Jonah 1 - To Save Some Sailors

I’ve been reading a lot of books with sailing in them lately. Anyone ever heard of Robinson Crusoe? Or The Interesting Narrative by this guy named Equiano? Really cool stories. The first one is about a guy who gets stuck on an island for longer than I’ve been alive (24 years!), and the other one is filled with all sorts of sailing and sea battles. Kind of like Pirates of the Caribbean but without all the skeleton men and squid people.

But one of the things that really stuck out to me in these stories was how sailors would believe almost anything. I guess that’s what happens when you sail all over the world and trade with different people – you pick up some of the things those people believe too. Sometimes those beliefs were good things, like different ways to worship God. But other times these new beliefs would distract people from God or make them think that He is less loving or powerful than He really is.  

Now Robinson Crusoe and The Interesting Narrative took place in the 1600’s and 1700’s, or about 300-400 years ago. But the story of Jonah takes place over 2000 years before that! And yet, it seems like the sailors of Jonah’s day had the same problems with picking up different beliefs as Robinson Crusoe and Equiano. Of course, we only get to learn about the sailors of Jonah’s story from one journey, but what a journey it was!

Imagine it. You’ve got this crew of sailors in the city of Joppa, collecting smelly fish or dyes that made their hands funny colours or whatever other trade goods were on their cargo list for the day. They’ve spent hours loading things up and stacking their goods below deck. The captain is yelling to get the oars ready so they can row out to sea when, all of a sudden, this random stranger calls out to them from the dock. He’s asking if they will let him sail with them to Tarshish. They ask him why and all he’ll say is that he’s trying to get away from his God. A few of the crew mates probably laughed, but Jonah was willing to pay, so the captain lets this stranger onboard. Probably didn’t even think twice about it.

At first, it seems like a good deal. The tag along Jonah stays below deck and doesn’t bother anyone, while the sailors get a bit of extra money out of the deal. They’ll get to Tarshish, drop off Jonah, unload those smelly fish and colourful dyes, and be on their way again before they know it.

But then the storm comes… Thunder booms, lightning makes the sky explode with light, and waves crash onto the upper deck with a force unlike anything these sailors have ever seen! Storms and shipwrecks were always a job hazard for a sailor, but that didn’t mean they were going down without a fight! Those precious fish and dyes go overboard to make the ship lighter so that they can hopefully sail better in this storm. But this doesn’t do them any good. The storm is still threatening to destroy their ship and drag them to the bottom of the ocean.

That’s when the captain goes below deck and what does he find? Jonah sound asleep while the rest of the crew are fighting to stay alive! The captain shakes Jonah awake and begs him, “Get up and call on your god for help! Maybe He’ll pay attention to what’s happening to us. Then we won’t die” (Jonah 1:6, NIrV). We don’t know much about whom the captain was or what he believed, but he wasn’t going to take any chances. The sailors had asked their false gods and idols to help, but nobody had responded. So the captain hoped that maybe Jonah’s God could do something! At this point, they would take whatever help they could get.

And so they cast lots to figure out whose fault this storm was. (Casting lots was a way that people in Bible times tried to make a decision when they didn’t know what to do.) I love how Veggietales shows this: In the middle of this storm, the pirates and Jonah play a game of Go Fish with the loser being the one responsible for the storm.

Anyways, after casting lots, Jonah is the one picked, so now he has some explaining to do. He tells the sailors that he’s a Hebrew, one of the Israelites. He’s a prophet, meaning that God has sent him somewhere to tell the people there about Him. Turns out this place was Nineveh, one of the meanest and most evil cities in the ancient world. He admits that he’s run away because he doesn’t think that the Ninevites deserve God’s love, but he’s starting to realize that that was a mistake. God’s angry at him, and now Jonah’s put all of their lives at risk! And as far as he can tell, the only thing they can do now to save themselves is to throw Jonah overboard and hope that God will spare the ship and the rest of the crew.

I have to say, I really respect what the sailors do next… Instead of immediately grabbing Jonah and throwing him overboard, they actually continue trying to row to shore! But the storm only gets worse, and eventually they realize they don’t have a choice. They pray to God, saying, “Please, LORD, don’t let us die for taking this man’s life. After all, he might not be guilty of doing anything wrong. So don’t hold us responsible for killing him. LORD, you always do what you want to” (1:14). And then a few of the sailors take him and, probably terrified, toss him into the sea!

And just like that, the storm stops. Calm waves, no wind. Maybe even some sun.

We all know how the story goes next. Jonah gets eaten by a fish. Or a whale. Depends on who you talk to. But the thing that excites me most about this first chapter of Jonah is that, because of this whole terrifying experience, the sailors “began to have great respect for the LORD. They offered a sacrifice to him. And they made promises to Him” (1:16).

Jonah ran from God. He did something wrong. He should have gone to Nineveh like God asked. And yet, if it wasn’t for Jonah running away, these sailors may never have heard about or experienced the power, the justice, and the love of God. Jonah may have disobeyed, but God still used this disobedience to save some sailors. He gave these sailors a powerful example of who He is and gave them a reason to believe in Him.

We can only guess what happened to the sailors next. Some of them might have gone home and never sailed again. The captain probably apologized to the traders for the lost fish and dyes and started looking for something new to transport. For some, this amazing thing God had done might have quickly faded from their hearts and minds. But I’d like to think that some of them truly came to believe in God that day because of Jonah’s mistake. They gave up their old beliefs and started believing the truth!

Maybe that’s the point. God can even use our mistakes to show His greatness. This is not an excuse to disobey God, but it can give us comfort that God won’t give up on us even when we mess up. And though we never get to hear about these sailors again in the Bible, Jonah’s story continues. I’m sure these events made him rethink a few of the things he believed about God, but Jonah still had a lot to learn about God’s love and mercy. But we’ll look at that more next time.    

~Brentagious