Jonah 1:13-16 - Same Need, Same Solution

In what areas of your life do you find yourself trying desperately to cling to control? It’s a common human experience—whether you’re a Christian or not.

It’s one reason why people commit crimes and atrocities.

It’s one reason why marriages and families often fall apart.

We want to control how our career unfolds, how our children turn out, how our spouse behaves, even how our body looks. The list is endless. But what’s so bad about that?

Well, at the root, the desperate need to control reveals unbelief. It reveals that we don’t really trust God. And it reveals pride. We want to be god. But total control in our hands would be a disaster, because we are sinful. Clinging to control is not harmless—it is sin deserving of God’s wrath.

But the wonder of the gospel is that Christ willingly hurled Himself toward that wrath for our deliverance. Hebrews 12 says He “endured the cross, despising the shame.” Christ knew the cross would bring suffering, humiliation, and death –  but a greater joy awaited Him beyond the cross: God’s glory, the salvation of His people, and His own exaltation to the highest place.

Therefore, we should look only to Jesus: “the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God,” “to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” – and as we increasingly behold His glory, we will see and be transformed by majesty and grace of God. Then we will find the strength to entrust control to God in ways we never thought we could.

As you look to Christ – studying Him, speaking with Him, listening to Him – He will enable you to respond to your need for control in the ways on display in these verses of Jonah. Notice the outline for you there. Jonah and the sailors; Christian and non-Christian; believer and non-believer, every man, woman, and child, the need and solution is the same: Surrender yourself, with all your delusions and idols, and revere Yahweh, who alone can save you. So let’s look closer at this together now.

Jonah tells the sailors that he’s a prophet of Yahweh on the run. They’re terrified, and they ask Jonah what must be done to appease Yahweh’s wrath. He tells them they should pick him up and hurl him into the sea to calm the storm.

Note that Jonah doesn’t decide to simply repent and obey God, nor does he volunteer to hurl himself into the sea. But these men don’t want to do that, because surely Jonah will die.

Look at verse 13, “the men rowed hard to get back to dry land.” The Hebrew literally says they “dug into” the waves. They tried desperately to let Jonah out on the land, or perhaps close enough that he could get to shore. They are not believers in Yahweh, but still they are merciful. They do not know the God of life, but they value life.

However, the rest of verse 13 says, “but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.” Their plan simply was not the will of God. “Therefore they called out to the LORD.” They had come to the end of their efforts. They had exhausted their ability.

There’s no evidence that Jonah instructed them to call out to Yahweh. And of course, if Jonah had repented before God, the storm would have likely stopped. But here, the pagans humble themselves before God, while God’s prophet is too proud. What an indictment on the people of God. Humility before God must mark our lives.

Now look at their prayer in verse 14, “O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.” Notice the last phrase: “for you, O Yahweh, have done as it pleased you.” Bryan Estelle makes a keen observation here. Three other places in the OT have a similar statement, and in each one, the rejection of false gods is in view. Estelle argues that the sailors are crying out to the one true God in a way that demonstrates their intention to forsake all other false gods.

What compelled them? Fear of death and loss of possessions were in play, sure. They were in a bind, but that wouldn’t make their profession of faith any less real. In fact, the major theme of the book of Jonah is non-believers being received by God. This book is about hopeless cases finding the hope that is in Yahweh. It is about God extending His grace to outsiders. The book of Jonah doesn’t show outsiders pursuing God, but rather, God pursuing outsiders.

How is God pursuing you right now? Regardless of what you believe, all of us have the same need today. Reject your desperate longing for control in some way – and desperately call out to God. The sailors needed to admit that their hope of controlling the situation was all spent. No other god could help them. Like these sailors, surrender yourself, with all your delusions and idols.

Back in verse 9, Jonah said that Yahweh is “God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” This is the great “I AM,” the self-existent. He is the uncaused Cause. He is the One who simply is – with no beginning and no end. What was revealed about the great I AM in part at that time in history has been revealed in full at this time in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Surrender yourself to Him, with all your delusions and idols. Your delusion of control and ability. Your idols where you place vain hope. Give yourself fully to the God who created and sustains you. Give yourself to Christ. Give these circumstances to Christ. Entrust them to God in prayer. Recognize your own sin, and turn from it to follow Jesus.

