Jonah chapter one and verse seven. And this is the mariners in the
ship that are speaking together. And they said every one to his
fellow, come and let us cast lots that we may know for whose
cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots and the lot
fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, Tell
us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us? What is
thine occupation, and whence comest thou? What is thy country,
and of what people art thou? And he said unto them, I am in
Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath
made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly
afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the
men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because
he had told them. Then said they unto him, What
shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? For
the sea wrought and was tempestuous. And he said unto them, Take me
up and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm
unto you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is
upon you. Nevertheless the men rode hard
to bring it to the land, but they could not, for the sea wrought
and was tempestuous against them. Wherefore they cried unto the
Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let
us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent
blood, for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee. So they
took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased
from her raging. and the men feared the Lord exceedingly
and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. There's one thing that we can
say about the story of Jonah. It doesn't dawdle. It doesn't
dilly-dally or linger long in one place. And we'll find that
to be true as we proceed. Jonah's narrative moves along
at an extraordinary pace. And yet even here, while the
storm rages and every moment seems likely to sink the vessel
into the sea and end in disaster, There are little details supplied
to enrich the story and from which conclusions may be drawn. Let me mention a couple of them
just by way of introduction. These men, we're told, these
sailors, these Gentile sailors, they were heathens. They weren't
believers in the Lord. They cast lots to discover whose
sin had brought disaster on this voyage. They asked their gods,
whoever they might be, to indicate who was to blame for the predicament
they were in. I don't know, what did they do?
Did they draw straws? Did they put names in a hat?
Did they throw dice? by some means or another, they
attempted to get divine direction. But I want to tell you, God has
spoken. We don't cast lots to discover
God's will. He has declared himself clearly,
directly, and fully in the scriptures. He is no unknown God. He has revealed himself as the
great Jehovah, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He has sent men,
apostles and preachers, prophets to declare his will and his way. And we may pity these poor Gentile
sailors in their ignorance, But we have no excuse. Hebrew tells
us, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which
at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed
unto us by them that heard him? Our Lord Jesus Christ has the
words of eternal life. May we have ears to hear. Again, there's something precious
in the fact that the Lord sent Jonah to these sailors as a prelude
to saving their souls. The ways of the Lord are past
understanding, but they are nevertheless wonderful. The Lord used a willful
prophet, a defiant preacher, to bring gospel truth and, I
suggest, saving grace to these poor souls in the midst of a
storm. I certainly hope so. We don't
excuse Jonah's disobedience, but nor do we constrain God's
mercy. The occupants of this little
boat were a miniature, a microcosm, if you like, of God's purpose
for Nineveh. These few sailors were idolatrous
sinners whom the Lord called to grace by the testimony of
a weak earthen vessel. Jonah. Let us be under no doubt. What the Lord can do for ones
and twos, he can do for hundreds and thousands. Like the Ninevites,
these men needed mercy. And in a very surprising way,
the Lord sent them a preacher of righteousness. So I've got a few points that
I want to dwell a bit more on today, but this second one here,
this coming of Jonah to these men leads me to the first of
the three points that I would like to draw to our attention
today from these verses. The first one is this, Jonah's
testimony to God's majesty. Jonah's testimony to the greatness
of God. The second one is Jonah's example of Christ's ransom. And then thirdly, Jonah's comfort
for those who die in the Lord. So let's take these points one
by one. The first one is Jonah's testimony
to God's majesty. As soon as these sailors had
been given reason to believe that Jonah was the source of
their trial, they were full of questions. And Jonah answered
them all. It would seem that he answered
them at some length. For the men knew that he fled
from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. He
recounted his story. He gave them his personal testimony. He told his story, he shared
his testimony. However, much of Jonah's explanation
is summarised for us in a single straightforward statement where
he identifies himself as a Hebrew or an Hebrew. He says, I am,
in response to the questions, the inquiries of these men, he
says, I am an Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven,
which hath made the sea and the dry land. The prophet Jonah confesses
to being a Hebrew. That is, he confesses to being
a worshipper of the Lord, the God of heaven, the creator of
the earth. And that word Hebrew is distinctive,
it's particular. It identified Jonah's country,
it identified his nation, it identified his religion, and
it identified the God that he served. As I've previously mentioned,
he wasn't a Jew from Judah, nor did he wish to claim to be an
Israelite given Israel's current idolatry. He wanted to distinguish
himself. He felt it needful to distinguish
himself from the idolatry of Israel. He was saying, in effect,
that he possessed the old faith, the faith of Abraham, the faith
of Isaac, the faith of Jacob, the faith of the Hebrews. This
was his personal testimony, the evidence of Jonah's continuing
allegiance to the Lord despite his present circumstances. The
God of the Hebrews is the covenant God of the Bible. He is the God
who made promises of righteousness to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He is the God who justified them
by his grace. And Jonah, I suspect, did not
realise the extent to which these promises would stretch beyond
the borders of Judah and Israel. But as he declared, Christ to
these sailors because that was what he was doing when he spoke
of himself as a Hebrew, as a follower of the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, as a follower of the covenant God of scripture. He
was declaring Christ to these sailors as the God they did not
know. in exactly the same way as Paul
preached to the Athenians on Mars Hill about the unknown God
whom they worshipped. And incidentally, Paul there
on Mars Hill used almost exactly the same words to describe the
God of heaven as is here in the Book of Jonah. and the same thing occurred.
