CRITICAL NOTES.]
Jonah 1:11. The sea] “Not only increasingly tempestuous, but, like a thing alive and obeying its Master’s will, it was holding on its course, its wild waves tossing themselves and marching on in battalions arrayed for the end for which they were sent, pursuing and demanding the runaway slave of God” [Pusey].
Jonah 1:12.] Jonah reads out his doom, conscious of being the cause of suffering and peril. Cast me] Suicide and guilt to have done it himself. I know] i.e. am well aware.
Jonah 1:13. Rowed hard] Lit. dug, intense effort with the oars; hence “ploughed the main” [Pusey].
Jonah 1:14. Beseech] Repetitions which indicate earnestness and a sense of dependence.
Jonah 1:15. Ceased] Lit. stood hushed immediately, and like a servant obeyed its commander (Job 38:11).
Jonah 1:16. Offered] present sacrifice; and vowed more when they landed.
Jonah 1:17. Fish] Sea-monster (Genesis 1:21; Job 7:12; Psalms 74:13); a whale (Matthew 12:40). The fact divinely attested. Independent of this there is no improbability in the swallowing up of Jonah. Sharks swallow and retain a grown man in their stomach, and follow vessels many days for what may be thrown overboard. Three] Significant time! “A hidden prophecy.” The miracle is justified by the end in view, to chastise and recover a disobedient prophet, to shadow forth the greater miracle of one laying down his life and taking it up again for us.
HOMILETICS
THE REQUIRED SACRIFICE.—Jonah 1:11-12
The sea still raged and testified to the anger of God. The light of nature and the dictates of conscience taught the sailors, the law and the history of his nation taught Jonah, that God was just and must be satisfied. Hence the anxiety of the crew and the submission of the prophet. Learn:—
I. That sin confessed does not always bring immediate relief in distress. Jonah had honestly confessed his guilt and felt deep remorse, but something more was requisite. God’s purpose is not accomplished by mere acknowledgment of wrong. Great storms never come from small sins. The servant of Jehovah must be corrected and the guilty feel God’s displeasure. The longer we remain in sin and the greater our reluctance to duty, the more tempestuous will be the sea.
II. That men truly humbled in distress are anxious to follow the revealed will of God. The mariners had solemnly appealed to God and knew Jonah to be his servant. They fear God, do not take the matter into their own hands, but ask counsel through Jonah. Tenderness, humanity, and subjection are the kindly fruits of affliction. The anxious enquirer and the restored servant desire to know the revealed will of God, and do nothing without his guidance. “Lead me in thy truth and teach me.”
III. That those sensible of their own desert are not willing to involve others in distress. Jonah felt that he was the cause of suffering and peril to his fellow-creatures—that God’s justice should take him and spare them. “Cast me forth into the sea; and the sea shall be calm to you.” A true penitent submits to be chastised for his iniquity; but when others suffer with him, he is concerned. In the providence of God we often involve others in danger by our sin, and are called upon to endure risk and self-sacrifice to save them. “It is I that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done?”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Jonah 1:11. What shall we do? The moral demeanour of these men indicates,
1. Kindly feeling towards Jonah
2. Solemn awe of Jehovah.
3. Natural horror against taking away human life. It was treatment unexpected and undeserved, a pattern to many in more favourable circumstances. “With the well-advised there is wisdom.”
Jonah 1:12. Jonah’s reply. “Could anything be more noble, upright, honourable? There is, first, a renewed acknowledgment—frank, free, and full—of his own obnoxiousness to the Divine anger, and of himself as the source and occasion of the present danger. ‘For I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.’ There is, secondly, an unreserved surrender or appointment of himself to death, as the means of solving the appalling difficulty, and stilling the raging of the deep. ‘Take me up and cast me forth into the sea.’ And there is, thirdly,—what may be valued as coming from a prophet of that God ‘which made the sea and the dry land’—a prediction that the expedient will be efficacious; ‘so shall the sea be calm unto you’ ” [Hugh Martin].
