Preventing Grace
(No. 2924)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1905.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1862.
"And David said to Abigail, Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, who sent
you this day to meet me, and blessed is your advice, and blessed are
you, because you have kept me this day from coning to bloodshed, and
from avenging myself with my own hand." 1 Samuel 25:32,33.
I MUST tell you the story, for if you do not realize the circumstances,
you will not understand these words. David was in the position of an
outlaw in his county. He knew that he was one day to be king over
Israel, but he had such reverence for Saul, the Lord's' anointed, that
he would do nothing that would look like usurpation, or seem in any way
to injure the reigning monarch. Some 400 restless spirits who had been
impoverished by the tyrannical government of Saul, persons who were in
debt and generally discontented, came to him in the caves of Adullam
and there formed an army of freebooters of which David was the head. A
little while afterwards, 200 others, men like-minded, came and united
themselves with this force so that David found himself at the head of
an army of 600 men of war, all of them valiant men, ready for exploits.
You will see he was in a very difficult position–he must find work for
these men. They were soldiers of fortune and they must be employed, yet
it was impossible for him to act like a traitor–he would not lead his
men against his king. He would not begin a revolution in order to
provide for his followers.
What, then, must he do if he desired to still be loyal to the king and,
at the same time, not to disband his men? He occupied his forces in
peacefully guarding the herds of the great sheep-masters who fed their
flocks on the high steeps of Carmel. This is not a thing uncommon in
the East even today. Certain sheikhs, with their body of followers,
sometimes undertake to keep off the Bedouin Arabs and other marauders
who attack the flocks of the sheep-master and, of course, they expect
to have some kind of remuneration for their trouble.
Now, all through the time that the sheep were in the pasture, David and
his men watched over the flocks of a certain sheep-master called Nabal.
When the time came round for shearing the flocks, David sent some of
his followers to Nabal, to the feast of sheep shearing, presenting his
request that some contribution might be sent for the support of his men
on account of their having taken care of Nabal's flocks which otherwise
would certainly have been diminished by systematic plunder. But Nabal
had got all the good he wanted from David and he refrained not from
answering David's messenger in a most rude, surly manner. "There are
many servants," he said, "now-a-days, that break away, every man, from
his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water, and my flesh that
I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men whom I know not
where they are?"
Such a churlish message could not fail to nettle David. Indeed, we know
that it stung him to the quick. He had not run away from his master,
but his master had driven him away and, as one who was apart from Saul,
but yet was not Saul's antagonist, he was doing the best he could to
maintain the peace. His blood boiled over. "Have I guarded the flocks
of this miserable wretch," he said, "all this time, and kept my men
there merely to attend his sheep, when they might have been profitable
at some other work? And now, when I send to him, instead of giving me a
donation, he answers me in this churlish manner!" Then, turning to his
men, he said, "Gird you on, every man, his sword, we will show this
fellow how to treat us." So, leaving 200 men to guard the caves, 400
marched out, David at the head, his hot blood all ablaze within him,
his anger showing in his face. "God do so to me," he said, "and more,
also, if I leave so much as a dog of that man's house alive by the
morning light!" He sallied forth doubtless with the full intent to
destroy Nabal, to make his house a heap of ruins and then to devastate
the sheep-master's estate! What a false position for a child of
God! But David was naturally impulsive and somehow men that have any
life in them do sometimes get their tempers aroused. We hear of some
people that are as quiet and as peaceful and as easy as a pond of
stagnant water–certainly their peace does not flow like a river, and
their righteousness is never lashed to fury like the waves of the sea.
David was not one of these.
As the son of Jesse rashly pursues the man of Mount Carmel, he meets a
woman, Nabal's wife. Perhaps a hard thought comes over him to smite
her, but no–she is a woman–David cannot strike her! And, what is
more, she is at his feet, asking him to lay all the blame at her door.
Then she goes on to tell him that her husband is a very foolish and
churlish man and she hopes David will not take offense at his words.
She has brought him a present and she tells him that when he shall come
to be king, it will be a great ease to his mind to think he never
fought his own battles, but only the Lord's. She reminds him of the
future and so she makes him forget the present. After a while his heart
yields to quiet reflections–he acts rather as a saint than as a
soldier, putting up his sword into the sheath and leaving the matter
with his God. Righteous vengeance was soon asserted, when barbarous
revenge was stopped, for ten days afterwards Nabal died. The Lord
Himself dealt out retributive justice to the adversary, while the
Lord's servant was held back from indiscriminate slaughter.
