Word of Salvation – Vol.48 No.26 – July 2003

 

Man Overboard

 

Sermon by Rev J Haverland on Jonah 1:4-16

Scripture Readings:  Mark 4:35-41; Acts 27:13-26, 33-38

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ...

Our text is about the Lord pursuing his runaway prophet and the purpose of the sermon is to describe how the Lord pursued Jonah in his disobedience and achieved His purposes.

There is a poem written by Francis Thompson called, "The Hound of Heaven". It is a poem about God. It describes the times we flee from the Lord, "Down the nights and down the days... down the arches of the years"; how we hide from him, "From those strong feet that followed after, followed after." God comes after us "with unhurrying chase, and unperturbed pace." God tracks us down. We can't get away from Him. We can't shake Him off the trail. He is the 'Hound of Heaven'.

The Lord had commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh, but he disobeyed the Lord and headed off in the opposite direction. He arrived at Joppa, found a ship, paid the fare, safely boarded, and now he was sailing for Tarshish - well away from Nineveh! He thought he had got rid of God. So far, so good!

But God was watching his runaway prophet. God might have said to him, "Not so fast, my friend." Verse four of chapter one introduces a striking contrast. The opening words can read, "But the Lord..." In verse three we read, "But Jonah ran away from the Lord..."; and then in verse 4 we read, "But the Lord sent a great wind on the sea..."

Moses warned the people of Israel, "Your sin will find you out" (Num 32:23). Jonah was about to discover that. He thought he was safe. He thought he had gotten away. He thought he had escaped trouble - but his troubles were only just beginning!

Let's see how God pursues Jonah and then we'll look at how Jonah responded and then at the sailors' response to all this.

1. GOD PURSUED JONAH through the storm

"The Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up" (vs 4). This was the Mediterranean Sea. About 800 years later the Apostle Paul would be caught in a similar storm on the same sea.

This is the sort of thing they don't tell you about in the travel brochures! You may have seen some adds for Club Med: Lovely beaches, bright sunshine, people sunbathing - a picture of relaxation and tranquillity. But not this trip. Jonah's Mediterranean cruise didn't turn out quite as he had planned. The Lord had other things in mind for His prophet.

Sometimes we see news footage or movies about violent storms out on the seas. We see boats that have broken loose from their moorings and then pounded against the rocks. We have seen pictures of ships caught in massive storms with great waves crashing over it.

The storm described here in the Bible was so violent that all these experienced sailors were afraid. They did what many people do in situations of crisis - they prayed: "each cried out to his own god". We don't know whether these men were usually religious or whether they were in the regular habit of praying. In a time of extreme need they looked for help outside of themselves. This was beyond them. So they called on their gods.

It is the same today. About ten months after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre, a New York columnist wrote describing two opposite responses to those attacks: "It made some people want to settle down, have children, look for a mate. Then it made others party harder and pursue sex with whomever they could find. In other words, it made some people live for the future and others live for the moment." (Press, July 27, 2002, B8).

We also know that in times of extreme need and of great crisis people often turn to the Lord; they pray to God; they turn from the creature to the Creator.

Serious storms in our lives have a way of focussing our minds. They strip us down to the bare essentials. We are forced to concentrate on what is of central importance. We have a new perspective on our lives. The things we have accumulated no longer seem so important. We can do without those. We can toss them overboard.

Richard III, on foot, in the midst of battle, had a new perspective on his reign. "My kingdom for a horse!" he cried. In the same way God uses circumstances in our lives to get our attention and to help us to re-evaluate where we are going.

God not only pursued Jonah through the storm but also through the sailors. Somehow the prophet had managed to sleep through this storm thus far. He didn't lie awake, tossing and turning from a guilty conscience, as we might have expected. No, he slept the sleep of a man who had persuaded himself that he was safe - a man self-deluded.

That is how the captain found him. Maybe the captain was looking for more cargo to toss overboard when he came across this passenger, sleeping soundly through it all. He was annoyed. Fancy sleeping at a time like this! "How can you sleep!? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish" (vs 6). At a time like this they needed all the prayers they could get. This was not a time for sleeping but for praying.

Jonah rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and followed the captain up onto the deck where the wind was howling through the rigging and the waves were crashing down on the boat. They found the sailors getting ready to cast lots.

This was all they could do. They had tried everything else. They had thrown their cargo overboard; they had prayed to their gods; now they turned to chance, to fate. They wanted to find out who was to blame for this situation. Who had brought this on them? Who was responsible for this calamity?

People do this today when they run out of options. They consult a horoscope, they turn to astrology, they try a fortune teller, they look at tarot cards - anything that might give them answers or guidance or solutions.

But we know that the only true and satisfying answer comes from the Lord. He is the One who guides our lives. He guides all events according to His plan and purpose, even all happenings that people might attribute to 'chance' or to 'luck'. Proverbs 16:16 says, "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord." God guides the path of a storm as well as the throw of a dice. The Lord used the superstitious actions of the sailors to point them to the cause of this crisis. "They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah" (vs 7).

God had caught up with him! The 'Hound of Heaven' had tracked him down. He was the focus of attention. He was in the hot seat.

Remember this in your own life. You cannot escape from God. You can't run away. God will come after you. Don't wait for some calamity to come before you confess your sins and turn back to the Lord. The writer of Hebrews warns us, "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God" (Heb 10:31). Look for the Lord before He comes looking for you. Isaiah urges us, "Seek the Lord while he may be found, call on him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon" (Is 55:6-7).

