The Storm Of Jonah

Jonah's Storm

Jonah 1:1-3

1Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
3But Jonah rose up 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.

The Word had only to come to Jonah for his situation to be genuinely and totally changed even though he himself was not yet changed.

What was it that changed, according to the text?

We take note first that this Word which manifests Almighty God's choice or election is not just an intimation of this election. It is not a kind of announcement which makes known God's decision and which contributes to our own personal satisfaction, our personal joy, our edification, and our peace.

This Word makes known to Jonah that he has been chosen for a specific purpose. God's election is never a choice which stops with the choice. When God picks out a man and speaks to him, it is to engage him in a work, an action.

No where in Scripture do we find indeterminate or purely mystical vocation. No where do we find general election, for example, election to be a Christian 'grosso modo,' to fulfill the will of God at large. When God addresses a man He does not merely give singularity to the man; He also particularizes His will for him.

There is, of course, a general will of God which in some sort applies to all of us. But election does not consist in knowledge of this general will. It is enlistment in a precise action, a specific work.

If God chooses a man, it is in order that He may serve in the work God has undertaken. 

 It is in the measure that he does serve thus that his true election is made known and that it becomes more clear and certain for him. We cannot be content, then, with Christian virtues; vocation presupposes taking part in a work. There is no election apart from taking part in this way.

Moreover, when Almighty God has chosen a man who has a function to discharge, he never goes back on this. The man who is thus enlisted willy~nilly in God's action remains a chosen man even though he refuses and flees to a far away island.

The fact that Jonah flees is by no means unique. On the contrary, one might say that all men, when they become aware of this call, begin by refusing and fleeing.

But God's choice persists. He has chosen for a precise action, and so long as this is not performed God pursues man. This is true of all the men of the Bible, including Jonah.

In reality, spiritual reality, it is much too simple to think that God offers His grace to man and man accepts or refuses. When God has graciously chosen a man His grace continues even though the man does not do what God has decided. On the other hand, this persistence of election, of which Jonah is an extraordinary example; which is connected with the fact that Almighty God chooses for a specific action, does not entail a negation of man's will.

God pursues this man, conducts him through his whole life, in order to bring about the consent of this man's will to what God has decided. We see this in God's dealings with Jonah (us).

On each occasion man can refuse and on each occasion God begins again until man has finally chosen to accept. It can thus be said that by this Word man is both more free and also less free than in the presence of a human order.

He is more free because he is detached by this Word even from social contingencies; he must break with the world. That is what we find with Jonah.

 No matter whether he decides to obey or to flee, there is a rupture with his daily life, his background, his country.

Henceforth he is separated from others. 

The matter is so important that everything which previously shaped the life of this man humanly and sociologically fades from the scene. He is in a situation such as no human order could present to him.

Anything that might impel him to obey according to the world has lost its value and weight for him. But he is also enlisted in an action which he has not chosen and cannot avoid. He is pursued by a devouring love which wants him totally, in the ardor of his own converted heart.

He is pursued by the unweary patience which will use every means to bring it about finally that this man yields to God's reason.

And the adventure in which man is obliged to stake everything in a freedom which is given, but given only for this adventure, seems to extraordinarily important for God. In some sense God engages himself in the work in which he engages man.

Everything circles around the man who has been chosen. A tempest is unleashed. The storm is only there for Jonah. Science can never explain it as a natural event. Jonah teaches us that this storm, whose physical causes are the same as those of all other storms, is there only for Jonah and because of Jonah.

It does have other effects. It sweeps the coasts, disperses fish, causes ships to founder. But its purpose is to smash inflexible Jonah. Thus the elements and many men, especially the sailors, are engaged in the adventure of Jonah with him and because of him. One sees here the weight and seriousness of the call and vocation.

God thinks His choice so important, and takes the one elected so seriously, that He brings nature into play to see that this man fulfills his vocation. This does not mean that we have to inquire into the spiritual meaning of every event.

But we have to realize that these events, in spite of their rational appearance, are on effect part of the formidable accomplishment of the work of God. Simply an instrument of God's work. But in the face of the tempest, Jonah sleeps.

Are you sleeping my friend?