The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah — Section 34

1V. THE MAJUNERH PRAY •.ro Gon. "Wherefore they cried unto the Lord and 1111,id W c beseech thee, 0 Lord, we beseech thee," etc. The tender conscience a~d devout feeling of the mariners are very remarkable. Observe: 1. Vehemence of their prayer: "They cried "-they beseech God once nod again. 2. They appeal to God's Justice: "Let us not perish for this man's life." 3. Their concern for lifo: "Lay not upon ue innocent blood." Shedding of blood was little thought of in those times-massacre of innocent and guilty alike were common enough. 4. Their submissiveness to God: "For thou, 0 Lord, hast done as it pleased thee." Thou hast shown thy sovereign will iQ the past; let it rule us now. Most profitable lesson for us all: "In all thy ways acknow ledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Prov, iii. 6). Especially in reference to any step that, once taken, cannot be recalled. For if they threw Jonah overboard, it was an. irrevocable act. V. JoNAH IS CAST FORTH. "So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and ~he se:i, ceased from _her raging." They took him up, tenderly and respectfully, not p1t,chmg him overboard ma tumultuous manner. The prophet offers no resistance• one great heave, and he is engulfed; in a little moment the sea closes on him-the me~ gazing after him with sorrowful, anxious faces, thinking, perhaps," Poor man I where is be now?" It is an awful testimony to the righteousness of God; one offence has for- feited Jonab's life. No wonder they are anxious. But their anxiety does not laet Ion"'• God reveals himself at once, and very wonderfully: "The storm ceased from her ragin:.,: 'l'be men are relieved from a double anxiety-anxiety about the storm, and anxil~'ty whether or not they have done right. "Thus died Jonah, to them, at least, the death of a criminal pursued by justice; yet the death of a repentant and righteous man; in death triumphing over death; committing himself to God in singular meekness and faith; acknowledging the justice of his doom, and relying on Divine pardon and pro- tection; committing his body to the sea and his soul to the God whom he feared, the God of heaven, and of the sea, and of the dry land" (Martin). VL THE EFFECT UPON THE KEN. At last the storm ceases. What neither prayers, nor repentance, nor the change in the mind of the men had accelerated by one iota. comes at once and completely after the sacrifice of one man. Fresh token of nearness of God; but not this time vindicating his justice or executing his wrath; showing his mercy and his love. Great power of mercy and love to move the heart : " The men feared the Lord exceedingly." Awed by his presence, reassured by his mercy, they "offered a sacrifice unto the Lord. and made vows ; " showed their deep sense of obligation, and took steps to keep it up. The vow was probably to be performed at some future time, Thus they took precautions against evanescence of grateful feeling ---a useful lesson. Men "soon forget his mercies;" vows tend to keep sense of them alive in after-times. VIL JONAH NOT LOST. "The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah." " Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps." God had shown himself the Lord of inanimate nature; now he shows himself Lord of animate nature. The storm had been his messenger; now his messenger is the fish. 'fhis is duly in accordance with the idea of God which the whole transaction and the whole book present. Jehovah claims to be not only the God of the Hebrew, but the God of Nineveh, and of the whole earth. He is the God of heaven," which hath made the sea and the dry land." "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof;" "So is this wide and great sea, wherein go things creeping innumerable, both large and small beasts." He shows his sovereignty over the land by "preparing a great fish." He bends it to his own purposes-makes the devouring monster a means of protection a.nd preservation. The whole story ha111 a supernatural air. If the presence of the supernatural be once admitted, the form of miracle is a mere matter of detail. Objections arising from the apparently grotesque character of this miracle are obviated if it be considered. that God wished to convince Jonah of his power to protect and preserve him even in Nineveh, amid hordes of furious enemies, roused perhaps to fury by his message. He that had protected him in the body of the fish, surging up and down through the depths of th~ sto~m! se!, W!1-B able to protect him at Nineveh. The unusual character of Jonah s m1ss1on Jt1st1fies an unusual miracle. God's manifold resources of preservation-Noah in the ark-Moses in the cradle of bulrushes-Elijah by the ravens-Jesus by flight into Egypt-Paul through his uephew fiuding out conspiracy. Mauy more IU'e found ill ChristiM.l OH, I, 1-17,) THE BOOK OF JONAH. 31