They demand an answer from him. "So they asked him, 'Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?'" (Jonah 1:8) They weren't concerned about any of these things when he paid them the fare for a ride from Joppa to Tarshish. But now that the lot has fallen on him (by the hand of the Lord and not by any power of any of their false deities), they are trying to figure out if perhaps he's a fugitive from justice. They suspect he's committed a serious crime and that, although he may have eluded human authorities, "the gods" aren't going to let him get away so easily.
"He answered, 'I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.'" (Jonah 1:9) His answer seems somewhat evasive. He reveals his nationality and his religion but doesn't explain that he's disobeyed God in a big way. He does, however, give testimony to his belief in the Lord as the one and only God who is the maker of everything that exists. Upon hearing that he serves the God who "made the sea", the men realize that Jonah's God has stirred up the sea in response to something Jonah has done. So they question him further since he is not being entirely transparent. It appears, from our next verse, that he has admitted to being on the run from God but that he hasn't explained what he means by that.
"This terrified them and they asked, 'What have you done?' (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)" (Jonah 1:10) They must be imagining some sort of capital crime he's committed. I am not sure how well they would have understood how serious a matter it is that Jonah is refusing the Lord's command to go to a Gentile city to confront the citizens of that city with their sins. These men are evidently Gentiles themselves and are not familiar with the Lord's laws or with the way He uses prophets in His efforts to encourage men and women to repent. The author of the book of Jonah does not describe for us the way he explains his calling of God or his refusal to go to Nineveh but, after hearing his explanation, they want to know how to remedy the dire circumstances in which they find themselves. They ask him---the person responsible for their predicament---what to do. He would be in the best position to know what his God requires of him.
"The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, 'What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?'" (Jonah 1:11) Jonah's confession has not brought about a cessation of the storm. On the contrary, the storm has grown more violent. The men don't know what to do except try to appease Jonah's God by administering justice on behalf of God. Not knowing much about Him, they have no idea what the penalty for Jonah's disobedience should be. They ask Jonah himself, who has stated that he is a follower of the Lord, and to his credit Jonah provides an unselfish solution.
"'Pick me up and throw me into the sea,' he replied, 'and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.'" (Jonah 1:12) He expects to perish in the sea but he does not want to be responsible for the deaths of all these men. The storm is going to assault the ship until it is broken up if he remains on it. That would result in everyone on board ending up in the sea and likely meeting their deaths there.
Throwing Jonah overboard to his doom is not something the sailors want to do. "Instead, the men did their best to row back to land." (Jonah 1:13a) They've heard his confession but his confession doesn't sound worthy of the death penalty to them. He hasn't taken anyone's life and they are reluctant to let him lose his life for having refused a job his God ordered him to perform in a foreign country. Refusing to preach to people who will listen and repent (for the Lord already knows the people of Nineveh will repent) actually is a capital crime to the Lord because eternal souls are at stake here. Later in the book of Jonah we will find Nineveh's king and a large number of the citizens taking Jonah's words to heart and repenting of their sins. If Jonah does not go to Nineveh, these people could die in their sins. Taking a human life is the worst crime a person can commit against a person's earthly body but hindering someone from coming to salvation in the Lord is the worst crime a person can commit against a human soul. The Lord causes the storm to grow even fiercer while the sailors are trying to avoid throwing Jonah overboard.
They are desperately trying to row for shore but it doesn't work because the Lord intends for Jonah to be cast into the sea. "But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before." (Jonah 1:13b) The sailors don't know the Lord and they can't be certain whether Jonah is correct that throwing him off the ship is the right thing to do. They don't want to be responsible for a man's death and they don't want to offend that man's God, so they cry out to Jonah's God for forgiveness in case they are doing the wrong thing. "Then they cried out to the Lord, 'Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for You, Lord, have done as You pleased.' Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm." (Jonah 1:14-15)
They refer to him as an "innocent man" because he has not broken any laws that any governments of the world would consider a capital crime. They don't want to be guilty of his death but, on the other hand, it appears as if throwing him overboard is what his God wants, which is why they say to the Lord, "You have done as You pleased." They do what they believe God wants but it goes against what feels right to them. They do not know the Lord and do not understand what a bad thing it was for Jonah to refuse to preach to the people of Nineveh.
As soon as they cast Jonah into the raging sea, the Lord makes it clear to them that they have done as He wished. In verse 15 above the sea immediately grows calm and the sailors are convinced by everything that's happened that the God of Israel is real. "At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to Him." (Jonah 1:16)
The Lord can turn any circumstance into something good. Jonah's disobedience to the Lord resulted in these men coming to faith in the Lord. That doesn't mean it's okay to sin against the Lord! To quote the Apostle Paul: "Shall we go on sinning that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" (Romans 6:1b-2) Jonah has no excuse for sinning against the Lord even though the Lord used this opportunity to reach the heathen Gentiles on the ship. This is simply an example of God's love for mankind in spite of mankind's sin. This is an example of His ability to work all things together according to His plan---to use even our faults and failures as threads in His finished tapestry of our lives. If Jonah had not disobeyed the Lord, he would never have been on this particular ship, and if he had not been on this particular ship, the men aboard this ship would not have witnessed the proof of God's existence and sovereign power over all creation. In this same way, if Jonah had not been on this particular ship, and if he had not been cast into the sea, a miracle would not be able to occur further on in the book. This miracle will convince the people of Nineveh that God exists and that He is the creator of all things and that salvation can be found only in Him.
As we close Chapter 1 we find Jonah thrown overboard and I am sure that both he and the sailors thought this was the end for him. But with God, what appears to be an ending is usually just the beginning.
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