# 18 – The Mighty Calm
Jonah 1:15-16 – “Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.”
“Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard…”
We’ve already seen how hesitant the sailors were to follow Jonah’s advice to throw him into the sea so that the sea would become calm for them. They instead tried desperately to row to shore, but the sea grew more tempestuous. These sailors seemed to be kind men who, though were willing to dispose of their cargo in the sea, were hesitant to take a man’s life to save their own lives. But when they were making no headway, they eventually decided to follow Jonah’s advice. In our previous devotion, we saw how they prayed to the Lord, asking that He not hold it against them for taking the life of an innocent man.
But now they go ahead with their decision, take Jonah and throw him overboard into the raging waters. That was perhaps something they would never have done in all their years as sailors. It didn’t even sound reasonable – how could throwing one man overboard calm a raging sea?
In our world today, people sometimes find it easier to dispose of people for the sake of gaining wealth for themselves and sadly, even if it means disposing of their own loved ones. That’s the sad state of affairs of the world we live in.
What about us The Church? What do we value in life? Do we value people over things or things over people? That’s a question each of us must ask ourselves, and honestly answer. One thing is very clear about the God we worship – for Him, people matter far more than things. He was willing to sacrifice His own Son to save us from a lost eternity.
An often-overlooked story from the times when Jesus walked the earth, is when He went to the country of the Gadarenes and delivered a man from demon-possession. We are familiar with that story, but if we look deeper into that story, we’ll find a big difference between what man values, and what God values. Jesus was willing to let the owner of the pigs lose several hundred thousand rupees (or dollars etc.) to save one man, whom no one considered of any earthly value, while the keepers of the pigs and the people of the town had so much value for the money they had lost, that they asked Jesus to leave their region immediately. That’s a little glimpse of what we as humans hold dear to our hearts and what God holds dear to His heart.
Getting rid of Jonah from the ship brings to mind another incident from the times of the Exodus of the Israelites, in Joshua Chapter 7 when Achan, had disobeyed God and taken and hidden some of the spoil (a robe, silver and gold) from the defeat at Jericho. He was responsible for a defeat the Israelites immediately suffered in the battle at Ai, and he had to be killed along with his entire family so that the rest of the people didn’t suffer further.
Like Jonah was responsible for the tempest, are we The Church responsible for this pandemic that both we are the world are experiencing? Have we become so consumed with things, going so far as to believe that Godliness is a means to financial gain? This is in total contrast to Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 6:5, where he taught against such thinking. If this is the condition of us The Church, then perhaps we are in danger of being disposed of, for a period so as to bring a calm to the world around and also to lead us to repentance – to God and to our call to take His word to the world.
“…And the raging sea grew calm…”
When they threw Jonah into the sea, something amazing happened. The raging sea that caused immense fear of death, anxiety, loss of cargo, and even threatened the structure of the ship was suddenly as calm as if there had been no storm. The words, “the sea grew calm,” doesn’t just indicate that the winds died down, but says a lot more. It says that the raging waves caused by the winds also calmed down. It’s not an easy thing to bring a calm to raging waters. Even if the winds ceased immediately, the raging would continue for a while, but here we find that the sea grew calm immediately – indicating that the calming of the sea was an act of God Himself. Does this not remind us of the times when Jesus calmed storms, thereby proving to His disciples that He was indeed God, and had control over nature?
“…At this the men greatly feared the Lord…”
On seeing the sea become so calm, one would imagine that the reaction of the sailors would have been one of joy and jubilation, but it was one of great fear. They were now filled with another fear – not the fear of the tempest, not the fear of losing their ship and cargo, not the fear of death, but they were filled with the fear of God. They had never known this fear in their lives because they had never encountered the one true God. They revered and worshipped the Lord. The Lord used this tempest to do two things, if not more – He took care of Jonah’s rebellion and He even revealed Himself to non-Jewish people.
Isn’t it amazing to know that if the Lord chose to, He could reveal Himself to the entire world in a million ways, so that they come to believe in Him, but instead He chooses to use us The Church to reveal Him to the world. He expects us to reveal Him to the world by our lives, our love, by our unity as the Body of Christ and by the preaching of the Gospel? What a privilege we have as believers and as children of God, but how sad it is that most people in The Church do not even consider this as part of their life’s calling and instead live as if they were no different from the world around.
As if to remind us that if we don’t do our job, the Lord can do it without us, we hear stories of people in many countries who see visions of Jesus and have dreams of Him and have come to faith in Him as a result, and that, with no prior information of Jesus at all. Let’s not take too much comfort in the words that someone said, “Without God, we cannot, without us God will not,” because God can work without us – He used a donkey to speak to a man, He used ravens to feed His prophet, Elijah. Jesus told the Pharisees (who told Him to rebuke the whole multitude of disciples who were rejoicing and praising God for all the mighty works they had seen through Him), that if the disciples kept silent, then the stones would cry out. God can use anyone or anything to do what he wants to do, so let’s choose to be used by Him, and not remain silent. God chose to give us the privilege to partner with Him in making disciples of all nations, so let’s do that with all we’ve got for as long as we live.
“…And they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to Him.”
Not only were the sailors filled with great fear for the Lord, but they went one step further and worshipped Him by sacrificing to Him and making vows to Him. This is an amazing twist to the story – a twist that no one saw coming. One moment, there’s a life-threatening tempest that’s drained the sailors of any hope they had in living, let alone making the journey, and the next moment, they are worshipping the God of the universe by offering a sacrifice to Him and making vows to Him.
A grateful heart always results in worship of, and service to God. Remember one of the nine men who were cleansed of leprosy, who came back instead of going and showing himself to the priest as Jesus had told him to? He was filled with gratitude and decided that expressing his gratitude was of paramount importance to him. Jesus commended him for this attitude of gratitude.
The apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Paul is reminding us that since God has been so merciful to us in that He saved us from a lost eternity, we need to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God and he goes on to say that this is our reasonable service, meaning that this should be our natural response to such love, grace, and mercy. To not be grateful is to be unthankful and unappreciative of God’s love. Our obedience, love, and service to God is directly proportional to our gratitude to Him for all He’s done and does in our lives.
What about us The Church? Are we thankful to the Lord for all He has done and continues to do in our lives, or have we reached a point of total indifference where God doesn’t really matter to us anymore? Has God become so familiar to us that we are no longer thankful to Him? Or have we gone to the other extreme, like the people of Israel in the wilderness, who grumbled against God because they had no water and meat? Let’s take warning from their lives because many lost their lives as a result.
If we stop and ponder on the blessings we’ve received and continue to receive from the Lord, (including the breath we have to live and read this devotion), we will be amazed to realise that we have so much to be thankful for. Let’s be reminded of the old song which says, “Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”
God bless you and have a wonderful day or night.
