A layman's commentary on Matthew 24 verses 44 through 51. Be alert because you do not know the hour.

 Let's end this dive into Matthew 24.

Our last look into Matthew 24 gave us this:

“Therefore, be alert, because you don’t know on what day your Lord will return. You realize that if a homeowner had known at what time of the night a thief was coming, he would have stayed awake. He would not have let the thief break into his house. Therefore, you, too, must be ready because the Son of Man will return when you least expect him.”
Matthew 24:42-44 GW

In addition to not being deceived, Jesus asks us to be alert and stay awake – not literally. Still, it certainly conveys the idea that those of us who trust in Jesus' word are to pay attention to the signs we are NOW experiencing.

"Who is the faithful and sensible servant whose master puts him in charge of the household staff, to give them their food at the proper time?”
Matthew 24:45 CJB

Referring to you as a servant would almost be insulting, but Jesus did. I have a question.

Do servants have an option to question the master's commands?

Not unless they have an extraordinary relationship with the master, but even then, they probably know that there is a line that should never be crossed. Well, if Jesus is calling us servants, then perhaps we should pay attention and be alert.

Who is Jesus referring to when He speaks of servants who have been put in charge of the household staff to give them their food at the proper time?

Since the subject matter is the Jewish people and their culture, then would it surprise you if I told you that He is talking about the religious leadership of Israel.

Can I apply this to myself?

I am and you would be wise to quickly do the same.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary indicates that this is a test and implies that even the care of the earth has been under our influence. I would say that our corporate leaders have failed miserably as we sought the almighty dollar to excesses. It sounds like we are under the law, and to a degree, we are, for the law was the only reasonable substitute since the earth, through Adam, fell under the curse.

The response to the question, “who is the faithful and sensible servant,” comes in verse 46.

“It will go well with that servant if he is found doing his job when his master comes.” Matthew 24:46 CJB

This speaks about God's judgment, the seven years of wrath that will be poured out upon:

1. The nations – this includes all who reject Jesus, the Messiah.

2. The Jewish leadership: for teaching others to reject Yeshua, for rejecting the Messiah, who is spelled out explicitly in the Torah, and all while tormenting those who would accept Jesus as the Messiah.

3. And He is going to pour out His wrath upon those who have killed the people and destroyed the earth in their quest for wealth.

What is our job?

Preach the good news whenever possible and wait eagerly for His return.

A parable, titled by the modern translators, reads like this.

“You Must Be Ready”

Luke 12:35 CJB "Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit,”

Verse 35 should have a familiar ring to it.

It sounds like our Lord pulled aspects from “The Parable of the Ten Virgins,” which we find in Matthew 25:1-13. All of them took oil lamps, while half took additional oil in case the night went longer than expected. Those who did not bring extra oil became arrogant and demanding when their lamps ran out. (Keep in mind that they had the same opportunity to prepare.) Sounds like half of them just weren't all that interested.

If you are stumbling because of the parable of the ten virgins, then you should know I was accosted by a brother at church, who publicly challenged me as to why I was advocating for Jesus' soon return. He said, we have been looking for Jesus for over two thousand years, and He hasn't come back; He is NOT coming back any time soon, so stop already.

Luke 12:36 CJB “like people waiting for their master's return after a wedding feast; so that when he comes and knocks, they will open the door for him without delay.

Matthew 22 speaks of those gathered from the Gentiles.

"Then he *said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 'Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.' "Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good, and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests.”
Matthew 22:8-10 NASB

Let's look at this portion of the paragraph for a moment.

“ but those who were invited were not worthy.”

Initially, who were the invited?

Israel, or better stated, the descendants of Abraham.

The word “worthy” is the Hebrew word áxios. According to Mounce's dictionary, it means worthy of or deserving, either good or evil. Initially, God declared Abraham and his descendants áxios, or worthy of good (or evil, which we see in Deuteronomy 28 – the blessings and cursings if you do not follow after God).

Interesting how the slaves, doing what the master said, found in the streets both evil and good, and with these people, they filled the wedding hall with dinner guests. In general. Here is a touch of sarcasm. It does not take long to notice that this group included worthy people like Caleb (he was not a descendant of Jacob and, therefore, a Gentile.)

Aren't you glad God found us.

But Matthew 22:11 gives us a piece of perplexing information.

