Jonah 1:3

But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish.

The refusal to obey a God-given charge

Jonah sullenly resolved not to obey God’s voice. What a glimpse into the prophetic office that gives us! The Divine Spirit could be resisted, and the prophet was no mere machine, but a living man who had to consent with his devoted will to bear the burden of the Lord. One refused, and his refusal teaches us how superb and self-sacrificing was the faithfulness of the rest. Jonah represents the national feelings which he shared. He refused because he feared success. God’s goodness was being stretched rather too far if it was going to take in Nineveh. His was the spirit of the prodigal’s elder brother. Israel was set among the nations, not as a dark lantern, but as the great candlestick in the temple court proclaimed, to ray out light to all the world. Jonah’s mission was but a concrete instance of Israel’s charge. All sorts of religious exclusiveness, contemptuous estimates of other nations, and that bastard patriotism which would keep national blessings for our own country alone, are condemned by this story. Note the fatal consequences of refusal to obey the God-given charge. Jonah only meant to escape from service. The storm is described with a profusion of unusual words, all apparently technical terms, picked up on board. No wonder that the fugitive prophet slunk down into some dark corner, and sat bitterly brooding there, self-accused and condemned, till weariness and the relief of the tension of his journey lulled him to sleep. It was a stupid and heavy sleep. Over against the picture of the insensible prophet is set the behaviour of the heathen sailors, or “salts,” as the story calls them. Their conduct is part of the lesson of the book. Their treatment of Jonah is generous and chivalrous. They are so much touched by the whole incident that they offer sacrifices to the God of the Hebrews, and are, in some sense, and possibly but for a time, worshippers of Him. All this holds up the mirror to Israel, by showing how much of human kindness and generosity, and how much of susceptibility for the truth which Israel had to declare, lay in rude hearts beyond its pale. Jonah’s conduct in the storm is no less noble than his former conduct had been base. The burst of the tempest blew all the fog from his mind, and he saw the stars again. His confession of faith; his calm conviction that he was the cause of the storm; his quiet, unhesitating command to throw him into the wild chaos foaming about the ship; his willing acceptance of death as the wages of his sin--all tell how true a saint he was in the depths of his soul. The miracle of rescue is the last point. Jonah’s repentance saved his life. The wider lesson of the means of making chastisement into blessing, and securing a way of escape--namely, by owning the justice of the stroke, and returning to duty--is meant for us all. The ever-present providence of God, the possible safety of the nation, even when in captivity, the preservation of every servant of God who turns to the Lord in his chastisement, the exhibition of penitence as the way of deliverance, are the purposes for which the miracle was wrought and told. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Jonah’s soft-will

The main features of the ease are clear, and from these we draw the principles and lessons to be enforced. On the one hand, there is a Divine commission and command distinctly and authoritatively given, with some of the reasons for it annexed, although with others certainly not fully revealed. On the other hand, there is a state of reluctance and suspense ever verging towards actual disobedience--expressing itself, now in remonstrance, now in request for exemption, now in moody and distrustful silence. The situation is none so rare. The principles involved, and the lessons arising, are for all time. The supreme and unchallengeable obligation of the Divine will when clearly expressed. There can be no higher obligation to man or angel than that. That will is always in harmony with the eternal principles of truth and goodness. When God “speaks” to a servant, there can be no pretence for delay or non-compliance, much less for disobedience. Obedience, promptly, fully given, is the most beautiful thing that walks the earth. Prompt and simple obedience, when we are sure that God speaks, is the way to clearness, virtue, honour, strength, safety, and peace.

2. The exceeding danger of a mood of hesitation or remonstrance. We should watch with great self-jealousy the moral hesitations of the will, and the silent petitionings for delay or exemption. All such heart movements are fraught with peril. Divine light is given for “walking” and “working.” In most, if not all of the critical moments of life, duty is revealed very quickly, and made very plain and clear. In matters of expediency and prudence, wait for the afterthoughts. In matters of conscience and present duty, take the first thoughts that arise, for they are the Divinest. Happy is he whose action is as quick as the impulse that calls for it! whose daily obedience has in it the fresh colours of newborn convictions! whose feet sound the echo of God’s “Arise”! (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

Jonah’s motive in his flight

This dereliction of duty could not arise from imperfect acquaintance with God’s will. That is nowhere intimated in the narrative. It was deliberate disobedience.

