A Man Asleep In The Storm
Jonah 1:4-6
Intro.
We saw last week how a sovereign God chose to send a man with a message to a chosen city. The man rebelled and fled; yet God did not forsake him nor pass over him. He persued him, to bring him to the place of the will of God. We will now look at how God deals with Jonah.
God’s word says, “Be sure your sins will find you out.” Also “They have sown the wind, and shall reap the whirlwind!” Also in
Amos 9:2-3, “Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:
And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:”
I. The Storm:
Take note the Bible does not say, “A great wind arose.” The Lord is the designated sender. In the Bible it always recognizes the Lord as the controller of events. While God has established the laws of nature, he does not leave them to themselves, he controlls them.
Many today want to attribute all this to nature. Some believe in the giant clock theory. That God set everything into motion and he sits back and takes no part in it. However, the Bible says, “All things consist by him.” The earth and the heavens would flee from his presence if he would give them leave to.
Some would deny God’s rulership by stating how they can predict things in nature, yet this only proves all the more that the supreme ruler has charge. “He is not the author of confusion.” If he sits not upon his throne nature would go beserk.
The scripure always gives credit to God for his control of nature
Ps 107:29, “He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.”
When someone is first converted they recognize God in every part of nature. In the flowers, animals, even the stars and the moon. Later they listen to the world and then they stop seeing the hand of God in all things.
II. The Cause Of The Storm:
Isn’t it plain in the word and yet if you were sailing today and ran into a violent storm would you believe that a passenger asleep down below was the cause of the storm?
One man’s disobedience brings a storm upon many others. Those on the ship with him as well as other ships upon the sea are affected. God in his sovereignty can do all of this, and still be righteous and holy. But Jonah cannot escape his responsibility and guilt to them.
1. The Righteousness Of God Easily Vindicated:
Some might want to charge God foolishly, but remember how long-suffering God is with all…and “every sin deserveth God’s wrath and curse, both in this life and the one to come.”
Although these men knew nothing of Jonah’s sin that brought the storm, yet their own sins were enough to warrant God’s wrath. The aim of the storm was at a particular offender, yet all were offenders. They would be brought to recognize this, “Living God Jehovah.” It is all a part of God’s divine plan.
2. Jonah Was Responsible Even For These Others:
He could not blame God, for he knew it was God’s right to deal with men as it pleased him. No matter what happened they deserved God’s wrath as we all do. And yet Jonah was accountable for their lives, for his sins brought the storm.
We all have difficulty with this God is sovereign. He has foreordained all things either by declaration or permissively. And yet man is responsible for his actions.
(Ill.)If a man was drowning and you stood and watched knowing you could save him. Some may say,”Well I guess it must be his time to go or else God would send someone to save him. No! We are responsible for our actions or lack of action.
We are responsible for our families, “Raise up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” This we should not take lightly, look around you at the failings.
If God is not blessing our home or our church can it be laid to us? It is the sins of God’s people that causes God to withhold blessings or send the storms.
God does not chasten the lost in this lifetime they shall stand before him on judgement day.
III. The Lost Praying: Jonah 1:5
What a picture a saint is asleep during this storm and the lost sailors are praying. “Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.”
We know of another time when a man was asleep during a storm, however other than the fact Jesus used Jonah as a type 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the whale, the son of man shall be 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the earth. But Jesus was absolutely faithful to God while Jonah is a picture of disobedience.
1. Their Fear:
This storm must have been extemely violent for these hardened men of the sea to become so afraid. They would not have been easily alarmed. But God made this storm very terrible, he meant to get their attention, and he always knows just how to do it.
When God sends a storm into your life because of some sin you have committed you can be sure he will not allow you to mark it off as a coincidence. He will get your attention.
2. Their Prayers: “cried every man to his own god.”
All men are by nature religious; this is not to say all men seek God for they do not. Religion is that of man building the tower of Babel, our very nature rebels at having a God to rule over us. Men desire a god they can appease by giving him gifts but let them control their own lives. They want to be self sufficient, the masters of their own fate.
When God moves in power man’s will will either bend or break we are never the same after meeting the God of the Bible. We cannot be.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur said there are no atheists in foxholes, while this is true they cry to their own god but they didn’t all return as Christians either. When men become fearful they cry out to their conception of god.
Many men believe if they can just say, “God forgive me.” It will wipe out all their sins, but Jesus said, “Ye must be born again.” These men’s prayers did nothing to abate the storm; the only prayers that are acceptable to God are prayers of faith.
A man may be in danger and make promises to God, and then when he is delivered he may boast how God saved him and yet die in a lost condition. Did God deliver him because of his prayers? No, God would have delivered him anyway.
Many people trust in their prayers they need to put their trust in the Lord, many Christians have prayed to live and then lost their lives, but the God of their prayers is there to take care of them. During the civil war both sides had good Christian people praying for their side to win.
For lost men to cry unto the Lord, “Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with him” Ps 78:36-37
God is not fooled with the prayers of the heathen, they will say anything to escape the danger, but God knows their hearts.
3. They Tried To Help God Answer Their Prayer: “and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them.”
The Arminian says, “We must put legs on our prayers.” We need a wake up call; God doesn’t really need our help, most of the time we are just in the way. These men were willing to work hard to save their lives they cast the load over the side to lighten the ship but nothing seemed to help. They realized it must be something supernatural they were dealing with.
IV. The Church Sleeps While The Lost Prays:
Look how everything seems to be reversed and out of order. The lost men are praying and the prophet of God is sleeping. I am afraid this is a prophetic picture of the church today. We sleep while the world is under a violent storm; a raging attack by Satan and the church is fast asleep. The world cries out to her idols.
Many want to describe Jonah as being insensitive and caring not. The opposite is probably true, he was a frightened fugitive, and a thousand worries troubled him. He knew he had disobeyed God he knew he had voluntarily drove a wedge between himself and God, he had fled from his homeland and diserted his ministry.
Jonah had a burdened soul and heart, he was weary, he had probably sank into exhaustion and fell asleep. It was sorrow that caused his eyelids to be heavy.
Remember at Gethsemane the Bible says “He found them asleep for sorrow.” (Lk. 22:45) a sleep of sorrow is a deep sleep, it is the body shutting down and giving in. Oft times a man may be the first to fear God’s chastening and yet the last to recognize it in their life. The storm was for Jonah yet he was the last to know about it.
If you are lost the storm of God’s anger is already upon you. His wrath is burning hot against you. But if you are a child of God and his anger is turned upon you, run not to the bottom of the ship but cry unto the Pilot of Peace.
If you are saved and your life is beset by sin, and the sea appears calm don’t wait for the storm cry out to the Sovereign of the sea. God will send a storm if you wait, cry out now leave the husks of the pig sty and flee home to the father and confess your sins to him.
Wake up! Wake up! God has spoken against your sins, leave them quickly before judgment falls.
A characteristic of sleep is you don’t know you are asleep until you wake up. We stretch out on the sofa for 5 minutes and suddenly hours have past.
Another is a person asleep doesn’t really want to be awakened. While we are slumbering our sins don’t disturb us. Most professing Christians today should be embarrassed when someone asked them to pray for them. “If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me.” They hold their sins and go through the motions of prayer.
The sailors had to awaken Jonah. Will the world have to wake the church? Will God send a storm so terrible, the world will cease it’s religion and cry unto the church?
