man who knows the Gospel and has experienced its power?
III – Jonah’s Great Sleep (v. 5c)
5c But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.
The man who could deliver these men from the fear of death is sleeping!
As Lessing writes, “On deck the sailors move from inner emotion to outward cry to vigorous
action; deck bellow Jonah moves from action to inaction to total withdrawal. As they increase, he
decreases.7”
v. 5c But
Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship --- Once again we are told
that Jonah “went down,” showing us that his attempt to flee from the Lord’s calling is
7
Lessing, p. 120.
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nothing more than spiritual suicidal. He is not only descending physically, Jonah’s
spiritual life is declining more and more.
into the inner part of the ship --- Jonah has gone as low as he can. He is in the “bowels”
of the ship. He is the farthest he can possibly be from Nineveh and Israel.
But Jonah…had lain down and was fast asleep --- The description of Jonah sleeping
brings a sharp contrast between the other characters on deck above and the indifferent
prophet sleeping below. The Lord is active, the wind is active, the water is active, the
ship is active, the sailors are active, but Jonah is completely inactive.
How could Jonah be sound asleep? Jonah was not only tired from the long
journey from his hometown to Joppa, but he was also tired from his wrestling with the
Lord’s calling. It was probably emotionally exhausting for him to walk away from his
calling and prosperous home. The Hebrew word for “fast asleep” speaks of a profound
sleep, the same sleep that fell upon Adam when God created Eve. Jonah is completely
“out.” This is a tragic scene. While the sailors were desperately trying to save their lives
because of Jonah’s sin, Jonah was completely inactive. This story shows us once again
that a man’s sin has a profound effect and repercussion upon the lives of many people.
The more we walk in sin, the more spiritually lethargic and apathetic we become. This
spiritual apathy and laziness leads us to ignore the effects of our sins upon others.
As we look at the sleep of Jonah we are reminded that “it is not unusual for
people in profound states of denial to seek out extreme ways of dealing with their situation.
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Sleep, alcohol, sex, and drugs offer escape and release from the implication of reality.” Jonah,
likewise, is trying to escape the reality of God’s calling upon his life. This sleep here is
very different from the sleep of the righteous. Jonah is not sleeping in a profound way
because his conscience is clear and he is resting from his hard labor serving the Lord.
His sleep is, in reality, an attempt to escape reality. Contrast Jonah’s sleep with Jesus’
sleep during the storm (Mark 4:35-41)! Jonah is sleeping because he doesn’t care about
people. Jesus was sleeping because He cared so much about people that He spent His
entire life serving and that is why He was sleeping, He was exhausted.
While people were perishing, Jonah was sleeping! This situation reflects much
of our Christianity today in America. While people are perishing, we are sleeping in the
comfort of our homes. While the world is desperately seeking false gods to rescue them
and comfort their lives, we are sleeping instead of praying and preaching!
We have been so tired of serving ourselves that the only thing we want to do
in the middle of the storm is to close our eyes and sleep, ignoring what is happening
around us. We have gone to the “inner part of the ship” – usually the comfort of our
homes and families – and have been ignoring the calling of the Lord, becoming more
and more insensitive. Oh, let us not be like Jonah!
IV – The Lord’s Great Awakening (v. 6)
6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god!
Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”
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v. 6 So
the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call
out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.” --Jonah who was not a man accustomed with the sea and ocean is sound asleep in the
midst of the worst storm that those men had ever experienced. The captain comes to
Jonah as the last resource. All their gods and efforts have failed, but the captain knows
that Jonah serves a different God, so he comes to him.
The account of the coming of the captain to awaken Jonah is filled with
ironies. The greatest irony is that the heathen captain is more concerned with the lives
of the people on the ship than Jonah himself.
