Justice, or Mercy? - Jonah 1:10-17

Justice, or Mercy? (or, “God isn’t Finished with me yet!”)

Jonah 1:10-17

Introduction: A mother approached Napoleon seeking a pardon for her son…

 The emperor replied that the young man had committed a certain offense twice and justice demanded death. 

"But I don't ask for justice," the mother explained. "I plead for mercy." 

"But your son does not deserve mercy," Napoleon replied. 

"Sir," the woman cried, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for." 

"Well, then," the emperor said, "I will have mercy." And he spared the woman's son. 

       Mercy. We’ll see as we get further into this book that Jonah’s heart was hard toward the pagan Ninevites, he was focused on their evil and wanted only justice for them—in the form of the wrath of God Almighty. In fact, when they later repent and are spared by God, he says that is why he didn’t want to go, he knew that if they turned from their evil God would relent from destroying them (4:2). Ironically, in fleeing from God’s call to go to that pagan city, Jonah gets on a boat full of pagan sailors. As he slept below deck and the storm raged, Jonah was unconcerned about what the crew was facing above him. They jettisoned the cargo, but their lives were at risk as the storm raged around them. But now as these terror-stricken men stand before him, pleading for some explanation of what was happening, and some direction about what to do, Jonah seems to soften at their plight… He knew his rebellion against God had brought the storm, why should they go down with him and the ship? God was working in Jonah, softening his heart, leading him toward repentance—but he wasn’t quite there yet. We’ll see that he was also working in the hearts of the pagan, gentile crew, revealing his power and justice, and He soon would reveal His grace and mercy…

The Maine* Idea: God’s mercy, the only hope for fallen humans, has been extended toward us in Christ…   Let’s back up a verse and remember the…

Context: Jonah’s sin was exposed! And, by the way, so is ours, for “…all have sinned and fall short…” (10). The Lord will bring to light the things hidden in darkness… Everyone, until they believe, is likewise in rebellion against God.

¹⁰ Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, "What is this that you have done!" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. 

       That rhetorical question harkens back to the Garden, and the context of the Fall, as God spoke to the man and the woman of the consequences of their sin. God will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. His justice demands judgement. These men hadn’t had a course on Bible doctrine, but they had enough truth evidenced in this supernatural storm that had come up out of nowhere, and that now threatened to break up their ship—coupled with the simple testimony of Jonah, “I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry ground…” Jonah was running from THAT God, and He was not going to let him get away! What have you done Jonah! They were, literally, in the same boat with him, and they were terrified, they “…feared a great fear…”

       By the way, 800 years later or so, there were some men on a boat with another prophet, a Prophet greater than Jonah. The men woke him from sleep as well. But Jesus stood up in the boat, and with a word calmed the stormy sea – “Peace, be still!” And those men likewise, “…feared a great fear…” They asked, “Who is this man, that even the wind and the waves obey Him?” They knew they were in presence of holiness, of a power that they were struggling to understand. Their teacher was no mere man! These pagan sailors in the storm with Jonah were terrified, because the power of Jonah’s God was evident, and His wrath against Jonah’s rebellion left them all in peril! The points us to…

The Maine* Idea: God’s mercy, the only hope for fallen humans, has been extended toward us in Christ.

I. God’s wrath against sin must be satisfied (11-12). And, “…the wages of sin is death…” (Rom 6:23; Heb 10:30,31). One takeaway from the Book of Jonah has to be the holiness of God, and His wrath against sin.

¹¹ 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.  ¹² 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."

       From the perspective of the sailors they could see the awesome power and the wrath of Jonah’s God. Indeed, as the writer to the Hebrews said, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God…” (Heb 10:31). The Egyptians knew it the night of the tenth plague, as God sent judgment and death into every home. Pharaoh’s army experienced it as they pursued the Israelites and the waters of the sea came crashing over them… In fact, the first man and woman experienced it as they were cursed, along with all creation, and were driven from paradise into a fallen world of thorns and thistles. Wasn’t that awfully harsh, for one little bite of fruit? I don’t think we grasp the holiness of God, and how horrible sin is before Him. When God appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai, he expressed his character to Him… in Exodus 34:6-7… 

⁶ The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,  ⁷ keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation."

