The first chapter. *)
V. 1. [The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amithai].
1) Some want to hold this prophet Jonah, as Jerome shows that he was the son of the widow at Zarpath near Zidon, who nursed the prophet Elijah in his time, in the first book of Kings Cap. 17, 10. and Luc. 4, 26. Take the reason that he calls himself a son of Amithai, that is, a son of the truthful one, because his mother said to Elijah when he had raised him from death: "Now I know that the words of your mouth are true" [1 Kings 17:24]. I do not believe that, but his father was called Amithai, in Latin Verax, in German Wahrlich, and was from GathHepher, which city is in the tribe of Zebulun, Joshua 19, 13. For so it is written 2 Kings. 14:25: "King Jeroboam brought again the border of Israel from Hemath to the sea in the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by his servant Jonah the son of Amithai, the prophet of
GathHepher." Also the widow of Zarpath was a Gentile, as Christ also reports Luc. 4, 26, but Jonah confesses here Cap. 1, 9 that he was a Hebrew.
(2) I say this because, where it can be had, it is almost good to know what time and in what country a prophet lived and was. For it helps to understand his book if one knows the time, place, person and history that took place at that time. So we have that this Jonah was in the time of king Jeroboam, whose grandfather was king Jehu, at which time king Uzziah reigned in Judah; at which time also in the same kingdom of Israel were the prophets Hosea, Amos, Joel in other places and cities.
(3) From this it may be seen that this Jonah was an excellent and precious man in the kingdom of Israel, and that God did great things through him, namely, that through his preaching the king Jeroboam was so blessed, and recovered all that Hazael king of Syria had taken from the kingdom of Israel.
*) Here follows in the original edition the text of the whole prophet. We have omitted the same, as Walch did.
1) and did such great harm that even the prophet Elisha wept over it before it happened, 2 Kings 8:II. And yet God showed such kindness, regardless of the fact that the kingdom of Israel was still idolatrous, and still worshipped the golden calves in Samaria. It is such a great grace when God gives a man to a country with his word that he not only bears the iniquity and disobedience of a whole country for its sake, but also helps it and shows it abundantly. What should he not do and leave where there is more than a godly man?
4 Whether this story of Jonah in Nineveh and in the whale happened before he was so helpful and helpful to King Jeroboam, or after he returned from Nineveh, is not clear from the Scriptures. However, it is plausible that he served and helped King Jeroboam in his own country until he restored and established the kingdom of Israel. After that he was sent to Nineveh, outside his own country, by God. For in his own country he learned by experience how God was so kind and gracious over the idolatrous kingdom of Israel, so that he was well aware that he would also be so kind and gracious over Nineveh that his preaching would be in vain and futile, as he himself confesses and is angry about, Cap. 4, I. 2.
(5) Thus it was in the world in the days of Jonah, that the chief kingdom or empire of the world was in Assyria, in Nineveh, as it was afterward in Babylon, and afterward in Rome. Next to it were the other kingdoms, Syria, Israel, Judah, Edom, Moab, each of them separately. And the kingdom of Israel was well established under Jeroboam the king, because of Jonah; and the kingdom of Judah also was well established under Uzziah the king.
6 But this was the last, and the blessing of John, which God gave to the kingdom of Israel. For after the death of Jeroboam, since the people did not improve at all, nor did they turn away from idolatry, the blessing of John was given.
1) The preceding, with the exception of the first two sentences in z 2, is used by Luther for the preface to the prophet Jonah. See Walch, vol. XIV, 70 and Erlanger Ausg., vol. 63, 80 f.
neither by punishment nor by benevolence, the kingdom fell apart; one king murdered another, until the emperor of Assyria came and destroyed both Syria and Israel, and led them away, so that they have not returned to this day, as the last chapter in the other Book of Kings testifies. Because there was such a great calamity and destruction of the whole kingdom because of the sin of the people, God sent his word beforehand through his prophets, warning them that they might be converted, or even that some might be saved and kept.
(7) For this is what God always does when his great wrath is present, that he sends his word first and saves some. Thus he sends Noah before the flood of sin [Gen. 6], Lot before he sank Sodom [Gen. 19], Abraham, Isaac, Jacob before he destroyed the land of Canaan, Joseph and Moses before he struck Egypt: so also here Jonah, and Hosea before he destroyed Israel, and Jonah before he turned back Nineveh. In the same way he sent Christ, his Son, into the world before the last wrath of the last judgment. But after Christ's death, not only Jerusalem, but also Rome and the whole Roman district and empire were destroyed.
(8) We also now have the same grace and great light of the divine word, therefore there is certainly great destruction; God will take some before it comes, and even kill us if we do not mend our ways. As we, unfortunately, do badly enough, we have already incurred great punishments.
V. 2. And said, Arise, and go into the great city of Nineveh, and preach therein etc.
9 Here we see that God does not only take care of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles, and as St. Paul says Rom. 3, 29: "God is not only the God of the Jews, but also the God of the Gentiles. And yet it is not stated here that the Ninevites circumcised themselves, or kept or accepted the law of the Jews, but are commended only because they believed the word of God, and became better and more devout.
(10) This is a mighty blow against the Jews, and the strength of our Christian faith, and it is well for us to remember. For from this
We may conclude that circumcision and Mosiah's law are not necessary for being pious and pleasing to God, and that it is not true that the Jews think that all the world must become Jews and accept and keep Mosiah's laws, as if the Jews alone should be God's people. For here Jonah stands with his book, showing that the Ninivites, without all the law and ways of the Jews, by faith and good works alone, please and satisfy God, and God demands no more of them. For if Mosiah's law were necessary for them to become pious, they would also have to have accepted it; but that does not happen here.
Again, we find that the Jews are required to have faith and good works, and that they are not helped by their circumcision and all kinds of worship, as Isaiah 1:11 rejects them with their sacrifices and deeds. And here we find the saying of St. Paul, Rom. 2, 14, that the Gentiles keep the law without the law, and the Jews transgress the law through the law, so that it is necessary to take hold of how Moses' law alone is imposed on the Jewish people for a time, to force and humiliate them with it, as with a dungeon and cane master, as St. Paul says Gal. 3, 24, and not at all that they should or would become devout through it, but greedy for Christ and God's grace.
(12) So Jonah's prophecy confirms the saying of St. Paul, Rom. 3:28, that by the works of the law no one can become righteous before God, but man must become righteous without all the works of the law, through faith, which then does good works; as we see here with these Ninevites. Now if the Ninivites were not obliged to keep the Law of Moses or to become Jews at that time, when Christ had not yet come, and the Law still stood and applied among the Jews: how much less are we now obliged to do so, since Christ has come, and has abolished the Law also among the Jews? Therefore, like the Ninevites, we need nothing more than a true faith that does good works and makes people righteous etc.
(13) I say this not only for the sake of the Jews, to dispute with them, but also for our sake, who are not against the same devil.
have this divine teaching. First of all, the pope and his followers, who call it a new doctrine, and impose on us much greater and more laws than the law of Moses was, and want to make us devout before God with it. But I think it is old enough, because it was so long at the time of Jonah, before the birth of Christ, and also enough, because it made the Ninevites devout without the Law of Moses, even before anyone could have dreamed of the papacy.