In Acts, we are told that certain men clave unto him, that's Paul
and his ministry, that certain men clave unto him and believed. And we should not be surprised
that the same outcome was produced here in this boat, in this storm
in the Mediterranean Sea. It is the same unchanging God
who opens sinners' eyes in every age. Did not our Saviour say
in John chapter 12, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men unto me? Jonah lifted up Christ, the God
of the Hebrews, the God of grace, the God of glory. And the Holy
Ghost did the rest. He opened their eyes. He opened
their hearts. He quickened their souls to believe. So let me just make a little
application here. about this testimony of Jonah and in the
context of what is often called evangelism. People think evangelism
and witnessing is some sort of specialist activity. Even today,
unfortunately, a professional activity. It is not. It is performed
by God's people lifting up the crucified Christ in what they
say, in what they do, in how they live and practically serving
their Saviour or serving their Saviour practically. Jonah's heart at this moment,
Jonah's head and his general disposition was hardly in the
right place. He was fleeing from the presence
of the Lord, he was turning his back on the task that had been
given to him, but he could not help but testify of his confidence
in God. in the God who saves sinners
by making them righteous and giving them faith to believe
it. Every believer is a minister
and every one an evangelist. So may the Lord open doors of
opportunity for us all. So much for the testimony, Jonah's
testimony of God's majesty. Here's a second point I want
to leave with you. Is Jonah's example of Christ's ransom? The prophet being thrown into
the sea is what I have in mind. Without question, there is a
beautiful type in Jonah's willing sacrifice of himself for the
lives of these sailors and the willing giving of his
own life by the Lord Jesus Christ. Having heard Jonah's story, these
sailors, having heard Jonah's story, The revelations that he
gave them seemed to have stoked a mix of fear and respect in
their minds. Still they were conscious of
their predicament, but now they learned something else. They
learned about God's imminent judgment on the mighty city of
Nineveh. They learned that God was about
to destroy that city in the way in which he had perhaps destroyed
the cities of the plains, Sodom and Gomorrah, raining fire down
upon them. and they realised their own smallness. In that moment, in the midst
of the sea, in the midst of the storm, under the words of Jonah
and under his testimony of his fleeing from the face of the
God who was about to basically turn the world upside down with
the destruction of Nineveh. In the presence of such a God
who rules the waves and destroys empires, they were at a loss
how to respond. And the sailors appealed to Jonah. And Jonah knows exactly what
must be done. He knows that he is the problem
and that God is merciful. He knows If he is out of the
ship, the others will be safe. And in this way, Jonah clearly
can be seen as a picture of the Lord Jesus. Now, of course, types
do not fulfil every aspect of Christ's comprehensive work and
the fullness of what he has accomplished. they are just snapshots, they
are glimpses which point us and direct us to particular aspects
of the work of Christ. Christ himself is the whole. Jonah, for example, was a sinful
man while the Lord had no sin of his own. So the typology doesn't
hold at that level. And yet the parallel does hold.
The ferocity of the storm suggests the wrath and judgment of God
against sin and the destruction that must follow on sinners. These men were moments from death. It speaks of the wrath that Jesus
must endure in his own soul as our representative. Jonah had
joined himself to the ship's company, as the Lord joined himself
to our nature. Jonah was a sinner by nature,
while Christ was made sin for us, though he had no sin of his
own. Neither was any guile found in
his mouth. Jonah gave himself willingly
for the lives of these sailors, as did Christ to ransom sinners. Only one thing, throwing Jonah
into the sea could end the storm and only the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ could remove the curse of the law and the penalty
of sin. The complete helplessness of
the sailors to deliver themselves is reinforced and demonstrates
how Christ alone can save our souls from death. These are all
the pictures that are contained in this narrative. Jonah was
given as a ransom for the lives of the mariners and Christ gave
his life a ransom for many. Christ ransomed the lives of
his church and people. When Jonah was thrown overboard,
the storm ceased instantly and Christ by his death has stilled
the storm of God's wrath. He has reconciled us to God.
