Jonah 1:5 - Sleeping Amid the Tempest

5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god; and they threw the wares that were 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 upon your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we do not perish."

It is when fear comes that men call out to God. When the God of all creation shakes their world they know that they should fear, but not Whom they should fear. The gods to whom these sailors cried out were simply wood or stone idols. Of course the powers behind them were demonic - as are the powers behind all false religion.

This proves that they did not know God. Stressful times will always show who has true faith in the One True God. Stressful times will uncover in us what has been there all along. They will bare our true hearts and cast us upon He Who is true for grace. But the heathen do not know Him. This shows their pitiable condition and reminds us of our own state, apart from God’s grace. All (manner of) men are consigned to disobedience that God may have mercy upon all. {Ro 11:32} (Context - not upon all men universally and individually, but upon some men of all backgrounds)

See how the things we busy ourselves with and which we hold dear – our real idols – become unimportant when matters are at the ultimate head. How many of the heathen will wish they had laid up for themselves treasure in heaven in the day that they must step into eternity and face God? Yet how much may this also be said of professing Christians? How many are as caught up in the world and worldly pursuits as those who never knew Christ at all? How many are there who are indistinguishable from the world where they ought to be light and salt in it? Jesus reminded us that by their fruits we should know them. {Mt 7:20}

But what are we to make of this Jonah who is fast asleep? It cannot be from a clear conscience because he is fleeing from God in open disobedience. This shows the way that the carnal mind works. When we disobey, not only do we act illogically but we shut out thoughts that might lead us to face our sin. It is easier to sleep through a tempest than to listen to conscience or the Holy Spirit’s conviction of that conscience. In fact, it is a sign of the hardness of our hearts when we sin that we would rather “sleep” than come to God with humble repentance. Indeed, what a symbol of ourselves and our sin we see in one who slumbers amidst the raging seas. Spiritually we doze, while all around is wrath and chaos and immortal souls in peril.

God holds out His arms all day long towards us, but so often we will not come. We have but to turn and see Him – to return from the pig swill of our own choices – and He is eager to kill the fatted calf and welcome us back with joy and celebration. But so often we will not come. God gives us the illustration of the Prodigal Son to encourage us, but it is really He Who seeks and hunts and brings us back to Him by bringing us to eventual repentance. We shall see this in the story of Jonah, for we shall see that through the means of raising a great storm, and through the means of the superstitions and concerns of heathen sailors, and through the convicting power of His Word, Jonah was brought to a repentance he would otherwise never have reached by himself.

This is a vital and important lesson for Christians. Like Jonah we have a duty to repent and obey but, also like Jonah, we will never do so without the guiding, caring, chastening, loving, omnipotent intervention of God, according to His predeterminate will. His rod and His staff, they comfort us. We must not be fooled into thinking that we repent because we are such humble and right-thinking people in our own right. We aren’t! We are sinners justified by grace and being sanctified by that same grace.

See the captain of the ship acting in accordance with his own dark lost, carnal thoughts - but those very actions are working towards God’s purposes for Jonah and for Nineveh. The intentions of the crew are purely out of darkness and self, but God makes their darkness and self-directedness serve the light. A book could be written about all that God is accomplishing in this one single incident. Yet we serve a God Who makes all things from the beginning of time to the end – Alpha to Omega – serve His eternal will, and bring about His predetermined ends. From the vibration of the smallest atom in the farthest reaches of the universe, to the rise and fall of Kings and countries, to the salvation of every one of His sheep, God is God.