14. On the other hand, we have the mobs and swarming spirits who want to burden and master us with Moses' law, knowing nothing, neither what Moses or Christ is, or how far Moses applies, or what he serves for, as the iconoclasts have been until now, and who wanted to put the worldly sword into Moses' laws, and cried out confidently: Here is God's word, God's word, God's word, just as if it were enough that God's word is there, and not also to be seen with distinction which are those to whom it is commanded.
15 For it was also the word of God that Noah should build the ark, and Abraham should sacrifice his son, and Solomon should build the temple, but it is not for me to do likewise. For such a word of God is not spoken to me; but this common word is spoken to me and to all: Amend yourselves, and believe, as is said here to the Ninivites. Therefore, we must not ask whether it is God's word, but whether it is said to us or not, and then accept it or not etc.
16 But behold, what a great ministry God has laid upon Jonah, that he should command the one man to preach against the mighty empire of Assyria, against the king and his princes. The great lords dislike it so much when they are scolded and punished, and want to be unpunished. Now God commands Jonah to tell them their wickedness; it truly requires courage, it requires an open mouth. He has ever had to say to them: You are evil and damned, your good nature is a mere pretense and deceives you. For it is not possible that in such a mighty kingdom there should not have been fine people who lived an honorable, blameless life before the world.
have led. To punish them all at once, and to scourge them with God's wrath, is a great thing, and is evil to suffer, especially among the great merchants.
(17) In sum, I see little of history, because we look at it from the outside, and it does not concern us; but if such a thing should happen to us, or if we had been there at that time, it would seem to us that we had never seen or heard of anything more foolish and impossible than that a single man should attack such an empire. How would it look if you or I were sent to the Turkish emperor to punish him with his princes and empire? How often has it been so ridiculous that someone has spoken against the pope!
18 Now, God's works tend to appear so foolish and impossible at first that reason must despair and scoff at them; but it serves us well that we believe. For God carries out what He speaks and begins, no matter how foolish and impossible it may seem. "God's foolishness is wiser than men," 1 Cor. 1:25, which Jonah proves here.
V. 3 Jonah set out to flee from the Lord to the sea and went down to Japho.
19 The Latin text holds here together with the Greek: gen Tharsis, since I have translated: "on the sea". So that the smart people do not condemn me too much about this, I must indicate the reasons. They say that Jonah went to Tarsus to the city of Cilicia, where St. Paul was from, Acts 9, 11. 9, 11. But this has no basis in Scripture. For the text does not say: to Tarsus, but: to Tharsis, or to Tharsis. The Hebrew tongue has two words that mean the sea, Jam and Tharsis. Jam means not only the great sea, but also the great lakes, as Lucas calls the sea a lake, where Christ sailed with his disciples to Tiberius and Capernaum and Bethsaida, which Joh. 6, 17. and the other evangelists call the Galilean sea. Also Moses Cap. 1, 10. says: "God called the gathered waters Jam", that is, lakes or sea. But Tharsis actually means the
great sea, which is not a lake, but the one where Rhodes, Cyprus and many other islands lie, where St. Paul sailed from, Apost. 28, 10. ff., which is now held by the Turk, Venice, France and Hispania. For it reaches from Cilicia to the end in Hispania. The Red Sea and the other large, high seas are also called Tharsis.
20 Thus saith the 72nd Psalm, v. 10: "The kings of Tharsis and the isles shall bring gifts," that is, the kings of the great sea, and the isles within. For the city of Tarsus is not a kingdom, nor has it ever had a king, let alone many kings. So Solomon sent his ships to Tharsis, that is, to the sea, to the east through the Red Sea, to fetch gold in the land of India [1 Kings 9:26-28]. The ships could not sail to Tarsus to the city, because they would have wanted to sail on land. For between Tarsus and the Red Sea there is vain land, as the land sailors know. Psalm 48:8 says, "You break the ships of Tarsus with a strong wind," that is, the ships in the sea. And Isaiah, Cap. 23, 1: "Hail, ye ships of Tharsis," that is, ye ships of the sea. And of the sayings much more, that also St. Jerome himself confesses here, it may better be called sea than Tarsus, the city. For Jonah was not concerned about a certain city where he fled, for he had nothing to do anywhere, but he only intended to flee to the sea, wherever he wanted to go. He sought escape and did not ask where he was going. As the text also says here, he set out to flee from the Lord, and since he had nowhere to go, he thought to go to the sea, he would come wherever the wind blew him.
21 Japho is the city of Joppa, which is now called when one goes to Jerusalem, and is called in German the schöne, or beautiful. For there is the ford to the Jewish land. So Jonah went from Jerusalem and from the land of Judah to the sea toward the west. This is also indicated by the word, where he says: "he fled from the Lord". Who can flee from the Lord? Is he not at all ends? as the 139th Psalm, v. 7, says: "Where will I go before your spirit? And where shall I flee from thy presence?" For Jonah was
not so great that he should not know how God is at all ends, since he himself afterwards confessed that "he serves the God who made heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land. Thus he had also heard that God was at Nineveh, because he intended to punish their wickedness, and to send Jonah there.
But this is how it is to be understood: God has two kinds of being or presence: one is natural, the other spiritual. Naturally he is at all ends, as Isaiah says, Cap. 66, 1.: "Heaven is my chair, and the ground my footstool." So he is also in the midst of hell, death and sins, as the above-mentioned 139th Psalm, v. 8. says: "If I go to hell, you are also there" etc. So no one can escape from it. But spiritually he is alone, since he is thus known; that is, where his word, faith, spirit and worship are, there are those who are his, who alone feel how God is such a Lord, who is almighty and all-sufficient. The wicked, however, do not feel this, do not believe it, and do not know it either, that God is at all ends, even though they can hear it and say it. So one can flee from God if one flees to a place where there is no word, faith, spirit or knowledge of God. So Jonah fled from the Lord, that is, from the Jewish people and land, where God's word, spirit, faith and knowledge were, to the sea among the Gentiles, where there was no faith, word or spirit of God.
(23) Now here arises the question, whether Jonah also sinned in fleeing from the Lord? The old holy fathers were inclined to excuse the prophets, apostles and great saints; with what foolish humility they came so far away that they did violence to the holy scriptures and God's word before, forced and pushed them, before they let the saints be sinners. Although their humility, which comes from hatred of sins and honor of righteousness, is to be tolerated, it is still dangerous to guide the Scriptures in this way and to follow their interpretation. Christ speaks much differently Matth. 5, 18: "that heaven and earth must pass away, before the least letter or tittle of the Scriptures should pass away. It is better to give too little to the saints than too much, and better to break
from them, because God Himself in His word. For without the saints we can be blessed; without God's word we may not be blessed.