That is all we shall have occasion to say about the narrative. It
suggests our subject, which is "Preventing Grace"– the Grace which God
sends to prevent saints and sinners from running into sin. I hope
before the service is over many of us, in looking back upon our past
lives, will gratefully bless the Lord–bless His Providence and bless
the man or the woman whom He has sent to teach us and to keep us back
from evil–that we shall thank Him because we have oftentimes been
turned back from doing the wrong thing and by an overruling counsel
been led of Him in the paths of righteousness.
Of this preventing Grace we shall speak in two ways. We will deal first
of all with the people of God and with them but briefly, though they
are the only persons who will ever be able to recognize the value and
feel thankfulness for this precious benefit. Then we shall see how
Grace often prevents even men who are notfollowers of Jesus.
I. PREVENTING GRACE IS ENJOYED BY ALL THE PEOPLE OF GOD.
Dear Friends, some of us can bless God at this hour that preventing
Grace came to us in the shape of a godly education. We heard no
blasphemies when we lay in the cradle, no curses startled us from our
dreams. Many of us saw no drunkenness beneath the roof of our father's
house, no vulgar books were put in our way. Many of you were trained
from your youth up to know the Scriptures like Timothy–and some of you
have even heard something of the voice of God speaking to you as He did
to Samuel. Blessed be God for a holy mother! Blessed be God for an
affectionate, prayerful father! Blessed be you of the Lord, you that
brought us forth for God and blessed is your advice, for you have kept
us from many a sin!
Since then, preventing Grace has come in the shape of godly
associations. We need, none of us, to be very proud of what we are if
we think what we might have been had we been put in other positions!
If, instead of being bound apprentice to a good master and afterwards
brought into association with religious people in the Sunday school, in
the Bible Class and in the congregation, your lot had been thrown where
you could pick up your education in the street and take your college
degree in the coal-hole or the theater–who can tell but you had been
as black a sinner as those whom you now pass by in the street,
wondering that they are so vile? Much of a man's character comes from
other men. What we are is not all of ourselves. We are deep in debt to
others. Indeed, what man is there upon whom there have not been a
hundred fingers to mold him and a thousand influences to make his
plastic character what it is? I know that the Grace of God is a thing
that makes a man right before God, but I know, also, that holy
associations (or ever Grace comes into our heart to renew us) prevent
us from indulging in sins into which, under other circumstances, we
should certainly have plunged!
In extolling preventing Grace, what shall I say, dear Friends, besides
this, of the Providential circumstances which have kept us from sin?
There have been times with some of us in our younger days before we
knew Christ, when the temptation was very strong, but the opportunity
was not near. And at other times the opportunity has been before our
eyes, but there was no temptation. God help the man that has the
temptation and the opportunity at the same time! Many and many a man
has received the preventing and restraining Grace of God when the devil
has been hindered from throwing the two dice at one time. It is of
Grace that at one time there has been the fire in the heart, but no
fuel, while at
another there has been the fuel but the fire did not burn just at that
time so as to make it convenient or desirable for the man to sin. Oh,
Friends, the river of our life has been winding and tortuous in its
course! Had it wound in another way, it had been very different from
what it is and, perhaps, a word–as we say, "an accident," a chance
hit–may have turned the whole of it! Now we can say that our moral
reputation is unblemished, whereas otherwise we should have had to
lament that we had been immoral, debauched and depraved if it had not
been for this preventing Grace of God working through Providential
circumstances.
There is a fountain which is the father of two rivers and these two
rivers both take their rise in a lake at the top of a hill. Both rivers
start from the same place, but when they end their course they are some
five hundred miles apart. Behold this drop of water! There it lies.
Which way shall it go? Shall it go down that stream and find its way to
yonder sea, or down this stream to another destiny? It needs but a
motion of a bird's wing to move that drop either way and it shall go
rolling onward into yonder sea, or it shall find another channel and
pursue its course far apart. So has it been with us. The Grace of
God–preventing Grace had much to do with the Providence which puts us
in such-and-such a channel instead of casting us into another that
allowed us to come into contact with holy people rather than to
emaciate us with the vilest of the vile! This is a hard blow at our
self-righteousness. If we had not had our hearts changed and if
Providential circumstances had been a little different, we might have
been lost before now.
