(Audio and Text)
Title: Look Closer
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. 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.
- Why do the sailors become MORE afraid?
Note: In verse 5 we read: “Then the men were afraid”
In verse 10 we read: “Then the men were exceedingly afraid”
Question: What about Jonah telling them he is a Hebrew makes them even more scared then they already were, facing certain death at the hands of this storm?
Matthew Henry supplies a particularly apt insight here:
(1.) The sailors realize that God was angry, the same God which made the sea and the dry land. This tempest comes from the hand of an offended justice, and therefore these sailors have reason to fear it will go hard with them. Judgments inflicted for some particular sin have a peculiar weight and terror in them.
(2.) That God was angry with one that feared and worshipped him (Jonah), for once running from His work in particular instance; this made them afraid for themselves. “If a prophet of the Lord be thus severely punished for one offense, what will become of us that have been guilty of so many, and great, and heinous offenses?’
So, naturally, the sailors respond to Jonah with a very appropriate question: Why in the world would you be running from the God that you serve that is capable of THIS?
PB Insight: The men already know that Jonah’s mission is that he is running from the Lord (presumably because Jonah had already shared this information with them at some earlier point in the journey). But, up until this very moment, they had not been particularly concerned that Jonah is running from his God. Why not?
Answer: This event has made Yahweh VERY REAL to the sailors. Now they have a REASON to believe that this Hebrew God is very real, very interested in Jonah’s disobedience, and very dangerous to all of them.
Application: How often does it take a crisis event to “wake us up” to the reality of the one true God?
How many of you came to faith through a crisis event?
How many of you have rededicated your faith through a crisis event?
How many of you have come out of period of backsliding due to a crisis event?
POINT: Our God often uses crisis (“BAD”) to bring about our repentance (“GOOD”).
2. The Ultimate Question:
“What shall we do that the sea may be calm for us?”=“What shall I do to be saved?”
Let me share a story from Acts that we have all ready, but I want you to pay particular attention to the “mirroring” aspect it shares with our story in Jonah, especially the end:
The Philippian Jailer Saved (Acts 16:25-30)
25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. 28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.”
29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
Both of these stories have the exact same ingredients:
- One group of people who believe and confess, and a second group who are ignorant
- A supernatural event that can only be explained by the existence in the one true God
- The ignorant group asking, “How can I be saved?”
Close:
I don’t want to give too much of next week’s sermon away, but look at verse 12 for just a moment…if you had to summarize Jonah’s answer to the question: “How can we be saved?” in ONE word, what would that word be?
Sacrifice.
So it was for the sailors, and so it is for us. There is only ONE way to be saved. Sacrifice.