1. The arduousness of the duty may have been one cause of the sin. He shrank from the service because of the hardships he supposed to be involved in it. He thought of the journey; of the probable reception of his message by the Ninevites; and of possible violence done to himself by them. If God calls to arduous duty, He is prepared to give all needed grace for doing it.

2. The mortification of his own vanity. God’s mercy and forbearance on repentance Jonah feared would be a personal dishonour to him as a prophet. Rather than subject himself to the possibility of such mortification Jonah chose to decline the duty altogether. This motive argues a painful obtuseness of right human feelings. Learn--

1. In the prosecution of arduous and self-denying duties to seek the help of God, and not throw off our responsibilities by shunning them. Responsibility can only be met by the conscientious discharge of duty. Human nature often shrinks, as Jonah did, from this duty, but let us be faithful to God, and depend on Him for strength and blessing.

2. And let us discharge all our obligations to our fellew-men from a sincere desire to benefit them and please God. Let us not mingle personal vanity with any of our religious endeavours, nor be too anxious about our fame and reputation. Our record is on high, our judgment is with our God. (Thomas Harding.)

Jonah’s soft-persuasions to disobedience

How did he persuade himself to enter on a course of disobedience to the Divine will so open and declared?

1. It was a long way.

2. The thing to be done was very difficult.

3. It would be natural that he should despair of any great success.

4. He may have thought that, in the event of attaining a spiritual success, failure must come in another way. His own reputation would suffer. Over-consciousness of personal character, and over-carefulness for the Divine honour, were not of old, are not now so very uncommon.

5. The prophet had some dark forecast of evil to his own country from the probable turn which matters would take, if his mission at Nineveh should be successful. We cannot pass any severe and overwhelming judgment on Jonah. There is too much reason to fear that his kind of disobedience is not at all uncommon. Far oftener than many suppose, great and gifted spirits have shrunk back from great responsibilities. See cases of Moses, Gideon, etc. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

The story of Jonah

The Book of Jonah is a prophetic history. It sets forth in object-lessons truths which bring us very near to the heart of the Gospel.

I. The scorned message of mercy. The prophet was the recipient of a Divine message. He was to declare to the people of Nineveh their sins, and summon them to repentance. This should have been an acceptable and agreeable duty. Why should Jonah have closed his ear against the Divine Word, shut up his heart against compassion for Nineveh, and fled from his duty? The answer uncovers at once God’s compassion and Jonah’s sin. Jonah’s fault lay in narrowing the compassion of Jehovah, and exaggerating the claims of the chosen people. His pride of race overrode his humanity; his sectarian zeal consumed his charity.

1. What shall we say of one who refuses to enter upon a work of salvation such as this? Jonah sinned against God and humanity.

2. If we seek downward for the tap-root of Jonah’s fault, where do we find it? In false views of God’s nature.

3. There are still men and women--good but misguided people--who hold that the salvation of God is limited to their Church. In the light of Jonah’s story, we may regard all such people with sincere pity, even while we condemn their presumptuous bigotry.

II. The sinner pursued by God. If God is com passionate, He is also just. He pities Nineveh, but He punishes Jonah. He pursues the offending prophet with a rod of judgment. If we suppose that Jonah’s sleep was one of self-security, we may imagine the sharp awakening to the sad truth of his condition.

III. A verdict of the self-condemned. The behaviour of the ship’s crew at the climax of the storm presents an interesting study. We are insensibly drawn to these rough pagan mariners. We respect their manhood, we praise their virtues, we pity their gropings after truth and duty, and long that they and such as they might have knowledge of the one sufficient atonement for sin. We are drawn with even tenderer sympathy to Jonah. He stands there on the tossing deck, self-condemned indeed, but his whole attitude is noble. His fault has risen upon him at once in its full magnitude. He neither denies nor extenuates it; he confesses it fully, and he offers himself in atonement therefor. No wonder that the sailors, profoundly touched by Jonah’s act, struggled to the verge of hope ere they could find heart to sacrifice this man.

1. We see here a wonderful illustration of the force of conscience when it is once awakened within the breast.

2. We have here a fine example of the operation of a genuine repentance. What must have beer the influence of this experience upon Jonah’s after preaching?

IV. Burial in the deep. The miracle consisted not so much in the fact that Jonah was swallowed alive, as that he was kept alive within the fish for three days. We must place this miracle upon the same footing as other Scripture miracles. Our Lord teaches that this burial and resurrection was a sign of His own burial and resurrection (Matthew 12:40). (Henry C. M’Cook, D. D.)