But besides the power of conversion to change life, how much Believers
owe to the Grace of God exercised through trial and suffering! They
would have gone astray, but they were barred down by affliction. They
would have leaped the hedges of God's Law, but they were clogged by
some adversity. Some men owe much to the fact that they were never in
good health. A blind eye, or a crippled leg, or a maimed arm may have
been in the hands of God a great blessing in keeping some of you back
from iniquities in which otherwise you might have indulged! We never
know what innumerable streams of good flow from that well which we call
Marah, but which God often makes to be an Elim to our souls–
"Determined to save He watched over my path, When, Satan's blind slave,
I sported with death." I suppose, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
that in looking back you can say, "I can see the finger of God in a
great many places where I might have ruined myself–there, and there,
and there–though I knew Him not, His arms were underneath me. He
guided me with His eyes. He led me by His right hand that I might not
be utterly destroyed."
Now, Christian, if you would think of this a little, you would be very
grateful, indeed, to God for this. I know if you had sinned even more,
the blood of Christ could wash your guilt away–and if your iniquities
had been still greater, you would not have overreached the power of
Divine Love. But think now how good it is for you that you were not
allowed–I speak, of course, only to some of you–to go so far! How
much sorrow you have been spared! From what evil habits have you been
saved! What temptations are now kept away from you which, if God had
not kept you back from sin in former days, might otherwise had
overwhelmed you!
Perhaps there is a man here who is a Christian and though he knows he
is redeemed, he would give his right arm if he could forget his
unregenerate days. There are some men who might say, "I would give my
eyes if I could forget what they have seen, and lose my ears if I could
remember no more what they have heard." Why, there is a snatch of an
old song that will come over you when you are in prayer! And when you
are trying to get right up to Heaven there is some old black
remembrance of the merriment or dissipation of the former days that
checks your flight and is as a clog to the eagle and will not let it
mount! There is many a man who might have been a leader in God's camp
who is afraid to come out and who, if he had come out, would have but
little force because of the weakness some old habit has brought upon
him. He feels he cannot do what he would for Christ because of the
past. If this to not your experience, then thank God for preventing
Grace!
I preached this morning to the chief of sinners, I was glad to do it,
but whenever I do, I find some who wish they had been greater
sinners–not because they love sin, but because they think they would
then see a greater change in themselves when the Grace of God lays hold
of them. Instead of this, thank God most devoutly you are big enough
sinners as you are. There is enough of vileness and corruption. There
is enough of base depravity. There is enough of abominable sin in you
now! Thank God if you have not been allowed to give vent to the evil
within you and run to an excess of riot. I write every day among my
mercies that I was taught to run in wisdom's way.
But, once again, dear Friend, if you have not been permitted to run
into outrageous folly, do not think that you are any nearer Christ
because of this. Do not imagine that you are to be saved in any
different way from the most outrageous drunk or the most depraved of
harlots! There is the same way to Heaven for you who are highly
esteemed among men as for the man who lies rotting in a jail for his
crime. I tell you, Sirs, you who think you have done no wrong, you must
go to Heaven by the blood and righteousness of Christ as much as the
convict at the hulks! And when you get to Glory you shall have no more
right to boast of your own merits or your own goodness than the thief
who went from the cross to Glory, or that woman that was a sinner and
loved much because she was much forgiven! "Other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid." And while it is cause for congratulation that
you may not have wandered so far into sin as others, it is also cause
for trembling, for verily I say unto you, publicans and harlots often
enter the Kingdom of Heaven before Pharisees! Some who were the vilest
of the vile have come to Christ–have penitently accepted His
righteousness while others robed in their own righteousness have gone
down to Hell and perished with a double destruction with the rags of
their righteousness about them!