Jonah reads out his own doom, and that both as a penitent offender and a prophet of the Lord. As the former, conscious that he was the cause of the sufferings and peril of his fellow-creatures, he felt it just that the vengeance of God should light on him, if haply his mercy might spare them. As the latter, he opens out the Divine will respecting himself, and unconsciously instructs us respecting that great propitiation for the sins of the world of which he was to be a remarkable type (Isaiah 53:5; Matthew 12:40; John 11:50) [Sibthorp]. We see more and more the working of grace in the prophet’s soul;
(1) in his acknowledgment of merited judgment;
(2) his patient submission, and
(3) tender regard for others. But in the two latter respects how was he surpassed by Jesus! Observe another resemblance between Jonah and Christ: both gave up themselves to still the storm of God’s wrath against sin; yet herein is a great difference between them. This storm was of the prophet’s own raising; not so that for which Christ gave himself to death. We caused that tempest; he, being innocent, allayed it by his own blood [Ibid.].
HOMILETICS
LABOUR IN VAIN.—Jonah 1:12-13
We shall translate Jonah’s history into spiritual illustrations of man’s experience and action with regard to Christ and his gospel. We have here a picture of what most men do before they resort to God’s remedy; that remedy is fairly imaged in the deliverance of the ship’s company by the sacrifice of one on their behalf.
I. Our first observation is, that sinners when they are tossed upon the sea of conviction, make desperate efforts to save themselves. The men rowed hard, strained every sinew, and laboured by violence. No language can express the earnest action with which awakened sinners unlawfully struggle to obtain eternal life. They try moral reformation. Others add to their reformation a superstitious regard to the outward of religion. Many persons row hard to get the ship to land by a national belief in orthodox doctrine. Many are resting upon their own incessant prayers. Others are toiling by a sort of mental torture. II. Like these mariners, the fleshy efforts of awakened sinners must inevitably fail. “They could not.” With all man’s rowing after mercy and salvation, he can never find it by his own efforts. First of all, it is contrary to God’s law for a sinner to get comfort by anything he can do for and by himself. Because in what he is doing he is insulting God. He is also in the way of the curse.
III. The soul’s sorrow will continue to increase so long as it relies upon its own efforts. It may be overruled for good, but the effect of all that the creature does before it believes is mischievous. The good effect lies in this: the more a man strives to save himself, the more convinced will he become of his own impotence. Another good result follows, that a man striving to save himself by law, finds out the spirituality of that law, a spirituality which he never saw before. But much of this toil is mischievous. It makes unbelief take a firmèr grip. Giant Despair’s prisoners do not all escape; he has a yard full of bones, the relics of willing prisoners who would not be comforted. Some sinners make excuses for themselves out of their despair, and let their doubts and fears grow till they cast a thick shadow over them. IV. We will try to explain God’s plan. The way of safety for sinners is to be found in the sacrifice of another on their behalf. Leave out the fact that Jonah was sinful, and he becomes an eminent type of Christ. Substitution saves the mariners: substitution saves sinners. Jesus dies, and there is a calm. Conscience accuses no longer. Judgment decides for and not against the sinner. Memory looks back with sorrow for sin, but with no dread of penalty to come. Let us enjoy the peace “that passeth all understanding.” Then go to work for God, not to win life and heaven, for they are ours already; but loved by him, let us love and serve him with perfect heart [Spurgeon].
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Jonah 1:12. Because of me. “True conviction of sin will produce honest confession of sin sometimes to our fellow-creatures; always before God. Let it add to those bitter herbs of repentance with which we feast on our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7-8), to reflect how often and largely our iniquity has aided to make the mass of human guilt more offensive and of human misery more grievous.”
Jonah 1:13. Here we find, I. Compassion displayed when undeserved.
1. In pity for the sufferer.
2. In regard to his God.
3. In fear of bloodguiltiness. II. Conscience overcoming self-interest. The men were assured of calm by getting rid of Jonah; but perhaps the force of conscience showed that the guilt of murder would rest upon them if they threw him overboard Listen to conscience when duty and self-interest seem to conflict. III. The servant spared from fear of the master. “Do my prophets no harm.” If we fear God, men feel that they offend him by injuring us. “He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye.”
