I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord.
Jonah’s confession
I. The advantage of being born and educated in some countries above others. Consider them both in a natural and in a spiritual sense. Some countries place their inhabitants under serious disabilities. The conditions are most deplorable when men’s bodies draw the yoke of slavery, and minds are destitute of common civility, as well as of all true conceptions concerning God or religion. What then are the natural advantages into which we are born? And how great are the spiritual advantages?
II. The greatest happiness men can receive doth arise from their being numbered among those people who fear the Lord. This happiness is best demonstrated by comparison with the enjoyments of other people and nations. That this happiness may abide for ever with us, we are obliged--
1. To keep up a friendly society and correspondence with all men.
2. We are more particularly engaged to love and help one another, as fellow-countrymen. (John Hartcliffe, M. A.)
The confession and its sequel
Here is Jonah at the bar of inquiry. Conscience brings every man there. There is a present judgment-seat as well as a future. Observe--
1. The interrogators. Heathen sailors.
2. The prisoner at the bar. A prophet of Israel. A degrading position to be in.
3. The investigation. It was kind, considerate, circumstantial.
The verse 9 sets forth the elicited confession., Confession is a relief, a necessity, and a Divine condition of forgiveness: Here it was ingenious, contrite, humiliating, God-honouring. Verse 10 suggests that God’s terribleness, as seen in His judgments on sin, inspires the greatest terror. This prompts to earnest inquiry. Verses 11-15 set forth the humanity of the jeopardised heathen crew and the self-sentencing of Jonah. Their conduct shows great caution, tenderness, sympathy, moral change. There was earnest prayer; reluctance to touch God’s anointed; recognition of the Divine Sovereignty. The self-sentencing of Jonah was the result of conscious demerit. Learn--
1. That no sinner visited with Divine judgments is justified in taking his own life.
2. When God intends to execute judgments.
3. That in executing sentence against transgressors we should be certified it is in harmony with the will of God. Verse 16 indicates the moral effects of the whole phenomena on the sailors. They feared, sacrificed, vowed.
Verse 17 sets forth justice attempered by mercy through miracle. Learn that--
1. Irrational creatures, as well as inanimate creation, are subject to Divine control.
2. That we may alight on the mercy of God at the most unexpected hour and in the most unlikely place.
3. That partial deliverance is Divinely intended to exercise and develop faith.
4. That salvation shall be wrought for the penitent if it necessitate a departure from the ordinary course of things. (J. O. Keen, D. D.)