When We Think We Know Better

He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea so that the sea will calm down for you, because I know it’s my fault you are in this severe storm.”  Jonah 1:12

 Jonah had made up his mind. He wasn’t going to obey God, no matter what it took. He quickly packed a bag and headed to the sea where he could get a boat literally to the ends of the earth, as far away from where God had told him to go as possible. He wasn’t going to go preach to the Ninevites, and nothing God said would change his mind. Firmly entrenched in his plan, he went to sea. He wasn’t secretive, wasn’t hiding what he was doing. Was he proud of it? Only he would know. Perhaps he felt a deep sense of Nationalism, and that led to a pride for how he was sacrificing his life in order to prevent their enemy from hearing God’s truth and being drawn into His kingdom. They didn’t deserve forgiveness! The things they had done were terrible, he couldn’t abide by their repentance and restoration. So much better for him to sacrifice himself and prevent them from hearing about hope in God. Jonah had told the sailors that he was trying to escape from the Lord (Jonah 1:10) before the storm.

 Fully assured in his choice, Jonah curled up and went to sleep in the hold of the ship. Meanwhile, a dreadful storm came upon them – so bad that the ship threatened to break up (Jonah 1:4)! The crew were afraid for their lives and threw the cargo overboard in an effort to save the ship. This was no small choice, their livelihood was in that cargo. The main purpose for their voyage was likely to deliver the cargo to Tarshish, their intended destination. Jonah’s passage was probably a bonus, they were going there anyways and one more body on board wouldn’t matter. They would have to explain to the recipients of the cargo that it was lost at sea, perhaps even make financial reparations to them. But in the moment, all they could think of was that they were about to die and this was one possible mode of salvation. They’d deal with the consequences later, if there was a later for them.

 Imagine the shock on the captain’s face when he went down into the hold and found Jonah asleep! How could anyone sleep through this! Everyone on the ship was calling on their gods in desperate hope that they might be saved. Jonah should be doing the same! But how do you call on a God that you have intentionally run away from? It doesn’t seem that at this point he was sorry for having done so. He may have felt fully self-righteous in his choice still.

 As was the custom in the day, they cast lots in order to find out whose fault the storm was. I imagine this like drawing straws or tossing dice. Jonah clearly drew the short stick and the questions started flying. They knew he was running away from his God, but what Jonah’s God was like clearly hadn’t come up. When they heard that Jonah’s God was the maker of heaven and earth, the sea and dry land (Jonah 1:9), they were seriously concerned. Still, though, they didn’t toss him overboard right away as they did with the cargo. It sounds like they were concerned about upsetting God more by essentially killing Jonah. But when all of their efforts were exhausted, they had tried everything including rowing to shore, they did what most of us do, they prayerfully gave up and did the only thing they could. They tossed Jonah into the sea.

 I wonder what this was like for all of them. Everyone awkwardly looking at each other, knowing what had to happen but not wanting to be the person to do it. I wonder if Jonah just jumped or if they had to literally pick him up and toss him? Did they have a plank? Was that a thing? And then the amazement as the sea calmed instantly. The Bible says, “The men feared the LORD greatly, and earnestly vowed to offer lavish sacrifices to the Lord.” (Jonah 1:16)

Here's the Thing: Sometimes we get so into our own heads that we think we know better than God. We’re going to prove to Him that we’re right. Obviously that’s not the case, but that’s awfully hard to see when you’ve fully convinced yourself. Thankfully, God is pretty good at getting our attention – even if it takes being tossed into the sea in the middle of a raging storm!