notes
Main point summary
The result of Jonah's disobedience and the great storm was Jonah's "death" and yet deliverance, and the sailors' newfound reverence for the Lord.
1:1-17
editing
OT
Jonah 1:1-17
esv
Now the word of the Lord came to a Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
“Arise, go to b Nineveh, that c great city,
and call out against it,
progression
d for their evil 1 has come up before me.”
ground
ideaexplanation
But Jonah e rose
to flee to f Tarshish from the presence of the Lord .
actionpurpose
He went down to g Joppa
and found a ship going to f Tarshish.
So he paid the fare
and went down into it,
to go with them to f Tarshish, h away from the presence of the Lord .
inference
situationresponse
But i the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea,
and there was a mighty tempest on the sea,
so that the ship threatened j to break up.
actionresult
Then the mariners were afraid,
and k each cried out to his god.
And l they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea
to lighten it for them.
But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship
and had lain down
and was fast asleep.
So the captain came
and said to him,
“What do you mean, you sleeper?
Arise,
k call out to your god!
m Perhaps the god will give a thought to us,
that we may not perish.”
negativepositive
concessive
And they said to one another,
“Come,
let us n cast lots,
that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.”
So they cast lots,
and the lot fell on Jonah.
Then they said to him,
“Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us.
What is your occupation?
And where do you come from?
What is your country?
And of what people are you?”
series
And he said to them,
“I am a Hebrew,
and I fear o the Lord ,
the God of heaven,
p who made the sea and the dry land.”
questionanswer
Then the men were exceedingly afraid
and said to him,
“What is this that you have done!”
For the men knew
that h he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord ,
because he had told them.
Then they said to him,
“What shall we do to you,
that the sea may quiet down for us?”
For the sea grew more and more tempestuous.
He said to them,
“Pick me up
and hurl me into the sea;
then the sea will quiet down for you,
q for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”
Nevertheless, the men rowed hard 1
to get back to dry land,
but they could not,
for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.
Therefore they called out to the Lord ,
“O Lord , let us not perish for this man’s life,
and r lay not on us innocent blood,
s for you, O Lord , have done as it pleased you.”
So they picked up Jonah
and hurled him into the sea,
t and the sea ceased from its raging.
Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly,
u and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord
v and made vows.
1 And the Lord appointed 2 a great fish
to swallow up Jonah.
w And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Wayyiktol
Disjunction
With verse 6, we zoom in on the story. We have the first dialogue since the Lord spoke in verse 2.
The sailors ask Jonah what to do to be saved from the storm, and he tells them to cast him into the sea.
V. 6 is a result of v. 5, but not v. 7ff. This is in parentheses, and v. 7 picks up where v. 5d leaves off.
Even though the Lord commanded Jonah to preach against Nineveh, he ran away to go in the opposite direction.
Jonah disobeyed God's command to preach against Nineveh, and so God sent a great storm against the ship Jonah was on.
Even though the mariners reacted to the storm with fear, Jonah reacted with selfish carelessness which led the captain to rebuke him.
The sailors cast lots to determine who fault the storm was, which led them to Jonah.
Therefore, they asked him for information about himself, and he told them he feared the Creator.
The men were afraid because they knew Jonah was running away from this God.
The men couldn't overcome the storm, so they called out to God for mercy, and tossed Jonah into the sea, which stopped raging.
The result was that the men feared the Lord and worshipped him, and Jonah was swallowed up by a great fish.
Jonah reacts to the storm with selfish carelessness, but the sailors react with fear when they discover that the Creator has sent the storm because of Jonah.
It is discovered that the storm is Jonah's fault; so he tells the sailors that he fears the Creator.
The sailors are afraid because the storm is Jonah's fault, because he is running away from the Creator.
After Jonah's "death," the sailors fear the Lord and worship him, while Jonah is swallowed by a great fish.
When the storm stopped, the sailors feared the Lord and worshipped him, while Jonah was swallowed by a great fish.
Jonah responds to the storm God sent because of his rebellion by asking the sailors to kill him so that they would be saved.
discourse