We have here an admirable example of dealing with an offending brother. They dreaded to punish after his guilt was proved; and they could not tell how far he was restored again into God’s favour as a penitent. Let us walk by the same rule towards fallen brethren [Jones].
Learn also—
1. The benefits of affliction. Jonah is no longer perverse and disobedient, and the mariners are brought to call upon the true God.
2. The folly of fighting against God. Providence was adverse. They rowed against the stream. No success in opposition to God. Without his help all schemes are like ploughing the deep and contending with the storm. “There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord.”
HOMILETICS
PAGAN PRAYERS.—Jonah 1:13-14
The men ceased to row, their labour was in vain. They only increased their own danger and prolonged the suffering of one they endeavoured to save—
“At once they plough the brine; and all the deep
Yawns wide” [Virg. Æneid].
They recognized the hand of God in the storm, and believed the power of God supreme. They lay down their oars and appeal to God.
I. Prayer connected with labour. “It is well to labour, and it is well to pray,” said Luther. Prayer strengthens and directs in labour. It sweetens toil and brings success. Jupiter gave no help to the waggoner till he put his own shoulders to the wheel. The fable is abused when men despise prayer and dependance upon God.
II. Prayer in trouble. They had done all they could, but were not relieved. For the first time probably these heathens prayed to the God of Israel. Sorrow and danger give speciality and intensity to supplication (Genesis 32:9; Isaiah 37:15-20). Pressing trouble forces itself from the heart to the lips. We cry to God in distress, when we have failed without him. Prayer is our first and last refuge in trouble. It should ever be the first means we use for deliverance. “Call upon me in the day of trouble.”
“The man is praying who doth press with might
Out of his darkness into God’s own light” [Trench].
III. Prayer in the emergencies of life. There are not only troubles, but special difficulties and dangers in life. These men were perplexed. The storm demands the prophet, but the justice of God might require his blood at their hands. Whatever be our difficulties, prayer offers help and leads us to the great Disposer of all things (Proverbs 3:6; 1 Peter 5:7). “He that prays despairs not; but sad is the condition of him that cannot pray,” says Jeremy Taylor.
“As when the last sentence of the law is carried out on land, the offices of religion are performed in the presence and on behalf of the culprit, so here there is prayer, most earnest and most appropriate, preceding the last sad act that shall part them and their passenger for ever” [Raleigh].
I. The object of their prayer. “O Jehovah.” The storm and the confession of Jonah have weaned them from their idols. They take in the idea of God, discern his power, and believe him—
1. To be “the hearer of prayer.”
2. To be the Supreme Ruler of all events. “They had but just known God,” says Pusey, “and they resolve the whole mystery of man’s agency and God’s providence into three simple words, ‘As (thou) willedst (thou) didst.’ ” All things, however adverse, were traced to God’s sovereign disposal. The storm and the lot, the direction of the prophet and the impossibility to land him. “Our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.”
II. The nature of their prayer.
1. It was intensely earnest. “They cried.” The language is that of earnest supplication, the particle expressive of entreaty being repeated. There was no time for formal prayer. We deal not in general petitions in trouble like this; such tribulation becomes the tutor of prayer, and leads to maturity of knowledge and experience.
2. It was wonderfully submissive. Till we can say “Thy will be done,” we have need of more prayer and submission. If God please himself let us be satisfied. We cannot alter circumstances. But when the will of God is clearly made known let us ever follow it.
III. The purpose of their prayer. They think of themselves and their passenger.
1. They pray for the preservation of their own life. “Let us not perish for the life of this man.” They were not prompted by fear, nor by selfishness, for then would they have cast Jonah into the sea. Truth has beamed upon them and God is recognized. They felt his anger and became executioners of his justice. In a short time they learned much of the true God, and were gradually led to worship him.
