Jonah 1:4–10
Basketball is a team game. When we play Hoops at Grace, the idea is pretty simple. Players move the ball, play defense, work together, and everybody participates.
But every once in a while, someone decides the game is really about him. He does not pass. He takes every shot. He does not play defense. Maybe he even complains when someone else makes a mistake.
It does not take long before everyone else becomes frustrated. The game begins to break down because one person’s choices affect everyone else on the court.
We sometimes forget that the same principle can be true of our disobedience to God.
We convince ourselves, “This is between me and God.” We imagine that our choices are personal and the consequences will remain personal.
Jonah was about to discover otherwise.
When God Sends the Storm
Jonah had been given a clear command from God: arise and go to Nineveh. Instead, Jonah chose the ship. He chose Tarshish. He chose to go below deck.
What Jonah did not get to choose were the consequences.
Jonah 1:4 tells us that the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea. There is no question about who sent the storm. Jonah ran, and God acted.
God was not willing to allow His prophet to become comfortable in his rebellion.
Hebrews 12:5–11 reminds us that God disciplines those who belong to Him. His discipline is not evidence that He has abandoned His children. Quite the opposite. Sometimes God’s love is demonstrated by His refusal to leave us comfortable in our disobedience.
Jonah had been given a “go” command and so have we.
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.”
We often think rebellion must involve some terrible, outwardly wicked act. Jonah shows us something different. Rebellion can simply be refusing to do what God has plainly commanded.
Disobedience does not have to look wicked to be rebellion. Sometimes it simply looks like refusing to go.
That confronts us with a choice: comfortable disobedience or Christ-driven obedience.
When the Man with the Answer Is Asleep
The irony of Jonah 1:6 is almost painful.
The pagan captain has to wake up the prophet of God and tell him to pray!
The sailors are terrified. Each man is crying out to his own god. They are desperate for hope, yet the one man aboard the ship who actually knows the true God is asleep below deck.
Jonah possesses the truth these sailors desperately need. He knows who God is. He knows God’s character. Yet his rebellion has made him silent.
His disobedience is no longer affecting only Jonah.
Romans 10:14 asks, “How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?”
When Christians retreat from God’s mission, the world does not suddenly stop needing the gospel.
Look again at those sailors. They have religion. They have sincerity. They have desperation. What they do not have is the truth, and Jonah does.
When those who know the hope of God remain silent, those without hope are left searching.
There are still people searching today. There are still people frightened by the storms of life. There are still people calling upon things that cannot save them.
And Christians know the One who can.
When Rebellion Is Exposed
Eventually, the lot falls upon Jonah.
The sailors begin firing questions at him: What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? Who are your people?
Jonah had run geographically, but now he discovers that he cannot escape spiritually.
Then comes one of the most uncomfortable statements in this entire passage:
“I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.” (Jonah 1:9)
Jonah’s confession is orthodox. His theology is good. His words are true.
His conduct, however, is rebellious.
Think about what Jonah just said. He claims to fear the God who made the sea while sitting in a boat on that very sea trying to escape Him!
There is an important warning here for every Christian.
It is possible to say the right things about God while living contrary to what we say we believe about God.
James tells us to “prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (James 1:22).
By verse 10, everything has been exposed. Jonah knew what he had done. The sailors now knew what Jonah had done. God had known all along.
We may hide disobedience from other people for a time. We can never hide it from God.
From the Storm to the Savior
Jonah made a great confession. He had good theology and the right words, but his life was moving in the opposite direction.
That is the danger of comfortable disobedience.
We can know the truth. We can confess the truth. We can sing the truth. We can sit among God’s people and hear the truth.
But are we obeying the truth?
That question becomes even more powerful when we stop looking at Jonah and look toward Christ.
What has Christ done for sinners like us?
We were lost, and He found us. We were guilty, and He bore our guilt. We were condemned, and He took our judgment. We were dead in our sin, and through Him we have been born to new life. We were far away, and Christ brought us near.
The gospel has not simply given us something to believe. The gospel has given us a Savior worth following.
We have not been saved merely to sit safely inside the church rejoicing that we have been rescued. Outside are people just like those sailors, searching, afraid, and calling upon things that cannot save.
We know the One who can.
So once again the choice stands before us: comfortable disobedience or Christ-driven obedience.
Jonah ran from the God who pursued him. Christ came from heaven to pursue sinners like us.
After all that Christ has done for a sinner like me, how can I respond to His “Go” with anything but obedience?
Can we confess Christ correctly while sitting comfortably on the sidelines of what He commanded us to do?