Are You Awake?
“Then the LORD sent out a great wind upon the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship was in danger of breaking apart. Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold.” Jonah 1:4-5
It must have been a very bad storm for these experienced sailors to be so scared with each man crying out to his own god. As the ship creaked in the raging storm, the men threw the cargo overboard in a desperate attempt to save it, however, Prophet Jonah was busy sleeping!
How could anyone sleep through a storm like this – especially a prophet of the Most High?
One possibility could be that Jonah was a prophet whose relationship with the Lord was so close he was used to trusting Him through all kinds of difficulties, so he was just abiding in his usual trust. Remember Jesus also slept during a very bad storm on the Sea of Galilee.
Or maybe the hold of the ship was so deep and Jonah was so tired that he wasn’t aware of the grave danger up above; a perfectly natural explanation.
And there’s one more possibility: Jonah’s disobedience made him vulnerable to the enemy. We all know how easy it is to sleep off especially when we have made a serious decision to spend time in prayer.
The enemy wants us to sleep while the world falls apart around us. His interests are served when we relax in our own eternal security while others are dying in the storms of this world.
Jonah’s apathy toward Nineveh grew into one which actually threatened his own life, without his even being aware of it. He had the authority and capacity to save the others, but the enemy may have poured out on him such a spirit of apathy and deadening slumber that it required the desperate pagans, far more aware of the danger, to rouse the prophet back to his true calling.
Today, storms are brewing of every kind; economic, political, military, social…and many lives are falling apart. The Lord would not want us to sleep through these storms. He wants us to wake up.
“Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.” Romans 13:11