Caught in the Sin

Jonah 1:7–10

⁷ And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸ Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” ⁹ And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” ¹⁰ Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

While Jonah sleeps, the sailors do their best to save the boat and all the lives on board. Finally, knowing that they cannot survive the storm without help from their gods they cast lots to discover who has brought “this evil” upon them. Of course, the lot falls on Jonah. After a rapid-fire barrage of questions, Jonah finally speaks for the first time in his story. While he doesn’t exactly answer all of their questions, his response does tell them what they need to know. He’s a Hebrew who is fleeing from Yahweh, the God who made heaven, earth, and the sea. At this point, the Hebrew word play becomes critical to the drama of the story.

Word repetition is again important as the sailors decide to “cast lots so that we might know on whose account this evil has come to us.” The “evil” of Nineveh that arose before Yahweh had triggered the entire episode. But instead of responding to the call of Yahweh to deal with that “evil,” Jonah has engendered further “evil” upon bystanders—the sailors. Ironically, Jonah, by his flight and inaction, has precipitated doom for the pagans—but the wrong pagans! So when Yahweh directs the lot to fall to Jonah, the “evil” is rightly ascribed to him—instead of to Nineveh. Could the satire be more pointed? Jonah, by refusing to announce Nineveh’s “evil,” which would lead to repentance, has instead brought “evil” upon the less guilty. In response to Yahweh’s call for him to preach, Jonah kept quiet. It is the pagans who, by means of casting lots, finally compel the Israelite prophet to speak—for the first time in the book. But when he does speak, Jonah will make no confession of his evil.

Lessing, R. R. ©2007. Jonah (pp. 125–126). St. Louis, MO: CPH.

So, Jonah confesses his relationship with God but doesn’t actually confess his sin. Have you ever stood on that ground, where you tell God you’re sorry for your sin, but at the same time offer up several good excuses? That’s not confession at all, but instead self-defense. These dramas always play out in my mind as I read the Bible and here I visualize Jonah, soaking wet (as they all must have been) and resigned. He knows what’s coming and will in fact tell the sailors what to do to solve their problem. For me, he has a flat affect in this part of the story. He’s just filling in what the sailors need to know in order to save their lives. As the storm mounts, so does the fear of everyone on board the boat – except for Jonah. He appears to feel nothing. Perhaps we are all familiar with that feeling as well. We know we are caught and we simply resign ourselves to the inevitable. Our emotions flatten out almost as a defensive mechanism. Let's just get it over with. At this point, that's what I read between the lines of Jonah's side of the story.