The prophet’s disobedience, and what came of his flight from duty

Jonah must have been a contemporary, or near successor, of Elisha.

I. His disobedience and flight from God’s presence. All men at least try to believe that they have good reasons for their disobedience. What was Jonah’s? Told in John 4:2. It was thought that God was specially present in Israel. If he left the country he would not be at hand to be sent on missions. His fleeing was a way of resigning his prophetic office. Have none of us ever done as Jonah did? When God calls to service or duty, do we never go another way? How easy to fancy that, by some means, we can escape the Divine presence!

II. His arrest and exposure. Thus far all had seemed to go well with the renegade prophet. For a time the Lord allowed him to have his way. And so He does with us all. If one chooses to run from duty, to decline service, to defer obedience, God does not ordinarily interpose to prevent his doing it. The downward way is commonly broad and smooth for a time. But, happily for us, God often finds means for the arrest of the disobedient. In the case of the fleeing prophet, He made use of the tempest. All sorts of persons pray in those great emergencies, which prove to us how utterly powerless we are. There is a feeling, which seems native to the human heart, that behind all physical ills there is a moral cause. Troubles come out of sin. These seamen, imagining, as it is so common to imagine, that unusual calamity is proof of unusual guilt, jumped to the conclusion that their present peril was due to the presence of some flagrant wrong-doer. They thought that, by means of the lot, the culprit might be detected. The lot fell on Jonah. In so unlikely a way his sin had found him out.

III. His confession and surrender. Crowding about this mysterious stranger, the questions of the sailors fell fast and thick. They wanted to have his whole story. Jonah made frank and full confession. There was no self-justification, but a declaration that God is to be reverenced and feared. And he put himself into God’s hands. Understanding, as a prophet, that only by casting him into the sea could the tempest be stayed, he humbly, submissively, bowed his will to God’s. It is precisely that spirit of penitence and trust which ever marks one as a sure subject of that mercy which, whatever befalls the body, saves the soul unto the life ever lasting.

IV. His chastisement and preservation. It is clear that Jonah’s conduct had won the respect of the seamen, and touched their hearts. They would save him if they could. Jonah’s preaching and conduct had convinced them of the true faith; for soon we find them offering sacrifice and making vows unto the Lord. True penitence does not save from present and outward ills. The forgiven still need correction, Note the blending of the providential and the miraculous in the story. Having brought a self-willed servant to account and repentance, and administered needed correction, it was the Lord’s will to restore Jonah to the place he had deserted. The chief practical lesson is the great folly of attempting to escape the service or duty to which God may call us. To obey is easier than to flee. There are crosses and hardships in the way of obedience, but they are far lighter than those which are sure to overtake unbelief and self-will. (Sermons by Monday Club.)

Jonah’s failure

Jonah was unwilling to execute his commission;--not under a humble sense of unworthiness and insufficiency;--this would have made him earnest in prayer to God for the courage and strength in which he felt himself to be deficient. This would, in fact, have been the very best qualification for the work assigned him: such feelings and such qualifications we find in Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, but he shrunk from it, through a distrust of God, and a dread of the consequences. His faith in God failed; and then, what did he foresee at Nineveh, but ridicule, and bonds, and death? Perhaps, too, he was living in the enjoyment of comforts, which he must forego, for the chance only of returning from his perilous expedition. It seems, too, that he was apprehensive that the labour and peril might be encountered by him for nothing; for that, after all, the mercy of God would spare the Ninevites, and then some might pour contempt on his predictions. His motives were probably mixed: some of them might not be known to himself; for, having resolved to disobey God, he yielded himself to the power of Satan, who would pour darkness and perplexity into his mind, and would probably succeed at last in persuading him that his offence was far from heinous, and that the severity of the trial would almost excuse his sinning. Possibly he set against this act of disobedience his former zealous exertions in the cause of God; he excused his present cowardice by his former boldness--his present love of ease, by his former self-denial and endurance of injuries. Thus, while he regarded his own credit and ease and safety more than the honour of God and the deliverance of the Ninevites, he deserted his post. Let us not condemn him; but ask ourselves, before God, how we should have acted in the same circumstances. (Matthew M. Preston, M. A.)

