The Fear that Quiets the Sea Text: Jonah 1:15-16
Introduction: The Evangelism of Calamity
We live in a therapeutic age, an age that wants a God who is manageable, predictable, and above all else, nice. We want a God who is a celestial butler, on call to fetch us what we want, but who would never dare to rearrange the furniture of our lives without our express written permission. The God of Scripture is not this God. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a consuming fire. He is the God who hurls tempests, who commands the seas, and who holds every molecule of His creation in the palm of His hand. And sometimes, in His severe mercy, He uses the very storms caused by the disobedience of His own people to awaken those who are dead in their sins.
The book of Jonah is a master class in irony. The prophet of God is the one running from God, while the pagan sailors are the ones running toward Him. Everyone and everything in this book obeys God with alacrity, the wind, the sea, the great fish, the Ninevites, except for the man who had the oracles of God. Here, in the heart of the storm, we see a microcosm of God's plan of salvation. It is a salvation that comes through judgment and sacrifice. It is a salvation that produces a true and holy fear. And it is a salvation that extends to the unexpected, to the pagan, to the Gentile, to those who were far off.
These sailors began the voyage as practical polytheists. When the storm hit, every man cried out to his own god. They were hedging their bets. But a direct encounter with the power of the one true God, Yahweh, has a way of clarifying one's theology. They are about to witness something that will forever shatter their pantheon of impotent deities. They are about to see that the God of this strange, sleeping Hebrew is the God who holds the winds in His fists. This is not a gentle introduction to monotheism. This is a violent, terrifying, and glorious confrontation with the living God, and it is the direct result of Jonah's rebellion. God, in His sovereignty, uses the sin of His prophet to bring about the salvation of these sailors.
The Text
So they lifted Jonah up and hurled him into the sea, and the sea stood still from its raging. Then the men greatly feared Yahweh, and they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh and made vows. (Jonah 1:15-16 LSB)
The Obedient Execution and the Sudden Stillness (v. 15)
We begin with verse 15:
"So they lifted Jonah up and hurled him into the sea, and the sea stood still from its raging." (Jonah 1:15)
Notice the progression. These sailors are not savages. They have done everything they could to avoid this moment. They rowed hard against the storm, trying to get to land. They interrogated Jonah. They even prayed to Jonah's God not to hold this act against them. They are more concerned for Jonah's life than Jonah is for the lives of the Ninevites. But the moment comes when their own efforts are exhausted, and the only path forward is the hard path of obedience to the word of God delivered through His disobedient prophet. Jonah said, "Pick me up and hurl me into the sea." And so, reluctantly but obediently, they do.
This is a profound picture of how salvation works. It comes through the sacrifice of the one who is responsible. Jonah, as the covenant-breaker, is the cause of the storm. His death is the only thing that can appease the righteous anger of God that is manifested in the tempest. This is a pointer, a signpost, to the greater Jonah, the Lord Jesus Christ. When the storm of God's wrath was raging against us because of our sin, Jesus took our guilt upon Himself. He told His executioners, in effect, to hurl Him into the sea of God's judgment. He was cast out that we might be brought in. He was thrown into the ultimate storm on the cross, and because of His sacrifice, the sea of God's wrath against us can stand still.
And the effect is immediate. The moment Jonah hits the water, the sea "stood still from its raging." The Hebrew is vivid; it ceased its fury. This is not a gradual calming. This is a sudden, supernatural cessation. One moment, a raging, ship-destroying tempest. The next, a glassy calm. This is a demonstration of absolute power. The storm was not a random meteorological event; it was a targeted judgment from Yahweh. And its removal is an equally targeted act of mercy. This miracle leaves no room for ambiguity. The sailors know, with terrifying certainty, who is in charge. Their gods did not do this. Their rowing did not do this. The God of Jonah did this.
From Craven Fear to Clean Fear (v. 16)
Verse 16 shows us the result of this powerful demonstration. It is a transformation of the heart, displayed in their worship.
"Then the men greatly feared Yahweh, and they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh and made vows." (Jonah 1:16 LSB)
We must pay very close attention to the word "feared." They were afraid before. They were terrified of the storm. But that was a craven fear, a self-preservation terror. It was the fear of a creature in the path of a natural disaster. But this is different. The text says they "greatly feared Yahweh." This is a different kind of fear altogether. This is the fear that comes after the deliverance. This is the fear that Psalm 130 speaks of: "But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared."
God delivers us from one kind of fear into another. He delivers us from the shrieking, godless fear of damnation and judgment into the awesome, worshipful, clean fear of the Lord. This is the beginning of wisdom. The sailors have just seen the raw power of God in the storm, but they have also seen the profound mercy of God in the calm. They have seen His justice fall upon Jonah and His grace fall upon them. This combination of holy terror and grateful relief is what the Bible calls the fear of the Lord. It is not the fear that makes you run away from God; it is the fear that makes you fall on your face before Him in worship.
And their fear is not a mere emotion; it immediately translates into action. It results in worship. First, "they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh." Now, we are not told what this sacrifice was. They had thrown much of the cargo overboard, but not, apparently, all of it. Perhaps it was a grain offering, or they had some animal with them. The point is not the specific liturgy, but the object of their worship. They do not sacrifice to their old gods. They do not hedge their bets anymore. Their pantheon has been demolished. They direct their worship exclusively to Yahweh, the God of Israel, the God who rules the sea. This is a foxhole conversion, to be sure, but it is a genuine one. They have been confronted by the living God, and they respond appropriately, with sacrifice.
Second, they "made vows." Vows are serious things in Scripture. A vow is a solemn promise made to God, often a promise of future service or worship in response to deliverance. This is not a bargain with God. This is the response of a grateful heart. Their vows indicate that their commitment to Yahweh is not just for this moment of crisis. They are binding their future selves to this God who has saved them. They are entering into a covenantal relationship. They are saying, "The rest of our lives belong to the God who stilled the sea for us." This is the language of true conversion. Fear leads to worship, and worship leads to covenantal faithfulness.
Conclusion: The Tender-Hearted Pagans
The contrast could not be more stark. Jonah, the prophet, is asleep in the bottom of the boat, disobedient and hard-hearted. The pagan sailors are awake on the deck, terrified, obedient, and tender-hearted. They do everything they can to save Jonah's life, and when they cannot, they respond to God's power and mercy with immediate, whole-hearted worship. Jonah, on the other hand, will later be angry with God for showing mercy to the Ninevites.
This is a perpetual warning to those of us who grow up in the church, who have the Bible, who know the catechism. It is possible to have all the external trappings of religion and yet have a heart that is far from God, a heart as rebellious as Jonah's. And it is possible for those who are far from God, those who are worshipping all manner of false gods, to be confronted by the raw power of the gospel and to respond with a simple, genuine, and beautiful faith that puts the saints to shame.
The story of these sailors is the story of every conversion. We were all in the midst of a raging sea, the storm of our sin and God's just wrath. We were rowing hard, trying to save ourselves with our own efforts, and failing miserably. We were crying out to all sorts of false gods, the idols of money, success, and self-righteousness. And then God revealed to us the truth: that the only way for the storm to be stilled was for a substitute to be thrown into the sea for us.
And when we, by faith, see that Jesus Christ was hurled into the abyss of God's wrath for us, when we see that He took our judgment so that we could have His peace, the only proper response is the one these sailors had. We are delivered from the craven fear of hell into the clean fear of God. And that fear propels us into a life of worship, a life of sacrifice, a life of vows made and kept. We offer ourselves as living sacrifices, and we bind ourselves to Him forever, for salvation belongs to the Lord.