"But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, and he *said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?' And the man was speechless.”
Matthew 22:11-12 NASB

Seeing as we have an overabundance of homeless living on our streets, you would be hard-pressed to find any with “wedding clothes.”

Finis Jennings Dake conveys this. 

“The poorer classes would not have festive apparel, and they were therefore provided for by the king from his own extensive wardrobe. This is one of the most interesting details of the parable. It was a special mark of honor to receive a garment which had been used by royalty, and kings sometimes showed their liberality by giving freely to others whom they sought to honor.”

Dr. J Vernon McGee states.

That wedding garment is the righteousness of Christ, which is absolutely essential for salvation, and it is supplied to all who believe.

We see the believers clothed in white.

“He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”
Revelation 3:5 NASB

Once we reach chapter four of Revelation, the church is not discussed, yet there is this peculiar reference.

“Around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads.”
Revelation 4:4 NASB

Could it also be that these, clothed in white garments, represent the church?

The logical answer is yes because there are many other references to the white garments and the bride, which is us, the church.

And we can know what being ready looks like.

“The servants who are ready and waiting for his return will be rewarded. I tell you the truth, he himself will seat them, put on an apron, and serve them as they sit and eat!” Luke 12:37 NLT

Ready and waiting anxiously for his return.

What happens to those who are doing their job?

"Truly I say to you that He (Jesus) will put him(the servant that does what He asks) in charge of all his possessions.”
Matthew 24:47 NASB

Paul's letter to the church in Corinth speaks to this very thing.

“Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
2 Corinthians 5:9-10 NASB

Here, we will be rewarded by Christ. Jesus ended this portion of His talk like this.

''But if that evil slave says in his heart, 'My master is not coming for a long time,' and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 24:48-51 NASB

Consider this excerpt.

“the master of that slave will come on a day when he (the evil slave) does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites.”

I always hear this; no man knows the day or the hour. I suppose the implication is that you should wait anxiously for Him, but that is not the end of the story.

Paul said we are not in the darkness that we should not know, and Paul states that it is for us to know.

Paul, having taught the Church body in Thessaloniki that Christ is going to come back for His bride, the Church, but somebody came afterward and frightened them into believing that they had missed the rapture, the catching away of the church. (The Greek word for rapture is harpazo, and the Latin is rapio. Nonetheless, he is coming back. Since the collective signs are happening around us rapidly, it behooves us to look for Jesus.)

So, “that slave” who does not expect Him will be in the dark about the timing and return of our Lord.

A few paragraphs earlier, I talked about the brother in Christ who berated me for encouraging people to look longingly for Jesus. I know this brother, and he leans toward legalism, but I think it is necessary for him to keep his life in order. I lived my life under a constrained religious legalism, and no, thank you, that is not for me. It was for freedom that Christ has set me free, and I will not allow anyone to try to put me back into that bondage.

Does living in freedom condemn me to hell?

One brother in Christ likes to think so, and he creates rules in his head that those outside of his head have to live by. He will tell you that everyone who does not accept Jesus NOW will have NO chance to accept Him after the Church leaves this earth.

Is that true?

The answer is an emphatic NO, as the Holy Spirit will still be on earth, drawing as many to Jesus as will come.

Is it true that grace will indeed be gone? What that means to those who come to Christ during the seven years of wrath is that you will have to prove your allegiance to Christ by losing your life for your testimony, but not to worry, Jesus will be there to escort you into eternity.

Did you know that I learned how to sin as a Christian?

Yes, thinking too long on that thought will get my head spinning. All I know and now lean on is I am so glad that God found me and sought me out.

The Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will. Matthew 24:43-44.

 Here is where we left off in our study of Matthew 24.

“But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.  44 “For this reason, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.”
Matthew 24:43-44 NAS95

The context has everything to do with Israel and the Jews, with a special focus on the seven years of God's wrath.

Can it also apply to us now?

Certainly. In the broader picture, the head of the household - called the Jews, are the rabbis, Pharisees, and scribes.

In the narrow view, it is one in which the Gentile church body exists in the form of individual believers, the heads of our own households, a situation where we are anxiously looking for the Son of Man (Jesus). For some, Jesus will be coming as a thief in the night.