I hope I have in no way whatever said anything which on the one hand
detracts from the value of an early religious training and preventing
Grace, nor anything on the other hand which detracts from the Grace
which saves the very vilest of the vile. I feel that sometimes when we
are preaching, we seem to look after the scum and the riffraff and we
forget many others. I would not forget one of you, my dear Hearers, who
hear me Sabbath after Sabbath. God is my Witness, if I thought I had
missed any one of you I would be too glad to preach a sermon only for
that one person, if I might but win his soul. What did I say? Preach a
sermon? I would preach 50 sermons! I would preach my whole life but to
win one of you and think myself well paid with such a blessed reward
for such easy toil. But whether you are great sinners or little sinners
outwardly, remember you are all vile in the inner nature–and the same
Grace is presented to you all. "Whoever will, let him take of the
waster of life freely."
II. The second part of our discourse is to be addressed to those who as
yet have not experienced the Grace of God in its constraining and
quickening power. They, too, in a very real sense have received the
preventing Grace of God, for THE PREVENTING GRACE OF GOD IS UNIVERSAL.
Without the preventing Grace of God to restrain man, he would be
unbearable, and if it were not for the preventing Grace of God in
society, a nation would be an impossibility, and a well-ordered
commonwealth would be a thing for which we might long, but should never
be able to realize. Men would be little better, we believe, than the
beasts of the forest, tearing and devouring one another if the Grace of
God did not keep them in check. And this, I think, is proved by the
fact that the further you recede from the Light of the Gospel–the
further you get from the agencies which preventing Grace is most likely
to use–the more cruel and savage men are toward each other. I thank
God that this is a land where preventing Grace is felt even by the very
worst. I do not believe there is a burglar or a murderer but has been
the subject of it, but has had to strive against it and against his own
conscience before he could consummate his crime and give himself up to
iniquity. You have had preventing Grace keeping you back from sin.
Sinner, if you cannot thank God for this, we can! We bless the Lord
that He restrains you and does not permit you to be worse than you are.
We pray that this preventing Grace may never be taken from you, or else
you shall be like some wild horse that has desired to dash over the
precipice, who, when the rein is laid upon his neck, leaps to his doom
and destroys himself and as many as are attached to him.
Yet, while it is universal, this preventing Grace of God is much
detested and abhorred by some men. Some can hardly tolerate the
restrictions which Christianity has imposed upon the nation! They are
vexed that they have to shut up shop on Sunday and, by a sort of
custom, are compelled to go and hear the Word of God. They wish they
lived in some place where they could do just as they liked. The wife
who wants her husband and family to go up and hear the Gospel is
thought harshly of because of it. Some men would even like, if they
could, to have a family that was all the devil's–but somehow or other
God will not let them have their way. The godless man gets a godly wife
and he is angry. By-and-by it turns out that one of the children
receives God's saving Graces and he cannot bear the thought of it. I
have seen men in spiritual things just like madmen of Bedlam. God knew
that those men would ruin themselves if they were let alone, so, first
of all, he straitjacketed them with poverty, that they could not do
what they would. Then, afterwards, when they began to tear and foam, He
put them into a godly family, as maniacs are put into a padded room, so
that, dash themselves as they will, they cannot hurt themselves! These
men cannot get loose, but they will strain at their bonds and
foam and gnash because God has hold of them–and will not let the devil
get the full mastery of them as they would like. O Sinner, the day may
come when God will say of you, "Let him have his own way." If He should
give you up, then your doom will be sealed forever and your fate more
desperate than words can describe! God help you and keep you from
yourself, or else you will soon destroy yourself and go post haste to
destruction!
But to turn to a more cheerful view of it, in many persons this
preventing Grace leads to something higher. After preventing Grace has
kept you back from sin, in comes quickening Grace and shows you the
hatefulness of sin. And after that comes pardoning Grace and gives you
power to believe in Jesus and, lo, your sins are put away! May God
grant that this may be the case with some of you who have got no
further yet than preventing Grace. Be grateful for that, thank God with
all your heart for it! May it lead you to repentance. May it lead you
to put your trust in Jesus and in Him only! Then you will pass from the
mere prevention in which Grace is a shackle, to the liberty in which
Grace becomes a shield and a sword, the joy and the sun of your life!
May the long-suffering of God lead you to repentance!
But once again, to turn to the solemn chord once more, where it does
not lead to higher things, preventing Grace increases the
responsibility of the man who receives it. If a man will go over hedge
and ditch to Hell, he shall find it a hard fall when he gets to the
edge. If, when we put poison out of the way and remove everything with
which a man can destroy himself, yet he will tear open his own veins,
he is a suicide, indeed! Who shall pity him? And when God hedges you
about, if you break the hedges–when He puts a bit in your mouth, if
you stand chomping it until at last you get it from your jaws and turn
to your own way–this will not be done without bringing on your head at
the Last Great Day thunders of curses from the universe that shall
judge you and the full lightning of wraths from the hand of God who
shall condemn you!
