God is Present in the Storm
Jonah 1:3b-6
Introduction: We occasionally get some pretty powerful storms in the mid-Atlantic
area, I guess Sandy was the last one that gave a pretty direct hit? On the
Maine coast, where we spent the last ten years, strong Nor’easters are pretty
common. Have you ever been in the path of a storm that actually scared you with
its power? Maybe a hurricane, or a tornado? Perhaps a storm at sea—or extreme
turbulence on a flight? If you look around on the airplane, and the flight
attendant looks happy and calm, you take that as a good sign right? If they look worried, then, not so good. The pilot comes on and talks, always sounds
like he is sitting at his desk in an office—and that tends to instill
confidence. Our text today pictures a storm at sea—one so dreadful that it
terrifies the experienced crew—and leaves them in despair for their very lives.
They recognized their need for divine intervention! They were afraid for their
lives. Rather than trying to run, rather than sleeping below deck, Jonah should
have had a proper fear of the Lord!
What does it
mean to “fear the Lord”
(cf. 1:5,9,16)? For the believer, I think it must mean to recognize, at least
in part, the awesome, immeasurable power
of God, His holiness and His righteousness, and to see ourselves as we really
are: Like Jonah, one moment the prodigal son walking away from the Father who
loves us; next, the elder son, complaining about the Father not treating other
people the way we think He should, lamenting His grace in the life of another: “It’s
just not fair!” Hopefully with growing frequency, we can see ourselves as the
prodigal who has returned to the Father in repentance and experienced His mercy
and grace. For the believer, we “fear the Lord”
because we recognize that He is GOD, and we are not. We reverence Him in His
holiness. And so, we “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling,
knowing that God is at work in us both to will and to work for His good
pleasure…” (Phil 2:12,13). Think about that, whatever the storm we are
facing we can know…
The BIG Idea: God is present in the storms of life working for our good, and for
His glory.
Context (3): Don’t be tempted to deny His Word and run!
3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence
of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So, he
paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the
presence of the LORD.
God said “Go!” and Jonah said, “No!” Rather than heeding God’s call to
go east to Nineveh, Jonah turned his back on God, and headed due west, toward
the sea, setting his eyes on going to Tarshish, apparently in the far western Mediterranean.
He was fleeing “away from the face of the Lord,”
to the ends of the earth if he could. This is not, like Moses did when he was
called in Exodus 3, struggling honestly with a call, voicing his concerns to
God. Jonah hears the Word of the Lord, understands it, and turns his back on
the Lord and heads in the opposite direction, or at least that is his plan.
The verb translated “went down”
occurs twice in v.3 and again in v.5 (and we’ll see it also 2:6). This same
verb can also be a euphemism for death. For example, Jacob, broken-hearted over
what he thought was evidence that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal, refused
to be comforted and said, "No, I shall go down to Sheol to my
son, mourning." (Gen 37:35). The same verb, “go down” is used.
The repetition here in chapter 1, as well as a later reference in Jonah’s own
prayer in chapter 2 (from the fish’s belly) draws the reader’s attention,
inviting us to think about Jonah, running from God, the source of life and
light, into darkness, the further he goes in trying to distance himself from
God, the closer he comes to death.
Jonah had a word
from God, and foolishly chose to ignore it, and in fact he chooses to do the exact
opposite and flagrantly disobey. We would never do such a thing, right? Whatever
God says, we are ready to obey, right? Love, God. Yes Lord, I’m in! Love
your neighbor, love one another… do good to all men, especially those of the
household of faith… Love your enemy… don’t answer evil for evil, but overcome
evil with good… “OK Lord, now you’ve gone too far!” Let’s face it, we all
fall short, we are all a work in progress. And whenever we know what God
would have us to do, and we don’t do it, or even do the opposite, we’ve become
Jonah… we’re turning from the face of God. We need to learn from the prodigal prophet
about ourselves, and about Yahweh, the God who is. Jonah “paid the fare” as he
boarded the ship. It might have been his life savings, we don’t know for sure.
But the cost of running from God would be much higher. And by grace, God was
not going to let him go. That brings us to…
The BIG Idea: God is present in the storms of life working for our good, and for
His glory. We’ll see that God cares, God acts, and God hears. First…
I. God cares: Some storms are attached to our sin [but not all] (4)!
4 But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and
there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.
