Jonah 1:7-16 – Sailors on Jonah’s Ship

      There are two ways in which the book of Jonah has been understood. One way is to understand it as a historical account of a prophet’s experience. This would make it unusual in the sense that there is only one sentence of prophecy in the entire book. Other prophetic books in the bible are primarily the words of the prophet with only minor narrative about the individual’s life.
     If Jonah is not a historical account, it may be that the entire book is a prophetic parable. Story and metaphor was and is a common communication tool, one that Jesus used extensively.
     Either way, the characters of Jonah are vividly presented and reflect personalities and traits that would have been familiar to those who originally received the book.

     The Captain and Mariners on Jonah’s Ship are the focus of this look at lesser known personalities of the Bible.
     These sailors are unnamed. They probably were not Hebrew, or at least most of them probably weren’t. The book mentions that they cried, each to his god. It is true that the Hebrews sometimes failed to hold to the law of “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” They were not always convinced that there weren't other gods to consider, even if they were only supposed to worship the one. Nonetheless the wording of ‘each to his god,’ probably intends the reader to understand that these men come from various cultural backgrounds and thus worshiped a number of gods.
      It is noteworthy, however, that the author represents them as faithful men into their own religious beliefs. They prayed. The captain was disturbed that Jonah was simply taking a nap. He didn’t insist Jonah work alongside the sailors, but he did think Jonah should do his part by praying to his own god instead of snoozing.
      Though there may be no atheists in fox holes, nor on ships in danger, the sailors appear to have a definite religious view of life.  They took gods seriously. The violence of the storm convinces the sailors that someone on board has a god angry at them. So they cast lots to determine who it is.

CASTING LOTS

Today we might cut cards or roll for the highest number on the dice to choose between people. But the idea behind the ancient casting of lots generally was that divine power would guide the choice. Casting lots was done by the Hebrews along with the peoples around them, and was not considered superstitious or connected with witchcraft. Saul cast lots (sacred stones) trying to decide who might be at fault for God’s silence, for he assumed it must be because God was angry at a sin (I Samuel 14:37-43). The disciples of Jesus cast lots in trying to determine which of two men should take the place of Judas (see Acts 1:24-26). They prayed that God would use the casting of lots to show between the two men they had singled out from the rest.

       The lot fell upon Jonah, who of course already knew what the storm was about. The sailors asked him what they should do to save the ship and Jonah told them they should throw him overboard. (Interesting that he could not bring himself to throw himself into the water, just left it up to other people, though we should give him credit for his honesty about the matter.)
      The next act of the sailors may seem surprising. Instead of breathing a sigh of relief and sending Jonah overboard, they tried once more to save the ship. Clearly these men did not want to sacrifice someone else to save themselves even through it might be argued that the guy had brought it on himself. This seems to indicate that the sailors were decent and kindly men. A purist or legalist might argue that they were irreligious at this point for not acceding to a god’s wishes. In return it could be argued that they knew nothing of Jonah’s god and wanted to be sure there was no other way. In either case, it still speaks to the fact that they weren’t callous to the welfare of a powerless stranger among them. This theme of the foreigner is important in the book of Jonah, as is seen by the later portion of the story, where Jonah is chastised for not caring about the non-Hebrew people of Ninevah.
     When all the efforts of the sailors to save the ship by their own strength had failed, they finally did send Jonah overboard, with the prayer that his god wouldn’t hold it against them. When the storm ceased, they offered sacrifices and prayers and vows to Yahweh. Their part of the story ends here.
   
How could the attitude and actions of these sailors speak to the way the powerless are treated by the strong?


The sailors cast lots to determine divine will – in what ways do people of faith seek that understanding today?