2. They pray that the guilt of murder may not rest upon them. “Lay not upon us innocent blood.” The light of nature, the teaching of tradition, and the laws of their country, taught that they forfeited life when they took life. Conscience speaks, the providence of God seems to confirm the confession of his servant, yet they are reluctant to cast him out. If it must be done, they pray to be forgiven. “The people of God were shedding innocent blood like water, in the cities of Palestine (2 Kings 9:7; 2 Chronicles 24:20; Matthew 23:35): these heathen sailors fear to pour that of one guilty man into the recesses of the deep. The offences of professors of religion are often made to stand out in awful prominency by the restraints which nature and conscience put on those of others (Romans 2:27; 1 Corinthians 5:1; Matthew 27:24-25).” “At the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man” (Genesis 9:5-6).
THE SACRIFICE AND THE CALM.—Jonah 1:15
A funeral at sea is a solemn event. It is a trying hour when the remains of a friend or comrade have to be cast into the deep. But no funeral service like that of Jonah. Not in haste and desperation, but in solemn silence and respect they lift him up and cast him into the sea. The yawning deep engulfs the unresisting prophet and the angry ocean smooths her face.
I. The sacrifice offered. After they had done all they could, something else was required.
1. A sacrifice caused by sin. Jonah’s disobedience caused Jonah’s death. When men run into sin, they run into ruin here and hereafter. God’s favour and heaven are cast away by the wicked. Whatever sin is the Jonah, it must be cast away or it will drown us in perdition.
2. A sacrifice required by the will of God. The sea did not cease from raging. Jonah had told them what was required, and the providence of God confirmed the prediction. God’s law must be honoured and sin punished.
3. A sacrifice offered for the safety of others. Jonah was submissive in the face of death, and far more concerned for the lives of others than for his own. He thus becomes a type of Jesus, who was offered a sacrifice for our sins, “a ransom for many.” If he had not suffered for us, the waterfloods of guilt and the waves of grief would have compassed us and carried us away.
II. The calm which followed. “The sea stayed from her raging.”
1. A proof of God’s power over the elements of nature. The wind ceases, the billows rest, and danger is past. “The lower is subject to the higher, nature to moral providence, and providence to God.” “Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them” (Psalms 89:9; Psalms 93:3; Psalms 107:29).
2. A confirmation of right conduct. The men would hesitate and doubt, but God gives them immediate comfort. They have obeyed his will, and he will make them know and feel it, by outward calm and inward peace. When we submit to God’s will he will not any longer contend with us.
3. A type of peace through Christ. When he was cast forth and sank into the sea that threatened the world with ruin there was a universal calm. God’s justice was satisfied and his anger ceased. “Fury is not in me.” We may have peace with God if we cast out of our hearts the sin which provokes his wrath (Jeremiah 4:1; Isaiah 57:20-21). “God hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.”
THE CONVERTED HEATHEN.—Jonah 1:14; Jonah 1:16
Perhaps these men were more candid and less depraved than heathen generally. They seem at any rate to be prepared by education and discipline to receive the truth. But under the guidance of the Spirit they were converted through the teaching of Jonah.
I. What led to their conversion? God prepared the way by the presence of his servant on board. But Jonah would not have spoken to them, nor would they have listened to him, but for the storm, the danger, and the lot. Perhaps, as in many cases, some antecedent preparation may be traced. In Christian countries many can trace the leadings of Divine providence in bringing them to Christ. In heathen nations God has prepared tribes and individuals to believe the gospel when it has reached them. There are preparations in language, changes of government, corruption and decay of heathenism. “A great door and effectual is opened.”
II. What was the evidence of their conversion? When a Divine principle is implanted in the heart, then life is reformed and actions changed.
1. They forsake idolatry. Their former gods are abandoned, and now they seek to know the true God. Every soul born of God turns from lying vanities, and is drawn out to God in supplication and praise.
2. They pray to Jehovah. Prayer is the first act of a converted sinner. “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Afterwards it is “the native air” in which he lives, moves, and has his being. If gratitude for God’s goodness fills the heart, it will be expressed in acts of devotion. Special revelations of God in acts of grace or providence will beget true fear in us. “The men feared the Lord exceedingly.”