Storms happen, usually they are simply part
of life in a fallen world. There are storms, and then there are storms! Here we read in the ESV, “But the LORD hurled
a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea…” This
was not a simple convergence of weather fronts, this was an act of God, divine
intervention! Verse 4 begins with the phrase, “But the Lord…”
Jonah sought to run from the presence of God, he turned his back and was going
as far away as he could, but God would not simply let him go. The
language here is striking, Yahweh, the Lord, “hurled” a great wind upon
the sea. The verb is the same that was used of King Saul “hurling” a spear at
David (and then later at Jonathan when he spoke up for David!), hoping to pin
him to the wall. The Lord hurled a great wind on sea… But this great
wind, and the great storm it creates, is no fit of anger from the Father as it
was for Saul. It is an act of holy love. He is present in the storm,
working for the good of the prodigal prophet, and as we’ll see, also for the
good of the men on the boat, and the population of Nineveh for that matter.
Pay attention to
the wording here. In verse three we are told, two times (and again in v.10!),
that Jonah is fleeing from the face of the Lord.
God could have simply let him go, and called another more willing prophet to go
to Nineveh. But God was interested not only in that great city, he was also interested
in Jonah, and in those pagan sailors in the ship with him. He could have
spoken again to Jonah on the ship, but He chose to use circumstances to arrest
his attention, and to lead him to repentance.
So, God was there
in the storm, chastening Jonah, getting his attention, calling Him to
repentance. Do you think you can just give up on God? He won’t give up on you! He
will pursue you because he loves you. Who the Lord loves, he chastens. So, we can see clearly that the storm had a
purpose in Jonah’s life. Not every storm is because of your sin, but at some
level, every sin will bring a storm. But what about the sailors? They had
simply gotten in the wrong boat with the runaway prophet, right? Well, their sin didn’t cause that particular
storm it seems. Not every storm we face is the direct result of our personal
sin, but it is a consequence of living in a fallen world. These sailors were sinners, and though their
sin didn’t cause the storm, God used that storm to bring them to see their
desperate need, and then to reveal his power and his grace, leading them to repentance
and faith. If news of that far-away storm got back to Nineveh, they would
surely think it had nothing to do with them! But God also used it for their
good as well, as it brought the prophet, and the Word of God, to their ears
(Rom 8:28). God is present in the storms of life working for our good, and for
His glory. God cares, and…
II. God acts: We should always be self-aware, and aware of needs around us, asking
what God may be doing, even in the storm (5). He is the Lord of History,
in fact “history” really is “His Story.” The Christian life means
recognizing and embracing our place in God’s Story. He is there, in the storm…
5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to
his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten
it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and
had lain down and was fast asleep.
The sailors were
terrified, they knew they needed divine intervention! They cried out to their pagan
gods but the storm continued. The one who knew the true God, the God who is,
was in denial, sleeping. Like the
prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, the sailors cried out, but their gods were
idols, powerless, unable to act. Ironically, it seems that every person on that
ship was praying—except for the prodigal prophet. Jonah, the prophet of the Lord, was fast asleep, oblivious, in
denial, of what was happening around him! It seems he doesn’t pray until
chapter 2, from the fish’s belly. How
different this story might have been had he wrestled honestly with God
expressing his struggle! Psalm 55:1-11 could have expressed well the struggle
of Jonah to the Lord…
Give ear
to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy! 2 Attend to me, and answer me; I
am restless in my complaint and I moan, 3
because of the noise of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For
they drop trouble upon me, and in anger they bear a grudge against me. 4 My heart is in anguish within
me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5 Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms
me. 6 And I say, "Oh,
that I had wings like a dove [Heb., Yonah]! I would fly away and be at rest; 7 yes, I would wander far away; I
would lodge in the wilderness; Selah 8
I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest." 9 Destroy, O Lord, divide their
tongues; for I see violence and strife in the city. 10 Day and night they go around it
on its walls, and iniquity and trouble are within it; 11 ruin is in its midst;
oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace…
The psalmist expressed many of the concerns of Jonah, even
his dismay at the evil in the city, and his desire for judgment and justice. We
even see in verse 6 the Hebrew word for dove, “Jonah,” and the
desire to fly away from all the trouble! Instead of praying honestly to God,
Jonah ran, and brought trouble on himself and those around him.