What do you mean, you sleeper? --- Oh what a terrible nickname! The man who should
be known to be alert and discerning is called, “sleeper.” The NT calls us to be awake
and alert:
I Thessalonians 5:5-8 5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not
of the night or of the darkness. 6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep
awake and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are
drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the
breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
Arise, call out to your god! --- The command of the captain, “Arise and call!” echoes the
command of the Lord in v. 2.
v.2 Arise
(‫ …)קּום‬and call out (‫ )ָ םש‬against.
v.6 Arise
(‫)קּום‬, call out (‫ )ָ םש‬to your god
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The words spoken by the captain took Jonah back to when the Lord called him to go to
Nineveh. He probably realized that the Lord was speaking to him through the captain.
Youngblood writes, “Jonah woke up to the sound of the same two commands from which he
had been hiding. Jonah’s attempts to escape this call and ignore YHWH’s revelation were futile.
The commission haunted him even in the bowels of the ship’s hold.8”
The great captain of the ship is Yahweh! He is controlling all things.
Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish. --- Here is one of the
most beautiful declarations of the sovereignty of God. The only way for a person to
escape destruction is if the Lord “gives the sinner a thought.” The Hebrew word for “to
give a thought” literally means to shine. In the middle of that dark storm the captain
realizes that they desperately need the shinning face of Elohim, the Creator of heaven
and earth, to keep them from perishing.
We can hear the desperation of the captain when, under God’s providence, he
says, “Call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us” (ִ‫)ק הֱ ֹלָהש‬. His words
show that their only hope is the God of Jonah. And as the captain says, “perhaps,”
implying that it is all up to His sovereign grace! There is nothing we can do to gain His
grace.
Verse 6 ends with a pagan captain rebuking the prophet of the Lord. It is a
heart-breaking situation when, instead of the Word of the Lord, it is the world who is
rebuking and exhorting us. But even when He uses a pagan captain or a slave girl, like
8
Youngblood, p. 76.
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with Peter, the Lord is still being gracious to us in waking us up! How wonderful He is
to use anything He can to wake us up from our spiritual slumber.
Conclusion:
If I was the Lord, this would be the shortest book in the history of mankind.
Aren’t we all glad that I am not the Lord God?! The beauty of the Gospel is not only in
the fact that God offers salvation, but that He is a powerful savior. He does whatever it
takes to save those whom He has appointed to salvation.
As we behold this storm we see that the Lord was not simply rescuing Jonah
from his rebellion and defiance, He was “moving mountains” to save the Assyrians. His
grace is so huge that He was willing to rescue Jonah from his own sinful state in order
that some of His people in Assyria would be saved.
The Lord was willing to work through storms, oceans, a disobedient prophet,
and a whale to save the worst people in the world in those days. This great work was
pointing to a much greater work, the work of sending Christ to save sinners just like the
Assyrians.
The glory of the Gospel is that the Lord doesn’t leave us to ourselves. The
Great Shepherd is willing to do whatever it takes to rescue us from ourselves. If it is
needed, He will send a storm. And if the storm is needed, may the storm come! Do
whatever it takes, send whatever storm You desire oh Lord, but please do not leave us
in our defiance! And the good news is that He will never leave or forsake us. He will
preserve us and pursue us when we go astray.
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Resources:
Daniel C. Timmer, A Gracious and Compassionate God – Mission, salvation, and spirituality in the book of Jonah - NSBT (IVP).
Kevin J. Youngblood, Jonah – God’s Scandalous Mercy (Zondervan).
James M. Boyce, The Minor Prophets – Volume 1 – An Expositional Commentary (Baker).
R. Reed Lessing, Concordia Commentary - Jonah (Concordia Publishing House).
Thomas E. McComiskey, The Minor Prophets – An Exegetical and Expository Commentary (Baker).
Henry M. Morris, The Remarkable Journey of Jonah (Master Books Pub.).
Robert B. Chisholm, Interpreting the Minor Prophets (Zondervan).
Anthony Selvaggio, The Prophets Speak of Him – Encountering Jesus in the Minor Prophets (Evangelical Press).
John Walton, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary – Vol. 5 (Zondervan).
http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bcc/view.cgi?book=jon&chapter=001