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Jonah 1:6

6 So the shipmaster [rab] [chobel] came [qarab] to him, and said [amar] unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper [radam]? arise [quwm], call [qara] upon thy God [elohiym], if so be that God [elohiym] will think [ashath] upon us, that we perish [abad] not. KJV-Interlinear

6 So the captain approached him and said, 'How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.' NASB

Now there is a novel idea. Call on God for help. But Jonah is sleeping and is not wakened by the storm but by the ships captain. 'Wake up! Wake up! Why are you sleeping when we are all about to die? Are you daft man?'

The captain might have been Irish. You never know..... Anyway!

Here we have Jonah running away from the very God he is supposed to call upon for help. We'll note later, that Jonah does not call on God, but just allows the ships crew to throw him overboard for his sin - which he will admit by the way.

The captain is a gentile. He commands a gentile ship. The crew is gentile, and Jonah has opted to associate with them in his escape from God.

We already know that running away for God is not an option. You just can't do it. But then if we look at the representation of the term 'gentile' then we can associate this incident with our own life.

There are two groups of people in history. Those who believe in God, the Savior, Jesus Christ, and those who do not. Typically we use the term Israelite to identify believers. And gentiles are referred to as unbelievers. Gods chosen race from Abraham is called simply that. It is not a chosen race from genetics, but from faith. Anyone can be a descendant of Abraham (or not) and not believe in Christ and they will not be a part of the chosen race. Israel is the chosen nation. Nations are groups of peoples who have something in common. Believers have eternal life in common and are the chosen of God. Chosen by means of their belief in Christ.

Again, the term gentile is used both historically to identify non-Jewish people (genetic ancestry) as well as non-believer people (the lack of salvation due to unbelief in Christ).

Anyone who believes in Christ if therefore saved and a part of Gods chosen people in the spiritual sense. Now believers can be in fellowship or out of fellowship. We studied fellowship in detail in 1, 2, and 3 John - the spiritual life. The spiritual life occurs while inside the fellowship sphere only. Anyone who is not in fellowship (even though they are saved) imitates the life of an unbeliever. Unbelievers cannot have a spiritual life.

The captain though an unbeliever with respect to the Hebrew God, still knew of Jonah's God. And furthermore the captain though an unbeliever was being more responsible with regard to his ship, and his crew, than was Jonah. Just because a person is not saved does not mean that they cannot have a responsible life, in this life. Of course we know that being responsible and honorable and so forth is not enough to save a person. Mans righteousness is nothing when compared to Gods righteousness.

If the incident which is about to take place in not enough to make the ships crew believe in God (the Son of God, Jesus Christ), then they will probably go to the Lake of Fire when they die, unless another incident beings them to salvation.

By the way remember that we know of Gods Son by the name of Jesus Christ. Back in Jonah's day that name was Joshua Messiah. Jesus Christ, and Joshua Messiah are equivalent terms. No extra charge for that. But them you probably remember that study from the conversation that Jesus had with the Pharisees - of course.

Jesus and Joshua mean, 'Jehovah is His help, or Jehovah the Savior,' and Messiah and Christ both mean 'anointed.' So they come to mean the 'God the Savior who is Anointed' or the 'Anointed Savior is God.'

Jonah would have known Christ by His Old Testament identity. Likewise the ships captain knew of the term as well. He referred to God in the plural for the trinity (Father, Son, and Spirit). Note that he also referred to the pagan gods in the plural too, because there are many pagan gods. And of course all of those gods did them no good. They are not real.

Jonah has left his spiritual life and identified himself with the gentiles, the out of fellowship reference to his frame of mind. Leaving ones spiritual life will gain you nothing but trouble.

God controls everything in history and when you choose to leave His control, then you identify with an environment which has no one in control of it. This universe is very large and complex. If no one were in charge, then we as little human beings would not survive. Humanity cannot control the rotation of the earth. We cannot control the weather (make it do what we want it to do). We cannot control anything in life for that matter. So leaving ones spiritual life is tantamount to self destruction.

It is far better to keep yourself in fellowship, to study daily, to learn, to use what you learn, and to repeat all of this daily throughout your life as you pursue the circle of wisdom, and have a great life, than to throw it all away by rolling the dice hoping for a winning number, using dice that have no spots on them. Definitely a loser every time.

Now is the time to post a prayer.

End Of Lesson

Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth.

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