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Jonah 1:11-12

11 Then said [amar] they unto him, What shall we do [asah] unto thee, that the sea [yam] may be calm [shathaq] unto us? for the sea [yam] wrought [halak], and was tempestuous [ca`ar].
12 And he said [amar] unto them, Take me up [nasa], and cast me forth [tuwl] into the sea [yam]; so shall the sea [yam] be calm [shathaq] unto you: for I know [yada] that for my sake [shel] this great [gadowl] tempest [ca`ar] is upon you. KJV-Interlinear

11 So they said to him, 'What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?' — for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. 12 And he said to them, 'Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you.' NASB

Now the sailors are caught between two opinions. The first was their finding out the culprit by means of the casting of lots. This opinion was an abuse of justice, was not objective, had no relation to the storm, nor to their predicament. Their presumption that anyone aboard might be the cause of the storm was not a fair view of reality. Life is full of storms.

On the other hand, God did bring the storm, not because of the sailors, but in order to teach both the sailors and Jonah a lesson. The Lord is God, and there is no other God. The circumstances of this world are always there in our day to day lives. And the world will always have an opinion which by the way is mostly flawed as in the case of the casting of the lots.

Now Jonah offers the second opinion. The truth of God. He was a believer in the one and only true God, the Savior, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. He was a representative of God. He could have denied all of the charges that the crew had made against him, but he stood before them and told them the truth. He was running from the mission which God ordered him to take and now this storm was there to persuade Jonah to return to his mission.

Jonah could have confessed his sin to God direct, asked to be put ashore, and then allow the ship to continue, but Jonah did not do this. He simply told the crew to throw Him overboard and then the storm would cease, and they would be safe.

This event would be an illustration of Jesus Christ taking the sins of the world (the ships crew) and then accepting himself as a sacrifice in their behalf by being thrown overboard into the sea. Believing this the crew would be safe .

Now the ships crew had a tough decision to make. In any other situation they would probably have thrown the guilty (by their own determination) person overboard and that would be that.

But interestingly, they did not follow Jonah's advice. At least not a first. This is an illustration of unbelief. They had discovered the answer to their problems - faith in what God would do for them, but they instead will try things their own way. They reject Jonah's advice.

All things point to the truth of what Jonah had told them. Their own false beliefs were even turned into identifying the guilty party - Jonah/Christ. God can turn even the false into a type of truth. God controls history.

They heard the confession of truth from Jonah himself. He did not deny their claim. He did not hesitate to suggest a solution. They now knew what had to be done, but they refused to follow the truth even when all things pointed to the truth.

The sea raged even more. Jonah was not going to commit suicide. Christ did not commit suicide. But Jonah, like Christ, was willing to give his own life in their behalf. Christ unlike Jonah, was not the guilty party, but He was the appointed sacrifice in behalf of all of mankind. Christ volunteered himself to receive judgment and the punishment of mans sins, in order to save all of mankind.

The storm continued to grow worse. Mankind, like the ships crew, had no control over the storm. They tried in vain to save the ship by throwing all of the cargo overboard (mans human righteousness baggage), but that did not stop the storm. It only made the ship lighter so they could continue doing what they were doing before - sailing along on the oceans of this world.

Man cannot change or improve his own environment in order to make his life style more manageable or more tolerable. Humanity cannot discard his own flaws and somehow make himself better. Man cannot make up his own rules in order to make his own self made rules acceptable. Man cannot rise to the level of the creator in order to save himself. Man cannot even blame someone else in order to satisfy their own guilt. All of mans solutions, are no solution.

All that the ships crew did, did not accomplish anything toward resolving the storm. They tried to ride out the storm, rather than looking to the solution of the storm. They merely tried to live within the storm. The storm is the world in chaos and uncontrollable without God in it. That is your life if you ignore God in your life.

You cannot improve your life by merely replacing one flawed life style with another flawed life style. There is only one way to improve your life, and that is by changing your ways by means of the transformation of your mind through Bible doctrine. Note that the change begins from the inside of your soul, not from changing anything in your surroundings.

And when you hear and recognize the truth, then you need to jump on it, and not merely hear it and then continue life as always by ignoring the truth.

What is the truth? First, you have to be saved by believing in Christ. Once saved then second, you have to grow up spiritually. Your spiritual growth is accomplished through a daily Bible study. And that study continues everyday for the rest of your life. And third, as you grow, you have to use what God teaches you through His teachings. That is, apply His principles to your daily life. And this application of doctrine to your life will accelerate your spiritual growth.

Then the storms around you, and there will always be storms, will come and go and they will not bother you. You'll just sail right through them because it is God steering your life and not the storm.

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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