(24) So we stand firm and firm on the words of God, and let Jonah have committed a great and grievous sin here, by which he would have been eternally damned, if he had not been written in the Book of Life in the number of the elect. For no one can deny that God gave Jonah a command and told him to go and preach to Nineveh. So it is also certain that God is not joking, but is very serious, as serious as He was when He commanded Adam in Paradise. For he says: "the wickedness of the city of Nineveh has come before him", that is, he wanted to punish the whole kingdom. In short, great wrath is there. So it is also obvious that Jonah disobeys such a serious commandment of God, because he is afraid and does not want to do it, and sins as hardly as Adam sinned in paradise. For he should not only have accepted such divine will, but also have done it with all joy, and suffer a hundred deaths before he would disobey God's word. For what can be greater, more horrible thing than to disobey God's will? See how it happened to Adam, Saul and the people of Israel. Yes, see, how it goes over here Jonah himself. I think his disobedience will be punished horribly and terribly enough that the punishment will show how it was not a small sin. How finely he escapes God's obedience on the sea, that he might have wished to die three times for it in the land. He does not want to go to Nineveh, so he has to go into the middle of the sea, into the mouth of the whale.
(25) All this is written for our warning. In the first place, that we learn the piece: Whoever does not want to be obedient to God with kindness, must at last be obedient to Him with unkindness, and His will goes away; and see here, whoever refuses to be obedient to a little one for the sake of God, must suffer so much the greater for it: that nothing is better for us, than only to be obedient soon and say: "Your will be done in heaven and on earth" [Matth.
1) Wittenberger: first.
6, 10.] But this is a great sign of grace, that God seeks and punishes Jonah so soon for his sin, and does not let it benefit him, nor does he remain in it for a long time, so that he may well sing with David [Ps. 118, 18.]: "The Lord has beaten me, but has not delivered me to death."
26. on the other hand, that we may know God's grace rightly, and not be attached to our merits, either good or bad, but know that neither sin condemns us nor good works make us blessed, but that God's grace alone sustains us, and condemns us both, sin and good works, if we doubt in sins and rely on good works. For here you see that Jonah does not deserve by some good work to be preserved in the fish belly and brought out to land again, but by the grace of God alone, as he reports very well in his hymn of praise, as we shall hear. Again, you see that there is great sin enough, and yet he is not condemned nor forsaken. That is why he does not despair and despair in sin, remains firmly attached to God's grace, and willingly surrenders to punishment. For where he would have despaired, he would never have come out again. His great faith in the midst of sin makes it so that God cannot forget him, but must pull him out of it again, which will be said later.
(27) Now this is also a great comfort to us, that we see how even the greatest, most excellent saints sin so grievously against God, and that not only we are poor, miserable sinners, but that they also were men, having flesh and blood like us, so that we also may not despair whether we sin and fall, so far as not to fall from the kingdom of grace through false teaching and superstition. For as in the kingdom of grace there is no sin so great that it cannot be forgiven, so apart from grace there is no work so good, no life so holy, that is not condemned.
28 But this is what I mean by remaining in the kingdom of grace, so that one does not also sin against grace. To sin against grace happens in two ways. The first, when I have sinned against God's commandment, and I have sinned against it.
I believe and make a conscience for myself, as if God did not want to forgive me the sin and there is no more grace. For there is no more grace, but God with all grace has been denied and destroyed. This is no longer a human sin, but a devilish sin, and a sin against the Holy Spirit, which cannot be forgiven as long as it remains so, because it is completely against grace, by which sin should be forgiven.
29) But this means to remain in the kingdom of grace, if I do not despair of God's grace and the forgiveness of sins, no matter how great the sin, but remain firm in my mind and conscience that grace and forgiveness are still there, even if God's wrath and the wrath of all creatures wanted to devour me, and my own conscience itself said that grace was over and God did not want to forgive. That is 1) to exalt, praise and honor God's mercy above all things, and to defy all wrath and judgment above it, as Jacobus says in his epistle [Cap. 2, 13]: "Mercy defies judgment," that is, mercy is more valid and more worthy than all wrath, all judgment, all judgment of God. And whoever believes this can also with it defy all the wrath and judgment of God. Whoever cannot do this, then judgment defies grace, and grace alone must come to nothing, and judgment alone must reign to death and damnation, just as again, where grace defies, then judgment must come to nothing, and grace alone must reign to life and blessedness forever, as happens here to Jonah. This is no longer a human righteousness based on our works and powers, but an angelic, even divine righteousness based on faith and the Spirit, without any works. For it depends only on grace, which is not able to do any work. For everything happens in the heart and in pleasures, since there is no work in it, nor does any come to it.
30. the other way, when I do good works
1) Wittenberger: It says. But our reading is confirmed by the other editions and by the Latin.
and I add this devilish addition to it, and rely on it or take comfort in it, and make a conscience of it, so that I can stand before God by it, as if there were no sin. For in this way I nullify grace for myself, as if it were neither necessary nor useful, because works may accomplish this. Then God with all His grace is denied, and there is no longer divine but devilish righteousness, which cannot be forgiven as long as it remains so and is not recognized. This means, then, to remain outside the kingdom of grace, and to sin against grace, if one becomes so pious in some work or being that he does not need forgiveness nor grace for it, but without grace and forgiveness considers the work itself good enough and pure enough.
(31) Then the saying of Jacob is reversed, and is no longer called, "Mercy defies judgment," but thus, "Work defies judgment, yea, work defies mercy. This is sin in the Holy Spirit that cannot be forgiven, that is, it does not have mercy by which it would be forgiven, as all other sins have without such addition. For all other sins retain the piece, and leave the defiance that grace and forgiveness are still there, more and greater than sin. But this sin and good works put grace out of sight, and do not leave the defiance, but sin says, Grace is not there, and will not forgive. Good works say, Grace is nothing, 1) and I may not have it. So they are both fallen from the kingdom of grace, and sin against grace.
From this it can be understood what Christ means that sin is not forgiven in the Holy Spirit, neither here nor there, Matth. 12, 13. and Marc. 3, 28. and John, when he says [1. Epist. 5, 16.]: "one should not ask for mortal sin". For mortal sin he calls sin in the Holy Spirit. And all this is said: He who despairs in sins, or defies good works, sins against the Holy Spirit and against grace. Now here I should pray for
1) Wittenberger: is not.
that they might be freed from such sin and converted; but that God should be gracious to them in such sins, and allow his grace to be more valid in their hearts than such sin, as it is in the other sins, that is an impossible thing. For then I prayed at the same time that God's mercy should be less and yet more than such sin; nothing comes of it; but I should pray against such sin, as Moses does, Numbers 16:15, when he prays against Korah, saying, "Thou wouldest not look upon their sacrifice." For Korah also wanted to count something before God through his work, and thus sinned against grace. This was not to be suffered. Otherwise all sins are to be suffered, where they let grace defy and be master. That is enough of it now.
But what moved Jonah to such disobedience that he would not gladly go to Nineveh? First, that he refused such a great, new, unheard-of ministry, because he alone was sent before all other prophets to such a great king in a foreign land; for it is not read that God ever sent a prophet from the land of Israel so far away and to such a great kingdom. Because this is such a new and strange command, which has no example of such a thing ever having been done before, it is also wild and strange to the prophet Jonah that God should command him to do such a thing before anyone else. As flesh and blood is naturally minded, we hardly want to go where God does something special to us before others. Just as Peter, John 21:19 ff, looked around for John, when Christ said to him, "Follow me," and asked, "What should John do? and do not see that we have to go up alone in the end, just as Jonah happens here, who does not want to leave the land of his own, so he has to go alone into the middle of the sea and into the mouth of the whale, since he could not think otherwise, because he would be alone with God in heaven and earth. O, this is a hard thing!