I have sat with religious people who have scoffed at my statement and ranted that they are ready and don't need me to lecture them on what it is to be ready, all the while denying that such a theme exists for them. Well, Paul, Peter, and the Apostle John also referred to this very thing.

The Apostle Paul wrote.

1 Thessalonians 5:1 NASB Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you.

Paul could not say this unless he had clearly developed this teaching within this church body and left no room for argument.

Consider the words, times, and epochs.

Time, according to the Word Study Dictionary, is the Greek word chrónos. “This word perceives time quantitatively as a period measured by the succession of objects and events and denotes the passing of moments.”

Quantitatively, is something that is expressible in terms of quantity.

So Paul was comfortable telling them that this time that was coming was something expressible.

Epochs according to the WSD is the Greek word kairós. It is a season or an opportune time. It is not merely as a succession of minutes, which is chrónos (G5550), but a period of opportunity.

If you are paying attention to the events which are centered on Israel, then you would know that many of us are watching intently for Jesus' return for His bride.

1 Thessalonians 5:2 NASB For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.

Note the usage of the word “like”. It has similarities to the thief, but for the believer, He is not coming as a thief. Another scripture that speaks in similitude is Revelation 13:3, where it says.

Revelation 13:3 NASB I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast;

Typically, when people read or hear this, they don't pay attention to fact that it is one of it's many heads that sustains the wound, nor do they realize that it is NOT dead, it just seems to be for the moment. The Ottoman Empire easily fulfills our understanding of this head.

1 Thessalonians 5:3 NASB While they are saying, "Peace and safety!" then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.

The United Nations and the World Economic Forum both repeatedly made calls for peace and security or safety, and, blame the lack of such on “antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry, persecution of Christian minorities and white supremacist ideology.”¹ All of this is evidence that the globe needs to live on social contracts like China already does.

Today is August 12, 2024. This is important for several reasons. 1. It is a day of mourning in Israel as so many bad things have happened on this day. Such as the expulsion from Spain and then England. The Destruction of both temples, and now the threat of Iranian missiles be shot as Israel in retaliation of several assassinations attributed to Israel. Iran has the intent of removing Israel from the map. So, Watchman River Tom, a YouTube channel I watch, spoke about the possibility that Iran could hold off on these launches and feign peace by holding hostage talks with Israel on Thursday. This could play into the common thread where either the Jewish people or the antichrist character says peace peace.

Look at the terminology that the Amplified Bible uses.

“When people are saying, All is well and secure, and, there is peace and safety, then in a moment unforeseen destruction (ruin and death) will come upon them as suddenly as labor pains come upon a woman with child; and they shall by no means escape, for there will be no escape.” 1 Thessalonians 5:3 AMP

1 Thessalonians 5:4 NASB But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief;

Why will it NOT overtake us?

2 Timothy 4:8 NASB In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing.

1 Thessalonians 5:5 NASB for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness;

Paul explains verse four above by telling this church and us, that we are not of night or or darkness; and, therefore, not subject to the fears of the night.

Again I turn to the Amplified Bible as it defines 1 Thessalonians 5:4 so well.

“But you are not in [given up to the power of] darkness, brethren, for that day to overtake you by surprise like a thief.” 1 Thessalonians 5:4 AMP

1 Thessalonians 5:6 NASB so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.

The challenge, if you will, is to be alert and sober.

Sobriety has little to do with alcohol. According to Webster's it also means to be “Cautious; prudent; watchful on all sides; examining carefully all the circumstances that may affect a determination.

The Weymouth translation states,

“So then let us not sleep, like the rest of the world, but let us keep awake and be sober.” 1 Thessalonians 5:6 Weymouth

So then, let us not sleep like the rest of the world.

Can I spread a broad blanket and say that the majority of those who claim they are Christians are nothing more than asleep?

I recently saw a clip where Joy Behar, a commentator on the television show, The View, said, in talking about Donald Trump, after he said that it was God's grace that spared his life in this assassination attempt, that she, too, was a Christian because she was brought up in the Catholic church, and that Donald Trump's comments about God moving in his life were narcissistic. Growing up in a Catholic church does not make you Christian. Putting your life and faith into the hands of Jesus Christ by asking Him to come into your life, does. Joy Behar could never speak so corruptly about people who choose to uphold conservative values and standards and be deemed a Christian by anyone.