Faithless to a high vocation

Though the Israelites were the elect people, the mercy of God was continually extending itself beyond them. He would from time to time send prophets and messengers to turn them from their idols, to reveal to them the knowledge of Himself, and bring them to repentance. Jonah resisted the call of God, and refused to go to Nineveh. Why did he refuse to go? Because he thought God would spare the Ninevites after he, His prophet, had proclaimed their ruin, and he shrank from the supposed humiliation of appearing in their eyes a false prophet. He shrank from the sensitiveness of a proud nature. Another reason has been suggested, that he passionately loved his country, and feared the uprising of this powerful nation on its borders. It is said that Jonah fled “unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” Is it possible that he thought by a change of place to get beyond the reach of the Divine displeasure? It is more probable that he fled from “the service of God.” He meant to abandon his prophetic office. He was faithless to his vocation, and would cast off the responsibility of a high calling. Dwell on this unfaithfulness, and draw lessons from it. Are we not, each of us, like Jonah, called to stand in the presence of God and to serve Him? We have each certain duties and responsibilities, as clear and definite as the prophet had when he heard the Word of God, bidding him go to Tarshish. We too may flee from the presence of God. Our calling may require effort and hardness, and we shrink from it. Jonah is the image of every man who, knowing the command of God, gives up the path of duty, choosing in preference something more congenial to his tastes and disposition, or some passing feeling, some desire or fear. The call of duty will constantly involve giving up some interest or pleasure. Some trouble one meets in daily life may try the soul and test its faithfulness. It is always true that only he who doeth the will of the Father can enter the kingdom. (T. T. Carter.)

The runaway prophet

I. What was the reason for this flight? The cause of disobedience is to be found in the significance of God’s message to the prophet. It was a message of judgment, and yet, underlying it, as Jonah easily perceived, was a message of mercy. It taught Jonah, and through him the Jews generally, that God had a grand purpose of love and mercy to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. Such a thought as that was utterly opposed to Jewish ideas. Jonah’s conduct is but the representation of the whole national feeling. Jonah wanted the Ninevites and all other Gentiles to fall under the judgment of God, and to be destroyed from the face of the earth. This was the reason for his flight. Let us beware lest we should find his sin lying at our door. God taught the same lesson to Peter when the times of the Gentiles had fully come. We are now learning the lesson that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is God’s message of love to no one nation, or select few, but to every member of the human family.

II. What was the object of Jonah’s flight? Not to flee from the omniscience of God. The object of Jonah was to escape from standing before God as His prophet. He regarded the revelation and voice of God as in some way confined to Jewish territory. Though we, too, know that we cannot escape from the presence of God, we often fancy we can fly where the voice of God shall not be heard by us. When God calls men to go in one direction, and they like it not, immediately they set out to go in directly the opposite.

III. The successive steps of Jonah’s flight.

1. He went down to Joppa. His journey was downward in more senses than one.

2. He found a ship, and paid his fare to Tarshish. Is there not quite a parable in that paying the fare? It was the last barrier that kept him a prisoner to his native land. Now he thinks he is secure.

3. He falls asleep. He is tired out. No obstacles have been placed in his way. It seems as if everything had been providentially arranged. Yes, Jonah, thou sleepest, but God sleeps not. Now God will have a beginning. (James Menzies.)

The natural disposition of Jonah

It has often been remarked that religion and a good temper are by no means always allied. Though it cannot, perhaps, at all times be said that a religious profession is adorned by the meek and the quiet spirit so precious in the sight of the Lord, it must be always remembered that true religion has the most happy influence on all who in reality receive it. So far from producing the evil with which it has often been associated, it is associated with it for its correction, and does actually produce in due time its destruction. This sweet subduing spirit can tame the roughest passions; it can humble the proudest heart, and open the most avaricious, in a manner and to a degree that no other principle can. The natural dispositions of Jonah seem to have been uncommonly adverse. His supreme regard to the dignity of his own character, without respect to what concerned either Divine manifestation or human comfort, was selfish and arrogant; while his language with regard to the gourd, and to his own personal sufferings, seems altogether to represent him as a person of a proud, passionate, jealous, and intemperate mind. Indeed, so numerous and so striking are the instances of his misconduct, that they afford occasion to inquire whether he really was a saint at all? His wicked refusal of obedience, with the subsequent attempt to escape when under a special appointment of heaven, are circumstances in no respect favourable. His stupid security, too, during the tempest, and his sullen silence during the subsequent investigation, bespeak a state of mind very foreign from that which the lively exercise of religion would dictate. His angry complainings, also, at the dispensations of providence, seem in no common degree to indicate the workings of an unmortified mind. Still grounds are not awanting on which charity may found a better hope. See what may be pleaded in his favour. (James Simpson.)

