8 Then they said to him, “Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”
9 So 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, “Why have you done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. - Jonah 1:8-10
9 So 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, “Why have you done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. - Jonah 1:8-10
This week I will be studying through the life of Jonah. Quite a lot to glean from a story most people only know because of a giant fish. The struggles and human nature that is witnessed in Jonah is so similar to my own life and struggle. The passage today finds Jonah on board a ship to Tarshish in the middle of a horrendous storm. The others on the boat are terrified and begin looking to Jonah for answers. As I read these verses today I noticed something that I had never paid attention to before. As they question Jonah they ask about where he is from, his nationality, and his job. They knew nothing about this man. Jonah simply bought a ticket and got on a boat that was going away from where God wanted him to go. I can't say that I would be sharing personal information with strangers on a boat either, but this is not what jumped out at me. In verse ten, we learn that the other men on the boat know that Jonah is fleeing from God's presence. How do they know this? Because Jonah told them! That's right, he didn't tell them anything about who he was, but he felt the need to share the fact that he was running from God. I have trouble figuring out Jonah's attitude and intentions in chapter one. I think I have to go with the idea of apathy. He just doesn't seem to care. He immediately runs from God's command. He seems to feel no guilt as he sleeps through a major storm at sea. He apparently felt comfortable sharing his decision to run. Jonah just doesn't seem to care! The challenge for me comes from verse nine. Jonah claims to fear the Lord, the Creator of the world. What a hypocrite. If he truly feared God he wouldn't be running from God and basically bragging about doing so to a bunch of sailors. I have to search my heart and ask how much my life reflects what I share with others. Do I talk about fearing or loving the Lord while I am very obviously out of His will for my life? Do I contradict myself from day to day in what I say and do? Am I fooling myself, like Jonah? I must check my own heart and follow what I know to be God's will. If I don't I may just find myself in the middle of a storm preparing to be fish food. Lastly, I must never become so apathetic and calloused that I share the fact that I am out of God's will. That is a very scary place to be. I think it would truly take nothing less than three days in a fish to change an attitude like Jonah's. May I always learn my lesson before God has to take extreme measures to teach me!
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