I fear there are some here who are sinning against the Light of God.
You are not without warnings in this land, not without calls and wooing
invitations–the time was when you might have gone into many of the
churches in London and not have heard the Gospel so that you could
understand it, but now in the corners of the streets and in the
theatres you may hear it if you will. And God is my Witness when I say
there is one place where you can hear it preached with earnestness and
I rejoice to know there are thousands of others! Souls, if you perish,
it is not for lack of invitations to Christ! If you will not have
Christ, it is a willful rejection! If you will be lost, blame not the
minister–lay it not at our door–we are clear of your blood! We shake
our garments of the dust of your souls! We will not be responsible for
you. We warn you, we cry aloud to you and if you will not hear, but
will go and turn to the downward road, on your own heads be your doom
forever and ever!
But instead of enlarging on these and other points, I will try, as God
shall help me, to give you a little advice, in the hope that some who
have come up, perhaps to a cattle show, or the Handel Festival, or the
Great Exhibition, may get more than they came for! Who can tell, some
of you may have to say in time and eternity, "Blessed be the Lord God
of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, and blessed be your
advice!"
Now, young man fresh from the country, you have a scheme in your head
and you are going to carry it out tomorrow. If my prayer for you is
heard you will not do so! You have come up to London to have a merry
time of it–I hope you will have a merry time of another sort! Consider
your ways. Think! Why will you go willfully and with your eyes open
into that sin? It may be the last sin you will ever commit! It may be
that you will die in the act. Great God, how prophetic these words may
be! Am I pronouncing the doom of some soul here? Such things have
happened and it may be that they will happen again. Oh, I pray you,
Friend, stay your hand. Shall I fall down upon my knees and pray you to
stop, for an impulse is upon me to speak thus–do not, do not, it is
for your life! Back with your hand, man, for fear of the viper's tooth!
You are playing on the hole of the asp, but his tongue is ready and his
fang shall envenom all your veins! By God, by Christ, by Heaven, by
Hell, I entreat you, you who have intended some sin, cease from it! May
this advice be blessed to you!
Have you not already had enough? What, man? Have you killed yourself
and is not that enough? Are you a lost man tonight and is not that
enough? Would you bury deep in sin even your last hope? The leprosy is
in you now–would you make it stare in men' s faces on your very
forehead? Oh, stop! Stop! You have gone far enough, the wonder is that
you are spared, seeing you have gone so far! What has all your
indulgence up to now brought you? Is there real pleasure in sin? What
has been your experience up till now? Is it not a rough road, though it
promised to be a joyous one? Have you not already had enough to bear as
the result of your evil conduct? Why, therefore, continue to spend your
money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfies not? As the voice of one crying in the wilderness would I now
seek to prepare the way of the Lord into your heart! Cease from evil,
man! Consider your sin and repent of it, for I hope that to you the
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
What if, instead of going into sin tonight, you should take my advice
and seek the Savior and find Him? If God bless you, you shall be saved,
but if you have shut your ears to God's pleading, it shall not be my
fault. Man! Man! You are lost and ruined by the Fall, but there is One
who is able to save, even to the uttermost, those that come to Him. To
come to Christ is to trust Him. I have preached this Gospel for many
years and I do not think I ever finished a sermon except in one way–by
trying to explain what is meant by this simple trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Young man, you have the idea that you are to do 20 things. You
have been trying to get ready for Christ–that is not the Gospel. That
is the Law! The Gospel is trust Jesus Christ, trust Jesus Christ! He
died upon the Cross that He might bear the punishment of the sins of
all who believe in Him. So to believe in Him is to trust Him. Trust Him
and them it is certain that your sins were laid on Christ and that He
suffered in your place. Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, Sinner, come now!
What if this should be the time when the Lord shall meet with you?
Write it down, you angels, in your golden tablets! Record the birthday
of a soul! Take down your harps, you bright ones! Strike the chords
with a new and Heaven-born ardor. Cherubim and seraphim, lift up your
voices to notes untried as yet while God Himself breaks forth into a
song, rejoicing in singing over them that come unto Him through Jesus
Christ, His Son. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be
saved." Believe now, you in this area and you in these galleries. Oh,
that you would believe in Jesus now! Thank God if you have not gone to
the great lengths some have gone, but remember you cannot be saved
except through faith in Jesus! If you have gone to the greatest
lengths, thank God you have not yet gone too far, for He can still
reach you. He has a long arm and He can find you in the very depths of
your iniquity. Trust Him, Sinner, trust Him, now, and there shall be
joy in Heaven over sinners that repent more than over 99 just persons
that need no repentance! May God add His own blessing for Jesus' sake.
Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JONAH1.
Verses 1-3. Now, the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of
Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against
it; for their wickedness is come up before Me. But Jonah rose up to
flee unto Tarshish from the Presence of the LORD, and went down to
Joppa; andhe founda ship going to Tarshish: so hepaid the fare thereof,
and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the Presence
of the LORD. Observe the misconduct of the Prophet Jonah. He had a
plain command from the Lord and he knew it to be a command, but he felt
that the commission given to him would not be pleasant and honoring to
himself and, therefore, he declined to comply with it. We see, from his
action, how some who really know God may act as if they knew Him not.
Jonah knew that God was everywhere, yet he "rose up to flee unto
Tarshish from the Presence of the Lord." What strange inconsistencies
there often are even in good men! Here is one who is favored with a
Divine commission–one who knows God and fears Him–yet, for all that,
he ventures on the fool's errand of endeavoring to escape from the
Omnipresent! He "went down to Joppa," which was the port of his
country, "and he found a ship going to Tarshish."
Learn from this that Providence alone is not a sufficient guide for our
actions. He may have said, "It was very singular that there was a ship
there going to Tarshish just when I reached the port. I gather from
this that God was not so very disinclined for me to go to Tarshish."
Precepts, not Providences, are to guide Believers. And when Christians
quote a Providence against a Precept–which is to set God against
God–they act most strangely. There are devil's providences as well as
Divine Providences, and there are tempting providences as well as
assisting Providences, so learn to judge between the one and the other.
4. But the LORD sent out a great windinto the sea, and there was a
mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
Learn, hence, that "Omnipotence has servants everywhere." The Lord is
never short of sheriff's officers to arrest His fugitives and on that
occasion He "sent out a great wind into the sea." "The wind blows where
it wishes." That is true, but it is also true that the wind blows where
God wishes–and He knew how to send that great wind to the particular
ship. No doubt many ships were on the Mediterranean at that time, but
possibly unto none of them was the
storm sent save unto the one which carried Jonah, son of Amittai! We
say, "Every bullet has its billet," and this great wind was sent to
pursue the fugitive Prophet.
5. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god. If
there is ever a special time for prayer, it is a time of need. Nature
seems then to compel men to utter prayer of such a sort as it is, for
it is but nature's prayer at the best! "The mariners were afraid, and
cried every man unto his god."
5. And cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to
lighten it of them. Life is precious and a man will give up everything
else in order to save it. Satan spoke the truth when he said, "Skin for
skin, yes, all that a man has, will he give for his life." From the
action of these mariners we may learn that sometimes we may lighten our
ship for the safety of our souls. When we have less to carry, we
probably shall sail more safely. Losses and crosses may turn out to be
our greatest gains. Let the ill-gotten ingots go to the bottom of the
sea and lo, the ship rights herself at once!
5. But Jonah was gone down into the depth of the ship; and he lay and
was fast asleep. The greatest sinner on that ship appeared to be the
least concerned about the storm which had come because of him! He did
not even seem to know that there was a storm, for he had "gone down
into the depth of the ship; and he lay and was fast asleep."
6. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What are you
doing, O sleeper? Arise, call upon your God. Perhaps your God will
think upon us, that we perish not I t is hard when sinners have to
rebuke saints! And when an uncircumcised Gentile can address a Prophet
of God in language like this!
7. And theysaid everyone to his fellow, Come andlet us cast lots, that
we mayknowfor whose cause this evilis upon us. So they cast lots and
the lot fell upon Jonah. We commend not the action of these men in
casting lots, but we admire the Providence by which the lot fell upon
Jonah. Solomon says, "The lot is cast into the lap," but he did not say
that it was right that lots should be cast into the lap–and he very
properly added–"but the whole disposing thereof is of the
Lord."
