Jonah 1:7 - Casting Blame

7 And they said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.


The world has false understanding of why bad things happen. They start with the assumption that good things are their due, and that when the bad happens there must be a clear reason that can be attributed to its happening. But the Lord Jesus corrected this sort of error in the incident related in Lu 13:1-5:

There were some present at that very time who told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish."

The true picture of the world and of humanity is found in the truth that all are already under condemnation and therefore are already deserving of all the bad things that happen to them. It is not so much that any single event is always necessarily linked directly to any particular sin, but rather that we are evil, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

It cannot be stressed enough that all are already under condemnation. Many professing Christians have missed this point for some reason, along with the heathen. It is a source of amazement that Christians themselves fail to believe that everyone is already lost, and that they deserve to be under both the wrath and condemnation of God. Not only this, but God would be perfectly just in bringing humanity to an end without any further ado. Remember the flood? But some people still insist in various ways that the sufferings of others are justifed, while their own sufferings are not. Something or somebody other than themselves is to blame. Still others think that there are "good" people out there who don’t know God, but nevertheless don’t deserve to suffer. We all deserve to suffer – endlessly – and all will unless they repent, as Jesus Himself said. This opens the mind to perceive the true nature of God’s grace - whether His saving grace or His common grace.

But the crew of Jonah’s boat thinks in terms of evil coming unjustly upon them because somebody else has messed up. They have fallen minds and understandings. It is true that when the lot falls upon Jonah they will see that God has raised the storm on Jonah’s account, but what they fail to see is that, should they perish in that storm, it is their due on account of their own sin, and not Jonah’s. In a sense, Jonah’s sin may be the proximate cause, though their own sins, and that of Adam, are the overarching cause, and are reason enough for them to perish – for they came first.

The casting of lots is an old method of determining truth, or a course of action. It happened with Achan in the Old Testament and with Matheus in the New. The Urim and Thummim are thought to have been connected with the casting of lots. But let’s not confuse the concept with gambling, or with mere chance. Gambling is the expectation of gain through chance, without the effort of work. Oh, some people work very hard at "narrowing" their chances, it’s true, but unless you can gamble unto the Lord while having the desire for earthly riches without labour, then gambling is going to be sin for you.

The casting of lots, however, was a way to put the outcome in the hands of God. It was not to tempt God. The result had to be accepted, no matter what, as the will of either the one true God, or of the gods. And, of course, all things are in some sense the will of God because He either permits or causes them. Like fleeces, lots must never be turned into "the best two out of three" if the result doesn’t suit us.

So, the lot fell upon Jonah because it was God’s will that it fall on him. Nobody objected, least of all Jonah. See once more how God’s will is effected not so much through the overtly miraculous as through the fallen minds of men acting in carnal ways out of mortal fear, and purely in self-interest. Note this well. It is how God works most of the time in a fallen and rebellious world. He takes our sinful motives and deeds, and uses them to accomplish His righteous ends. The Lord’s crucifixion itself is the prime example of this.