The response of
the mariners emphasizes how terrible that storm must have been. They were
experienced sailors, they had weathered many a storm. V.4 says this one was so
intense that the ship “threatened to break up.” The wording is a little humorous
here, like the ship is talking, “If somebody doesn’t do something, I am going
to break up!” The groaning and creeking timbers said it all: the situation was
dire, and the sailors knew it. Their prayers to their gods unanswered, the
sailors did what they could, they threw the cargo overboard, so it seems the
hope for profit was gone, but maybe they could save themselves. They were
desperate to make it to land—desperate to save their lives! Ironically, Jonah
later expresses the truth, in his last words from the fish’s belly in Jonah
2:9b, “…Salvation belongs to the Lord!” So, please excuse the spoiler,
but Jonah eventually learns the BIG Idea: God is present in the storms
of life working for our good, and for His glory. God cares, and He acts, we
also see that…
III. God hears: We need to be alert and prayerful in the storms of life,
considering our needs as well as the needs around us (6). “So, the captain came and said to him,
"What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god!
Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish."
What irony that this pagan captain could see the need for supernatural
intervention — only a god could rescue them from this storm! All the while the prodigal prophet, the one
fleeing from the face of the God who is, running from the Creator of the land
and the sea, was asleep below deck! The pagans were calling out to their false
gods, doing what they thought they could in the face of imminent death. They
jettison the cargo, hoping the lightened ship could make better headway toward
land. Nothing is helping. Somehow the Captain realized there was one man still
sleeping in the hold of the ship, maybe his God could do something! “What
do you mean, you sleeper?!” I like the way the NLT puts it, “How can you
sleep at a time like this?” It strikes me that this is almost the opposite of
another scene that we see in the New Testament. In that case, a prophet greater
than Jonah is asleep in a boat, on a stormy lake. The crew is terrified that
they are about to sink. We read about it in Mark 4:37-41…
37 And a great
windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the
boat was already filling. 38
But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to
him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" 39 And he awoke and rebuked the
wind and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" And the wind ceased, and
there was a great calm. 40 He
said to them, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?" 41 And they were filled with great
fear and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even wind and sea
obey him?"
Jesus was sleeping in peace, perfect faith that the situation
was under control. It was the peace the psalmist spoke of in Psalm 3:5 and 4:8.
Jonah’s sleep was that of spiritual dullness and denial, the idea that Paul
addresses in Ephesians 5:11-14,
11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but
instead expose them. 12 For
it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by
the light, it becomes visible, 14
for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Awake, O
sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
As far as I can tell, that quotation is not precisely
found anywhere in the Scriptures. Could it be that Paul was paraphrasing a part
of the captain’s words to Jonah, and applying it to his teaching to the
Ephesians? Jonah was not dead, though spiritually speaking, he was moving in
that direction as he moved away from the face of God, and “went down” to
Joppa, “down” into the hold of the ship, and eventually down into the
deep (and the belly of the fish)! But
God so loved the world… that One greater than Jonah came, a faithful Son,
the Servant of the Lord, and He faithfully carried out the Father’s plan. He
bore our sins and carried our sorrows! God so loved us!
What is God saying to me in this passage? The BIG Idea in this story is that God is
present in the storms of life working for our good, and for His glory. He
was working for the good of the Ninevites, as He had determined they would be
warned of the impending judgment. He was also working for the good of the
prodigal prophet, Jonah, as he tried to ignore the Word of the Lord.
Hurricane
season has begun, we can expect some wind and rain this spring. Personally,
some of you may feel you are in the midst of a storm right now. God was
there in Jonah’s storm—and He is there in yours—and He knows exactly what is
happening. Remember, “Nothing touches us that has not first passed through the
hands of our loving heavenly Father… Nothing!” (C. Swindoll).
What would God have me to do in response to this
passage? I am
convinced that I can’t know for certain when God is chastening another
Christian. Remember the disciples’ question to Jesus in John 9 about the man
born blind, “Who sinned, this man or his parents that he should be born
blind?” Jesus said it was neither, but that God might reveal His power and be
glorified in the man’s life. When we see someone else going through a storm,
we probably should not presume to think we know what God is doing. Job’s
friends tried that… We can know that He is there in the storm, and that
somehow he will use it for the good of his children, and for His own glory. But,
like Jonah when he woke up, he knew the storm was because of him,
because he was running away from God, because he had turned from the Word of
the Lord—I think we will know when God is chastening us. I know
that is true in my life. By the way, the storm was not caused by the unbelief of
the pagan sailors, but they were caught up in it, they were in the boat with
Jonah, literally, and we’ll see that it leads them to faith.
So, God was there,
working in their lives the storm, to bring them to faith, as surely as He was
breaking Jonah’s rebellious will, and leading him to faith and repentance. As
far as we know, Job never knew why his storms came, but he grew in faith.
Whatever storm you may be facing today, or may face tomorrow, don’t despair,
trust God, and yes, cry out to Him. He is there in the storm. What a mighty God
we serve! Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment