Jonah

[Brad Huber]

Several ppl were speaking about Jonah on another thread. In my reply to that thread, I got the names Noah and Jonah mixed (I have for some reason done this alot down the years, not sure why). But it got me to thinking about the situation Jonah and his boatmates were in. He had told them before he got on the boat that he was running from the will of God, and they didnt think it a big deal and booked him passage. His shipmates worshiped different Gods no doubt due to the mention of them telling him to pray to whatever God he believed in to help them. He told them it was his fault and to throw him overboard (why didnt he jump?), but they had thrown out all the cargo to help the ship rise higher in the churning waters and tried to row to shore, but to no avail. So they threw him overboard and the sea calmed down quickly. They had lost their cargo and would have went back to port afterwords, but I was thinking..... sailors love telling stories of the big ones that got away and other fanciful stories, sometimes true sometimes not. But after seeing the sea calm down after throwing in Jonah, and then a large marine creature surfaced and swallowed Jonah... they must have thought, WOW, his God must be an angry God with those who refuse to obey Him. Then they tell this story back in port at the bars in and around Ninevah. These men were laying the groundwork of the fear and awe of such a God, and then Jonah shows up ALIVE in Ninevah preaching the city will fall in 40 days due to its evil ways. If all that happened with the horrible storm and the human swallowing marine animal, then it would more likely happen to them, the ninevah residents. So the bad thing that happened to them and to Jonah no doubt laid the solid groundwork for the repentence the bulk of the city had. I have often heard it said that it was Jonah's charismatic preaching that convinced them, but perhaps it was the stories the sailors told at the taverns that made the fear of Israel's God more real to them that they would repent.