Even as I read that my eyes and my mind go to the attributes like merciful and gracious, loving and faithful… but it also says He “…will by no means clear the guilty…” His justice, His wrath against sin, must be satisfied. God is love, He is also holy and just. The New Living translation says in Habakkuk 1:13a, “But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil.” We can’t focus on God’s love and grace, without also recognizing He is holy and just. He will not simply overlook sin. Remember what he told Adam, “The day you eat of it, you shall surely die…” (Gen 2:17). Paul may be referring to that verse when he said, “The wages of sin is death…” (Rom 6:23a). As God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, He said, “…call out against it, for their evil has come up before me…” (Jonah 1:2). Our sin is like a stench in the nostrils of God, and yet Christ “…bore our sins in his own body on the tree…” That is the horror Christ anticipated in Gethsemane when he said “Father, if it is possible, take this cup from me… yet not my will, but your will be done.”

        Too often, like Jonah, we know what God wants, we know what He has said in His word, and still we choose to turn our back, just for a minute we rationalize, we’ll ask forgiveness later, but still in the moment we choose to do things our own way!  Jonah tried to put space between himself and God, and sometimes, we do the same thing. In Numbers 32 God says that because of unbelief, all the adults that came out of Egypt, 20 years and up, except for Joshua and Caleb, would perish in the wilderness. And the new generation had to be warned to learn from their fathers’ failure, “…you have risen in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the fierce anger of the Lord against Israel!” (Num 32:15). Moses warns them to believe and obey God, to fail to do so is sin, and he says, “…be sure your sin will find you out…” (Num 32:23). You can run, but you can’t hide!  He has appointed a Day in which He will judge the world in righteousness.  God’s mercy, the only hope for fallen humans, has been extended toward us in Christ.

II. We cannot save ourselves by our own effort (13; cf. Titus 3:5).

¹³ 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.   

      There is something in fallen humans that makes us think we’re ok, not that bad, not too far gone. We just need to tighten our belt a little. The sailors were told by Jonah what needed to be done, but they were unwilling at first, maybe if they just rowed a little harder, a little longer. Most people think they can make their way to safety, they think they can be saved, by human effort. Paul told the Ephesians that salvation is “…not the result of works, so that no one may boast…” Standing before the holy creator of the universe, we all deserve judgement. But even from the beginning, in the wake of the sin of the first humans, God extended mercy, and gave hope for redemption, as he promised a Seed who would crush the serpent’s head, and gave the man and the woman skins, as a covering for their nakedness. God’s wrath against sin would be satisfied, in the fullness of time, as the sinless Son would come into the world, and bear our sins in His body on the tree… He was righteous, yet He willingly drank the cup of wrath, the judgment that we deserved, so that we could be saved. Paul put it this way in Titus 3:4-7…

⁴ But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,  ⁵ he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,  ⁶ whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,  ⁷ so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

That paragraph is a sermon for another day, but for now I want to point out v.5a, “…he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy…” The sailors on the ship with Jonah wanted to know, “What should we do?” It was time to surrender, to take God at His word, the little that they had from Jonah, and to cry out to Him for mercy, because… God’s mercy is the only hope for fallen humans. Thank God, it has been extended toward us in Christ.

III. Coming to God on His terms, we will find mercy (14-16).

¹⁴ 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."  ¹⁵ So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.  ¹⁶ Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

    First, notice that the word Lord in the ESV is written with all capital letters, indicating the personal name of the God of the Covenants. They call out to God, Yahweh, the God of history, the God of the covenants, the God who is (14). Notice in these three verses, the name of the Lord is used five times. The men called out to the Lord, they feared the Lord, then, after the storm ceases, they made sacrifices and vows to Him. In short, they believed, and they worshipped Him.  Contrast them with Jonah, the prophet of the Lord. He has testified that He feared the Lord. He has even brought a prophetic word to the men, telling them what to do to avert their imminent destruction. But, as far as we can tell, he hasn’t prayed—and he won’t until chapter 2, from the belly of the fish!

