V.2.3 Arise, and go into the great city of Nineveh, and preach therein: for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah arose, and fled before the Lord, and would have gone to the sea, and came down to Japho. And when he found a ship going to sea, he gave ferry money, and stood three, that he might go with them to sea before the Lord.)
"Jonah arose, and flee." No doubt he was frightened by the magnitude of the task to which he was sent, and
was afraid of such a powerful kingdom, of such powerful princes, just as if someone would be sent to the kingdom of the Turks today. And this greatness of the task the Lord increases, since he says: "Their wickedness has come up before me." Therefore, by this sermon, since he declared all these princes guilty of ungodliness, he would have aroused the bitterest hatred of all against him, while he was a single and lowly man. But in this he sinned, as I said, since he did not look at the word of God.
but on the work itself to which he was sent, and on the difficulty and greatness of the work. For the flesh cannot believe the word of God, nor command God, when it looks to human counsel and to the many ways in which it goes forth. But faith goes forward on the right road with closed eyes, clings to the word of God, follows the word, believes the word, even if in the meantime all creatures oppose it, although it seems to the flesh that nothing less will happen than what the word wants to be believed or done, although it should seem that heaven and earth would rather perish, so that when God says there will be a new heaven, with closed eyes, thinking nothing else, looking at no other object, simply believing the word, he gives God the glory that he is true. Since Jonah did not do this, but looked at the greatness and difficulty of the matter, he could not but doubt. - "Their wickedness has come up before me," is a Hebrew phrase [like Gen. 18:21]. God neither ascends nor descends, but as we feel in our conscience that God is either gracious or angry, so the Scriptures use to speak of God. Then He descends to us when we feel Him in our conscience, then our wickedness ascends when our conscience strikes us because of sin etc. - "Before me," as if to say, though in outward appearance this is an excellent and very good kingdom. - In thar- sis ["to the sea"]. This has been interpreted to mean the city where the holy apostle Paul was born, but nothing seems less fitting to me than that. However, I fully believe that this is a special name of his part of the sea, some gulf. The Latins have various names for the seas, as, the Mediterranean, the Indian, the Red etc., then they call that, which goes around the whole earth, the Ocean. And there are passages of Scripture that move me to interpret it as, 2 Chron. 9:21: "The king's ships sailed on the sea (in Tharsis). With the servants" etc., likewise Cap. 20, 36: "He united with him.
To make ships to go out to sea (in Tharsis)." These passages can by no means be understood of any city, for Tharsis and Jerusalem are quite different oerters. Similarly, a clear passage in the 72nd Psalm, v. 10. is, "The kings of the sea and of the isles shall bring gifts." In this passage he is actually talking about the midland sea, as the Latins call it, which has many islands. It is therefore the opinion of this passage that Jonah, so frightened by the greatness of the task to which he was sent, did not undertake to flee to any city, but having found a ship, resolved to flee whithersoever he might be taken on the sea. - "From the Lord." I do not dislike the opinion according to which this piece is interpreted to mean the same as when he said: before the temporal kingdom of Israel, in which God dwelt, since they had the word of God. Wherever this may be, it indicates the presence of God. That others interpret it in such a way that Jonah was so foolish that he thought he could flee somewhere where he would deceive the Lord, does not please me. For why should he be of such an opinion, since he calls [v. 9.] the Lord, the God from heaven, who made the sea and the dry land? - "And came down to Japho." Japho is a port of the Mediterranean Sea, so that it is already clear from this passage what is to be understood by Tharsis. It is, as I have said, the Mediterranean Sea, as should have been translated in this passage of the prophet: "and fled, and wanted to go to the sea", likewise: "He found a ship that wanted to go to the sea, and gave ferry money" etc.