The unfaithful prophet

In those days the prophet was the organ of a Divine revelation. He was the representative of that Holy Spirit who had been speaking through many ages to the fathers. If a word came to him which went beyond the ordinary scope of prophetic ministry it would be all the more solemn; it would be very clearly not the prophet’s own, but “the Word of Jehovah” which had “come to him.” To disobey that Word, to hide it within his own thoughts, to take from it, or add to it would be a grievous sin, to be conspicuously punished. It was “disobedience to the heavenly vision.” It was renouncing the position and vocation of the Divine messenger. It was doing “despite unto the Spirit of grace.” The whole book is a commentary on the expression, “Presence of the Lord.” By the “presence of the Lord” is manifestly intended the organic centre of Divine revelation. The radical conception of Judaism is the foundation on which such an expression must rest;--it was that of a ministry gathered about Jehovah, who is seated on a throne of majesty and grace in the midst of His people. “The presence of the Lord,” regarded as a place, is the chamber where the ministering priest, or prophet, is face to face with God. Forth from that chamber he goes to fulfil his mission, whatever it be, whether as a priest to bless, or as a prophet to speak the message, to proclaim the “ Word of the Lord.” Jonah rose up to flee from that centre of his spiritual responsibility, to turn his back upon One who was telling him what to say and what to do. At that special crisis in the history of His people such unfaithfulness was specially sinful. (R. A. Bedford, M. A.)

The fugitive from duty

In estimating the character of Jonah we have no desire to palliate or to exaggerate. His prominent sin was disobedience to God. It cannot be said that he misunderstood the command of God. Could it be fear that induced Jonah to become a fugitive from duty? It was the character of God which made Jonah shrink from His service. Some of the fruits of Jonah’s flight from duty.

1. He rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord.

2. The fugitive from duty was degraded before his inferiors. Jonah’s flight subjected him to the reproofs, examinations, and cross-examinations of heathen sailors.

3. Jonah, no doubt, suffered much at the near prospect of death.

4. His misery was prolonged in a living tomb.

5. The fugitive from duty had to do at length the work he first refused. When man contends with his Maker we may be certain who will be the victor. That Jonah needed much refining in the furnace of affliction is evident from the dross which remained after correction. Perhaps the Word of the Lord was never entrusted to a frailer earthen vessel. After Jonah had passed through the painful and humiliating punishments of disobedience, we find him still in a deplorable state of mind, and using most unbecoming language to God. Jonah should have known that when punishments are denounced as coming upon a nation, it is with the understanding that they continued in their sin. If both Jew and Gentile were acquainted with mercy as one of the glorious attributes of Jehovah, where was the room for Jonah’s displeasure? But what Jonah did, we are all capable of doing, if not prevented by Divine grace. There are those who fly from duty, because pride hinders them from pursuing their most suitable calling, those who intrude into sacred places for which they were never designed; and generally, the unconverted. (W. Holderness.)

The disobedient act

“Jonah rose up.” So far then he was obedient. No. He only rose up “to flee to Tarshish.” His mind was made up, before he arose, to disobey. We sin in thought, resolution, will, before we take a single wrong step. Had Jonah sufficient grounds for his disobedient act? Was not his ministry in Israel a great failure? And if a great failure among his privileged kindred, might he not reasonably infer it would be a greater failure among untutored and degraded heathen? Moreover, it was a new expedition- there was no precedent for him to follow. And did not he fear that God might turn from His purpose? In the face of these considerations it may he asserted that he had no honest reasons for shirking duty, for running away from God. Our failures may be our greatest successes.

I. His disobedient act was wilful. It was not done without deliberation. It was not done without breaking through moral restraints. Jonah had a stern battle to fight with the checks of conscience and the promptings of his better nature. Through a whole “bodyguard” of moral influences, monitions, voices, hindrances, Jonah had to cut his way to Joppa for Tarshish. This made his act of disobedience all the more criminally wilful. The harder the path to ruin the greater the guilt and punishment.

II. The act was foolish. He attempted--

1. The impossible. The Presence like an all-encompassing atmosphere hemmed him in--beyond it he could not get. God meets man inevitably at every turn of life.

2. He abandoned the indispensable. He thought he could do without God, and so ventured on the mad experiment. God is a necessity.