(34) One might also say that he was afraid of the great king. Some think that he did it because he was afraid that his prophecy would be reversed, and that he would not be able to
He was worried that he would be taken for a liar and a false prophet whose word was not true or from God. But this cause is nothing. For Jonah did not know what would happen, because the 4th chapter, v. 5, says that he sat outside the city, waiting to see what would happen to it. From this it can be seen that he waited until it perished, like Sodom and Gomorrah, and was angry that it did not happen as he hoped. Therefore, one can assume that the cause of his disobedience was that he was hostile to the city of Nineveh and still had a Jewish, carnal opinion of God, as if God were the God of the Jews alone and not of the Gentiles.
35 Therefore his heart was set on thinking that the Ninevites were not worthy of God's word and grace, because they were not God's people, that is, Jews, or among the Israelite people, just as the apostles at first fleshly thought that Christ's kingdom should be in the flesh, and then, when they recognized it spiritually, still thought that it should be of the Jews alone, and preached the gospel to the Jews alone, Acts 8. 8, until they saw God by a vision to Petro from heaven, Apost. 10, 10. ff., and by a public calling of Paul and Barnabae, Cap. 13, 2. 3., and by miracles and signs, finally by a common concilium, Cap. 15, 1. ff., that God would also give grace to the Gentiles, and would also be God to the Gentiles. For it was difficult for the Jews to believe that other people besides Israel were God's people, because the sayings of Scripture speak of Israel and Abraham's seed, and only with them were God's word, worship, laws and holy prophets. Paul also wrote the epistle to the Romans for the sake of this matter, in which he deals with this very article in the strongest and most powerful way, with mighty writings, that God is God not only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles [Rom. 3:29]. For this still hinders the Jews today, because they do not want to believe that the Gentiles are God's people as well as the Jews.
36Therefore Jonah also is in such a mind, and comes into such a fight about it, that he
It must learn with such a great puff, with a likeness of the wild turnip, and with a strong testimony of God from heaven, that God also considers Nineveh to be His city, and the Ninevites to be His people. Just as Christ admitted his disciples to their carnal thoughts of the kingdom of God, so he also admits Jonah to his carnal thoughts. For behold, how hard it has been to believe that there are any Christians who are not under the pope, since there are all false appearances and wrong interpretations of the Scriptures: what should happen where dry, bright sayings established the pope's office, as Judaism was established? How should we shy away from Turks, Jews and Gentiles, and hold to the Pabstacy alone! So Jonah also happened in the Judaism and Israelite kingdom.
37 This is what he says in Cap. 4, 2. says: he fled because he wanted to know how God was so kind etc., to show that he was equally sorry that God was so kind and showed mercy to the Ninevites, and for this reason he would rather not preach, and would much rather be dead, than that the grace of God, which should belong to the people of Israel, should also be given to the Gentiles, who have neither God's word, nor the Law of Moses, nor God's service, nor prophets, nor anything, but strive against God and His word and His people. But that this was Jonah's opinion, clearly shows that God punishes his displeasure and anger with these words [Cap. 4, 11.]: "Should I not spare Nineveh?" etc. There he gives to understand that Jonah did not like to see that God spared the city, and was angry that he did not turn it around, as he had preached and would have liked to see.
So this story is a comforting example of divine grace. First of all, we know that in the sight of God, there is no respect for the person, and we should not judge anyone, nor despair of any man. For Jonah's personal standing is so low that he considers the Ninevites to be nothing in the eyes of God, judges them freshly, and condemns them to death as the damned, despairs of their obtaining mercy, but hopes and waits for their destruction, and thinks badly: "What should sinners be worth, who do not have the grace of God?
law, have no worship? But if they have the grace of God, what does Israel do with so much of God's law and worship, if they have nothing special nor advantageous over the Gentiles, and the Gentiles come to grace without such law and worship? Would the law and worship of the Jews be a useless, unnecessary toil, which they bear all day long with burden and with heat; and should they get the same penny without such toil? Shouldn't that make them look askance and grumble against the father of the house? Yes, should it not be impossible and unreasonable in the sight of God?
(39) But he also fails greatly, and starts confidently. For when he thinks that it is impossible that God's grace should be there, and that unkindness is there, then it is first; And since he thinks that God's word will not be heard or accepted, they accept it first of all and most humbly, that he must learn by his own experience that he should not judge anyone, nor despair of anyone, and that he should not put God's grace in place, nor goal, nor time, nor measure, nor person, nor merit, as the carnal thoughts of the Jews did.
40. on the other hand, that we should follow God's command straight away, and not look at anything else, nor first ask how it rhymes with other things, but gladly and willingly become fools for God's sake, and give Him the honor that He is wise and just in all His words and works, just as Abraham did when he sacrificed his son Isaac [Gen. 22, 2. ff.] and did not first ask how this rhymed with the saying, since God had said before [Cap. 21, 12.]: "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." For if he had wanted to deal with it and ask questions for a long time, he would have gone astray and finally fallen into disobedience, just as happened to Jonah here: when he held Israel and Nineveh against each other and looked around for a long time, he fell into disobedience. But if he had thought so simply: Why do you ask that God has provided Israel with laws and worship and not the Ninevites? He can still give his grace on both sides, and not let Israel enjoy their worship, and not pay Nineveh anything, so that they can live without it.
God's service. What is it to thee that he commandeth Israel such things, and commandeth not others? Let every man wait for his own; grace goeth forth nevertheless, both on them that work, and on them that work not, as Paul teacheth Rom. 4:4, 5; behold, he would have remained in obedience with Abraham.
V. 4. But God caused a great wind to come upon the sea, so that there was a great tempest in the sea etc.
(41) Here, for the sake of one sin, all others must suffer, for for Jonah's sake such a storm comes. Is it right, then, that one must repay God for another? But God cannot be unjust nor do what He wills, for we have no law to lay down for Him, nor commandment to make. But where there can be no law, there can be no sin nor injustice. However, even though this storm comes for Jonah's sake, as he himself says, and the work also proves in himself, the people in the ship were not without guilt or sin, so that they deserved death and all kinds of punishment before God every hour. For who is without sin or blameless before God? Therefore he meets them here together with Jonah, although Jonah is the cause with his sin.
(42) It must also have been a strange, unpredictable weather that came suddenly, because the text says: God hurriedly threw a great wind on the sea. For so it reads in Hebrew that God caused the wind to come at once, as if he threw or pushed it on the sea, with a storm, so that people soon noticed that it did not have to happen naturally or ordinarily. Therefore they conclude without a doubt that it must be because of some sin. So Jonah himself realized that it was only for him.
V. 5 And the people feared, and cried every man unto his God.
(43) Here you see that it is true what St. Paul says in Romans 1:19, how God is known by all the Gentiles, that is, all the world knows to say about the Godhead, and natural reason knows that the Godhead is something great above all other things. This is proven by the fact that those who call upon God here were pagans. For where they knew nothing of God or the
Godhead, how would they have called and cried out to Him?
44 Even though they do not really believe in God, they still have such a mind and opinion that God is such a being who can help in the sea and in all troubles. Such light and understanding is in all people's hearts and cannot be dimmed or extinguished. There have been some, such as the Epicureans, Pliny and the like, who deny it with their mouths, but they do it by force, and want to dim the light in their hearts; they do like those who forcefully plug their ears or shut their eyes, so that they neither see nor hear. But it does not help them; their conscience tells them otherwise. For Paul does not lie that God has revealed it to them, that they know something about God.
(45) Let us also learn here from nature and reason what to think of God. For this is what these people think of God, that he is one who may help from all evil. From this it follows that natural reason must confess that all good comes from God. For he who can help from all evil and misfortune can also give all good and happiness. The natural light of reason reaches so far that it considers God to be a kind, gracious, merciful and mild God. This is a great light.
46 But there are still two big things missing. The first: She believes that God is able and knows how to do, to help and to give; but that he wants or is willing to do such things for her, she cannot; that is why she does not remain firm in her mind. For she believes the power and knows it, but she doubts the will, because she feels the contradiction in the accident. You can see that here. For people call to God, so that they confess that he might help if he wanted to; they also believe that he wants to help others. Then they leave it, they cannot get any higher. For they try all their power, do their best and highest. Here free will can do no more. But they do not believe that he wants to help. For if they believed that, they would not do so: they would not throw the equipment and the goods out of the ship; they would not run to Jonah and call on his God, but would be quiet and seek God's help.
wait. Item, the sea would also have become still because of their faith. But now such faith is necessary, which does not doubt that God does not want to be gracious to others alone, but also to me. This is a true, living faith, and a great, rich, strange gift of the Holy Spirit, as we will see in Jonah.
(47) The other is that reason cannot rightly divide the Godhead, nor rightly appropriate it to whom alone it is due. It knows that God is, but who or which one it is that is rightly called God, it does not know, and this happened to it just as it happened to the Jews when Christ walked on earth and was testified by the Baptist John that he was present. Then their hearts were troubled, because they knew that Christ was among them, walking among the people; but which person he was, they knew not. For that Jesus of Nazareth was Christ, no man could think. So also the reason of the blind cow plays with God, and makes vain blunders, and always strikes aside that it is called God, which is not God; and again, it is not called God, which is God; which it does not do, where it does not know that God would be, or would just know which or what God would be. That's why she plops down like that, and gives the name and divine honor, and calls God what she thinks God is, and thus never meets the right God, but always the devil or her own conceit, which the devil rules. Therefore, there is a great difference between knowing that there is a God and knowing what or who God is. The first is known by nature and is written in all hearts; the other is taught by the Holy Spirit alone.
(48) Let us give examples of this. Let us first consider the papists and clergy, who have such delusions about God that they think God is one who can be moved or satisfied with good works; therefore they also have so many ranks, sects and various ways of living, so that they all think they are serving and pleasing God. Now tell me, if there were no God who was so minded or willing, what do such people honor for God? Is it not true that they honor their own false delusion and conceit for God? For there is no God in truth,
who is so minded, and lacks with such conceit of the right God, and nothing remains but their false conceit; who is their God, to whom they give the name and glory of God. Now no one can be under the false conceit, but the devil, who gives it and governs them 1). So now their false conceit is their idol and image of the devil in their heart. For the right, unique, true God is the one whom one serves not with works, but with right faith from a pure heart, who gives and bestows his grace and goods purely for free, without works and merit. They do not believe this, therefore they do not know him, and they must miss and miss by the way.
(49) You see where all idolatry comes from, and why it is called idolatry, idolatry, and idolatry; no doubt because such idolatry leads us away from God and turns us away from the right service of God. O, indeed, an idolatry and an idolatrous faith that leads us to the devil, away from God and into hell. For because every one undertakes something that seems to him, and believes that it pleases God, and thinks that God is so minded, who is not so minded, and does not please Him; therefore there must be so many idolatries, so many conceits, which are undertaken, that [it] pleases God so, apart from the one conceit of faith which the Holy Spirit gives. Thus the abolitionist Baal came upon King Ahab. For the king, knowing that there was a God, made himself believe that this was God, who would please him in the way he worshipped, and so he called God Baal, and again Baal he called God, as it seems from Hosea Cap. 2, 8. Item, the king Jeroboam thought that this would be God, who would let him worship before the golden calves. So the calves had to be called God Israel, and again, God had to be called a calf [1 Kings 12:28].
50 Just as if Christ our Lord were now called a "caphold" or "platehold," because people think that he is a god who is favorable to caps and plates, and that such service is pleasing to him, as the monks and priests certainly hold him to be and call him in their hearts. But it is an apostasy and disbelief, and disdain, which is far lacking,
1) "she" is only in the Wittenberg.
and an arch-righteous idolatry. So there is no number of idolatries, as many are the idiots who choose something else that pleases God, without faith in Christ. Since there is no such God to whom such things are pleasing, they all serve the devil with them, and not God.
(51) So you see here also that these people in the ship all know about God, but they have no certain God. For each one (says he) called upon his own god, that is, his own conceit, or that which he thought to be God in his own mind; therefore they all lack the one true God, and have vain idols under God's name and glory. Therefore their faith was not right, but superstition and idolatry, which did them no good. For their God makes them fall in trouble and cry out in vain, so that they despair and do not know where to find a God to help them. And looking down to Jonah, they awake him, and bid him call upon his God, if there be any other God than their God that will help. There you see how false faith does not stand in adversity, but sinks and both God and faith, Abba and superstition, are lost, so that all that remains is despair. Therefore only the one, living God has the name and the rhyme that he is a helper in trouble, Ps. 10, 1. and 46, 2. and everywhere, because he can help out of death. Ps. 68, 21.
52 Thou seest therefore how humble these people were, that in trouble they ran to Jonah, whom, when it was quiet, they esteemed not; and if they had known before that he was a Jew, they would have despised him more, as the heathen were enemies to the Jews. But now, when adversity comes, and their idol sinks them, how glad is their proud contempt, that they call upon poor Jonah, and seek more good from him than from all their idols, and all their substance.
(53) This is what the false colored faith does at all times; as long as it prospers and stands, it is proud, even over God and all that God is, and is so stubborn and hard that no anvil was ever so hard. But when he begins to sink and to despair, there is nothing more stupid nor more despondent in heaven and earth, so that he may well crouch in a mouse hole, and
the wide world becomes too narrow for him, and then both, with enemies and friends, both, with the despised and the highly praised, he seeks help and advice, and would gladly accept it.
Meanwhile Jonah was sleeping in the ship and did not feel such a storm. This may well mean a sleep of death, which he finally did and soon had to go to his death. But this is how it always goes with sinners, and God deals with them in this way, just as here with Jonah. For Jonah had greatly sinned against God; but because God is silent and keeps still with the punishment, and does not ward off the sin, or does not strike so soon, it is the nature and manner of sin that it blinds and hardens man, so that he becomes secure, and is not afraid, but lies down and sleeps, and does not see what great weather and misfortune is upon him, which will awaken him terribly.
55 Meanwhile God also poses as if he had forgotten the sins, because he is so consumed, and thus tries what the children of men want to do, whether they also want to convert, as the 11th Psalm, v. 4, says: "The eyelids of the Lord try the children of men. But nothing comes of it, there is no turning back, nor is there any hesitation; Jonah would sleep all his life long, and if God wanted to forget his sin, he would certainly never remember it.
(56) This is what is meant here in Jonah, that he sleeps so deeply and hard in the midst of the storm, and also deep down in the ship. As if he should say: He is completely blinded, hardened, sunk, even dead, and lies in the bottom of the impenitent heart, would also lie there eternally, and would be stifled; because sin would not allow any power to stir in man for good, be it free will or reason, there he lies, and snores in his sins, does not hear and see, does not feel what God's wrath does and intends for him.
But when the shipman wakes him up and tells him to call upon his God, another thing arises, he becomes aware of how God is behind him with the punishment and has not forgotten his sins. There the conscience comes to life, there the sin comes again and becomes alive, there the sin is the sting of death [1 Cor. 15, 56] and shows the wrath of God.
God, not only the ship, but the world becomes too narrow for him. Yes, that he should call upon God here; he is more afraid than anyone in the ship, for he feels and realizes, his conscience also tells him, that the storm is upon him and that God's wrath has come upon him. Oh how humble he is! He absolves all who are in the ship and does not consider them sinners; he sees no sin except his own.
(58) For so does the rebuke: when he comes and bites and terrifies the conscience, then all the world is pious, without him alone is a sinner; all the world is gracious to God, without him alone; then God's wrath strikes no one but him alone; also thinks that there is no other wrath but that which he feels, and so finds himself the most wretched of men. He did the same with Adam and Heva when they sinned. If God had not come when the day was cool, they would never have considered sin. But when he came, they hid themselves. So Peter also, when he had denied Christ, was gone; he felt no sin; he slept also down in the ship, and was dead, until Christ looked upon him; then he felt again, and wept bitterly. So here we have how sin makes a man rigid, insensitive, badly dead, so that he feels neither himself nor God, and goes safely without fear until God comes and wakes him up, so that the glory of free will lies low.
59. Since Jonah does not call upon his God, but sits and cites God's wrath, and bites himself with death, which wants to devour him every moment, and the people also call upon their gods in vain, and do everything they can, and Jonah sees and feels that such things happen for his sake; He is not so pious as to lead them out and confess his sin, but for his sake he lets the poor people suffer such horror and suffering and misery, until God forces the sin out of him, so that he must confess it, betrayed by his fate.
(60) This is also the tender redemption of sins, that it makes the people dumb, and wants to hide, and is ashamed, and would like to remain beautiful, just as Adam and Heva covered themselves with the aprons, and wanted to be beautiful.
do not come to confession. O, it grieves me that one should expose his own shame, and make his ornaments dishonorable.
But now it must be, or there is no rest nor peace, as the 32nd Psalm, v. 3, says: "Because I wanted to hide it, my bones became obsolete before my daily howling. Thus God also commanded the children of Israel to lay aside their ornaments before Mount Sinai (Ex. 33:5). That means then rightly, to put on the sackcloth and to sit in the ashes, to bring oneself to ruin before God, also, where God wants it, before the people. For since Jonah has brought harm and danger to the people with his sin, he must suffer harm again, lose his honor and disgrace himself, make the people honorable and innocent, and also pass judgment on his own neck, so that they must drown him. So he pays and atones with life and limb, honor and property, and with everything he is and has, his neighbors whom he has so highly offended. He brought them into danger of life without their will, so they bring him back to life by his own judgment and will, without their will. That is (I mean) strictly and rightly judged.
V. 7 Then one said to the other: Come, let us loose etc.
(62) Since there is no one here who will confess, and yet they thought that someone's sin must have caused such unnatural weather, and since human judgment is not to be found here, and public judgment cannot be held, they run to God's judgment and sentence, and seek judgment by lot. Oh, how Jonah should have sat there and shunned the lot! as an evil conscience does, which is also afraid of a rustling leaf. Poor Jonah must suffer so many deaths, and yet he does not escape, but comes to the right place afterwards.
(63) Behold, sin causes so much misfortune and heartache if one wants to hide it and does not confess it, and yet must be confessed afterwards with twofold harm. But sin will not let us do otherwise; it will not and cannot reveal itself, that is lost. Every man wants to be beautiful and pure before men, and yet does not secretly want to let go of sin; so he must admit it.
ultimately let others uncover it, and thus have harm and shame to pay for it. For one cannot heal the wounds that one does not want to expose; so sin cannot be forgiven unless it is confessed, that is, confessed.
(64) Here it is asked, Whether the people also have sinned in loosing? for loosing is forbidden, as tempting God in it. But Jonah also loosed with them; therefore Jonah is also in sin, if it is sin. Here I answer the first: There are some works of this kind, that they may be done well and evil. For swearing is forbidden by Christ (Matt. 5:34), and yet a divine oath can be taken. It is also forbidden to rage and kill, but it is divine to kill and punish evildoers by public judgment. Therefore, in such works the opinion of the heart is to be considered, that whoever does them out of his own desire sins; but whoever does them out of command and obedience of God, or out of necessity and duty to his neighbor, does well. Whoever does them without the command of God, or without the duty of his neighbor, out of his own desire or will, let him go. For such a one does not do well even if he lies on his knees all day praying and fasting day and night, or even if he performs miraculous signs. Therefore let this be put to each man's conscience; we may not judge his heart. Now if the loosing is also such a work, it is of no consequence whether these people sinned together with Jonah, for they were unbelievers, and otherwise all their works were not pleasing to God, until afterwards, when they were converted, as follows.
(65) Secondly, I say that I am not yet aware that loosening is a forbidden work. It is indeed forbidden not to tempt God; but loosing and tempting God are far apart. For even the apostles, Apost. 1, 26, spoke of St. Matthew. Thus Solomon says: "The lot is cast into the lock, but it is mastered by the Lord" [Proverbs 16:33]. There he does not reject the lot, but rather confirms it, although some fathers say that one should not follow such examples. But they have no reason to do so. Methinks that loosening is in itself a work of faith, and may
may well be abused by arrogance and their own lust, as of the sword and oath; but this is not the fault of the work, but of the person, as has been said. So they also do not prove that loose is tempting God. For that is tempting God, when I, for myself and my own foresight, without any need, set God a certain goal, hour, place, measure, person, way and work, which he should do, and thus let it be clearly remembered. As when the Jews in the desert demanded food and drink for a certain time [Ex. 16, 1. ff.], and did not trust him nor did they return home. As also the Jews Luc. 11, 29. demanded a sure sign from heaven, which seemed good to them. But in the lot such does not happen, but there two, three, or how many they are, become one, and make a covenant about one thing, to pay in such and such a way, as the lot is then in many ways, and agree no certain persons, but command such to God, whom the lot will meet, and are beforehand of the things one, that whom it meets, it shall be, as ordered by God.