V. 4. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea.
It is, as I also said above, this prophet quite easy, because he has no veiled and dark words and sayings. But since it is a simple history, it requires a great attention and a great movement of heart, as it tends to be with all such histories. It is certainly something great, a heavy task, that a few man is sent against an exceedingly powerful kingdom. Therefore he refuses, frightened by
The greatness of the task, out of pusillanimity, to carry out the command of the Lord. This is a serious matter, a great sin, just as the punishment of sin was great. Besides being outwardly terrified by the Lord's wrath, he also felt the wrath of God in his conscience. But he remained in faith, however much greater a storm raged in Jonah's heart or conscience inwardly than outwardly on the sea etc. Because we are only spectators of such terrifying events, they do not appear to us as great and terrible as they are. But if we were to experience this ourselves in our consciences, then we would realize what it means to feel God's wrath against us, and what faith fei, which even in the midst of wrath grasps God as a merciful and gracious one etc. If this were to happen, we would leave many useless questions unanswered, with which we otherwise struggle miserably in such passages of Scripture when we are out of challenge.
V. 5. [And the shipmen were afraid etc.]
This thunderstorm on the sea was much greater than what usually happened. For even the shipmen were so terrified that they attributed it to someone's sin. Therefore Jonah, aware of this evil, hid himself in the lowest part of the ship, since he felt nowhere safe in his conscience and the fear of the wrath of God had seized him, and slept. 1) This sleep was entirely a sleep of sorrow, with a certain sensation of death mixed in, which is known to those who have once suffered such afflictions. And the Hebrew word that is written here also expresses the same thing in a subtle way. All this is written so that we may see how Jonah felt the presence of divine wrath, and how great a thing the trembling of consciences is when they are terrified by the wrath of God. Then, when the Lord is angry, the mountains are touched and smoke, as the Psalm [104:32] says.
"And the shipmen were afraid, and cried every man unto his God." The
1) dormit is highlighted as a new keyword in the editions, but the verse number "5." is found only before the following paragraph.
Shipmen were not entirely atheists, because they call God, but the one they form themselves. For to have gods is to form them in one's heart. And therein lies the main thing that one thinks of God as right or good. For God is such toward us as we ourselves believe Him to be toward us, and form Him in our hearts, as it says in the 18th Psalm, v. 26 f.: "With the holy you are holy, and with the pious you are pious, and with the pure you are pure, and with the perverse you are perverse." And this keeping of God is followed by the various worship services of different people. As each one forms God, so he worships Him. The divine majesty is subject to the various opinions of men; some judge God in one way, others in another, as can be seen in Matth. 16, 14: "Some say that you are John the Baptist, others that you are Elijah, some that you are Jeremiah, or one of the prophets" etc. The same we see here with the shipmen: they called the true God by name, but in what form or in what opinion, that is not known. This alone is the right form of God, when we take hold of Him in faith, namely, that we recognize that God is always a gracious Father and a Father of mercy. This knowledge alone is from the Holy Spirit, and this alone is the true and right one. All others are idolatrous, for we invent some works for ourselves by taking our reason as our guide and teacher, through which we think we can become pleasing to God and gain reward or favor for his sake. That is absolutely idolatry, if we impute this figure of our performed works or our inventions to God. This alone is the root and source of all idolatry. Such are all the monks, nuns, missals, and all those who judge God by the works they have invented. God, however, does not want to be shaped by us in this way, but wants to shape us. He wants us to believe in Him absolutely, namely, that we please Him not by any work, by anything we do, but because He has mercy on us. This means to be born again of the Holy Spirit, as it is written in John Cap. 3 is written.
V. 6 Then the master of the ship came to him and said to him, "Why are you sleeping? Get up, call upon your God.
This is an excellent passage, and worth noting. When human nature is out of danger and all is well, it is hopeful, tranquil and secure, and promises itself many things, but in adversity, when it sees that it is done for, it submits to all, even to the very lowest. So here; since the shipmen are in despair and danger of death, they seek everywhere they can. They take refuge in Jonah, whom they would not have cared about in the least except for the challenge. This is the nature of human reason, and it cannot act differently in the face of adversity. In the past, when we were oppressed by sin in our conscience, we ran to the monks or I don't know what other people for comfort. So here the shipmen take refuge in Jonah. For reason thinks that it must be saved through the intercession of another, but faith, as it despises no one, so it trusts in no one, but only in God, whom it calls upon in distress etc.
