Jonah 1
“Are we having fun yet?” Fronk asked the group. But even before they can answer, he raised a fist and shouted, “Alrighty then! Well, we’re just getting started, my peeps. This boat is about to set sail. This rocket is about to blast off! Keep your hands inside the windows and remain seated at all times! We’re right at the beginning of the Book of Jonah. We’re going to see that he was commissioned by God, but then he goes off in the opposite direction of where God was sending him. We’ll see the great wind…and then the great fish. So, my friends…which of you would care to do the honors of starting us out with the first two verses of Jonah chapter one?”
Everyone raised their hands.
“The first person who can tell me what I’m thinking will read the verses.” Fronk folded his arms across his chest, raised his left eyebrow in a Mr. Spock sort of way, and waited.
Fuller grunted. “You’re probably thinking of Gilligan’s Island because of your strange fascination with the sitcom.”
Fronk shook his head. “Be real, Skipper. What am I really thinking?”
“We think you’re crazy,” Erin replied, “but you’re not asking us what we think.”
“I am crazy, but that’s beside the point! And I will have you know that when I say crazy, I mean I am crazy for the Lord!”
“I don’t know what you’re thinking,” Staci said. “I’m not a mind reader.”
Fronk clapped his hands together. “Good answer, and precisely what I was looking for. You, Staci, may have the honor of reading Jonah 1:1 and 2.”
She smiled. “Oh, thank you.” She pulled her Bible close and read Jonah 1:1 - 2. “‘Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.’ ”
“Now…who is Jonah?”
King responded first. “He has just been identified to us as the son of Amittai. We also know he is a prophet.”
“But these verses don’t call him a prophet,” Staci replied.
“True. However, whenever we see the phrase, ‘the word of the Lord came unto’ usually signifies that the Lord is speaking to a prophet and that He is giving the prophet a message for the people. As William pointed out earlier, Jonah is a historical figure, and so history tells us that Jonah was a prophet.”
Shiva looked up from his notes. “Well…who exactly is Amittai then? All we know here in this passage is that he is Jonah‘s father. But who is he?”
“Another historical figure,” Barrington pointed out. “But more specifically, listen to this…” He read II Kings 14:25. “‘He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher.’ ” He paused. “We don’t need to understand this whole verse right now, but I just wanted to point out what it says about Amittai. Apparently, we can see right here that Jonah’s father was also a prophet.”
Fuller nodded. “That’s true, Al, but Amittai was not only a prophet, but from the verse you just read, we find out that he was also a native of Gath-hepher. I’d also like to say that Amittai is a Hebrew name, which means my truth.”
“We’re getting quite a bit from these two verses, aren’t we?” Fronk inquired.
“That’s just from the first verse,” Lenox pointed out. “What will the second one show us?”
“I’m glad you asked that because it is easy to see that what we find in verse two is God’s call and commission of Jonah to go to Ninevah.”
“That great city,” Lenox replied.
“Yes. Exactly. Ninevah was a great city. It was the capital of the Assyrian Empire and was located on the Tigris River. It was the world power in that day. Later on, we’ll deal with the matter of the size of the city, because it is emphasized two more times in this book. But right here, the emphasis is on the wickedness of that great city.”
“It’s a great city,” Shiva began, “but great in wickedness.”
“Well, its wickedness is so great it has come up before God, and He has now determined that He will judge the city…if the city does not turn to Him.”
Barrington raised a fist. “Preach on, brother.”
“I will preach on. So the call and commission was given to Jonah by God, but what does our prophet do?” Fronk paused for affect. “Jonah goes west!”
“So God calls and commissions Jonah,” Fronk replied. “And what, my peeps, does Jonah do about the call and the commission?” He pointed at Lenox. “We’ll find out in verse three, which Knox will read to us.”
Lenox read Jonah 1: 3. “‘But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.’ ”
Barrington chuckled. “Well, obviously, he’s going the wrong way.”
Fronk nodded. “Absolutely. We see that Jonah leaves his hometown of Gath-hepher in the northern kingdom of Israel and, with this call and commission from God, you would think he had plans to head for the city of Nineveh. Wouldn’t you?”