3. He undertook the unmanageable. In fleeing from God, he flew in the face of God. In trying to escape Him, he came into collision with Him. No man is sufficient for such an engagement. How foolish is all sin! Disobedience is moral mania.

III. His act was encouraged by opportune circumstances. He “found a ship going to Tarshish.” The accidental favoured the intentional. It so happened that the ship was freighted for Tarshish, and Jonah came on the quay just in time to pay his fare and get on board. Don’t blame the ship, but blame the prophet. Don’t censure the opportunities, but censure the disposition which seized and made them auxiliaries of evil intentions. Occasion for sin is no Divine warrant to sin.

1. Circumstances are rendered moral or immoral in their bearing on human actions, only as they further goodness or facilitate disobedience.

2. Opportunities in the way of transgression are accidental and not Divinely appointed, which if availed of to accelerate rebellious flight will entail heavier penal consequences.

3. The ready way is not always the right way.

IV. The act was expensive. He might have gone down to Nineveh for less than it cost him to go to Tarshish. He paid his fare in a very expensive sense. It cost him his peace of mind, his conscience approval, his official honour, mortification of spirit, risk of life, and peril of soul. As a mere matter of economy it is wiser and better to be good than sinful. Sin’s pleasures, sin’s fashions, sin’s companions, sin’s vanities are all prodigiously expensive. (J. O. Keen, D. D.)

Neglect of Christian duty

Sleep is one of the great essentials to human existence. Sleep in itself is right, but there is “a time to sleep.” Jonah’s sleep was sinful, it was at the wrong time and in the wrong place. Look at this religious deserter asleep.

I. It is a very easy thing to neglect Christian duty. All that Jonah did was easily done. So are neglect of prayer, Bible study, services, work, etc., easy now.

II. Neglect of Christian duty is a most dangerous practice. Jonah went to Tarshish at the peril of his temporal and spiritual life. Every Christian who allows himself to be led away into bypaths of spiritual indolence, lethargy, and neglect, will suffer great loss, will imperil his soul.

III. It is not for us to choose our field of Christian work. God sent Jonah to preach a short soul-stirring sermon to the Ninevites. How much more would be done if all Christians would just take the field God assigns them, and work with all their hearts for God and Souls.

IV. The infinite folly of attempting to get away from the presence of God. “Whither shall I go from Thy presence?” The monarch who threw chains into the sea to bind it; the boys who undertook to count the stars; these were wise adventures compared with the folly of attempting to get away from God. Then “let us not sleep, as do others, but let us who are of the day be sober.” (W. Rodwell.)

Sorrow follows disobedience

You are seeking your own will. You are seeking some other good than the law you are bound to obey. But how will you find good? It is not a thing of choice; it is a river that flows from the foot of the invisible throne and flows by the path of obedience. I say again, man cannot choose his duties. You may choose to forsake your duties, and choose not to have the sorrows they bring. But you will go forth, and what will you find? Sorrow without duty--bitter herbs and no bread with them. (George Eliot.)

He found a ship going to Tarshish.

Fatal success

I. Attend to the whole of the circumstances concerned. By partial and distorted views the most magnificent objects may be rendered contemptible, and the most perfect propriety ridiculous.

1. In this world the wicked often succeed, while the righteous are involved in distress. If any man be exempted from trouble in the present state, we should expect it to be a wicked man. The present is, with respect to the wicked, the only season of forbearance, the only time of indulgence. If any labour under a peculiar series of sufferings, we should expect him to be a saint. Because the present is, to the believer, a state of discipline. We cannot, however, conclude either that all the afflicted are righteous, or that it is only the tabernacle of the robber that prospers.

2. All the success of the wicked is confined to external objects. It would be affectation to say that man is independent of these.

3. The success of the wicked is but momentary. Duration is an important measure of value.

4. The worst moral effects are produced by success on the conduct of the wicked. But consequences cannot always be considered as a Standard for regulating judgment.

5. The successful sinner would tremble did he look forward to the sufferings which must eventually overtake his crimes.

II. The grounds on which Divine wisdom proceeds in such dispensations.

1. Previous to such trials the sinner is already warned of his danger in the Word. It is to this men are to look for a regulating law.

2. Such trials are seldom permitted until conscience has been grossly violated.

3. No external obstacle can stop the career of the sinner.

4. Abused grace is properly and justly withdrawn.

5. These scenes of trial discover to others the dispositions that were previously in power.

III. The marks by which judicial may be distinguished from sanctified success. If sanctified it follows you in a course of obedience to the Word. It is not a partial or incidental circumstance. It recognises God as its origin. The effects will show whence the prosperity proceeds. (James Simpson.)

