Jonah

Here in the story of Jonah, these sailors had every right to be afraid. They had no clue what was going on and there was no one on board who was capable of helping them. They were alone in the middle of the Medditeranean Sea with no way out of this violent storm.

Also, you’ll notice that while Jonah was asleep, the sailors started calling out to their own gods for help and then started panicking when they realized those gods weren’t responding. It’s important to note that if Jonah hadn’t fallen into a deep sleep, these sailors wouldn’t have had an opportunity to experience such fear and helplessness because Jonah would’ve had God calm the storm almost immediately. If that would’ve happened, it might not have been obvious to the sailors that Jonah’s God was the one who calmed the storm. They might’ve thought it was calmed by one of their own gods or that the storm went away on its own. However, it was important for them to experience fear and helplessness because it ends up playing a big factor in something they decide to do toward the end of this chapter.

It might not seem fair for them to be victims of God’s wrath like this, especially since his wrath was geared toward Jonah. Granted you can make the case that they deserved God’s wrath because they were breaking the second commandment by believing in other gods, but at that moment they weren’t doing anything wrong by setting out to sea themselves, and they had no idea Jonah was doing something wrong when they allowed him to tag along with them. However, later in this chapter, you’re going to see something amazing come out of this incident. The sailors don’t realize it yet, but they’re actually going to benefit from this storm in ways they would’ve never imagined.

These sailors became so scared and desperate for help that the captain finally woke Jonah up. Verse 6 says:

[italicized]“The captain went to him and said, ‘How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.’”[end italics]

Let’s think about this for a moment. We live in an age in which people have a lot of disrespect and hatred toward other religions, and they don’t want anything to do with them. This isn’t too surprising because some religions view the other religions as sinful and misleading, and that anyone who practices those other religions are themselves the very image of sin and evil. This even leads to violence throughout the world between people of opposing religions. Some people have such negative views on religions outside of their own that they’re willing to arrest, abuse, or sometimes even kill people who practice those other religions.

On that note, there are also some Christians, unfortunately, who are biased toward people from other religions. Yes, the Bible says we should not worship any other gods except God himself, but it also says we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Jesus even makes it clear in Matthew 22:37-39 that loving our neighbors is one of the two greatest commandments (the other is to love God). Unfortunately some Christians don’t fully understand that, and instead they think it’s justified to look down on people from other religions. In fact, there are some who even look down on other Christians simply because their church is of a different denomination. This only adds to the divisions and conflicts that plague our world today.

However, these sailors in Jonah 1 were nothing like that. They were not stubborn or closed-minded about their religious beliefs. They showed no hatred or disrespect toward those those who believed in other gods. In fact, they were even willing to put their trust in another God, one that none of them had called out to yet. They knew Jonah served a different God than them and that he hadn’t called out to his God for help. Maybe if Jonah called out to that God, he’ll actually listen and show mercy by helping them. They were desperate to get out of this storm alive and were willing to try something different.

The bottom line is that these sailors were willing to make a leap of faith by trusting in a foreign God they hadn’t believed in before and probably were unfamiliar with. If you want to put your faith in God, you need to be willing to make a leap of faith. Faith that God created everything including you; faith that he’s in control of everything and is there to help if you call to him; faith that he sent his only son Jesus to earth to show us how to live our lives; faith that he sacrificed Jesus on a cross to bear the punishment for all our sins; faith that Jesus rose from the grave three days after his death and is now seated at the right hand of God in heaven; and faith that someday, when you die, you’ll be united with him in heaven and will be there for all eternity.

For some, this is a more difficult commitment to make than others, which can be understandable for a multitude of reasons, but you need to push yourself to throw out any fear, doubt, and concern you may have so you can step forward into the glorious light of almighty God and walk along the path he has chosen for you to live – a path that gives you hope and allows you to prosper.

If you do that you won’t have any regrets about your decision, especially in the long run. You might encounter a few bumps along the road, but they won't be too big for you to handle with God's help. Also, you’ll be eternally rewarded in amazing ways that are beyond comprehension. If these sailors can do it, then you can do it, too!