Arise, go to Ninevah, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
But Jonah rose to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep."
This is a familiar primary story of Jonah and the whale. Jonah is called by God to cry repentance to the city of Ninevah. Instead Jonah is afraid and flees. What I had forgotten about this story was that while the great tempest was brewing, and the others were afraid the ship would be broken up, Jonah lay fast asleep. If that shipmaster did not come and wake him the ship would have gone down into the depths of the sea and they would all have perished. Jonah would not have known what hit him.
This all made me think of deafness and blindness that comes to the disobedient. How if we do not follow God's commandments we can perish and never know what hit us. Jonah did not sleep in the belly of the ship with a clear conscious like Jesus did as the storm raged. Jonah slept in ignorance but was not innocent. Jesus was able to rebuke the winds and calm the sea because of his righteousness. Jonah had to personally suffer.
So maybe when Jesus said in Matthew 16:4
"A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed."
He wasn't just talking about the 3 days Jonah was in the belly of whale, as a a similitude of his death and resurrection. He was talking about those that are seeking a sign, and through apathy are totally asleep and can spiritually perish. Like the shipmaster awoke Jonah to danger, the prophets and apostles are there to wake us up.
Day 1465
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