3. But Jonah rose to flee. Undoubtedly Jonah was terrified by the magnitude of the task to which he was being sent. He was terrified also by so powerful a kingdom, by such powerful rulers, just as if someone today would be sent to the kingdom of the Turks. And the Lord increased that magnitude of the task when He said (v. 2): "Their wickedness has come up before Me." And so by that proclamation Jonah was going to stir up against himself the very bitter hatred of all, since he was going to declare all those rulers guilty of wickedness—and yet he was himself a lonely and lowly man. But he sinned, as I said, in this respect, that he looked not to the Word of God, by whom he was being sent, but to the work itself, to which he was being sent, and to the difficulty and magnitude of that work. For the flesh is not able to believe the Word of God and entrust itself to God if it regards human advice and the possible outcomes.
However, a right faith goes right on with its eyes closed; it clings to God's Word; it follows that Word; it believes the Word even when all creatures are against it, even if it should seem to the flesh that nothing is less likely to happen than what the Word wants believed and to happen, even if heaven and earth should first seem to be destined to pass away. The result is that even if God should say that there will be a new heaven, faith, with its eyes closed and without giving it another thought and paying heed to no other objection, simply believes the Word and gives glory to the God of truth. Since Jonah did not do this but looked at the magnitude and difficulty of the task, he could not but be afraid.
2. Their wickedness has come up before Me. This is a Hebraism. God neither ascends nor descends, but Scripture is accustomed to speak about God according to the feeling in our conscience that God is either well disposed toward us or angry with us. God is coming down to us when we feel Him in our conscience. Our evil is arising before Him when our conscience troubles us concerning sin, etc.
Before Me, as if He were saying: "Even this kingdom appears to be outstanding and very good."
3. To Tarshish. They have interpreted this to be the city in which St. Paul the apostle was born, but to me this does not seem to be at all appropriate. I definitely think that this is some special name of the sea, some inlet of the sea. The Romans have different names for the seas, as Mediterranean, Indian, Red, etc.
The one which goes around the whole earth they call Ocean. There are passages of Scripture which induce me to interpret in this way, as 2 Chron. 9:21: "The king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants, etc."; likewise in ch. 20:36: "In building ships to go to Tarshish." These passages cannot all be understood about a certain city, for Tarshish and Jerusalem are very different places. In the. same way the passage is plain in Ps. 72:10: "May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles bring tribute." This passage is really speaking about the Mediterranean Sea, as the Romans call it, because it has many islands. So this is the meaning of this passage: Jonah, so terrified by the greatness of the task to which he was being sent, did not decide to flee into some city but, having found a ship, he decided to flee into whatever part of the sea he would be carried.
From the presence of the Lord. The interpretation does not displease me which explains that this phrase means the same as if he were saying: "From that temporal kingdom of Israel, in which God was dwelling," since indeed they did have the Word of God. Wherever God's Word is, the presence of God is meant. An interpretation of others that Jonah was so foolish that he thought that he would flee to some place where he could elude the Lord does not please me. For why would he feel that way since he calls the Lord "The God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land" (v. 9)?
He went down to Joppa. Joppa is a port of the Mediterranean Sea, so that it becomes especially clear from this passage that by the word "Tarshish" the Mediterranean Sea is meant, as I mentioned before.
Therefore, it should have been translated in this verse of the prophet: "In order that he might flee into the sea"; also, "He found a ship going to sea and paid the fare for it, etc."
4. But the Lord hurled a great wind. This prophet is very easy, as I mentioned before, for he omits involved and obscure words and thoughts. However, although the account is simple, it demands careful attention and interest, as all accounts of this kind do. I t is certainly an important thing, an arduous task, for one single man to be sent against a very powerful kingdom. And since he was so terrified by the magnitude of the task, his lack of courage caused him to underestimate the power of the Lord. This is a serious matter, a great sin, just as also the penalty for the sin was great. The penalty was that, in addition to being terrified by the wrath of the Lord in an external way, he felt the wrath of God in his conscience also. However, Jonah remained in the faith despite the fact that a much greater storm was raging in his heart and conscience than raged on the sea outside, etc. Because we are only spectators of tragedies of this
- 5 sort, they do not appear so great and so terrible to us as they really are. But if we were experiencing them ourselves in our consciences, we would understand what it is to feel God's wrath against oneself and what that faith is which even in the middle of wrath holds on to God as merciful and kind, etc. If this were happening to us, we would omit many useless questions with which we otherwise wretchedly torment ourselves in passages of this kind in Scripture because we have not experienced such temptation.