“One would think,” Shiva agreed.
King paused. “I don’t know, Marc. Sometimes when we are asked by God to do something for Him, we have a tendency to want to either go the other way or do it ourselves. Both ways are harmful to us in that whenever we go against His Will, we inevitably fall hard.”
“We find out that’s what happens to Jonah,” Fuller pointed out. “He falls hard.”
Fronk nodded. “Yes, he does.”
“When you talk about Jonah going west,” Staci began inquiringly, “are you using a metaphor? Or did he really go west?”
“Well, Jonah would have had to go east from Israel in order to get to Nineveh. Instead of going east like he should have, he does a very odd thing. He goes down to Joppa and gets himself a ticket on the first boat for a place called Tarshish. Now Tarshish doesn’t sound anything like Nineveh, and it certainly isn’t east! No! Tarshish was a city founded by the Phoenicians on the southern coast of Spain. And guess what? It was west!”
“Sounds like there’s a problem here,” Erin replied. “Jonah has clearly disobeyed God.”
“Why would he do that?” Staci asked. “I mean, if he was a prophet, speaking to people about God shouldn’t have been a problem with him. Why would he disobey God?”
Fronk shrugged. “Oh, there are several reasons, I’m sure. In fact, I have quite a few listed here in my notes.” He glanced at them. “I’ve actually got four. Does anyone want to take a guess as to what possible reasons Jonah had for disobeying God?”
Lenox nodded. “Sure. I think the first one should be obvious. Especially if you’re familiar with the Book of Jonah and have had studied it before. Jonah hated the Ninevites, and he didn’t want them to be saved.”
Staci looked at him, incredulous. “Why would he hate them? Could you really hate someone so much that you would actually wish them to go to Hell? That‘s awful!”
“There was a basis for his hatred, Staci,” Fuller replied. “Assyria was one of the most brutal nations of the ancient world. They were feared and dreaded by all the peoples of that day. They used very cruel methods of torture and could extract information from their captives very easily. One of the procedures was to take a man out onto the sands of the desert and bury him up to his neck. Nothing but his head would stick out from where he was buried. Then they would put a thong through his tongue and leave him there to die as the hot, penetrating sun would beat down upon his head. It is said that a man would go mad before he died. That was only one thing the Assyrians were capable of.”
“That’s horrible!”
“As an army, the Assyrians moved in an unusual manner. One of the reasons the Babylonians were able to overcome them was the slowness of the march of the Assyrian army. They took their families with them and had very little order in the army. They moved as a mob across the countryside. It’s very easy to see that their disorder would count against them. However, when they moved down like a plague of locusts upon a town or village, it’s said that they were so feared and dreaded that on some occasions an entire town would commit suicide rather than to fall into the hands of these brutal Assyrians. You can see that they were not loved by the peoples around them.” Fuller paused. “We also know at this time the Assyrians were making forays into the northern kingdom of Israel. For a long time, it was Syria and the northern kingdom which fought against each other, but they finally came to an alliance because of the threat of Assyria to the north and east of them. But Assyria eventually took both Syria and Israel into captivity. When the Assyrians were beginning to penetrate into a nation they hoped to conquer, they would make a surprise attack upon a city, take captive the women, and then brutally slay the men and the children. We don’t know this for sure, but it’s reasonable to conceive that the Assyrians had come down against Jonah’s hometown of Gath-hepher at one time. They may have come even to his home, and he may have seen his own father and mother cruelly, brutally slain before his eyes. Or he might have seen his sisters taken by force by the Assyrians. At least we know that Jonah hated the Assyrians, and he didn’t want them saved.”
Staci pursed her lips in thought. “These Assyrians…They’re also Ninevites?”
“Yes.”
“Well,” Fronk said with a nod, “that is one of the reasons for Jonah’s disobedience. He doesn’t intend to carry out God’s message to Nineveh because of his hatred for them. What else do we have?”