       The prayer of the sailors is personal, and specific. “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life…” They don’t want to be judged for taking a life, if God had ordained this as the only way they could be saved! This is different than Pilate, who washed his hands as he condemned Jesus on the insistence of the Jewish leaders. Remember how the leaders responded to Pilate, “His blood be on us and on our children!” (Matthew 27:25). There wasn’t an expression of personal conversion in any of those words! These men see that God was angry with the prodigal prophet, and by Jonah’s word, they knew what they had to do. And first they pray, essentially, “Lord, your will be done!” Ironically, as Jesus went to the cross, God’s will was being done, even as Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, “not my will, but yours.”

       They submit to the prophetic word in fear (15a). The only Word of God they had was the testimony of Jonah, coupled with the evidence of the storm. They had tried everything else, now they see there is nothing else to try.  Either they all die, or this man would have to die so that they could be saved. God had “hurled” the great wind after Jonah, the sailors first “hurled” the cargo into the sea, and now they submit to God’s word, and “hurl” Jonah into the waves.

       They respond to God’s power and grace in worship (15b-16).  Notice that these men did not make vows or promises to God in the midst of the storm. They only prayed for mercy and expressed faith in v.14. In verse 15b, the storm seemingly ceased as soon as Jonah hit the water, disappearing under the waves. Their response is the kind of fear the disciples had when Jesus calmed the stormy sea… in fact, in Mark 4:41, immediately after Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves and there was a great calm, the disciples “feared a great fear,” the identical phrase that describes the sailors when the storm ceased. These sailors had seen how this storm came up so suddenly, inexplicably, out of nowhere, and they saw how quickly it all turned calm when they obeyed the Word of the Lord. They saw the power and the presence of Yahweh, even there on the sea, and they responded to Him in worship. God is holy and just. But those whose eyes and hearts are opened to Him, who come to Him on His terms, find mercy. That’s the Maine* Idea: God’s mercy, the only hope for fallen humans, has been extended toward us in Christ.

IV. The Father, in His mercy, shows love for prodigals (17). We read in v. 17,

¹⁷ And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

       Next week we’ll look at this verse with Jonah’s prayer in chapter 2, which includes a reflection on what happened in his heart once he went under, sinking deeper into the sea, closer to death. God was working in this story to get His word to the Ninevites. He was working too to get His word to the crew of the ship that carried Jonah. He was also working in the Prodigal Prophet, saving him from certain death, sending a great fish, not to kill him, but to save him. We are reminded that God is sovereign, and will work for our good, and for His glory. God spared Jonah’s life, and gave him time to repent. And despite human rebellion, God would send the Son in the fullness of time, without sin, to give his life for us, and to be raised from the dead three days later! We’ll pick up there next time.

What is God saying to me in this passage? The Maine* Idea illustrated in this part of Jonah’s story is that God’s mercy is the only hope for fallen humans, and it has been extended toward us in Christ.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? The sailors rowing with all their might, trying to get back to land, illustrate the futility of religion or good works to bring us to God. We were equally without hope before we knew Him.  Paul describes the condition of the Ephesians (and all of fallen humanity) and the basis of their conversion in Ephesians 2:1-5,  

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins  ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-  ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,  ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved…

Don’t miss verse 4, “…but God…” God is just and holy, He is also rich in mercy. If you have been “rowing hard for the land,” trying to save yourself, Jonah is your “cease and desist” order. Cry out to God for mercy, trust in Him alone. If you have believed, but have turned away from the Father’s face… know that He loves you too much to let you go… It is no longer a question of justice if you are His child. Because of Jesus, God's wrath has been satisfied, and you are forgiven. But know that He will discipline every son the He receives. He will do what is necessary, to lead you back home. He is still working in you, even if it means sending a storm to get your attention, or a great fish. He isn’t finished with you yet… so come home…  He is waiting.   AMEN.