Scripture Daily

Context No. 1774 of 4322 · Jonah

Context · Reflection

Jonah 1:7-11: in context

7They all said to each other, “Come! Let’s cast lots, that we may know who is responsible for this evil that is on us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8Then they asked him, “Tell us, please, for whose cause this evil is on us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? Of what people are you?” 9He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.” 10Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “What have you done?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. 11Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm to us?” For the sea grew more and more stormy.

As the storm rages, the terrified sailors cast lots to find who is responsible, and the lot falls on Jonah. They press him: what is your occupation, where are you from, what people are you? And Jonah answers, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. The sailors are terrified, for they know he is fleeing from that very God, whom he has just professed to fear, on the very sea that God made.

There is a glaring contradiction in Jonah's answer, and the pagan sailors see it before he does. I fear the LORD, he says, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land, a fine confession of faith. And yet he is at that moment fleeing from that very God, across the very sea that God made, in open disobedience to God's clear command. His words profess reverence for God; his actions declare the opposite. He says he fears the God who made the sea, while running from that God on that sea, as though he could escape the maker of the ocean by sailing across it. The gap between what Jonah professed and how he was living was wide enough that even the pagans on board could see it. This holds a mirror up to a danger we all know: the gap between our profession and our practice, between what we say we believe about God and how we actually live. We can profess, sincerely enough, that we fear and love God, that he is Lord of all, and at the same time be running from his clear call in some area of our lives, living as though he did not see or matter, our conduct flatly contradicting our confession. And often others can see the contradiction more clearly than we can; the sailors saw Jonah's inconsistency while Jonah, it seems, had not fully reckoned with it. The passage presses an honest question: does my life match my profession, or is there a place where I claim to fear God while fleeing him, saying one thing and living another, as Jonah confessed the God of the sea while running from him across it?

Is there a gap between what I profess about God and how I actually live, a place where I claim to fear and love him while fleeing his clear call, saying one thing and living another, as Jonah confessed the God who made the sea while running from him across it?

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