10 The Interrogation Series

# 10 - The Interrogation

Jonah 1:7 – “And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.’”

And they said to one another

This was a team problem – not just a problem faced by one of the sailors; and for a team problem, there needs to be a team solution. Very often when there’s a team problem, the team tends to look up to one or two people (Pastor, Coach, Manager, Boss etc) to solve the problem. But it’s usually the effort of the entire team that helps solve a team problem. Isn’t it interesting that the verse doesn’t say, “And the Captain said…” It says, “They said to one another,” meaning that the entire team was involved in trying to resolve the crisis they were in.

The world is facing a crisis at the moment – a crisis that’s more than a health and financial crisis. It’s one that’s affecting almost every area of our lives. It isn’t just one country or a few countries that are facing this crisis – the whole world is being affected by it. And if that’s the case, then the solution should be not be worked out at city-level, state-level, or national levels – the solution needs to be worked on at a global level, with all nations coming together to do what can be done. This requires a team effort.

Likewise, The Church at large needs to come together to seek the Lord for a solution for this crisis that is facing our world. Jesus said that we (The Church) are ‘the Salt of the earth,’ and ‘the Light of the world.’ If that is the case, then we should be earnestly, desperately, unitedly and continuously seeking the Lord for His solution to this crisis. We can’t afford to take this situation lightly and relax, waiting for it to disappear, because there are no such signs prevalent anywhere in the world at present – in fact the opposite is true. If we, The Church are quiet, then it means we care nothing for both our lives and for those around us as well. The Lord is counting on us to make a difference. We need to come together like never before and plead with the Lord for both ourselves and on behalf of the world. And until the crisis is ended, we also need to be available to the world around to serve them in every way possible. People are struggling in so many practical ways; they suffering emotionally, they are suffering mental stress, and they are struggling spiritually, seeking answers from their gods and finding none. We need to reach out to them in love like never before and demonstrate the love we so enjoy and so profess to possess.

“Come let us cast lots”

Different cultures have different ways they seek guidance for various situations. Sometimes, people in the same culture may have different methods they employ to seek guidance for direction. In the case of the mariners, they decided to cast lots – perhaps a method that was prevalent back in their day (as it still is in some places today). There are different ways people cast lots even today. We’re not sure which method they employed to cast lots, but that’s what they did to arrive at the answer to their question.

As The Church, what do we do when we need guidance in various situations in our lives? Do we employ worldly methods to seek the Lord’s guidance or do we just seek the Lord Himself for guidance? We don’t need to follow any particular method to seek the Lord’s guidance – we just need to seek the Lord. Now the Lord may use any method He chooses to guide us - that’s His prerogative, but all we need to do is to seek Him. The problem with following a particular method for seeking guidance from the Lord is that once we get used to using certain methods, then we tend to idolise those methods and not really seek the Lord.

That we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us

No Normal Storm

The mariners realised that, despite their skills at sea and their knowledge about the wind and the waves, they were in a crisis that was beyond their control or intervention. They seemed to know that this was no ordinary, regular storm – there was something supernatural about it. They saw the hand of God in it. This is evident from the fact that they began asking another - “Who’s responsible for this trouble?” They believed that someone on the ship was responsible for the trouble they were facing, and they wanted to get to the bottom of who it was.