III. What were the fruits of their conversion? When storms are over and men are delivered it is common for them to return to indifference or ridicule. The only sure and permanent sign of conversion is holy life.
1. These men feared Jehovah. The storm was over, and they were delivered from death; but they return not after affliction to their former ways. Wonderful events had happened. Wind and storm had fulfilled the word of Jehovah, and they felt a great awe. “Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God for thy good always” (Deuteronomy 6:13; Deuteronomy 6:24).
2. They offered sacrifice. Not an offering in general, but a slaughtering of some lamb or fowl on board, as a victim to express their faith. They might not comprehend the full meaning of the Jewish rite. It was forgotten and obscured by heathen superstitions. “But a conscience could not be quickened to a sense of guilt before God, nor a hope of salvation from the just punishment of sin be cherished by a penitent heart, without its finding a natural expression in this ancient and once universal form of religious worship.” Ignorant of Jewish customs, they fell back upon that of their ancestors, and God accepted their offering.
3. They vowed vows. They combine faith and works. They are not only moved in present gratitude, but think of the future. Many who escape danger, vow and forget their vows. Months pass, and they evince that fear was only a superficial thawing and no real opening of the heart. God requires present promise and future performance, a dedication of the whole life to him. If we do not fulfil our voluntary vows it is clear that our gratitude is not real and that our service is not a cleaving to God with all our hearts. “Vow and pay unto the Lord your God: let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared.”
“But when your ships rest, wafted o’er the main,
And you, on altars raised along the shore,
Pay your vow’d offerings” [Æneid].
THE GREAT MIRACLE.—Jonah 1:17
By the mariners Jonah was thought to be drowned; but the providence of God had provided a living tomb for his servant. He is hurried through the depths of the sea, in judgment and mercy. He owned the hand and submitted to the will of God: he prayed for help, and was cast out of his sepulchre, a monument of God’s mercy and a type of the Saviour of men. In this verse we have—
I. Providential anticipation. “The Lord had prepared a great fish.” This preparation was
(1) miraculous, and
(2) merciful in its nature and design. It also illustrates a principle which we find in all God’s dealings with men, viz. Anticipations of providence.
1. In the scheme of redemption there was no after-thought. God provided a remedy before the fall.
2. In the conversion of sinners goodness and grace are prepared beforehand.
3. In the exigencies of Christian life God meets us ready to help. In prayer, trouble, and death he prepares, goes before us, and stands ready to bless. “The God of my mercy shall prevent (go before) me.”
II. Typical events. God had more places to send Jonah than to Nineveh. The course of things starts out in strange deviation from that uniformity which philosophers insist upon. We rest simply upon the Divine power which miraculously preserved the vital economy under the suspension of one of its greatest functions. If men like to deny or ridicule attested facts let them “sport themselves with their own deceivings,” says one. In “the three days and three nights’ ” imprisonment of Jonah Christ sees a type of himself (Matthew 12:40).
1. The analogies are his confinement to the deep and the grave that others might be saved.
2. The same duration of time in this dark retirement; and
3. The coming to light and life again for the reformation of mankind. Learn from the fact—
1. The presence of God in history.
2. The purpose of God in controlling its events.
3. The power of God in making all things subservient to this purpose. “With the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
When the servants of God run away from an easy service, their Master frequently appoints them a harder task. If Jonah will not preach up and down the streets of Nineveh, he shall preach from the bottom of the sea [Jones].
1. When God pursues his rebellious children in a severe way, yet he doth not altogether cast off his mercy to them, but moderates their affliction.
2. God may have a mercy and proof of love waiting upon his people in a time and place where they would be least expected. For Jonah meets a mercy in the raging sea, into which he was cast in anger, as to be destroyed.
3. Although God’s mercy will not destroy his guilty people in their afflictions, yet his wisdom sees fit not to deliver them at first, but to exercise their faith and heart [Hutcheson].
Jonah 1:17. “From how many unthought-of, unimaginable situations the Sovereign of the world has drawn devotional aspirations! but never, except once, from a situation like this” [John Foster]!