King glanced around the table. When no one spoke up, he said, “I believe it has something to do with the message itself. Some might believe that the message God intended for Jonah to give was a message of salvation, but I believe the message was to be one of judgment. Now Jonah knew God, and it was because Jonah knew God that he went in the opposite direction. Why? Because he knew that if he went to Nineveh with a message of judgment and if the people of the city turned to God in repentance, then God would not judge them but would save the city. Jonah didn’t want that city to be saved. It just wasn’t something he looked forward to, and so he went in the opposite direction.”
Fronk nodded. “Thank you, David. That, also, is one of the reasons I have listed here. There are two others. I’m gonna see how smart you are…Bear, give us a third reason.”
Barrington paused as he thought about it. Finally, he said, “I would have to say it was because of simply being a disobedient prophet of God. I mean, there’s no question about that. He was clearly out of the will of God. Kind of like the prodigal son. The prodigal son ran away from home because he didn’t want to live under the will of his father, and so he went to the far country. Jonah, too, was out of the will of God. He was a prophet who was certainly not in step with God. I think that the entire fourth chapter deals with his rebellion and how God brings him back into step with Himself.”
“Oh, come on! You peeked at my notes. All of you did!”
The Gatherers chuckled.
“Was that in your notes?” Barrington asked.
“Coitenly!” Fronk replied.
“Why don’t you tell us the fourth one?” Shiva inquired.
“Why don’t you? Do you know?”
He shook his head. “I don’t have a clue.”
“Let me give you all a hint.” Fronk paused for affect. “Have you ever noticed that in the Old Testament…God never sent His messengers as missionaries to other countries?”
King nodded thoughtfully. “Interesting.”
Staci paused. “What does that have to do with Jonah’s disobedience?”
“Think about it,” Fronk said.
“I am, and I still don’t see the connection.”
“Okay, just bear with me. The method that God used in the Old Testament was really the opposite of His method today.”
“Well, that can’t be. God is the same yesterday as He is today and as He will be tomorrow.”
Lenox turned to her. “God is always the same, Staci, but people aren’t. People always change. It’s what we do. We’re always looking to do things differently. We’re never satisfied with what we have.”
Fronk nodded. “Right. And the Israelites back in the day were no different in that regard. God, of course, knows that about them. Israel was to serve and worship God as a nation that was located at the crossroads of the world, where the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa meet. The nations of that day, if they were not traveling by water, would take the route through the land of Israel. God took the people of Israel, put them right there at the crossroads, and had them build a temple to worship Him in order that they might witness to God by serving Him. Their witness was to a world that was looking in on them. People were watching them. The invitation was, ‘Come, and let us go up to the house of the Lord and worship Him.’ Israel witnessed by serving God at the crossroads of the world, and the world came to them.”
King nodded. “Ah, yes. I understand. Take for example, the Queen of Sheba who came from the ends of the earth to Israel. And why did she come? Because she had heard how they worshiped and, when she got there, she found there was an altar there for sinners. That was the thing which brought her to a saving knowledge of God. If you read the historical record, you will find that not only did she come but also the kings of the earth came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. During that brief period, Israel did witness to the world. They witnessed not by going out as missionaries but by the world coming in to them.”
Fuller said, “How about In the New Testament? We also have the examples of one son of Ham, one son of Japheth, and one son of Shem who were converted. The Ethiopian eunuch, Saul of Tarsus, and Cornelius, the Roman centurion. Although we’re given only these examples, there were literally thousands and, later, millions who were led to Christ.”
“I think it must have been a real eye opener for the twelve disciples,” Shiva began, “when the Lord Jesus said to them, ‘…Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel…1’ I imagine they must have looked at each other and said, ‘Hey, this is something brand new! We didn’t know that it was to be done this way.’ Instead of, ‘Come up to Jerusalem,’ the Lord Jesus said, ‘Beginning at Jerusalem, you are to go now to Judea, Samaria, and on to the ends of the earth. 2’ ”
Fronk nodded. “Right, and that’s heavy, too, because now…that is the method today.”
