No duh, Jonah (part 1)

I had this lain upon my heart to do for some time. I dont know why it has been so pressed on my heart to do, but I am finally going to do it. I hope it will accomplish the goal it was meant accomplish when I got this so weeks ago. Please feel free to correct any grammar errors or share comments about this little web study. I am learning as well in all of this.


O, I am about to embark on the interesting story of a man named Jonah. Now for those of you who dont know this "fish bait" of a man, let me start by telling you this: 1 Jonah was a messenger of the Lord; meaning he would receive a word (or words) from the "Main Man" Himself and would then go forth and tell others the things that God had told him. 2 He was a Hebrew.... Now there is nothing wrong with being one of the "chosen people" of God, what's wrong is when you start looking at others that are not Hebrew and looking at them like they're scum of the earth. The Hebrew people had the ten commandments and God's direction to help guide them. On the other hand, there were the pagan nations, that didn't have any direction but their own, which obviously was lame because we are dumb humans with some pretty pore self-will. Jonah must have not only had the "I'm so 'saweet' cause... I'm chosen, and you are not!" philosophy, but he must have also forgot that without God's help, all men are bound to turn to evil. So what does God tell Jonah to do then? I think it is comical. God tells Jonah, the pagan-hater, to go and bring God's message of "What are you doing guys?!? Stop your sins, or I will make one 'crazy crater' out of you," to the pagans in Nineveh. I'm sure you can guess what this mighty man did next though. He went and did what God told him the first time, right? I mean he was a prophet of God. No. NO. And NOPE! He,uh, went the other direction in fact, as fast as he could and as far away as possible. Ha ha. Oops. Well, that obviously wasnt the best choice. A couple tosses and turns in (and off) a ship, lots of sea life, and something about a large digestive tract helps set him straight.... for a while. But like all of us, he forgets those strong wake up calls, and he turns again from what God tells him. While we read this I'm sure you will get the feeling of "this guy is not the smartest fish in the sea" on multiple occasions. No duh. But lets try looking into our own lives as we read through these scriptures, you just might find some similarities. Lets check it out. I will be using the New King James translation.

Jonah 1
"1. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2." Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me." 3. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord."

"4. But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up. 5. Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep. 6. So the captain came to him, and said to him, "What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish." 7.And they said to one another, " Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8. Then they said to him, "Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?" 9. So he said to them, " I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."

"10. Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, "Why have you done this?" For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. 11. Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?" -- for the sea was growing more tempestuous. 12. And he said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For i know that this great tempest is because of me." Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. 14. Therefor they cried out to the Lord and said, "We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man's life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You." 15. So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrife to the Lord and took vows."

verses 1-3 So Jonah runs from God after getting a message, pretty simple here. In verse 3, the Hebrew definition of the word 'presence' is face of, presence of. Jonah was going with the them (boat dudes) away from the face ( presence of God). This kinda seems a bit like a slap in the face to me. Jonah was an angry, who didnt really like the fact that God wanted him to reach out to these lost people of Nineveh. How often do I (we) run the other way and 'slap Him in the face' when He tells us to do something we dont want to do.

Verses 4-12 So, big storm, and every one is panicking. Ther are running round and round this boat trying to throw off cargo and pray to their gods for help. The captain probably came down into the bottom of the ship to throw out more stuff and sees Jonah kicking back, taking a nice nap.
Verses 7-12 is really great. It was probably one of those "dun- dun- dun" moments. Everyone is all casting lots to see why this storm is gonna kill them, while Jonah knows it's because of him. I wonder if he was sweating while the lots were falling on him, or maybe he was still defiantly thinking " certainly it is not me that those little rocks will fall on." Sounds like something I would do. At least for a while. :) Even more amazing is when the lots do fall on him. He still doesnt do anything. Now the sailor boys start asking details about this God that Jonah is running from. Jonah tells them His God is the God of everything. So now captain and his 'possy' are about ready to jump Jonah for getting them involved in this storm. They ask him what they should do to him, maybe hoping to give this guy the beating of his life, but are all set back a bit when Jonah just tells them, "Yeah, this mess is my fault, just go ahead and throw me overboard.... this part over here will do."
Verses 13-16 Now the Bible again doesnt go into specifics about what happens here, it just says the marineers again try to row for land. My guess is this, they still wanted to beat Jonah but where too afraid to do it right then in the middle of the storm; however, after going nowhere they finally give up rowing. Now isn't this interesting? I know there are times in my life where God will give me a command, and even after finding out for sure that it is His command, I keep trying to "row" to my own form of safety. You cant fight the waves when God is causing them. or your ship will simply break.
They throw Jonah overboard then, after begging God to spare them form God's wrath on Jonah. Very clever. And God answers their prayer. This goes to show how forgiving our God is. These mariners had just previously been praying to other gods, yet when they called on the real God, He was there and answered the sinner's prayer. This book continually shows us God's grace. After Jonah starts to drown,(we will check this out in Chapter 2) God has already prepared a whale to come and swallow Jonah up! How awesome is that?!? Our God is so big, He knows and prepares whales to come and swallow us up when we need some serious direction! Something I realized is- sure, it could ruin your day if you get swallowed by a whale,but at least it wasn't jaws who was waiting for him. It wasn't a large pack of piranhas, it was a whale with a large apatite. Dont get me wrong, I'm sure it wasnt comfortable, and the acids in the whales's stomach might even have hurt some, but it didn't kill him. Besides, it was Jonah's choice to run. The key point in this chapter is walking away from will always have its consequences- some as big as a whale (obviously), but as we will see in chapter 2, God gives us secound chances and undeserved grace. How great is our God!