0228. Jonah Discovered

Jonah Discovered

"And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may see for whose cause this evil has come upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah" (Jon_1:7).

1. Jonah may have thought himself secure in the hold of the ship, but he learned that God could drag him forth; he may have felt that he had averted the eye of God; but God had found him out.

David sinned, but God sought him out and broke his heart concerning his sin. "Be sure your sin will find you out." This is quite as true of saints as it is of sinners.

2. God’s dealings with Jonah did not cause him to relinquish his faith. Quite the opposite is true. Jonah was running away from God, and God came hot upon his track and discovered him. Then, Jonah confessed before the heathen sailors, saying, "I am an Hebrew; and I fear the God of Heaven, Who hath made the sea and the dry land."

A man who is saved may get out of God’s plan and purpose, but will not disown his faith. Peter cursed and swore, and, in a moment of thoughtless haste and anger, said: "I know not the Man;" but Peter never failed in his faith. The fact is that Peter would, at any moment, have been ready to die for his faith. Instead of the storm making Jonah defame his Lord, the storm brought Jonah back to his senses, and to a clear and clean-cut confession of his Lord.

3. Jonah quickly acknowledged his sin before those sailors, and he said: "For my sake this great tempest is upon you."

Then Jonah said, "Take me up and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto you."

The men aboard ship fully realized that their lives were in jeopardy because of Jonah’s disobedience, "nevertheless they rowed hard to bring the ship to land, but they could not."

So, finally with a prayer that God would not lay the blood of an innocent life upon them, they cast him overboard, "and the sea ceased her raging."

It might be well to stop just long enough to remind our hearts that just here we have a wonderful picture of the substitutionary suffering of Christ. Jonah suffered guiltily, for his own sins, and the sea was thus calmed to the mariners. Christ suffered the guiltless, for the guilty, and the sea was made calm for us.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR