Faulty Logic
| Then the sailors said to each other, "Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity." They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?" 9 He answered, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land." 10 This terrified them and they asked, "What have you done?" (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.) (Jonah1:7-10) |
Jonah boarded the ship telling the sailors that he was running away from God. The storm comes and the seasoned sailors are scared enough to pray, but Jonah is sticking his head in the soil of his pillow. When they cast lots to find out who was "responsible for the calamity" - the lot falls to Jonah.
When the sailors quiz Jonah about his background, he answers: "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land."
This is the "Duh!?!" moment in the story...
If your God is the God of heaven who made the sea and the land, then how on earth (pun intended) do you run away from Him?
Jonah has had a very obvious logic breakdown.
The sailors get it - they are terrified - they see God's power in the storm and they are very aware of Jonah's incredible hubris. Not only is his thinking process illogical and arrogant, but his selfish actions impact those around him.
The sailors are "terrified with a great terror" (this is what the original Hebrew says) and the word for "terror" spans the linguistic breadth of primal terror on one side and awe-filled-reverence on the other. It seems the sailors, who we would look down on as a 'rough crowd', are more theologically astute than Jonah.
But it happens to us too...
Sometimes we get so tangled up in our own inner angst, pride and stubbornness that we do these illogical things. We try to "punish God" by not going to church, when He's already gone to the cross for us. We stop praying and reading our Bibles because we're mad at Him, but the sun still rises and our hearts still beat all because He holds us in His hands.
