Jonah

The college group has been doing a study of Jonah. I'm really learning alot and appreciating this book like never before.

Jonah 1:3

³ But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.

Why does scripture make a point of saying that Jonah paid the fare? Couldn't it just say that he went aboard? Couldn't it just go without saying that he paid the fare? I think this pointed out because when we run from the Lord, there will be a price to pay, whether it's simply the missed opportunities to be in communion with him, or whether we pay for our sin due to the consequences of our actions that most be endured. The Lord has so much to teach me. Every time I choose some temporary distraction over fellowship with Him, I lose out. Sure, the lessons might come around again and again, but why wait?.

Jonah 1:4-5

⁴ Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. ⁵ All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.

      But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.

Why was Jonah able to sleep with the storm raging all around him? Especially when he caused it? Jonah was running from God because he'd rather die than see the Nihevites come to repentence. Maybe he didn't care to live or to die. I've been there. I've so afraid and yet so angry with the Lord, not wanting to live, but fearing death. I slept a lot.

Jonah 1:11-13

¹¹ The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?" ¹² "Pick me up and throw me into the sea," he replied, "and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you." ¹³ Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before.

My observation is not necessarily relevant to this particular passage, but this is what I thought about when I read it. I thought about how people try to tell you who they are, but we refuse to listen, or how God tries to tell us what to do and yet we insist on our own way in vain.

Jonah 1:14-17

¹⁴ Then they cried to the LORD, "O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have done as you pleased." ¹⁵ Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. ¹⁶ At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.

 ¹⁷ But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.

These men and Jonah himself thought that he would die when Jonah was thrown into the ocean and rightly so. However, God provided the whale to proctect Jonah, not to punish him.