The sea and her inhabitants are God’s and lie at his will (Luke 5:6; John 21:6). The mightiest and meanest creatures subserve his purposes, and are auxiliaries or adversaries to man as he chooses (Joshua 24:12; 2 Kings 17:25) [Sibthorp].
The Type. Three days and three nights (Matthew 12:40. Cf. Romans 4:25; Romans 6:4). In comparing the two—these two great interpositions of Godhead with Jonah and Jesus respectively—the type will illustrate the antitype. But there are points in which our clear knowledge of the antitype may be carried back to illustrate the type. This is the case in the very first resemblance. I. In both cases there is a death and a resurrection. Jonah speaks of his burial in terms in which the Messiah speaks of his “hell” and “corruption.” In both cases it is the language of burial and resurrection. II. But secondly: in both cases, the death and burial are judicial processes. Each of the processes is an atonement and expiation, pacifying the Divine Judge, satisfying Divine justice, abolishing guilt, restoring peace. III. The burial and resurrection of Jonah constituted the gate by which the word of Jehovah passed forth from the Jewish to the Gentile world. In like manner the death and resurrection of Christ was the breaking down of the middle wall of partition. IV. The analogy holds further in this respect, that the experiences of Jonah and Christ constitute, each in its own sphere, an enforcement of the message which each brings to the Gentiles. V. Jonah’s experience was his preparation for new loyalty and obedience; and in the kingdom of Christ, Christ’s risen life is the source of newness of life and service. Jonah was a new man on dry land, with a new life and a new career opening before him. O believer in a risen Christ, is not this the type and fashion of your life of faith? With what freshness—as of the morning light of an eternal Sabbath; and with what force—as of the eternal power of Messiah’s resurrection; may that blessed appeal be made to us, “If ye then be risen” (Colossians 3:1) [H. Martin].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Jonah 1:10-11. Let God be clearly known as he is revealed, and with few exceptions men cannot but believe in him. A few philosophers will reason and refine, and abide in intellectual disbelief. A few very wicked men will “believe a lie,” that they may work unrighteousness: but the great mass of men, like these sailors from Tarshish, will quickly yield, at least by intellectual assent, to the influence of the truth [Raleigh].
Jonah 1:12-13. Take me up, nevertheless the men rowed hard. Man has no right to take away his own life. We should also be careful of the life of others. The sailors thought it could not be right nor pleasing to God to cast Jonah into the deep. It would be a loss of goodness, thought, and self-denying regard for them. They were actuated by human motives, and illustrated the principle of moral life that our spirit and conduct have a tendency to reproduce themselves in others. Men have responsive feelings, answer heart to heart, and thus make life beautiful.
“All life is sacred in its kind to heaven,
And all things holy, beautiful, and good.” [Bailey.]
Jonah 1:12. Be calm unto you.
“Immortal hope,
Takes comfort from the foaming billows rage,
And makes a welcome harbour of the tomb.” [Young.]
Jonah 1:15; Jonah 1:17. The men must have talked about the voyage and its issues, especially about what took place after Jonah was in the sea. He knew nothing about that, and could only record it here because he had been told it by others. By whom? No doubt that story was told far and near, and he might have heard it from any one. But most probably he heard it from their own lips—from captain and ship’s company, gathered together, perhaps, on the deck of that very vessel. It is not improbable that the prophet took a journey to Joppa on purpose; that he went to the old place; that he stood once more on the deck of the ship—captain and crew around him—to tell and hear their mutual stories of preservation. You can fancy the meeting. You can see the man. You can imagine how the whole matter would be bruited abroad even as far as Nineveh; and how the story told there, and well authenticated, would prepare that great and guilty city for receiving the message of the prophet when he actually came [Raleigh].
Remember, therefore, this advice: Never let the advantages with which you begin life’s voyagelull you into confidence and negligence, nor difficulties lead you to despair; persevere in that path which reason and justice point out, and then despair not of reaching your desired port [Hamlain].