1:7,8
The sailors decided to cast lots. The way this worked was for an identifiable object from each person to be put into a bag and then one item picked out at random. They did this and “the lot fell to Jonah”. So they deduced that Jonah was the reason for the storm. This method was seen as a way of determining God’s will, and Prov 16:33 says that God decides the lot. Jonah having been singled out they interrogate him, asking where he is from, what he does etc. They want to know why all this trouble has arisen. We need to recognise that if we live in rebellion to God then wherever we go we will bring trouble for other people.
1:9
Jonah answered that he was a Hebrew who worshipped the Lord. He also declared that God made the sea and the dry land. This last bit is quite significant, for most of the “gods” had limited domains, so there would be separate gods for the land (and even different parts of the land) and for the sea. The Lord is God of all the earth.
1:10-12
It seemed that the sailors had heard of God and knew something of his reputation, for they were terrified by what Jonah told them. Jonah had also told them that he was running away from the Lord. They knew that Jonah had the answer to their predicament, and all the while the sea was getting rougher and rougher. Jonah was in no doubt that all this was happening because of him, and he told them that they should throw him overboard.
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