Jonah 1:11-17
Throw Me Into the Sea
11Now the sea was growing worse and worse, so they said to Jonah, “What must we do to you to calm this sea for us?”
12“Pick me up,” he answered, “and cast me into the sea, so it may quiet down for you. For I know that I am to blame for this violent storm that has come upon you.”
13Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea was raging against them more and more.
14So they cried out to the LORD: “Please, O LORD, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life! Do not charge us with innocent blood! For You, O LORD, have done as You pleased.”
15Then they picked up Jonah and cast him into the sea, and the raging sea grew calm.
16Then the men feared the LORD greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to Him.
17Now the LORD had appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.
Berean Standard Bible
The sea is getting worse, and the sailors ask Jonah a question that shows how far past ordinary this has gone. They ask him what they should do to him to calm the water. He is the only man aboard who knows which God they are dealing with, so they put it to the person who caused the storm, and he tells them to pick him up and throw him over the side.
For I know that I am to blame for this violent storm that has come upon you.
No excuses, no argument, and no asking whether there might be some other way first. He knows whose fault this is and he says it out loud to the men it is going to cost.
What the sailors do next tells you what kind of men they are.
Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea was raging against them more and more.
They had permission. The prophet himself had told them what to do, it would have saved their lives, and instead they put their backs into the oars and tried to row a boat through a storm God had thrown, rather than drop a man into the water. They fail. The sea only gets worse while they try.
Then they pray, and they pray to the LORD by name. Verse 5 had each of them crying out to his own god. They ask him not to hold this death against them. They pick Jonah up, they cast him into the sea, and the water goes flat. And these men, who had each been calling on their own god, are afraid of the LORD, and they offer him a sacrifice and make him promises. Before the prophet has preached one word to anybody, a crew of sailors is calling on the LORD by name. He has run, slept, been found out, and been thrown overboard.
Now the LORD had appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.
Appointed. The fish did not happen past at a lucky moment; God had it ready. Jonah went into the water expecting the end of everything, and what was waiting underneath him had been arranged beforehand.
Centuries later, Jesus talked about this. In Matthew he says that as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He took a man swallowed by a great fish and made him a picture of his own burial.
How We Know
Matthew 12:40-41 uses both the great fish and Nineveh's repentance. Matthew 12:40 has Jesus take the three days and three nights in the fish and apply them to his own burial, and Matthew 12:41 has him point to the men of Nineveh repenting at Jonah's preaching. Both details come from this book, used as fixed and familiar, in a separate document.
That shows the book was known and in use when Matthew was written. It speaks to how the book was received, which is a separate question from what happened in the water. On that, Jonah gives one flat sentence and closes the chapter.
Questions
1 What does Jonah tell the sailors to do, and what is right about it?
AnswerTo pick him up and throw him into the sea, because he knows the storm is his doing. He names himself as the cause and tells them what it will take to stop it, without arguing and without excuses.
2 What do the sailors do instead, and what does that say about them?
AnswerThey row hard for shore. They had permission to throw him over and they tried to save him first, and they only give up when the sea makes rowing impossible. These are men who will not take a life while there is any other way.
3 What has happened to the sailors by the end of the chapter?
AnswerThey pray to the LORD by name, and once the sea is calm they are afraid of him, offer a sacrifice and make vows to him. Jonah never preached to them. They came to it by watching what happened to a man who ran.
4 When something has gone badly for you, how long did it take to see whether any good came out of it? What word does the writer use about the fish?
AnswerAppointed. God appointed the fish, so it is there on purpose rather than by accident. Jonah went into the water expecting to drown, and something had been put in place to be underneath him. On the way down he had no way of knowing that.
What This Means for Us
The fish is a rescue. That is easy to miss, because we grow up with it drawn as a punishment, a man swallowed alive in the dark for disobeying. His situation says otherwise. He was in open water in a storm, at his own request, and the fish is the thing that stopped him drowning.
God was not finished with him, and he said so with a fish.
So when this family is in the dark and cannot see a way out, a dark place is not always a punishment. Sometimes it is the thing carrying you, and there is no telling which until later. Jonah could not tell. He had three days down there to think about it.
Prayer
Father, thank you that when Jonah asked to be thrown into the sea, you had already appointed something to carry him. When we are in the dark and cannot see what you are doing, remind us of the fish. And thank you for sailors who tried to save him. Amen.