Fearing the Lord :: Jonah 1:4-16
The day we first receive our call to follow Christ, we face the temptation to run away. That is true on the day of our Baptism. It is true on the day of our confirmation. It is also true for us pastors, on the day of our ordination into the Holy Ministry. Sometimes we all want to run away. In fact, the older we get I think the more we want to run away.
Of course, we’re not the first ones who’ve ever been tempted to do this. Adam and Eve fled their shame and the voice of the Lord. Moses fled Egypt for 40 years, afraid of the wrath to come for beating a man to death. Elijah fled Jezebel, fearing her wickedness. Even Jesus’ own disciples fled the Jews after our Lord was betrayed, afraid they too would face the same wrath. They locked the doors of the upper room in fear.
Fear. We all fear. Sometimes within moments of confessing that we believe in the One True God, the maker of heaven and earth, who has redeemed us, the lost and condemned, not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood ... that we may walk in newness of life.
What on earth are we afraid of?
Psychologists will tell you fear is a natural, powerful, and primitive human emotion. It involves a “universal biochemical response” as well as a “high individual emotional response.” Our top fears stem from inadequacy, uncertainty, failure, rejection, and missing out. I don’t think any of these apply to Jonah.
In scripture, the word for fear (יָרֵא ... Ya.Ree) has five categories ... emotion, intellectual anticipation, reverence or awe, righteous behavior, and formal worship. Fear is learned by reading the Law of God (Dt 31:11-12). It can be caused by God’s deeds (Ex 14:31, Josh 4:23-24), or by his judgment (Isa 59:18-19). But fear is a healthy emotion. In fear, we avoid evil (1:1) and walk in the ways of the Lord (Ps 128:1)
The Lord had called Jonah to arise and go to Nineveh to preach the Word, a specific one that the Lord would give him. Nineveh, as we learned last week, is no Appleton City ... that’s for sure. Given all we heard last week about those people, I am sure we would have wanted to flee too in fear ... fearing the uncertainty, fearing our future.
But the thing is, Jonah didn’t just run away. He didn’t just run the other way ... he went down into the bottom of the boat heading to Tarshish. He fled toward earthly wealth, and temporal prosperity. He went down to the sea. He fled into the world of sin.
We don’t fear that, do we? He set sail for what he thought must be the good life.
Anyone want to go with me?
Soon the winds picked up to hurricane force and began battering the tiny ship. The sailors on board became afraid, and they all cried out in fear to their man-made gods. They cast all their things into the sea to lighten the load on the ship, trying to save themselves. They feared the wrath of God.
Meanwhile, Jonah went below deck to curl up and fall asleep. He was out cold.
Dude! What’s wrong with you, the panicky captain of the ship said to Jonah. How can you sleep through all this? Do you really have so little fear of your god? ...
What are you fleeing? Are you guilty of some heinous crime? Only a guilty man could bring this terror upon us!
What have you done, Jonah? Where are you from?
Who are you? What are you looking for?
Brothers and sisters in Christ, during this second week in Lent, after answering those last two questions on Sunday, you too need to ask yourself now: What are you afraid of?
I’m a Hebrew, Jonah said. I fear the Lord God. He formed the heavens and the earth and the sea (v. 9). He is the one who made all this in just six days. He is the only wise God. His name is Yahweh. And he is our God.
This storm, this great storm, it’s the result of his anger at me for trying to flee. So don’t be like me: Don’t try to hide from him. He is the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful God. Fear him, and only him. Then cast me into the sea.
When you do, the sea will be quiet (v. 12).
This sounds like an act of self-sacrifice. It sounds like Jonah was willing to give up his own life in order to spare these pagan sailors from being lost at sea. But for Jonah, being cast overboard really is another way for him to elude his call from God. Four times in the four chapters of this book, Jonah asks to die. This is the first.
Death ... as frightening as it is to our culture ... is one way desperate people may try to flee from God. Death is a way to escape fear.
We should fear death. And we should fear sin.
Why don’t we fear sin?
God is Lord over life and death, and his plans for Jonah were plans of life. Jonah’s fear is leading him down the road to apostasy. He hasn’t reached that point. He still has faith and fear in the Lord. As we were reminded Sunday, the Lord will keep your going out and your coming in (Ps 121). And amazingly, the sailors recognize this about Jonah. They cry out to this man of God. Who you are? Why don’t you fear death?
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the world is asking you this question too?
Do you see it? There is something different about Jonah! The sailors recognize it.
And there is something different about you, too!
Now the question is, are you telling the world who you are, what you believe, and why you don’t fear death? Are you sharing the Gospel, just like Jonah was called to do!
The Lord calls all of us to confess what we believe. I believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He has called me by name. I believe that Jesus is the Christ, that he is 100 percent true God and 100 percent true man. I believe that the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel and enlightened me with his gifts.
And in this truth, God does something amazing through you. He is bringing the world to faith. As the sailors will soon confess: YHWH is the Lord who delights in what he does ... saving us ... too. Let us give up trying to save ourselves and believe in the one who saves.
At first, the men feared a great fear because of what Jonah had told them. So they rowed to return to dry land ... like we all want to do ... but they weren’t able to because the sea was raging even more (v. 13). So they called out to YHWH, and they said, Please YHWH, please don’t let us be lost at sea and don’t lay on us innocent blood, for you delight in what you do (v. 14). Then they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea stood still from its storming (v. 15).
And God saved them all.
He saved the sailors. He saved Jonah. And he saves you.
Like Jonah, we’ve all been tossed into the sea. In the Sacrament of Baptism, God tosses each Christian he calls into our watery grave, drowning each of us who always wants to flee the word of the Lord. Like Jonah, we know we deserve death because we are sinners who sin. We know we, too, want to flee the word of the Lord.
But just as surely as Jonah plunges in the depths of the sea, our sin dies with Christ, the sinless one who became sin for us, to die for us, and overcome the death that scares us most. The Lord over death and life has plans for each of us, and those plans include life ... resurrection life (Rom 6:3-5). Through this faith in Christ, he gives us eternal life.
And there is no reason to fear that.
In Baptism, God raises each of us out of death to new life with Christ. And the purpose of this new lease on life we have been given is to respond to God’s call.
Because YHWH delights in this, there is no reason to fear it. He will save you, you will preserve you. He will keep you. You are his, chosen, holy, precious children of God.
Recognize this truth. In doing so you will have the healthy fear of the Lord, a reverence for God as maker and savior (Heb 12:28-29).