V. 7. 8. 1) And one said to the other: Come, let us loose.
As in many other places, the papal decrees on casting lots have struggled miserably with this point. Casting lots to tempt God is evil, but the need and danger of death in such a case does not tempt God, unless someone is obviously godless. 2) Thus the Lord has promised to give us a living and everything that serves as a living, but in such a way that we should not sit idly by and misuse our hands, which are given to us by God to work. Therefore, if your hand is strong, and you do not have a manifest word of God like Elijah, who was fed from heaven, yet hope.
1) The verse numbers "7th" and "8th" are missing in our template.
2) How this is to be understood, see Luther's previous interpretation of the prophet Jonah, Cap. 1, 7.
that what is necessary for your livelihood may be granted to you, 3) then you are tempting God. But in adversity, when you are trapped, where you have no opportunity either to work or to earn a living, and then expect your livelihood from heaven, that is indeed not tempting God. So here, too, one must definitely judge the casting of lots. They were urged by the greatest need and could not do otherwise; Jonah, however, although he was aware of such a great misdeed, nevertheless cast the lot with them, hoping that he would be able to escape in some way. But our unruly interpreters, who judge the saints in such a way only according to their works, know nothing of faith, nothing of spiritual temptations, otherwise they would judge more intelligently, which I have explained quite abundantly at the beginning of this prophet. A work done at different times by different people does not count equally before God, but the works must be judged according to faith. This is the reason why God approves of a work in one person and disapproves of it in another. But I do not absolve Jonah from sin here.
V. 9. He said to them: I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God from heaven etc.
Here finally begins the confession of sin. He says that he fears God from heaven, who is angry with him and from whom he has foolishly taken it into his mind to flee. But he speaks according to the Hebrew way when he says that he fears God. Fear of God is reverence and spiritual worship, for this is how Scripture uses the word fear of God everywhere. For the right proper service of God does not consist in works, however great and holy they may be, but in true and right reverence. Such a way of speaking is in the Psalm [Ps. 19, 10]: "The fear of the Lord is pure and abides forever" etc. There, the fear of God is divided into various parts, but all this does not serve the purpose, since he speaks of the fear of the Lord in the passage.
to be read. The Erlangen offers:
God, just as he also speaks of the law of the Lord. Therefore, it is the opinion of Jonah when he says: "I fear God from heaven", that is, I am a true worshipper of the true God. Thus Jonah feels the wrath of God within himself and now also the punishment, which becomes even greater, since now also the sin has been revealed and made public.
V. 11: For the sea was boisterous.
That is, the sea did not stop roaring, but the storm grew bigger and bigger. And so, since the Lord did not calm the storm, Jonah wanted to remedy this evil by his death. This was certainly a great sin in the prophet. Moreover, by far the greatest and most frightening thing is that now that he was about to die, he knew for certain that he had an angry God who was against him, and that therefore he would have to die by the wrath of God. This was a very bitter challenge: that he thus saw death before his eyes, yes, now wanted to die, and yet knew that God was angry with him. We do not consider this greatness of the challenge, since in the meantime we only look at the fact that he was miraculously preserved afterwards, since God wanted it that way. But in all these so terrifying temptations, he was a forerunner.
image of Christ, since Christ Himself interprets it as we will say.
In addition, although Jonah alone was the cause of this storm, all those who were with him were also in danger of their lives in the same way and suffered the same punishment. This is what we have often said, that because of an ungodly man a whole country and a whole people often perish and are miserably afflicted. The Scriptures are full of such examples. For example, the Lord miserably afflicted the entire Israelite nation for the sake of Achan, who had stolen the banished people, Jos. 7. In contrast, the One Moses was often a salvation for all of Israel. Thus the author says in the last chapter of the epistle Jacobi [v. 17.]: "Elias was a man like unto us, and he prayed a prayer that it should not rain, and it rained not on the earth three years and six months." These are God's judgments, who does not act unjustly, however much it may seem otherwise to us.
V. 14. O Lord, let us not perish for the sake of this Maune's soul.
This terror of death was salutary to them, for they were converted to the true God etc.