8. Then theysaid unto him, Tell us, weprayyou for whose cause this
evilis upon us, What isyour occupation? And from where have you come?
What is your country? And of whatpeople are you? I do not know whether
these men had traded with those who then lived in these islands, but
they had a very English custom of not judging a man before they had
heard him speak. It would be well if we all practiced it more–so that
before we condemn men, we were willing to hear their side of the story.
Considering that there was such a storm raging, the questions put to
Jonah were remarkably calm. They were very comprehensive and went to
the very root of the matter.
9. And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew. That let them know from where
he came and what his country was.
9. And I fear the LORD, the God of Heaven, which has made the sea and
the dry land. That, I suppose, must be regarded as his occupation. And
what a blessed occupation it is–to be occupied with the fear of the
Lord! So, you see that though Jonah was not properly following his
occupation while he was on board that ship, yet he did not hesitate to
avow, "I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of Heaven, which has
made the sea and the dry land." The child of God, even when he gets
where he ought not to be, if you test him and try him, will stand to
his colors. He will confess that he is, after all, a servant of the
living God.
10. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why have
you done this?Jonah had to go through this catechism, question after
question, and this was the hardest of them all. "Why have you done
this?" Could you, dear Friend, submit every action of your life to this
test? "Why have you done this?" I am afraid that there are some
actions, which we have performed for which we could not give a reason,
or the reasons for which we would not like to give to our fellow men,
much less to our God!
10, 11. For the men knew that he fled from the Presence of the LORD,
because he had told them. Then said they unto him, What shall we do to
you, that the sea may be calm to us?Here is another question! the
catechism is not yet finished and this is one of the most difficult
questions of all.
11, 12. For the sea was growing more tempestuous. And he said unto
them, Take me up and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be
calm to you. Notwithstanding all his faults, Jonah was an eminent type
of Christ. We know that from our Lord's own words, for he was as long
in the belly of the whale as Christ was in the heart of the earth. Here
he seems to be a type of our Savior! "Take me up, and cast me forth
into the sea: so shall the sea be calm to you."
12, 13. For Iknnow that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
Nevertheless the men rowedhard to bring it to the land. They showed a
deal of good feeling in all their treatment of Jonah. They could not
bear to take away a fellow creature's life, so they pulled and tugged
in order to get the ship to land.
13, But they could not: for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous
against them. Their safety lay in the sacrifice–not in the labor. They
rowed hard to bring the ship to land, but their efforts were of no
avail. If they would cast Jonah overboard, then they would be safe.
14, 15. They then cried unto the LORD, andsaid, We beseech You, OLORD,
we beseech You, let us notperish for this man's life, and lay not upon
us innocent blood: for You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You. So
they took up Jonah. Put the emphasis on the first phrase, "So they took
up Jonah"–that is, with great reluctance, with much pity and sorrow,
not daring to do such a deed as that wantonly and with a light heart.
When men do deeds like this on a far greater scale and go to war with a
light heart, they will have a heavy heart before long. If ever you have
to cast a brother out of the Church–if ever you have to relinquish the
friendship of any man–do it as these men did with Jonah– patiently,
and carefully. Investigate the matter and do not act until you are
driven to it after consulting the Lord.
15, 16. And cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her
raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a
sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows. Jonah had been the means of
causing a greater change than he expected! His conduct and punishment
had been a warning to those thoughtless sailors. They could not but
believe in the God who had thus followed up His fugitive servant.
17. Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. He
prepared a storm, He prepared a fish and we afterwards read that He
prepared a gourd and He prepared a worm. In the great things of life
and in the little things, God is always present! The swimming of a
great fish in the sea is, surely, not a thing that is subject to law.
If ever there is free agency in this world, it must certainly be in the
wanderings of such a huge creature that follows its own instincts and
plows its way through the great wastes of the wide and open sea! Yes,
that is true. Yet there is a Divine predestination concerning all its
movements. Over every motion of the fin of every minnow, predestination
presides! There is no distinction of little or great in God's sight–He
that wings an angel guides a sparrow! "The Lord had prepared a great
fish to swallow up Jonah."
17. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
So round about the truant Prophet was the preventing Grace of Jehovah.