Matthew 24:44 Weymouth  “Therefore you also must be ready; for it is at a time when you do not expect Him that the Son of Man will come.”

Last night we went to hear a good band that was playing as part of the summer concerts in the parks. There were easily about three hundred people there. We often see people that we know from church. In a way, having a picnic in the park and listening to music makes the world seem normal, especially as the city picked up the bill for the band to be there and we just come and enjoy. The problem, that most will refuse to see, is that few of those people have any clue that we are on the cusp of Jesus' return and the start of the seven years of God's wrath.

The scriptures tell us that they were not looking for Him, nor were they aware.

Having said all that, Matthew 24:43-44 is implying that we, as the heads of our households, can know what time the thief is coming (He only appears to be a thief because they are not looking for Him.) Those of us who are alert and ready are so because we have given our hearts to Jesus as the Redeemer. Those who merely attach themselves to the name Christian will not be taken up in the rapture of the church, as they are not looking for Him, and neither are they ready for Him. For them, Jesus will come at an hour when they are NOT looking for Him.

1https://press.un.org/en/2024/ga12582.doc.htm

On whose account that this calamity struck. A look at Jonah based on chapter one of Jonah's book.

What kind of fish is capable of swallowing a human?

 My morning men’s group recently finished reading Tozer’s Obedience To Christ. The brother who “leads” was on business trips and vacations for a month, so we finished Tozer without him and then put a vote out to the group as to which video we should watch next. It was a short list, and one of the options was The Book of Jonah by ERIC MASON. I am very familiar with the Book of Jonah, and this seemed like it would have been better than the other options; it was not.

What problems did I have with this version of Jonah?

The primary thing is that Eric sermonized every segment of his video teaching. An example from the group questions download reads like this: You have to spend an extra moment trying to ascertain who the “he” represents (clue: it is all about Jonah).

• He hated Assyria, of which Nineveh was a major urban center.

  If you have read your scriptures, then you should know that there was a deep hatred of the Assyrians within the Jewish community. Considering what scripture tells us about the Assyrians, Jonah’s lifetime of harmful interactions with the Assyrians would understandably feed into his racism and hatred. 

  What are you trying to tell me when you say Nineveh was a major urban center? You make it sound like we have communities separated by nothing more than a mere stone’s throw. How about hundreds of miles?

• He feared how the people would treat him.

  Which people group is Pastor Eric talking about, the Jews or the Assyrians?

  If it is the Assyrians, a Jew might expect to be violently killed.

• He saw Israel as more deserving of God’s love than Nineveh.

  We are not told this by the scriptures, so we are left with only assumptions. However, the Jews express thoughts like this with consistency.

• He had the right theology but the wrong disposition.

  How deeply inset was the Torah that they chose to call it theology? Probably none; it was the Law. If I must look at Jonah and wrap him in religious clothing according to his disposition, what would that have been?

  Up to the point God asked him to take a message of destruction to the Assyrians, there was NO disposition that any of us would have seen.

  Take note, disposition is a reflection of your temperament.

• His personal preferences conflicted with God’s character.

  Amazingly, most people miss this obvious point, although, even today, most people do not understand God’s character. If the Ninevehites had not reacted as they did, God would have burned them to the ground, just as He did with Sodom and Gomorrah. Something that falls under the assumption is that we all hold beliefs about God.

• He refused to love the unlovable.

  It seems rather evident that we don’t see Jonah’s end, and therefore, anything we say about him is an assumption with no legitimate basis.

Essentially, everything Pastor Eric Mason said was comparable to handing out a study guide on Jonah, similar to what most churches pass out to their Sunday school classes. These study guides are designed to elicit thinking in a certain way while eliminating any notion of free or spirit-led thought. Well, now that you have a feel for how I feel about this video teaching, let’s look at what the scriptures tell us.

Jonah

Dr. Frank Turek, a Christian Apologist, points out that one of the main things that makes God’s word believable is that God makes sure that you are aware of the hiccups, glitches, and things that appear to be failures.

A couple of those would be:

• Adam’s fall (some would call what Adam did treasonous) in the garden, and, in what seems like moments later, Cain, the firstborn under “sin,” killed his brother Abel. (Read Genesis 3.)

• And how Moses, the man who led Israel out of Egypt, killed an Egyptian, was found out, and ran to the desert for forty years.