(66) Would that one could do this kind of gambling without God, freely, like the pagans, who do not believe that God masters the lot, but that luck gives it all, as happens in dice and other games of chance. But it behooves Christians not to lose so freely, but to believe that God controls the lot and luck, and not to doubt that God gives and takes away everything that is given or taken away by the lot and the game. One must do and take oaths in such a way that one believes that God is there who accepts the oath and judges each one according to it. But because one does not vote how he should judge, but puts it home to him, and is satisfied with it, it is no temptation. So also, because one does not vote in the lot to which he should give it, but puts it there freely at God's counsel, and is satisfied, it is also not tempting God, but a good work in himself, and if it is done in faith, a divine work that is done in his honor. For whoever gets something by lot, that is his, and whoever would take it from him would be doing evil against God. And what is a lot but a covenant, that we become one among ourselves over one thing?
Thing, which we put in the road, to whom it becomes by the lot. Here is nothing evil, but a peaceful union and consent to do without or to have the thing, according to which the knife wears sometimes or not, after it is even or odd, and so on. Without Christians adding that they believe that as God does and sends all things, so he does and sends them; which the heathen do not believe, or do not respect.
67 But how? if it is such a lot that one comes to death over it, and his secret sin is sought? as happens here with Jonah, and as Saul did with his son Jonathan [1 Sam. 14:42 ff], and Joshua with Achan, Jos. 7:18, 19. Here I answer: The unbelievers may loose to death or to life, through arrogance or earnestness; what is it to us what those do who do nothing right? But the lot in itself does not entail that anyone should be put to death; neither do the Christians and the pious take any lot for it. For here you also see that the people in the ship did not intend to kill Jonah, but only sought the cause of such misfortune, so that they would stop it. For they would not kill Jonah, though he bade them, but would go with him to land. But since they could not, they saw that God wanted it, as Jonah had said, and they had to do it, though reluctantly, and prayed diligently etc. So Saul also did wrong in wanting to kill his son, for he should not let the lot go so far. It was different with Joshua, who was thus commanded by God how he should do it. Why should these people not make a covenant that the one whom the lot should fall should be guilty? Especially because necessity urges them to save others, and God is so pious and right that he does not let the lot err; just as they are without guilt, that they consider him innocent who takes the oath, when he may well swear falsely and be guilty. But that is enough for this time.
V. 9. I am a Hebrew, and fear God from heaven, who made the sea and [the] dry land.
Here confession comes and brings sin to light. There also goes the right
struggle with Jonah and death, but nevertheless the greatest thing has happened. For even though death and the wrath of God press in and powerfully attack Jonah, the heavy burden of sins is partly lifted from the heart, and the conscience is somewhat lightened by the confession of sins, and faith begins to burn, even though it is very weak. For he confesses the true God, Creator of heaven and earth, which is no small beginning of faith and salvation.
(69) For a conscience that is completely desperate and despondent does not open its mouth so much, but falls silent or blasphemes God, and cannot think, hold or speak of God other than as of a horrible tyrant, or as of the devil, and would only like to flee from him and be far away, yes, would rather that he were not God, so that it would not have to suffer such from him; it also forgets confession and does not confess sin. It is so immersed in fear and hardened that it neither sees nor feels anything more than fear, and only thinks how it can get rid of it, and yet it cannot get rid of it, because it keeps the sin on it. So it remains eternally stuck in sin and death.
70 From this let us learn what is the right art and the right way to get out of all trouble and fear, namely, that one should be careful of all sins; quickly out with them and freely confessed, so that there is never so much trouble or distress. For the heart must be helped first of all, so that it becomes lighter and gets air; then the whole body is to be advised all the more. Thus, the conscience must first be rescued from its burden and be given breath, and then all distress will be well advised. For in such a case, when God's wrath comes, the two pieces are there, sin and fear. Wherever there are hearts that have no understanding, they take a wrong and unjust approach to the matter, leaving the sin where it is, and looking only to the fear for help in getting rid of it. This does not help, and so they must despair. And in this way all reason does, unless grace and the Spirit are with it. But where there are hearts of understanding, they are so disposed that they turn their senses away from fear, and most of all they look at sin, that
They confess them and get rid of them, even though they should remain in fear forever, and give themselves up, as Jonah does here.
71 Now this is the way of all the wicked, that they fear and respect punishment; but they do not respect sin, and would gladly sin always without punishment; but they do not, but punishment is always attached to sin. Again, the way of the godly is that they fear and respect sin, but they do not respect punishment so much, they would rather remain in punishment without sin than in sin without punishment.
But that Jonah says here: "I fear God from heaven" is spoken in Hebrew, because worship is called the fear of God, as can be seen in Isaiah Cap. 29, 13, where he says: "They fear me with the commandment of men" [Matth. 15, 8.], that is, they mean that they honor me and serve me with the commandment of men. For Jonah attaches the two to each other: I am a Hebrew, and fear God from heaven, when he had despised and disobeyed God until that very hour. But he wants to say: I do not honor and serve strange gods, like you and other pagans, but the one and right God.
(73) And Jonah's sin and shame were the greater, that he, who was the servant of the right God, and of the most holy land and people, should be found the worst and greatest sinner before all the other idolatrous nations, that even for his sake the idolatrous nations should have to suffer trials and distress, when usually other sinners are helped by the servants of God, as King Ahab and his descendants were helped by Elijah and Elisha. Here it is completely the other way around. There the wicked enjoy the pious; here the wicked must repay the pious, and thus the most pious becomes the least, the first the last. This is also why he was ashamed to confess his sins before the people, because he did not want to be worse than the Gentiles, and yet he had to be.
V. 12 Cast me into the sea, and the sea shall be still unto you: for I know that for my sake such weather cometh upon you.
Here let us see in Jonah what the faith of a pure heart is capable of doing, and
What he can do. There stands the excellent example of faith, of which we have said above [Preface § 4], how it is as it were omnipotent, and triumphs in all things that are against it.
First, he takes the sin on himself from the others, and confesses that for his sake such weather has come; thus he releases and absolves all others, and remains a sinner alone, so that the others must all be pious. Hereby he does enough for love, and atones for what he has done to the people, since he brought them into such danger, and lets it all pass over him. And there again love finds a fine, grateful place. For the good people do not desire such high repentance, and would gladly give him the sin, let them be content with the public confession and confession, again strive with all their might to help him back to the land, and thus repay love with love; but it will not be.
Secondly, he takes upon himself and bears before God such a conscience of sin that he also becomes a sinner and a disgrace before God, when his heart testifies and confesses most powerfully that he has forfeited both to God and to man. This disgrace is now a thousand times greater, that one must become ashamed before God. For at the same time there is neither a corner nor a hole in all creatures, not even in hell, where one could crawl, but must let all creatures look at him, and stand before them with all shame, as the evil consciences well feel when they are rightly struck. For you must not look at Jonah here when he is redeemed and restored to honor, but how he is in disgrace and does not see where he should come out more and more. For if a heart knew or saw such things, the shame and the conscience would not hurt him so much. But God puts all honor and comfort out of sight, and leaves all shame there. That is the misery.
