Jonah 1:14-15 - The Moment of Decision

14-15 Therefore they cried to the LORD, "We beseech thee, O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood; for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee." 15 So they took up Jonah and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging.

What irony we find here if we continue in the analogy between the death of Christ and that of Jonah!

We see that God’s ways are not ours. In fact they are often the very opposite of what we would think. "Let us not perish for this man’s life," is the plea of the sailors. Yet with Christ it is only through the death of "this man" that we are saved from perishing at all. "Lay not on us innocent blood," they cry. Yet, though Jonah was far from innocent, it was Christ’s innocence – his utter blamelessness – that must be credited to our account. If we have no part in His death we can have no part in His life. If He does not wash us we have no part in Him. {John 13:8}

This is at the very centre of our faith - that we must come to that same place regarding Christ that the sailors ultimately came to regarding Jonah. We must paticipate in the sacrifice of Christ and trust God not to hold us accountable for His innocent blood. This is only possible because our murder of Christ was trumped by His willingly laying down the very life that we murdered. In just the same way, the storm abated the instant the sailors obeyed God’s will (and Jonah’s, as the "type" of Christ) when they "sacrificed" Jonah.