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Right, I am back after last week's faux pas and hopefully we are ready to dig deep into God's Word. In week one we met Jonah, illogically attempting to run away from God. This week we see him on the ship he boarded last time:

'But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”

And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 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.

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.'

This passage, among other things, gives us a unique insight into three key elements of the Christian walk. Normally I know that a Bible study will attempt to begin each point with the same letter; this will be easy because the key word here is exactly the same!

Fear - of circumstances

We first encounter fear in this passage in verse five, 'the mariners were afraid'. The ship was full of people, a great wind was buffetting it around and a mighty tempest was raging to the point that 'the ship threatened to break up'. It is common knowledge among my friends that I am a bit of an oddball in that I have no ability to swim; in fact, a mere splash of water into my face will often have me in a miniature panic attack. I am fairly certain that were I on this ship I would be fairly afraid, particularly due to the fact that even mariners were afraid. A bit of advice - if you are on a ship and the men who have spent their life there begin to get worried you know something is up.

That aside, imagine the ship metaphorically; at times as we traverse the sea of time in the ships of our lives we will encounter winds and tempests. Circumstances will, sometimes, be insanely difficult and busy, and we will feel entirely out of control - perhaps to the point of even being afraid. I would like to draw your attention, however, to a little known fact. The most common command in the Bible is not 'love the Lord your God', or 'live justly'. Rather, it is 'do not be afraid.' It is as if God wanted us to get one underlying theme from His Word - one which Jesus unpacked for us in Matthew 6:25ff. He put it far better than I ever will but to sum up we have no need to fear in our lives - 'seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.' Here it is then - we will have troubles and fears, but God is our Father, knows what we need and is wonderfully faithful.

Fear - of the supernatural

Another fear is found in verse ten, 'the men were exceedingly afraid'. The Hebrew words for 'exceedingly' here are yir'ah gadowl, which mean terrifying to a great extent in terms of size and intensity. It is hard to imagine a more extreme fear, yet this fear is only sparked by Jonah admitting his faith. I am sure that many reading this article will have had experiences of talking with unbelievers who appear to over-react when we declare that we worship Jesus. Perhaps some reading this have their own reservations about parts of Christianity, particularly those supernatural unknown elements. The truth is that our faith is built upon the life, death, and miraculous resurrection of a man who was born of a virgin and went around healing everyone he met - we believe in a supernatural God, who is 'the same yesterday and today and forever' (Hebrews 13:8). As a result we can be confident that the God who healed Naaman of leprosy in 2 Kings 5 is the same God who dwells in the praises of His people at your local church! The fear of the supernatural within the church should not be of the results themselves, but rather the misuse of them; often we see travelling healers shouting at cancers, screaming 'the Holy Ghost!' and generally putting on a big show - let us be those who welcome the supernatural in all humility and gratefulness, with our eyes fixed on the Giver Himself, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

In talking to unbelievers we may also experience this fear of the supernatural, as Jonah did. In preparation for this occurence, which we should be experiencing more and more as we constantly grow in our relationship with God, we must increase a knowledge of God's Word, the Bible. Let us also be those who spend time feasting on God's Word on a daily basis, building our faith and knowledge in order to increase the chances of leading others closer to Christ, the Ultimate grace-giver.

Fear - of God

Finally we arrive at the destination we could all see when we set off. Fear of God is mentioned twice in this passage, once for Jonah and once for the pagan sailors, in verses nine and sixteen respectively. It is interesting to me that the Hebrew word for fear here, yare', is the exact same word used in each of the other references to fear in this passage. It is often mentioned in sermons that a fear of God should not mean that we are frightened of God, but more that we have a reverence for Him; the Hebrew does not appear to support this. We are all to have a fear of God, and that fear is the same fear we should have of death if we were on a ship that were about to capsize! The simple truth is that our God is all-powerful, all-seeing, all-knowing and ever-present. He is holy, holy, holy, and absolutely perfectly righteous. He is God. Throughout the Bible we see a common response by sinners to God's presence: death. Historically we know that priests at the time of the Old Testament wore bells and had a rope tied about their waist as they entered the holy of holies in the temple to meet the presence of God, because then if they died a Levite outside could hear the bells and pull out the corpse using the rope. One day we will meet our God, who will judge us and is perfectly just. We know that we have all committed sins - Paul says that 'all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' in Romans 3:23. When we add the knowledge that 'the wages of sin is death' (Romans 6:23) we must be filled with a sense of fear - if we are not then we have not fully understood the consequences of our actions. A healthy fear of God is one where we acknowledge that He is holy, we are imperfect fallen sinners, and that in order to be a just God, which He is, He must punish us for our sin. Where is our fear?

This is why the gospel is called the gospel - good news. Jesus, in dying on the cross, bore all our sin and took upon himself the punishment we all deserve. One of my favourite verses in the Bible (if we are allowed favourites) is 2 Corinthians 5:21, which says that 'for our sake He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.' Our undeserved salvation and new status as righteous children of God when combined with a genuine fear of our holy God should cause us to thank and worship the God of our salvation. Hallelujah!

"'Winging It" from Stan Smith

The Fulfilling Marriage