A Rebuking Question to Erring Jonahs

We are told that on the back of Jonah's answer to their questions, “the men were exceedingly afraid.” They were afraid, not merely at the storm, but at the power and righteousness of the true God, and the distinctness and extent in which He was now manifesting His anger. And this was, doubtless, one of the effects which God's righteous prosecution of Jonah in his disobedience was designed to produce. “For when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:9). The bringing of iniquity to light, and to judgment, and to punishment, is an eminent work of God, indicating an all-seeing and righteous Supreme Judge, showing that His great name is near, fitted and designed also to cause men to fear and do no more wickedly.

The judgment of God upon the shamelessness and profligacy of the sons of Eli was intended to produce this effect. “And the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle” (1 Samuel 3:11). And when the case is not a shameless profligate, but a holy prophet, in whom God will not suffer sin to go unpunished, how much more emphatic is the lesson? When He who hath embraced His people into a covenant of pardon and of peace is seen pursuing their sins, their expiated sins, with evidences of His abhorrence, how solemnizing is it! When He pardons their iniquity, yet takes vengeance on their inventions (Psalm 99:8), and that vengeance is enough to strike awe into the minds of onlookers, how much more terrible must be His vengeance on unpardoned, unbelieving, ungodly men?

If judgment begin at the house of God, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel? The very fear which these heathen men felt may well rebuke the careless and insensible. For there are those who see and hear of the judgments of God on the ungodly, and yet are never moved to reverence, and fear and trembling. The same things that would strike reverence into a heathen will not move a man that is hardened under the means of grace. He is hardening himself as in the day of provocation; and all methods of rousing and arresting those that are at ease in Zion come, in process of time, to be powerless and in vain. “Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day” (Matthew 11:21-23).

We may notice the question which the men put to Jonah. “Why hast thou done this?” Oh, what a rebuke! Fleeing from the presence of the gracious and holy Jehovah, Jonah finds himself impaneled and crossquestioned at the bar of heathen sailors. Could anything he might have dreaded in the path of commanded duty have been half so humiliating as this? Doubtless, in the path of duty a man must take up his cross, and oftentimes it may be painful and humbling. It is well for the Christian to remember, when more generous motives are not likely to prevail, that in fleeing from that path, he lies open to incidents that may be more humbling still. And under them, sustained by no lofty sense of loyalty to God, but with spirit embittered by self-displeasure, he must be destitute of the consolation and dignity involved in bearing the cross. For the cross always carries honor and comfort with it.

Always it is true, that he that humbleth himself shall be exalted, while he that exalteth himself shall be abased. Look at Jonah, for instance. How deeply is he abased! A man whose intellect has been irradiated by the light of God's Word and Spirit, who has been exalted to the lofty rank of God's messenger and friend, standing in His counsel, and entrusted with His secret, whose character has been framed of the Spirit for communion with God and refined and sanctified by His fellowship and service, for such an one to have his duty pointed out and his offence rebuked by ignorant, unrefined, rude, yes, idolatrous and heathen men; how painful is the retribution and how just!

Listen to the question. Suppose yourself in Jonah's place, and hear the question put to you, put to you, if a child of God, by heathen men, “Why hast thou done this?” Did your God provoke you to flee from Him? Did He deal so hardly and unkindly with you that you had no alternative but flight? Were you tired of your God? Had you found Him out as no more worthy of your trust and obedience? Had you got to the end of all the duty that you owed to Him, or of all the protection or support that He could afford to you?

“Why hast thou done this?” If the mission on which He sent you was difficult, and the warfare heavy, did He send you on your own charges, so that, being unable to defray them, you have not dared to face the undertaking? Did He demand your self-denying labor and give you no encouragement, no countenance, no support? Is this the character of your God? Is the God whom you fear, O Jonah, so hard a taskmaster, so unfeeling and severe?

Ah! it is well in your sins and backslidings, to have this question pressed upon you, “Why hast thou done this?” When your heart, that once found its sweet and chosen pleasure in the Scriptures, in meditation, in prayer, now follows so keenly the things that perish in the using, and allows itself to be molded by the fashion of the world that passeth away, why is this? When you have forsaken your first love, abated the zeal, and contracted the extent of your first works, why is this?

Let it not content you to regard the question as a mere vague rebuke, as a mere reminder that what you have done is indefensible. Press the question. Accept it as a question under which you may not only well be expected to wince and feel sore, but as a question to be deliberately faced and kept in view, till thorough restoration, and confirmed revival, and zealous return to first love and first works are again secured.

“Why hast thou done this?” Produce your strong reasons. Has God been a wilderness to you? Have you found a better friend? Have you found a worthier portion? Have you found a sweeter employment than meditation in His Word and calling on His Name?

“Why hast thou done this?” Have you found Him unfaithful to His promises? Have you found that He discourages His people? Will you say that the more you have known Him, the less you have thought of Him? It looks like it, O backslider!

“Why hast thou done this?” Has the world been better to you than God? Has it been more full, more steadfast, more satisfying, more true than God? Ah! must you not say that the more you have known it, the less cause you have had to be pleased with it? But does it look like it, if you can turn again to its beggarly dements and bind in your chiefest thoughts and anxieties with those things that are seen and temporal, while the things that are unseen and eternal are losing their hold over you, and not influencing, pleasing, profiting, sanctifying, animating you to love and duty?

Urge this matter, O backslider, to an issue, to an answer. Let the case go fairly and fully to trial. As to the men of the world, the world is their god. No wonder that they serve it. But why hast thou done this? thou who art an Israelite and fearest Jehovah, the God that made the heavens, and the sea, and the dry land. (1822-1885)

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