“But that wasn’t the method in Jonah’s day,” Lenox said, “and Jonah must have been surprised when God said to him, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh.’ I think Jonah was the same kind of man as Simon Peter, and he may have talked back to the Lord, questioning Him as if He were telling him to do something out of the box, so to speak. I don’t think Jonah understood the concept that God is also God of the Gentiles, not just the Jews. >‘Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. 3’ It wasn’t until after the experiences related in this book that Jonah realized God is the God of the Gentiles also.”
Jonah’s experience may be helpful to us if we are having a difficult time and wondering if we are in the will of God,” King pointed out. “If you are having a difficult time is not proof that you are out of the will of God. Rather, it may be proof that you are in the will of God. If you are having it too easy today and things are going just right for you in every direction, and if that is all you are using to interpret that you’re in the will of God, then you are leaning on a poor, broken reed, and it will not hold you up in time of a crisis.”
“Well, just look closely at the illustration of Jonah,” Fronk replied, glancing at his notes. “Here is a man who hears God’s call and heads in the opposite direction. He’s definitely out of the will of God. We know that because he goes down to Joppa, and encounters no problems there. He finds a ship. He buys a ticket. He gets on board the ship, and then he goes to sleep! He must have thought that since it was easy to get onto the wrong boat, it must be God’s will.”
“How many Christians think like that today?” King asked. “If they are having a difficult time, they believe they are clearly out of God’s will. Yet if things are going easy and everything works out well, then clearly they are in God’s will. Now hear me out. It could be that if you are in God’s will and you are encountering problems, then perhaps it simply means that the Devil is getting a little uneasy because you are growing and proving effective for God. Just because you are having trouble does not mean you are out of the will of God. Keep that in mind as you serve Him.” He nodded to Fronk. “Please continue and forgive the occasional outburst from me.”
Fronk let out a holler. “Nothing wrong with a little outburst now and then, brother!”
Erin jumped and glared at him.
“Well…maybe sometimes, it can be a tad bit of a problem.” He clapped his hands together. “So…back to Jonah. Everything seemed to be promising for a very pleasant journey for Jonah. You bet’cha. Everything had worked out so well, but we know that Jonah is going in the wrong direction and that God will have to put him inside a fish in order to turn him around. Can you imagine any greater way for God to get someone’s attention?”
“God uses all kinds of methods to get peoples attentions,” Fuller pointed out. “‘And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 4’ ” He paused. “Some escaped the edge of the sword by faith, but others by faith were slain by the sword. You’ll find that in Hebrews. You just can’t always interpret the good circumstances as being God’s will and the unfavorable circumstances as not being God’s will.”
“That’s true. Now Jonah is onboard a ship now and, as this ship pulls out, maybe Jonah is standing on the top deck, smiling as the land fades away in the distance. He may even be thinking that he was about to enjoy a wonderful cruise.” Fronk pauses for affect. “But we’re gonna see that this man is not going to have it quite that easy.”
The Great Wind
(Jonah 1:4 - 10)
“David,” Fronk said as he glanced at his notes, “would you please read for us the first chapter, verses 4 through 10?”
King nodded. “Of course.” He read Jonah 1:4 - 10. “‘But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. 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 an 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.’ ”
“Who was responsible for the storm?”
“God was,” Shiva replied.
“The storm on the Sea of Galilee,” King began, “during which our Lord was asleep in the boat, was such that those men on board knew they were going to perish. They were experienced with that sea and knew that it was a storm which they could not weather and their boat soon would be at the bottom of the sea. Peter came to Him and said, ‘…carest thou not that we perish? 5’ That is what would have happened had He not intervened.”
“But here in the Book of Jonah,” Fronk replied, “God is using a storm, and He’s using it to save a city! Isn’t that heavy? I can’t pick that up and neither can you! He’s going to turn around a prophet who has been going the wrong way and turn him around so he’s going the right way! And look at those mariners on the boat with Jonah. Man, listen! Those guys are pros. They’re sailors who were accustomed to the Mediterranean, and they suddenly realized that the storm they’re in is no natural storm.”