This storm on the sea was surely greater than storms usually were. For even the sailors were terrified to such an extent that they related this storm to someone's sin. This caused Jonah, who was aware of his own guilt, to hide in the lowest part of the ship, but he was nowhere safe in his conscience, since he had been touched by the wrath of God.
5. He was fast asleep. This sleep was altogether a sleep of sorrow, mixed with a certain feeling of death, the kind those people know about who have at some time labored with temptations of this sort themselves. And the Hebrew word used here conveys this idea nicely. All these things have been written that we might see how Jonah felt the presence of divine wrath and how great a thing is that fear of consciences when they are terrified by the wrath of God, "Who touches the mountains, and they smoke," as the psalm has it (Ps. 104:32).
Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god. These sailors were not total atheists, for they called upon a god, but one whom they themselves devised. For to have gods is to form them for oneself in the heart, and the heart is the place where the beginning of a correct and proper feeling about God is located. For our god is the kind we ourselves believe him to be and the kind we imagine in our hearts, as Ps. 18:25–26 tells us: "With the loyal Thou dost show Thyself loyal; with the blameless man Thou dost show Thyself blameless; with the pure Thou dost show Thyself pure; and with the crooked Thou dost show Thyself perverse." And this feeling about a god the various cults of different men afterwards follow.
As each one shapes a god for himself, so he also worships him, and the Divine Majesty is subject to the different opinions of men. Some think one way about God, others think another way, as you see in Matt.
16:14: "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets, etc." We see the same thing here in the case of the sailors: they named the true God, but there was no certainty about form or conception. The only true form of God is for us to grasp Him by faith, namely, to learn that God is always a well-disposed Father and the Father of mercies. This understanding is given only by the Holy Spirit, and this is the only true and genuine knowledge of God. All other opinions are idolatrous, as when, with our own reason as leader and teacher, we make up certain works for ourselves, by which we think that we will be pleasing to God and imagine that we are going to win His rewards or favor. It is completely idolatrous when we assign this form of our contrived works or inventions to a god. This alone is the root and the fountain of all idolatry. Of this sort are all monks, nuns, sacrifices, and whatever people consider to be a god arising from the works they themselves contrive. However, God does not wish to be shaped in this way by us, but He wishes to shape us. All He wants is that we believe in Him, that is, that we are pleasing to Him not on the basis of any work or any device of our own but because He is merciful to us, and this means that we are reborn by the Holy Spirit, as we read in John 3:5.
6. Arise, call upon your god! This passage is grand and worth noting. Human nature, when it is free from temptation, becomes proud because circumstances are favorable; it becomes boastful and free from worry, promising many things to itself. But when it is in adversity, when it sees that it is done for, human nature submits to all things, even to some very low things. It is this way in the case of those sailors, for they are in a desperate condition and in danger of death. They seek aid wherever they can; they flee to Jonah, about whom they had been totally unconcerned before they came into danger. This is the way human reason is; it cannot act differently in trial. Similarly, when we were hard pressed in our consciences by sin, we ran to the monks or to this or that other person to find consolation. In this way the sailors flee to Jonah, for reason thinks that it will be saved by the intercession of another person. Faith, on the other hand, as it rejects no one, also trusts no human being but depends on God alone, on whom it calls in need, etc.
7. Come, let us cast lots. As in very many other passages, so also in this one people have tortured themselves with papal doctrines about casting lots. To cast lots for the purpose of tempting God is an evil thing. However, in the case of urgent distress or in danger of death, to cast lots is not tempting God— unless you are openly wicked. The Lord has promised that He will give us food and all those things that have to do with providing food. However, we are not to sit around idle and fail to use our hands, which