“Then they said to him, ‘What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?’ For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, ‘Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.’ Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they called out to the Lord, ‘O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You.’ So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.” Jonah 1:11–16
1. What is your favorite TV game show of all time? What was it about that show that made it so fun for you to watch?
I may just be dating myself by asking about this, but remember the show, “Let’s Make a Deal”? It was originally hosted by Monty Hall back in the 1960s and ‘70s and was redone with new game shows in the 2010s, when it was hosted by Wayne Brady. The premise of the show was to make deals to hopefully win big prizes. Everyone dressed up in crazy costumes in the hopes of being picked from the audience to be a contestant. Then, once on stage, you were given something of value and had the opportunity to trade it in on a box, or what’s behind curtain one, two, or three. Sometimes it turned out good, other times it didn’t. It was all about whether or not you wanted to risk what you had for the “deal” that you didn’t see yet.
2. Go back to the first verses of Jonah 1. What had God called Jonah to do?
3. What did Jonah decide to do in response to God’s call?
Read through Jonah 1:7–16. Jonah was running from God because he really didn’t want to do what God was calling him to do. He really didn’t want Nineveh to have the opportunity to repent from their sin and turn to the Lord. Read that statement again.
4. Have you ever run from what God was calling you to do? What were the circumstances?
Jonah is now on a boat going the other direction away from Nineveh. Not only did he not go, he’s actively going in the opposite direction. This brings judgment on not just himself, but on the people who are the innocent bystanders on the boat with him as the storm threatens to destroy the boat.
5. When have you seen the sin of a loved one or friend affect the people around them?
Here’s where the account gets pretty interesting. The men on the boat did not know Jonah’s God. They had their own gods and followed them, but it seems as though they had heard of the One, True God. Jonah tells them why the storm is going on and they were terrified of the storm and of Jonah’s God. Jonah informed them what they had to do: throw him into the sea. However, the men in the boat decided to try to make deals with idols before finally obeying God.
6. What deals have you tried to make with God in your life? What deals have you made with idols?
You may not think what these sailors did was making deals with idols, but they did. They made a deal with personal effort, trying to work their way out of the situation by rowing harder. They made a deal with the idol of chance, hoping the lot would tell them the answer. They were hoping to make a deal with control, wanting to control the situation by appealing to the right god, the right country, the right occupation. Jonah points them to the Lord.
7. When you’ve tried to control a situation or turned to “idols” in a circumstance in life, how has that turned out?
8. How have you turned back to God after trying all kinds of idols (including the ones above)?
The sailors now realize that they have a real problem. They don’t want to be responsible for killing Jonah, but they have a directive from his God to throw him overboard!
9. Have you ever come across a person whose life was falling down all around them but still refused to call on the One, True God? Have you ever been in that situation?
The sailors want a solution without turning to God. However, the situation got to a point where there was no other solution. In a very real way, Jonah represents Jesus in this account. These sailors needed someone to take the blow so that they could be saved from the storm and, quite possibly, they turned to God to follow Him after this encounter.
10. Have you turned to God in your life? What areas of your life need an encounter with our gracious God?
Remember, even in the fish, God was gracious to Jonah. Even in the trial, God was gracious to Jonah. Even when Jonah ran from God, God was gracious to him. Get to know the real God, not the image of Him that you’ve potentially made up or try to appease the idols we contrive.
If someone calls on the Lord in salvation, they cannot reach back, subsequently, and grab their self-help idols when they are in trouble or life becomes rough. They cannot then attempt to appease God by more faithful church attendance, increased obedience to parents, more frequent reading of the Bible, or increasing sacrifices of their time and money. The moment you think that doing such things makes God move in your favor, you are grasping an idol, polishing it, holding it up to the Lord, and saying, “See God, look at me. I am doing everything right. You are going to act now to stop my storm, right?” However, if you think God is moved by such efforts, you are not talking to the God through whom “we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16). You are talking to your idol-manufactured concept of a god. Real conversion starts with grace and knows that grace will lead us home. This grace comes from Jesus Christ. (“Exalting Jesus in Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk,” Curtis Redmond.)