Staci hesitated. “If it was such a fierce storm, how come Jonah was fast asleep?”
Fuller responded before Fronk could. “You know, I once thought that if a man got out of the will of God and into sin, then he would be tormented with a bad conscience and just be completely miserable. But now you’ve really got to ask…Is that true of Jonah? I mean, look at him. He’s completely out of the will of God. The prophet is going in the opposite direction of where God told him to go. The man is literally running from the presence of God. He wants to get as far from Nineveh as he possibly can, and is headed for Tarshish. Yet here he is, confident that everything is all right. He’s sleeping inside this raging storm when even the sailors are scared to death. And notice that the sailors are pagans, worshiping other gods.”
Erin paused. “So…Jonah’s kind of feeling like he’s doing okay then, going against God?”
“Well, the storm didn’t wake him up,” Lenox pointed out.
Fronk agreed. “No…but the sailors did. In fact the shipmaster himself roused him from his slumber. ‘Wake up, ye sleepyhead! What der ye think yer doin’ sleepin’ through a storm like this?!’ Jonah is the only one sleeping through the storm because he can. But finally, the shipmaster is able to get the prophet out of bed and he asks him to call upon his God. So Jonah comes up to the deck, and he sees this great storm they’re in, which is threatening to sink the ship to the very bottom of the sea. Argh!” He paused. “Now…lets take a quick look at the lots these men cast, because that’s just what the sailors did. They cast lots.”
Shiva frowned. “Can God use something like that?”
Barrington shrugged. “God can use anything. But I think casting lots was what the sailors did because they were superstitious and believed in other gods. It was something they did, not something God told them to do.”
“God used their superstitions,” Lenox replied. “Think about it. They pleaded with their own gods to ease the storm. They went all over the crew to see if any of them had offended their gods. And when they exhausted that avenue of determining why the storm was upon them, they cast lots. It fell on Jonah…Then, they began to ask him about his God.”
Fronk nodded. “Exactly. They wanted to know what he did for a living, where he came from, what his country was, who his people were. They wanted to know who his God was. We don’t know how long he was on the boat, but it’s clear right up to this time that Jonah hadn’t talked to these sailors since he’s been on board. He hadn’t even witnessed to them.”
“A man out of the will of God can never be an effective witness for God,” King pointed out. “That’s something very important for all of us to keep in mind. Especially in the End Times.”
“Notice what Jonah didn’t tell them. What was the first thing they asked him?”
“They wanted to know what his occupation was,” Erin said.
Fronk blinked. “You mean to tell me that these men had no idea he was a prophet? Wow! What else?”
Shiva looked up from his notes. “They wanted to know where he came from.”
Fronk put his hands to his head. “What?! That’s crazy! You mean…he didn’t even tell them he was from a place called Gath-hepher in the northern kingdom of Israel? The nerve of him! What was the third thing he didn’t mention that made these poor sailors ask him during a crisis?”
“What was his country,” Lenox responded. “He didn’t tell them he was a citizen of Israel.”
“Well, this guy sure ain’t-a forth coming about himself, is he? There was a fourth question they had to ask. What was that about?”
“They wanted to know who his people were,” Fuller replied. “They didn’t know he belonged to the Israelite people who have a revelation of the living and true God.”
“So he never explained that he was a prophet who represented the living God and who had been called to go to Nineveh to bring a message of hope and salvation. Jonah kind of neglected to mention any of that. How come?”
“Because he’s out of the will of God,” King said.
“But…he finally tells them he’s a Hebrew, and that meant a lot. The Hebrews worshipped one God. That means they were - and I’m gonna throw a big word at ya, so get ready!” He paused. “Monotheistic! That’s what they were. They worshipped one God - like we do. They didn’t worship idols. They had no other gods before them but worshipped the God who is the Creator. Jonah tells them that he fears the Lord, who is the God of heaven which has made the sea and the dry land.” He snorted. “But you wouldn’t have known that if these sailors didn’t have to pry it out of him right in the middle of this raging storm. For all we know, these sailors who were pagan might not have ever had any knowledge of the living and true God up to this point in their lives.”
