#DailyDevotion When One Sacrifices Himself For Others
Jon. 1 11“What should we do with you to make the sea calm down for us?” they asked him. The storm was getting worse and worse. 12“Take me,” he told them, “and throw me into the sea, and the sea will calm down for you. I know I’m the reason this big storm has come upon you.” 13Then the men rowed hard to get the ship to the shore but couldn’t do it; the sea was raging worse and worse against them.
Jonah, having confessed what he did, the sailors want to know how to appease his God. The storm was increasingly getting worse. Jonah, in full confidence knowing the storm was all about him, and not wanting the sailors to be killed along with him because they were innocent of the cause of this storm, tells the sailors to throw him overboard. Then, everything would be alright. Jonah knows the righteousness of the LORD. Jonah knows the severity of God’s law and his disobedience. If he is no longer on board, the LORD will no longer pursue the ship. He is willing to die by being thrown overboard.
The sailors, perhaps not so sure about this, believing Jonah to be a prophet of the LORD, do not want to throw him overboard, still try to row the boat ashore to avoid doing that. I believe they are also demonstrating a certain principle which we shouldn’t overlook in everyday life, that is the natural affection which is present in all people towards other people. We see this every day when we mothers and fathers love their children. We see it when pagans and other unbelievers are kind to other people like beggars, risking their lives for people in trouble and the like. We should not discount these actions just because they do not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. People will even do heroic actions on behalf of other people simply out of natural affection for their fellow human beings. So if they can get to shore, they’d rather not sacrifice Jonah to the sea just to save their own lives.
14“Please, LORD,” they cried to the LORD, “Don’t let us perish for taking this man’s life, and don’t charge us with murdering an innocent man, since You, LORD, do as You like.” 15So they took Jonah and threw him into the sea, and it stopped its raging. 16Then the men started to fear the LORD very much, and they offered sacrifices to the LORD and made vows.
Seeing that getting to shore is going to be an impossibility and Jonah himself having declared the judgment, they pray to Jonah’s God, the LORD, to not hold it against them for throwing Jonah overboard. They ask Him to not count it as murder as the LORD does as He pleases.
So the men throw Jonah overboard and the storm ceases. This causes the men to fear the LORD very much so that they offer sacrifices to the LORD and make vows to Him. We may think of how the LORD of Life, Jesus Christ, went willingly to the cross and gave up His life for us on that instrument of death. Even the centurian at the cross, seeing everything that happened, declared, “Surely this man is the Son of God!”
May we recognize our Savior, Jesus Christ, willingly took on our punishment, so the wrath of God would be diverted from us to Himself. Having taken on our sin, He became worthy of death. We should see this, fear the LORD, offer ourselves as living sacrifices, and put our trust in Him.
Heavenly Father, do not hold Christ’s death against us but rather expiate our sins because of it, so we will live and not die the second death on the Last Day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.