Jonah 1-4

The part of the story where Jonah is on the boat is covered in only 13 verses, and there is a lot of dialogue carried on during that time.  But with very few details we are left to consider what might, and could have, transpired from the time the fleeing prophet climbed aboard until he was cast into the sea.  I imagine that Jonah “fought” with God for several days after he received the message for Nineveh.  After all those sleepless nights Jonah hurried, in spite of his exhaustion, to find a ship.  He went below deck, to be further hidden, and in the quiet of that dank cargo hold he God finally allowed him to sleep.  I wonder if he had dreams of a storm nearly swamping the boat?  I wonder if God sent him a vision of a sea creature swallowing him?  I wonder if Jonah envisioned himself preaching to the people of Nineveh the message that God had given him?  Regardless of his dreaming he wasn’t roused by the storm but by a desperate captain who feared for his own life as well as those on board with him.  (I also wonder if the only reason Jonah was discovered was because the captain wanted to get rid of the supplies on which the prophet was sleeping?)  We can learn in this story that even when we disobey God he can, and will, turn an act of rebellion into an opportunity for the rebel of faith to proclaim his greatness.

Stuart