Hiding Out

Jonah 1:4-6

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. 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. 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.”

I saw a guy on the news this yesterday who had ridden out Hurricane Irma at his home in the Florida Keys. Bad idea – which he was tearfully acknowledging. They had no clean water and had run out of food. Their home was a disaster and they were left with the clothes on their backs. They were tired, hungry and desperate, begging someone to come and save them. His goals had dwindled down to one – staying alive. His desperation could have been mitigated had he heeded the evacuation mandates. A “great wind” is life threatening and we’ve all seen that reality for ourselves in the past few days.

The crew of the ship that Jonah has hired now faces death at the hands of a great wind. If they don’t do something, everyone on-board will die in a watery grave. As Jonah sleep below, the crew does everything they know to do to save their lives. The situation is desperate. First, they cry out to their individual gods. Then they hurl the cargo overboard, which could mean anything from the materials they were taking to Tarshish to sell (gold, bronze, animals, weapons, baggage), to the gear from the ship itself. This was a moment of survival at any cost. They may have even been trying offer a sacrifice to the god of the sea in the hope of calming the waters that way. All of these efforts are to no avail. Yahweh “hurls a great wind” and the sailors “hurl the cargo”.

Jonah must have been a man of means, able to finance his flight from Yahweh’s presence. But once this storm hits, Jonah loses control. His assertive move to take charge of his own destiny and his considerable financial wherewithal to bring it about become irrelevant. Now Yahweh dominates the narrative. Jonah’s position, prestige, plans, and purchasing power are of no effect! On deck the sailors move from inner emotion to outward cry to vigorous action; below deck Jonah moves from action to inaction to total withdrawal. As they increase, he decreases. The antithesis between the sailors and Jonah could not be any sharper than this. But there’s more. Jonah is in “a deep sleep” during the storm (1:5–6). The personified ship is alert and thinks itself about to be broken (1:4). So both the animate sailors and the inanimate ship diminish Jonah again. By going into a deep sleep in the innards of the vessel, Jonah in effect reduces himself to an object. He is replacing the indifferent wares that the sailors hurled into the sea! This contrast between the pagan and inanimate outsiders who respond better than the Israelite insider is a prominent theme that acts as a unifying thread that knits together all four chapters of the narrative.

Lessing, R. R. ©92007. Jonah (p. 119). St. Louis, MO: CPH.

Resisting God is hard work. Perhaps Jonah sleeps because he has worn himself out trying to avoid what God has called him to do. Jesus too sleeps during the violence of a storm (Matthew 8:23ff), but does so out of a deep faith instead of a means of escape. The captain comes to awaken the sleeper. At the very least, Jonah can cry out to his God as all of them are doing to theirs. The heathen captain seeks divine deliverance while Jonah seeks oblivion. Today we find escape in drugs, alcohol, sex, food, entertainment . . . pick your favorite. But Jonah’s story stands as a sharp reminder that we cannot successfully hid from God. Oddly enough, even though much of the story has moved forward and there has been plenty of action, Jonah – the prophet – has not spoken a word.