Jonah’s flight

In the case of Jonah we have a striking instance of Divinely located work and responsibility. How are we to know that the Word of the Lord really comes to us? What more can any man desire than to be fully convinced that his duty lies in a certain direction? We are so made that, if true to ourselves, we shall have clear, sharply defined religious convictions; and in so far as we are faithful in following them, we are in direct communion with the Spirit of God.

I. Life has its great occasions, and woe to the man who fails to successfully grapple with them. God signally honoured Jonah by selecting him as the first preacher to the heathen world. Human life does not always remain on the same key. Sometime, some where, God arrests the old monotonous tune, and strikes the keynote to a loftier anthem. Everything depends on how we catch the new tone, follow the leader, and master the music. How possible it is to be unequal to our opportunity, to let it pass unimproved, and to be doing a little paltry work,--to be mistaking fuss for energy, and an idle industry for that holy consecration which absorbs every power, and ennobles the man by the sublimity of its motives and aims. There are hours in the lives of most men, compared with which all after hours are poor and commonplace,--great critical hours, pregnant with the possibilities of manhood and destiny. To fall below such crises is a calamity which the future can never repair. Society is full of poor men, both temporally and spiritually, because they did not manfully grapple with the great occasions of life.

2. Opportune circumstances do not of necessity imply divine approval. Here we see that a man may be strangely favoured by circumstances, who is in open rebellion against God. Rightly to interpret circumstances is one of the most difficult things in life. And a man who has become loose at the conscience may so interpret them as to embolden and fortify himself in a life of sin. There are people who make circumstances into a kind of Bible, and argue that, after all, it is impossible they can be so very bad, or Providence would not thus conspire to further their purposes. When a man gets himself mixed up with iniquity, it is not much wonder that he tries to set up a kind of supernatural wisdom of his own, as a sort of self-vindication. It is quite possible for a man so to put circumstances before his mind as to be fearfully misled by them. Much charity should be exercised towards those whose very circumstances invite their further continuance in sin. Many a man has had reason to thank God that the ship left before he got to Joppa; that was the only thing that saved him from disaster and perhaps destruction.

III. A man may ignore the claims of God and yet be scrupulous in his observance of the laws of social justice and equity. Jonah “paid his fare.” Honest with the owner of the ship, but dishonest with the Owner of the universe. God has claims upon us as well as man: and any man’s integrity is partial and ruinously defective that does not honour both claims..

IV. The wicked man is a public calamity, a social curse. No matter how much the sinner may have things his own way, God can head him off, frustrate his purposes, and convert the very elements that were most friendly to his progress into instruments of punishment and death. Learn that there is a right and a wrong way of settling things. We must have a settlement with God on a basis of mediation and righteousness, or the sea will always be rough. (T. Kelly.)

The unwisdom of disobedience

God said to Jonah, “Go to Nineveh.” “I won’t go; I’ll go to Tarshish.” He started for Tarshish. Did he get there? The seas raged, the winds blew, the ship rocked. Come, ye whales, and take this passenger for Tarshish. No man ever got to Tarshish if the Lord told him to go to Nineveh. The seas would not bear him; they are God’s seas. The winds would not waft him; they are God’s winds. If a man deliberately sets out to do that which God declares he must not do, the natural world as well as God is against him and the lightnings are ready to strike him, and the fires are ready to consume him, and the sun is ready to smite him, and the waters are ready to drown him, and the earth is ready to devour him. (Christian Age.)

He paid the fare thereof.--

Paying the fare

There had been many hindrances in Jonah’s way to prevent him from consummating the act of disobedience, but he overcame them all. And yet this fact that he had paid his fare might have startled him. It was the last hindrance to his headstrong will, Had he gone to Nineveh he would not have needed to pay his own fare. But deliberately selecting his own way, Jonah was left to pay his own fare.

1. Accept this feature of the case as a starting-point. Obedience is economy; disobedience is expensive.

2. This was only a small part of the fare that Jonah paid. Only the first instalment. In the second place, he paid his fare in the thwarting of his purposes. He made more haste than speed. The ready way was not the right way. If you will be disobedient, you must pay your fare in the thwarting of your purposes.

