Gospel Light Christian Church Thru-The-Bible Series (27.5)

The Book of Jonah

Jonah Chapter 1:13-17 - Read this Bible passage once through before referring to the notes below.

v13. Jonah had told the mariners that the only way to appease God was to throw him overboard.  But this verse tells us that nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land. Why should this be so?  Afterall, they themselves asked Jonah for the solution, so why did they not accept what Jonah told them to do?  Maybe it was because they thought that Jonah did not deserve to die.  They had seen the lot landed on Jonah, they heard Jonah’s confession, and they saw Jonah’s willingness to die for his sins.  Humanly speaking, these mariners were probably sympathetic to Jonah, reasoning that God should forgive Jonah seeing that he truly repented of his sins.  So they tried to save Jonah’s life by rowing hard to bring the ship to the safety of the harbour. 

But despite all their efforts, they could not succeed, for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.  God was proving a point to these mariners.  Whatever men may feel or think, God alone is the Judge.  We weigh things on our own scale, and we pronounce them good.  God weighs them on His own scale, and pronounce them rotten.  Whose judgment stand?  God’s!  It is useless to try and row against the great wind and mighty tempest of God, for we cannot succeed.  The mariners might think Jonah’s offence was light, but God views it as very serious, for rebellion is always a serious crime.

v14.  This verse tells us that God was dead serious in wanting Jonah punished.  God wanted to make an example out of Jonah to these mariners, so that they in turn would know that they should not disobey God.  By now, these mariners knew that they could not do anything against God, and that God’s will would always prevail.  A direct consequence of this is that these mariners, who just moments ago were idol worshippers, now became worshippers of the true God.  How do we know this?  Because they began to pray, not to their idol gods, but to Jonah’s God: We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee.

What were they praying about?  Listen to this verse: let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee.  They were in a dilemma. If they refused to throw Jonah overboard, they knew they would die, for this is the meaning of let us not perish for this man's life.  So they knew they had to obey God in this matter.  At the same time, they also knew that life is precious in God’s sight.  So they prayed that God would lay not upon us innocent blood.  Here learn that God had implanted into man’s conscience that life is precious.  Even the pagan worshippers know this, that it is just not normal to kill a fellow human being.  The problem is that this God-given conscience becomes seared when man becomes a killer, more so a serial killer.  But the pagans, who do not know the laws of God, nevertheless have these laws written into their hearts, and their conscience bear witness through the laws of nature.

The last part of their prayer, for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee, is an admission that God is sovereign and His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways our ways.  It pleased God then that Jonah should be thrown overboard.  Of course the mariners did not know then, but God had a higher purpose in store for Jonah.  But to the mariners it appeared that God had decreed that Jonah should die for his grievous sin, and so they pleaded with God not to hold them responsible for the death of Jonah.

v15.  After praying thus, they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea.  And they saw the magnificent display of God’s power after that: the sea ceased from her raging.  This proved beyond doubt that God is in absolute control, that even the wind and the waves obey His command.  It also confirms that Jonah was the cause of God’s wrath and fury. 

v16.  With all these happenings, the mariners were left with no doubts that Jonah’s God is the only true God.  Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.   They had good reasons to fear the LORD (Jehovah God).  They saw how He controlled the elements, how He pursued Jonah, and how He executed judgement on Jonah, and yet spared them from certain death.  The Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  It was therefore wise of these mariners to now forsake their idol gods and worship the one and only true God, and so they offered a sacrifice unto the LORD.  Exactly when this sacrifice was made is not stated.  Perhaps they did it the moment they landed safely in the harbour.  Or they could have done it on board.  But if they did it on board the ship, then it could be a sacrifice of the lips, in thanksgiving prayers.  This is the likely scenario, for this verse goes on to say that the mariners made vows to God. By making vows to God, these mariners signified that they had abandoned their idols, for idolaters make vows to their idols, not to God. Thanking God is natural for a child of God.  Have you been thanking God lately for what He has done for you?

v17.  What happened next is a demonstration of the great mercy of God on Jonah.  Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.  God once again demonstrated his absolute control, this time over the fishes.  This verse says that God prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. At God’s command, a great fish, which our Lord later said it was a whale (Matt 12:40), was positioned at the right spot to swallow up Jonah so that he did not drown in the storm. Isn’t it interesting that in the Genesis account of creation, the Bible specifically mentions that God created great whales (Gen 1:21)?  And Jonah stayed in the whale’s belly for three days and three nights.

Now what exactly did Jonah achieve through this experience?  First, he became an example of God’s great mercy to those who sinned and returned to God.  This is a great encouragement to us today, for none of us can rightly claim not to have sinned against God.  But the important thing is to return to God, and in Jonah, God shows that He is merciful to the truly repentant sinner.

Secondly, as we will see later, Jonah became a very successful preacher in Nineveh.  No doubt, it was this experience of surviving three days and three nights in the whale’s belly that contributed to this success.  We will see more about this later.

Lastly, Jonah is a type of Christ, and so there are great similarities between Jonah’s experience and the Lord’s.  God prepared the grave for Jonah, and similarly God prepared the Lord’s grave as it was long ago foretold that he should make his grave with the rich (Isa 53:9).  Jonah had a new grave, a strange one, being the belly of a whale.  The Lord Jesus Christ also had a new grave, a strange one in that it belonged to someone else but one in which never man before was laid. Jonah was in the grave for the best part of three days and three nights, and so was the Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, both Jonah and our Lord Jesus Christ rose again, and in doing so, opened the door of repentance to the Gentile world.