Thirdly, death naturally follows sin as the punishment, as St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:56: "The law is the power of sins, but sin is the sting or edge of death. So Jonah sees here that there is nothing left, because the
bitter death, gives himself up and pronounces a verdict on his own life: "Throw me into the sea. As if he should say: I must die, otherwise it will not be quiet. For once you do not have to look at Jonah here as history looks at us. For since we have before us the whole story of how he was redeemed, it seems small to us, and moves us little. But you must see how Jonah's courage is in this affliction: he does not see a single bit more of life, nor of salvation; but only death, death, death is there, so that he must despair of life and surrender to death. For if God dealt with us in such a way that he would let us see life in death, or showed our soul the place and space, the way and manner, where it should appear and stand, where it should also go and remain, then death would not be bitter, but would be like a leap over a shallow stream, where one sees and feels a certain bottom and bank on both sides. But now he shows us none, and we have to jump over from the certain shore of this life into the abyss, where there is no feeling, nor seeing, nor feet, nor standing, but free on God's counsel and abstention, just as Jonah is thrown out of the ship here, so that he falls into the sea, since he feels no ground, and abandoned by all creatures, he sails along solely on God's abstention.
Fourth, in death he also bears God's wrath. For he feels how death comes upon him not out of grace, but out of wrath, earned through his sin. Now death would still have to be suffered, and not so completely through bitterness, if it came without God's wrath, as it comes when someone is unjustly condemned for God's sake, as the holy martyrs, who know that men do wrong to them before God. Therefore, because they have a good cause before God, they are sure that God is merciful and not angry; therefore, death is not recognized as coming from God's anger, but from grace and good pleasure. 1) But where death is caused and earned by sin, the wrath of God goes with it, and makes death un-
1) In this sentence there is a Latin way of construction. We would now say: Therefore it is also recognized that death does not come from God's wrath, but from His grace and good pleasure.
It is bearable that nothing but death is to be found and felt there.
79. Now you see, each of these four pieces by itself is hard to bear, even for the saints, and definitely for the wicked. For who is so strong as to have a cheerful mind or peace of heart when he feels God's wrath upon him, even if he does not die? It has made many godless people mad and senseless. So too, who is he who does not shun death and trembles at it, even if he does not feel the wrath of God, nor know it, like the pagans, or feel a merciful God, like the saints. So there is no greater burden on earth than sin and conscience. For who can suffer to be disgraced before God and the world? Who would not rather be dead than live? But on this poor Jonah these pieces fall all at once, urging and frightening him to despair of God's grace and to fall from the faith. What a struggle there was in his heart! He might have sweated blood from fear; he had to fight against his sin, against his own conscience and the feelings of his heart, against death and against God's wrath all at once; his soul would have hung by a silken thread over hell and eternal damnation. Oh, it is a great thing committed in the heart by God's power that he has remained and been preserved. For the fact that he remained in faith proves his salvation; God does not help the wicked out of such death and misery. Thus he himself confesses that he is God's servant and gives himself up to the punishment, which all the wicked are incapable of doing, but all despair in sins.
80 He has even more misfortune on top of that, for the fifth time. The sea becomes his deathbed, so that he must die alone, and there is no one around him to comfort him, but the people with the ship sail away, and leave him there in the middle of the sea, as surely drowned and lost.
And sixthly, there is still no end in the sea, and one death is not enough, it must also go into the mouth of the whale. So that God has let himself be looked upon as if he were so angry that he would not be satisfied with the death and punishment to which Jonah willingly surrenders, but could not be satisfied with the death and punishment of the whale.
not take revenge on him horribly enough. For the mouth of the whale could not have been anything other than a terrible image to poor, lost and dying Jonah, when the mouth of the fish opened so wide and the sharp teeth stood around like pointed pillars or beams, and such a wide neck of the cellar into the belly.
Is this comforting in death? Is this the friendly view in dying, that dying and death should not be enough? That is (I mean) a faith, yes a fight and dispute of faith, there is a victory and triumph hidden under the greatest weakness. How God shows us here what His word and faith are able to do, that all creatures may not break anything from Him, nor God's wrath itself, even if everything rages in the highest and most horrible way. But Jonah had to show all the world how his heart stood, and how every believer's heart stands in the same temptation, as we will hear hereafter. For just as the sea with all its impetuosity wants to drown Jonah, and the whale swallows him up and wants to consume him, so the conscience feels the impetuosity of God's wrath and death, and wants hell and eternal damnation to devour the soul. etc.
Cap. 2, 1. And Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.
These have been the longest days and nights that have ever come under the sun, if you look at Jonah's thoughts. For it must have seemed a long time to him that he had sat there in darkness; indeed, I think he had lain and stood at times. He saw neither the sun nor the moon, and could not even count the hours; he also did not know where he had sailed around in the sea with the fish. How often may his lungs and livers have beaten him? How wondrous was his dwelling there among the entrails and great ribs? But he was so caught up in death that he did not care much about the fish, and always thought: When, when, when will it end? Help God, what a wonderful work this is! Who can sufficiently consider that a man should spend three days and nights so lonely, without light,
without food, in the middle of the sea, in the fish live and come back? This may well be called a strange voyage. Who would believe it, and not consider it a lie and a fairy tale, if it were not written in the Scriptures?
God has thus shown us how powerfully he has death and all things in his hands, and how easy it is for him to help us, even in unspeakable and desperate distresses, which we find so hard to believe. He is present everywhere, in death, in hell, in the midst of the enemies, yes, even in their hearts. For he made it all, and governs it all, so that it must do what he wills.
85 But it is written for our sakes, and for our sakes his omnipotence is so marvelously proved, that we should trust him, and believe that we are in death, or in the hands of the enemy. For for his sake he was not permitted to do it nor to have it written, neither may Jonah for his own sake have it written. And although all the world knows how to speak of divine omnipotence, and it seems easy for anyone to believe when he hears it spoken; but experience shows how many believe it with a right heart, since one should risk life and limb on such words of the omnipotence of God, and even through death and sin experience that it is true as the word of it sounds. This experience is hard to suffer even for the greatest saints. But it is comforting to know and to know such examples, as the prophet in the Psalter praises [Ps. 119, 52]: "Lord, I remembered your deeds, they comfort me" etc.
86. Now Jonah is gone, and has died to the world and to himself, so that there is no hope of his life (for these people in the ship do not know otherwise, he must drown and die, because they ask God, he will not let them perish for Jonah's soul, nor ascribe innocent blood to them: So that they confess that they will not see Jonah anywhere except in death, and must help to kill him in obedience to God's will, however unwillingly), the life and fruit of Jonah's death comes first, for he is kept alive in death. In this way, people are also delivered from death, as well as from unbelief and sins, and brought to the knowledge of God, so that they become pious and true servants of God, so humble and fearful that they are also afraid of sins, since obedience to God is the only thing that matters. For they would gladly keep Jonah alive, and fear murder, that they might drown him; and yet they see that God wills it so. How pure, God-fearing and Christian consciences they have there: who before would not have asked for any murder nor God's obedience, go to, and sacrifice and vow to God! Forgotten are all the various gods they called upon before. And all this happens because of Jonah and his death. A servant of God must be so useful that there is nothing in him to benefit others. What fear of God means is said above [§ 72], namely, service to God. For true worship is to fear and honor God. So these people also feared God, that is, they became God's servants and God-fearing people.