3. As part of the fare the prophet had to pay for his disobedience. I mention his moodiness and peevishness.

4. Part of the fare was the withdrawal of Jehovah’s presence.

5. He paid part of his fare in the loss of reputation. Regard to reputation was the only defence he made. Reputation may be overestimated, If the means is exalted into an end; if reputation becomes the be-all and end-all of the ministry, there is no limit to the harm that may accrue. For the sake of reputation Jonah declined tim call of God. And his disobedience was its own punishment. (John A. Macfadyen.)

Sinful pleasures dear bought

The sacrifices required by religion are infinitely more reasonable and light than those which sinful courses demand.

I. The sacrifices required of the sinner. The boasted pleasure of the sinner is obtained at a very disproportioned expense of time--of labeler--and of substance: and moreover to it is freely sacrificed not only health, reason, conscience, but also the precious soul.

II. The sacrifices required of those who are the friends of religion.

1. Religion does not require the renunciation of any lawful enjoyment.

2. Religion does require of its followers certain worldly sacrifices. Such as a seventh portion of time. Jehovah demands of all His worshippers--

3. The total surrender of their persons. Your talents, with all their energies; your will, with all its propensities; your affections, with all their fervour, are exclusively and supremely His. The members of the body too are become instruments of righteousness unto righteousness.

4. When sinners come to the Saviour they present Him with their most cheerful services.

5. The severest sacrifice that religion requires is that of our unholy desires. The service is severe, but the command is absolute.

III. Compare these systems. Each has something to enjoy. The Christian needs not fear to grant to the sensualist his luxuries; or to acknowledge the general depression of the faithful. To ascertain the several claims of these systems observe--

1. That, while all the demands of religion are just, those of iniquity are the vexatious claims of a tryant.

2. The demands of religion are most gracious, whereas those of a tyrant are insatiable.

3. The services of religion are beneficial; those of the world destructive.

4. The sacrifices of religion shall be richly repaid. Sin also has its wages, and to the uttermost farthing they shall be paid. Choose then what master you will serve.

Listen not--

1. To the seductions of pleasure.

2. Be not afraid of the reproaches cast upon religion.

3. Be truly wise. Listen to the cautions of Divine wisdom. (James Simpson.)

One virtue cannot atone for a wicked course

Jonah’s attempt to run away was a foolish and wicked act, all must admit; but there is one thing told of him that is very much to his credit: he “paid his fare” on board the ship that was to bear him away to Tarshish. He fulfilled his obligations to the shipowners in the matter of the passage money He was none of your mean sneaks who, in running to destruction, try to go as dead-heads. Jonah went on his way like a man. How often, by some such reasoning as this, men make out a good case for themselves, or for others, in the face of flagrant and atrocious acts. Men use some single virtue to cover much wrong or vice. I know a young man who refused to obey the call of God, as clearly given as was ever that to Jonah, and is satisfying conscience by the assurance of honesty in a very different and self-appointed sphere. There is much of this Jonah business on every hand. Men are sharp in their dealings, even to rank dishonesty, but they talk well, and profess better. They cheat and shave right and left, but they found a scholarship or a seminary, endow a college, or build a church. They are helping to undermine every good institution in a community, but they are kind and obliging neighbours. Because the men that cheat, swindle, and murder us are possessed of some single excellent virtue, we are asked to set it over against their many nefarious acts and terrible failures in character and life, and call it even. Not that we would undervalue or despise the admirable traits that sometimes appear in wicked and debased lives. We only utter our protest against the attempt, so often made, to make them atone for the sin and failure by which they are surrounded. We are all liable to be satisfied with one little pet virtue, that blooms, perhaps, like a flower adorning a corpse. The way we help one another to this same self-complacency over small virtues cherished in the midst of flagrant wrong, is, perhaps, the worst part of the story. (Homiletic Magazine.)

Lifes fare

Men get “passes” of railroads--all must pay the fare who go through life. Bible tells us there are two ways. You must pay the fare in either case.

I. Broad way to destruction. Fare?

1. Loss of conscience.

2. Loss of character. Character is built up by thoughts, words, deeds, little by little.

3. Loss of Divine image.

4. Loss of soul. No escape. “The wages of sin is death.”

II. Narrow way to life. Fare? Yes, we must pay the fare. The results are--

1. Noble character. God’s building.

2. Uplifting influence. People respect.

3. Satisfaction. Duty done; clear conscience.

4. Gain Heaven. Two ways are before you; which one will you take? (Homiletic Review.)