“God used the storm to turn Jonah around,” Staci said. “I think at this point, he must have begun to realize he was out of God’s will and because of it, he was hurting other people.”
Fronk nodded. “There’s truth in what you say, Doc. Jonah does admit to the sailors that he was running from God, and they end up asking him why would he do such a thing! ‘Why are ye doin’ this, argh?’ they asked. ‘Are ye out of yer mind? We thought ye was a child of God!’ Kind of embarrassing when a non-believer asks a Christian that kind of a question, don’t you think? And I’m certain that poor old Jonah must have turned about three or four different shades of red at this particular time.” He paused for affect. “But we have Jonah running from God. He runs into a great wind…that leads him right into the belly of a great fish.”
Jonah And The Great Fish
(Jonah 1:11 - 17)
“Allow me the honor of reading the next passage here,” Fronk said. Then, he cleared his throat and read Jonah 1:11 - 17. “‘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 rowed 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. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows. Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.’ ” He whistled. “Wowie! I’ll bet it was hot and stinky in there.”
“Isn’t it interesting,” Fuller began, “that even though the sailors were up against a hard decision, they wanted Jonah to make that decision. They didn’t appear to want the responsibility at all. They asked him for direction.”
“And Jonah gave them a straight answer,” Shiva replied.
Erin nodded her head. “Of course, he did. He realized that the hand of God was moving in his life. He knew the only solution to the problem of the storm was to get him off the ship going to Tarshish. God already determined to get Jonah to Nineveh and not even Jonah could change that.”
Fronk slapped his hand onto the table. “But look at the sailors!”
“What about them?” Lenox asked.
“You don’t notice anything about them?”
“Other than they’re sailors and not Christians…no.”
“But that’s just it. They’re pagans! They’re heathens!” He tossed his hands into the air. “They’re heathenistic pagans, man! They’re paganistic heathens. And these guys are the ones who don’t want to toss the prophet of God into the raging sea. They even try their best to get the ship back to dry land. They row as hard as they can! But they can’t do it. These guys really turn out to be some outstanding men.”
“I agree,” King replied. “Notice the change that is taking place in their lives. They’re turning now to the living and true God.”
Staci pursed her lips in thought. “They’re desperate.”
“Of course, they are. But they’re gods had failed them. Now they call upon God to forgive them for what they are about to do because they have no other alternative.”
“What are they about to do?”
“Toss Jonah into the sea,” Barrington answered.
“Oh…right.”
King held up a hand. “Notice that when Jonah was tossed into the sea, the passage goes on to tell us that ‘the sea ceased from her raging.’ This tells us that it was a supernatural storm under God’s complete control.”
Shiva nodded. “And that’s heavy.”
“We’re told in Scripture that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Did these men fear their superstitious gods? No. They feared the One who is the Creator of the sea and the land. And the Bible tells us these sailors offered a sacrifice to the Lord. That sacrifice points to Jesus Christ. There is no alternative. Then, they made vows. What vows did they make?”
Fronk took it from there. “They vowed to the Lord that they would now serve Him. Through the experience, they turned to the living and true God.”
“So something good was accomplished through the storm,” Staci replied. “Because Jonah was on the boat, these men got saved.”
He nodded. “Yes…but what about poor Jonah. Notice what happened to him. The Bible says a great fish swallowed him up, but look at the key word in verse 17.” He paused. “Can anyone point it out? Here…I’ll read the verse again, and you see if you can pick out the key word I’m looking at.” He read Jonah 1:17. “‘Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.’ ”
Barrington nodded. “I see it.”
“Do you now? Then, what is it? Be quick about it!”
“The word is prepared.”
Fronk blinked. “Now how did you know that?”
“It just makes sense.”
Staci looked at him. “In what way? Why is this word a key word in this verse?”
“Because this just wasn’t a great fish!” Fronk exclaimed, beating Barrington to the answer. “It was a great fish that was prepared by the Lord. The Lord prepared this great fish to swallow up Jonah. This great fish was a part of God’s plan to get Jonah to turn around.”
