You can’t outrun the long arm of the Lord. That’s what the prophet Jonah discovered. God had called Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach and call the Ninevites to repentance. Instead of obeying God and heading east to Nineveh, Jonah ran away from the Lord and boarded a ship west to Tarshish, the exact opposite direction.
Jonah truly thought he could run away from God and get away with it. Instead, “the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship” (Jonah 1:4,5).
We see that Jonah’s rebellion to God was actually putting others in harms way. Where was Jonah? What do you think Jonah was doing as these sailors were crying for their lives up on deck in the storm?
“But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 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, and we will not perish” (Jonah 1:5,6).
Jonah’s disobedience was the real problem. He was the cause for all of this trouble the sailors found themselves in, but he was completely oblivious – asleep. There are times that we can be so full of denial as well, that we just don’t see it. We can’t see how our actions are hurting those around us.
The captain said to him, “How can you sleep?” It was as if he was calling Jonah to wake up and realize what was going on. Jonah was numb to the consequences of his actions. He was blind to the truth of his circumstances. He was the very problem and yet he was asleep while everyone else was suffering.
There is another irony of this story. The sailors on this boat were terrified, which tells you that it must have been a pretty rough storm. They all began to call on their gods, false gods who could offer no help at all. They were on deck calling out in vain to some false gods that don’t exist. Jonah, a true prophet of the living God, is not only the cause of the problem, but he is also asleep during the danger instead of calling out to his God like the pagan sailors.
The captain tells him, “Wake up and call on your God. Maybe he will take notice and we will not perish.” The captain became a prophet to the prophet. God was calling to Jonah through the captain: “How can you sleep? As a servant of the living God, how can you sleep on the job while there are men on deck calling out in vain to gods that cannot help?”
Jonah should have been awake to the reality of what was going on. Jonah should have been up and calling on his God, the true God. And yet Jonah was asleep. I think some of us may need to hear God calling out to us through the voice of the captain as well. How can you sleep? How can we sleep?
Have we fallen asleep in our faith, oblivious to the needs of those around us. Everywhere, there are people who are perishing, looking to false gods, chasing false dreams, and bowing down to the idols of this world. Without Christ, they are drowning in a sea of hopelessness.
I think apathy is one of the greatest problems of many Christians today. We think that we are fine with God, so we lose any sense of urgency. Our passion for God runs lows, and our compassion for others is minimal. We drift away from God, and end up spiritually asleep while the storms of life are raging about us.
Perhaps we need to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit calling to us, “Wake up. Call on your God.” Do not let your ears grow deaf. Do not let your heart get hard. Do not sleep in the light, while others perish in the dark. Wake up. And that’s the Word.
Tags: brunswick news, David Yarborough, Jonah, st. simons community church, What's the Word?