Jonah 1:11-13 - Participating in the Sacrifice

11-13 Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?" For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, "Take me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you." 13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

Now here we come to that picture of Christ which culminated in the very "sign of Jonah the prophet" of which the Lord spoke. He was referring to three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, but before that comes this picture...

The tempest typifies the fierce wrath of God against sin, and the sailors are unbelievers, which we all once were before God saved us. And so it is not so much the sailors who cast Jonah into the sea, but Jonah who is willing to be so cast that the sailors might not die. The sacrifice of Jonah is the means by which God’s anger is assuaged. Yet their ultimate willingness to cast Him in shows also their acknowledment of the need for God’s wrath to be satisfied through the giving up of a life by their participation in the death of that sacrifice. And we shall see that peace comes when the sacrifice is made, just as through Christ we have peace with God.

We must be careful not to take the "type" or the analogy too far. Jonah sinned. Christ did not. Yet Christ became sin for us. He took our guilt. It was not because of Christ that the wrath of God came upon us, as it was because of Jonah that God’s wrath was upon the boat, and all in it. Jonah is both a type of Adam and of Christ. He shows us the Federal nature of God’s dealings with man in both of them. All those in the boat were tossed by the storm on account of Jonah’s sin, just as all children of Adam are under the wrath of God due to Adam’s sin. And just as all who threw Jonah overboard believed that by so doing they would be delivered (because Jonah had promised it) – so all who participate through faith in the sacrifice of Christ (because God promised it) will pass from under condemnation and have peace with God.

We can see that the men did not want to do what Jonah said. Their carnal sense of "goodness" and "honour" was intact. Just because they were depraved sinners did not mean that they lacked a value system. It is just that any value sytem that will not do what God’s wisdom demands is still sin. Peter forbade Christ to suffer at the hands of men and the Lord rebuked him with the unforgettable phrase...

"Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men." {Mt 16:23}

People who are too "good" to accept God’s command that we participate in the sacrifice by owning our responsibility – by laying our hands upon its head – people who will not desire with God the sacrifice of His Son for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose of the salvation of His church – such people cannot partake in the benefits of His death. The storm will not be assuaged for them. He came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. There is nothing sentimental about the atonement. It is a bloody, cruel business – and it is the will of God in love.