Now that they had isolated the cause of the trouble, they bombarded him with questions. They asked him, "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?" (vs 8).

2. JONAH'S RESPONSE

Bear in mind that this wasn't a calm, relaxed discussion in the captain's cabin over a glass of port. No, they were shouting to each other over the shrieking wind in the midst of a raging storm!

"He answered, 'I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land'." (vs 9)

It is ironic that God used these pagan sailors to force Jonah to reflect on what he was doing, and to convict him of sin.

"I am a Hebrew" he said; from Israel; a member of God's covenant people; enjoying the privileges of the adoption as sons, the divine glory, the covenants, the law, the temple worship and the promises (Rom 9:4). Yet, here he was, running away from His covenant Lord.

"...and I worship the Lord." It must have hurt him to say that, because he wasn't really doing that. The captain had urged him to pray, but there is nothing to indicate that Jonah did so. It is very difficult to pray when you know that you are disobeying God and rebelling against Him. I'm sure you have experienced that. Paul could pray in the midst of his storm, but Jonah could not. He used the covenant name for the Lord - Yahweh - but in his present condition he could hardly claim to be worshipping Him.

Jonah went on: "...I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land" (vs 9). Here he describes who God is: The almighty Creator, the God of the heavens and the earth. Even as he said these words, he must have thought about how futile it was to run away from this God. Yet he was running away. There was nothing for it but to come clean and to admit what he was doing. He confessed his sin and acknowledged his wrong (vs 10b). Even these pagan, unbelieving sailors were horrified by his actions. "This terrified them and they asked, 'What have you done?!'"

During this conversation the sea was getting more and more violent. So they shouted; "What should we do to make the sea calm down for us?"

Jonah tells them they must throw him into the sea, assuring them that "it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you" (vs 12). Here we see him at his best. He was honest and straightforward. He doesn't try to justify himself or make excuses for his actions. He didn't try to strike a bargain with the Lord: "If you calm the storm and get me out of this mess I'll go straight to Nineveh and preach your message."

He also realised that confession of sin doesn't make everything okay. Sin has consequences. Wrongdoing must be paid for. "The wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23). He took the blame and was prepared for the consequences. In doing so he put his trust in the Lord. With Job, he could say, "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him" (Job 13:15). With David he could say, "Let him do to me whatever seems good to him" (2 Sam 15:26). Jonah put himself in the hands of God, prepared to accept the justice of the Lord. Yet he also trusted in the mercy of God, believing that if they threw him overboard, the Lord would calm the sea for them.

Before we look at what happened, let's go back and examine the:

3. RESPONSE OF THE SAILORS

When the storm first came up they were "afraid and each cried out to his own god" (vs 5). After Jonah had told them about his God they were even more terrified (vs 10). His words to them confirmed their worst fears. There was a god behind this storm - a god who was very angry - a powerful god of great wrath!

It's worth noting that this fear of God was generated by their circumstances, as well as the words of the prophet. If Jonah had come on board and said, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land", they would have said, "that's very interesting. Please make your way to your cabin - first stairway - lower level." In other circumstances they would have passed over his words, as many people do today, without much thought at all. His words about the Lord would have made little or no impression on them.

But not now! Not in these circumstances! Not in this storm! They were terrified! The Hebrew reads, "The men were terrified with great terror." They feared the God of heaven more than they feared the storm. Jonah had told them that he "worshipped" the Lord. The Hebrew word is "fear". But Jonah's fear of the Lord was tame and lame compared to the fear of these men!

Jonah had told them they had to throw him overboard to calm the storm. But they were not prepared to do this - maybe they thought Jonah's God did not want him thrown overboard. They couldn't risk offending Him more than he was already offended. So they tried to row to land.

But the sea grew even more stormy and the waves were bigger and the wind grew even stronger. There was nothing more they could do; so they prayed that the Lord might forgive them for taking this man's life and not hold innocent blood against them. They had thrown the cargo overboard to no avail; now they took the prophet and threw him into the surging waters: "...and the raging sea grew calm" (vs 15). The wind died down. The waves became still. There was peace and quiet once again.

Again their reaction was one of great fear. The Hebrew reads, "The men feared the Lord with a great fear." This God was all-powerful. He was almighty. He was the God of heaven. He did control the sea and the land.

The disciples had the same reaction when Jesus calmed the wild storm on the Sea of Galilee. "Quiet! be still! said Jesus. The disciples "were terrified and asked each other, 'Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him'." (Mark 4:41). This was Jesus, the Lord, the Son of God, the eternal and almighty God; the one to be worshipped and honoured and praised.

Through this the Lord taught these pagan sailors that He was all-powerful. As far as they knew, Jonah had drowned, but they were spared. Jonah had died, but they were allowed to live. They responded to this Lord by offering a sacrifice and making vows to the Lord.

This is how the psalmist put it: "How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfil my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people" (Psalm 116:12-14).

This all-powerful God pursued this disobedient prophet across the seas and brought him to a confession of sin. He brought these pagan sailors to a recognition of His might and majesty and power.

He is still the God of heaven today. He is the 'Hound of Heaven'. He will pursue you in your sin - in your life. He won't leave you alone. "Down the nights and down the days... down the arches of the years"; you cannot escape "From those strong feet that followed after, followed after... with unhurrying chase, and unperturbed pace, deliberate speed, majestic instancy."

He will bring us to a recognition of His power.

He will be glorified in and through all that happens in our lives.

To him be all praise and honour and glory.

Amen.