Don’t take matters into your own hands in a way that demonstrates unbelief. Don’t try to take control in a way that displays a lack of faith in God’s power and goodness. Humbly aim to do things Christ’s way, and trust the result to Him. Believe on Christ, and you can rest knowing this: God saved you, God is present with you, God is doing a great work in you, and God will keep you to the end.

Now look at verse [15]. “So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.” Jonah knew the cause of the storm. Jonah knew he was being controlled by sin. But he couldn’t bring himself to repent.

And see verse [16] Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows. These men were in prime condition to hear what Jonah later proclaims in ch. 2: “Salvation belongs to Yahweh.” But Jonah was unable to intentionally bear witness to the glory of Yahweh. However, he still bore witness, didn’t he?

O. Palmer Robertson writes that Jonah “had run to the ends of the earth to avoid seeing the heathen converted. And what does he get as a result? He gets heathen converted. What’s more, he gets sailors travelling to the uttermost part of the earth, taking with them the gospel that ‘Salvation belongs to Yahweh,’” which Jonah would exclaim when he repents at the end of chapter 2. Jonah could have humbled himself and repented in front of the sailors. But God still accomplished His good and holy will.

Like verse 15, the language of verse 16 is strong evidence of true faith in these sailors. Don’t these OT words and actions look like faith and repentance? That’s more than could be said at that time for many Israelites. That’s more than can be said for many today who claim to be Christians.

And it serves as more humbling instruction to all of us today: Revere Yahweh, who alone can save you. They “feared Yahweh.” Proverbs 9 says, “The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom.” In other words, reverence for the triune God – acknowledging that we need His instruction and we are under His rule. This is His world; we only live in it.

The fear of Yahweh – in its totality – in accepting that we must love what He loves and hate what He hates. We must play by His rules, live by His laws. The fear of Yahweh means to depart from the evil that stands against Him. The fear of Yahweh is surrender to His gracious will. The fear of Yahweh is seeing with eyes of faith. Trusting His eyes and not your own.

And in the salvation of these sailors, we recognize an OT and NT principle that is essential to the fear of Yahweh. Here it is. As Robertson puts it, “God pursues one man to the death that He might bless the many.” The death of Jonah is a glimpse of God's redemptive plans in Christ the Lord.

We’re going to look closer at this in the next sermon. But you should understand that the one true God does not change. This is how He has always saved. This is the continuity of the OT and NT: salvation by grace through faith. As Richard Phillips points out, “Jonah’s ‘death’ in the waves, bringing the storm to an end, shows that God’s way of salvation involves the placing of sins upon one who will die.”

What does the lost world seem to want so badly today? Control. Control over circumstances, identity, health, future, relationships – even truth itself. In Genesis 3, when Satan tempted Eve, he told her, “God knows that when you eat of [the fruit] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God.” It is this hunger for control that leads to so much fear, and anxiety, and despair.

But doesn’t every believer fight this same battle? Don’t your desires and behavior reveal that you so badly want control as well? In the final analysis, a believer’s need and a non-believer’s need is the same. And the solution is the same as well. Surrender yourself, with all your delusions and idols, and revere Yahweh, who alone can save you.

My friends – my dear family in Christ – we must persevere, and we will. Earlier we sang, “A mighty fortress is our God / a bulwark never failing!” Do you know what a “bulwark” is? It’s a solid wall constructed for protection. It can be a high seawall. Also, massive ships have bulwarks. The bulwarks keep the passengers in the ship and they keep the high waves out. Our God will not fail us.

“The body they may kill, / God's truth abideth still! His kingdom is forever!” Whether you have before today claimed to be a believer in Christ or not, will you trust wholly in Christ now? Will you put your faith in the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and vow to leave all your delusions of control and your empty, powerless gods? “Yahweh your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love.”

Please bow with me in prayer.