# 18 – The Mighty Calm
“Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard…”
We’ve already seen how hesitant the sailors were to
follow Jonah’s advice to throw him into the sea so that the sea would become
calm for them. They instead tried desperately to row to shore, but the sea grew
more tempestuous. These sailors seemed to be kind men who, though were willing
to dispose of their cargo in the sea, were hesitant to take a man’s life to
save their own lives. But when they were making no headway, they eventually
decided to follow Jonah’s advice. In our previous devotion, we saw how they
prayed to the Lord, asking that He not hold it against them for taking the life
of an innocent man.
But now they go ahead with their decision, take Jonah and
throw him overboard into the raging waters. That was perhaps something they would
never have done in all their years as sailors. It didn’t even sound reasonable
– how could throwing one man overboard calm a raging sea?
In our world today, people sometimes find it easier to
dispose of people for the sake of gaining wealth for themselves and sadly, even
if it means disposing of their own loved ones. That’s the sad state of affairs
of the world we live in.
What about us The Church? What do we value in life? Do we
value people over things or things over people? That’s a question each of us
must ask ourselves, and honestly answer. One thing is very clear about the God
we worship – for Him, people matter far more than things. He was willing to
sacrifice His own Son to save us from a lost eternity.
An often-overlooked story from the times when Jesus
walked the earth, is when He went to the country of the Gadarenes and delivered
a man from demon-possession. We are familiar with that story, but if we look
deeper into that story, we’ll find a big difference between what man values,
and what God values. Jesus was willing to let the owner of the pigs lose
several hundred thousand rupees (or dollars etc.) to save one man, whom no one
considered of any earthly value, while the keepers of the pigs and the people
of the town had so much value for the money they had lost, that they asked
Jesus to leave their region immediately. That’s a little glimpse of what we as
humans hold dear to our hearts and what God holds dear to His heart.
Getting rid of Jonah from the ship brings to mind another
incident from the times of the Exodus of the Israelites, in Joshua
Chapter 7 when Achan, had disobeyed God and taken and hidden some
of the spoil (a robe, silver, and gold) from the defeat at Jericho. He was
responsible for a defeat the Israelites immediately suffered in the battle at
Ai, and he had to be killed along with his entire family so that the rest of
the people didn’t suffer further.
Like Jonah was responsible for the tempest, are we The
Church responsible for this pandemic that both we are the world are
experiencing? Have we become so consumed with things, going so far as to
believe that Godliness is a means to financial gain? This is in total contrast
to Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 6:5, where he taught
against such thinking. If this is the condition of us The Church, then perhaps
we are in danger of being disposed of, for a period so as to bring calm to
the world around and also to lead us to repentance – to God and to our call to
take His word to the world.
“…And the raging sea grew calm…”
When they threw Jonah into the sea, something amazing
happened. The raging sea that caused immense fear of death, anxiety, loss of
cargo, and even threatened the structure of the ship was suddenly as calm as if
there had been no storm. The words, “the sea grew calm,” doesn’t
just indicate that the winds died down, but says a lot more. It says that the
raging waves caused by the winds also calmed down. It’s not an easy thing to
bring calm to raging waters. Even if the winds ceased immediately, the raging
would continue for a while, but here we find that the sea grew calm immediately
– indicating that the calming of the sea was an act of God Himself. Does this
not remind us of the times when Jesus calmed storms, thereby proving to His
disciples that He was indeed God, and had control over nature?
“…At this the men greatly feared the Lord…”
On seeing the sea become so calm, one would imagine that
the reaction of the sailors would have been one of joy and jubilation, but it
was one of great fear. They were now filled with another fear – not the fear of
the tempest, not the fear of losing their ship and cargo, not the fear of
death, but they were filled with the fear of God. They had never known this
fear in their lives because they had never encountered the one true God. They
revered and worshipped the Lord. The Lord used this tempest to do two things,
if not more – He took care of Jonah’s rebellion and He even revealed Himself to
non-Jewish people.
Isn’t it amazing to know that if the Lord chose to, He
could reveal Himself to the entire world in a million ways, so that they come
to believe in Him, but instead, He chooses to use us The Church to reveal Him to
the world? He expects us to reveal Him to the world by our lives, our love, by
our unity as the Body of Christ, and by the preaching of the Gospel? What a
privilege we have as believers and as children of God, but how sad it is that
most people in The Church do not even consider this as part of their life’s
calling and instead live as if they were no different from the world
around.
As if to remind us that if we don’t do our job, the Lord
can do it without us, we hear stories of people in many countries who see
visions of Jesus and have dreams of Him and have come to faith in Him as a
result, and that, with no prior information of Jesus at all. Let’s not take too
much comfort in the words that someone said, “Without God, we cannot,
without us God will not,” because God can work without us – He used a
donkey to speak to a man, He used ravens to feed His prophet, Elijah. Jesus
told the Pharisees (who told Him to rebuke the whole multitude of disciples who
were rejoicing and praising God for all the mighty works they had seen through
Him), that if the disciples kept silent, then the stones would cry out. God can
use anyone or anything to do what he wants to do, so let’s choose to be used by
Him, and not remain silent. God chose to give us the privilege to partner with
Him in making disciples of all nations, so let’s do that with all we’ve got for
as long as we live.
“…And they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made
vows to Him.”
Not only were the sailors filled with great fear for the
Lord, but they went one step further and worshipped Him by sacrificing to Him
and making vows to Him. This is an amazing twist to the story – a twist that no
one saw coming. One moment, there’s a life-threatening tempest that’s drained
the sailors of any hope they had in living, let alone making the journey, and
the next moment, they are worshipping the God of the universe by offering a
sacrifice to Him and making vows to Him.
A grateful heart always results in worship of, and
service to God. Remember one of the nine men who were cleansed of leprosy, who
came back instead of going and showing himself to the priest as Jesus had told
him to? He was filled with gratitude and decided that expressing his gratitude
was of paramount importance to him. Jesus commended him for this attitude of
gratitude.
The apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 12:1, “I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable
service.” Paul is reminding us that since God has been so merciful to
us in that He saved us from a lost eternity, we need to present our bodies as
living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God and he goes on to say that this
is our reasonable service, meaning that this should be our natural response to
such love, grace, and mercy. To not be grateful is to be unthankful and
unappreciative of God’s love. Our obedience, love, and service to God is
directly proportional to our gratitude to Him for all He’s done and does in our
lives.
What about us The Church? Are we thankful to the Lord for
all He has done and continues to do in our lives, or have we reached a point of
total indifference where God doesn’t really matter to us anymore? Has God
become so familiar to us that we are no longer thankful to Him? Or have we gone
to the other extreme, like the people of Israel in the wilderness, who grumbled
against God because they had no water and meat? Let’s take warning from their
lives because many lost their lives as a result.
If we stop and ponder on the blessings we’ve received and
continue to receive from the Lord, (including the breath we have to live and
read this devotion), we will be amazed to realise that we have so much to be
thankful for. Let’s be reminded of the old song which says, “Count
your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord
has done.”
God bless you and have a wonderful day or night.
Comments
Post a Comment