He has satisfied divine justice. He has made us righteous and
secured everlasting life for us. Christ drank the cup of suffering
for our sakes. He bore the rod of justice to
appease God's anger. He took our sins and he set us
free. As the sailors took hold of Jonah
and cast him into the sea. They cried to the Lord for mercy
and acknowledged his divine authority and sovereign will in the lives
of men. They cried, Thou, O Lord, hast
done as it pleased thee. Thou, O Lord, hast done as it
pleased thee. I wish so many professing believers
had the insight and understanding of these heathen mariners, had
the illumination, had the understanding that they had. As quickened sinners
lay hold on the Lord Jesus Christ in his sacrificial and mediatorial
role, We too acknowledge God's authority and sovereignty to
do with us and for us what we never can do for ourselves. These mariners would never be
the same again. As Jonah was cast overboard and
disappeared into the water, they were transformed and converted
through their faith in God and their trust in Christ's ransom,
discerned in Jonah's sacrifice. Jonah was a sign of the Lord. No more did they pray to idols. No more did they cry every man
to his God. There is but one God, one Lord
with whom they had to do and they knew it. And the proof of
their faith and conversion was evident as soon as they cast
Jonah into the sea. The raging wind ceased, the waves
subsided and all was calm. And it was calmness in their
souls as well. for believers obtain the peace
of reconciliation, the joy of grace. They receive the calming
assurance of sins forgiven. We cannot, having tasted and
seen that the Lord is good, we cannot go back to the idols of
past times when we've experienced the blessings of redemption and
righteousness imputed by God's sovereign grace. These truths
are all in the type, and as Christ himself called Jonah a sign of
his redeeming work, we do well to learn from it. So Jonah testified of God's majesty. and he also is an example of
Christ's ransom. But here too we find, thirdly
and finally, that he is a comfort for those who die in the Lord. I want to make this one more
application. To remark upon the composure
with which Jonah approached his death, For sure it is, he must
have assumed that this watery end was the price of his disobedience,
even if he did not believe himself to be eternally lost, which I'm
sure he didn't. Jonah was one of the Lord's elect
people, one of the remnant when Israel embraced idolatry. and yet he was in himself a contradiction. He was faithful and yet he was
disobedient. He was justified in the sight
of God and yet conscious of the sin within. He was thankful for
God's mercy and yet he was often filled with a sense of entitlement. He knew the Lord But he also
knew that he wasn't always happy with the way that God went about
things. He was conflicted in his heart. He was a perplexity to himself. In short, he was just like us
all. As all who trust in the Lord
and yet battle daily with the old man and our old passions
in our flesh. This is a battle that we shall
have in this body to the end of our natural lives. Our illnesses,
the decay, the weakness, the corruption of our body are merely
the final manifestation, the final symptoms of the corruption
of sin. And though we are justified in
the sight of God, though we are redeemed and reconciled by the
blood of Christ, this body must go to the grave in order for
the new body to rise from the grave. Paul says in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, for this corruptible must put on incorruption. and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? Jonah's comfort for those who
die in the Lord may be seen in the way that the prophet embraced
his own mortality and submitted to the will and timing of God. He had run from God and now he
was coming home to God. There was no anger on God's part. only love. There was no need
for foreboding on Jonah's part, only trust. There was nothing
to dread, not the cold, not the dark, not the depths. All the provisions of goodness
and mercy had brought Jonah to this moment. In God there is only love for
his people, even in discipline. The wind may howl and the waves
surge, but there is nothing in them to hurt the Lord's little
ones, as our Saviour himself receives us into glory. It was
not bravery that enabled Jonah to submit to the hands of the
mariners and allow himself to be cast into the sea. It was
not bravery, it was faith. He trusted in the Lord and he
knew what he viewed in his final moments. The Lord would not forsake him
now. May Jonah's testimony, may Jonah's
example, may Jonah's comfort be ours as well. Be ours who
trust in the same God, the God of the Hebrews, the God of heaven,
which hath made the sea and the dry land. Amen. May the Lord
bless these things to us today.