“The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying,”
Jonah 1:1 NAS95

Jonah’s background is shown to us in 2 Kings 14.

“In the fifteenth year of Amaziah, the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of king of Israel became king in Samaria, and reigned forty-one years. He did evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin. He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which He spoke through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher.”
2 Kings 14:23-25 NAS95

From this, we know: Where Jonah hails from – Gath-hepher; Who his father is, Amittai – if that helps you; and what his only reference is – he prophesied that “the border of Israel, from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of Arabah, would be restored,” and it was by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash king of Israel.

What follows is information derived from Dake’s Bible notes.

a    [word of the LORD]The word of Jehovah came to Jonah, the contents of which are stated in Jon_1:2. The same message was repeated with little variation when the prophet was finally ready to obey (Jon_2:2). This or a similar expression is found seven times in the book (Jon_1:1;Jon_2:10;Jon_3:1,Jon_3:3;Jon_4:4,Jon_4:9,Jon_4:10).

b    [Jonah]Jonah was a historical character (Jon_1:1;2Ki_14:25)—the only man so-named in the O.T.—which adds to the fact that he was a type of Christ. The name is spelled “Jonas” in the N.T. (Mat_12:39-41;Mat_16:4;Luk_11:29-32). Peter’s father was named “Jona” or “Jonas” (Joh_1:42;Joh_21:15-17). Both Peter and Jonah (2Ki_14:25) came from Galilee, so the statement of the Pharisees in Joh_7:52 is not true.

Date and place: Written in Palestine about 853-824 B.C.

Author:Jonah (Jon_1:1;Jon_2:1;Jon_4:1;2Ki_14:23-27;Mat_12:39-41;Mat_16:4;Luk_11:29-30).

Theme: The book is a story of a bigoted Jew who, after being chastened by the Lord for disobedience, preached to and converted the whole city of Nineveh.

Purpose: To show why the destruction of Nineveh and the Assyrian empire was delayed by God for almost a century; to illustrate the fact that God’s mercy and salvation are for both Jews and Gentiles who will repent and turn to Him; and to typify and illustrate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as seen in notes on Matthew_12:40.

Pastor Eric Mason seemed to imply that Jonah’s message was meant to bring about the salvation of the Ninevehites.

I suppose that was God’s intent, even though there was nothing stated to describe how they should demonstrate their salvation. Fortunately, we serve a merciful God who looks at the heart, but even though they put on sackcloth and ashes, their “salvation” only lasted about a hundred years.

The Biblical Illustrator tells us.

“We read, in the Second Book of Kings, about Jeroboam II., the powerful and able and sinful ruler of the Northern tribes under whom Amos and Hosea lived and preached, that “he restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God which He spake by the hand of His servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher.”

God’s command to Jonah.

“Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and proclaim to it that their wickedness has come to my attention.”
Jonah 1:2 CJB

At this point, there is NO explanation of what will happen to Nineveh. Watch how Jonah responds to this directive.

“But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the face of Jehovah. And he went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish. And he gave its fare and went down into it in order to go with them to Tarshish, from before the face of Jehovah.”
Jonah 1:3 LITV

Upon receiving his orders, Jonah flees to Tarshish, thinking that God won’t be able to find him there. (What gave you that idea?)

Dr. J Vernon McGee gives us this.

"Instead of going in that direction (to Nineveh), he does a very strange thing. He goes down to Joppa and buys a ticket on the first boat for Tarshish. Tarshish was a city founded by the Phoenicians on the southern coast of Spain. It was the jumping-off place of the west."

” And (Jonah) went down into it in order to go with them to Tarshish.”

He found out where the ship was going, paid the fee, and went down into the hold to take a long nap. If you have ever been fishing on a modern boat, you would know that there are always particular smells, like diesel fuel, fish, and bleach. This, of course, is not primarily a fishing boat, and there was no diesel engine to foul the air or bleach to wash the decks, but there had to be smells associated with an older boat and the familiar rocking of the ship that is working to get you seasick. Sleeping seems to make all that go away.

If you don’t believe that he went below, stay tuned. Scripture will soon support my assertion.

Before I go another step, I want you to remind yourself, who is writing this narrative?

The obvious answer would be Jonah.

Would you dump your failures on your future audience?

Shockingly, God has Jonah do just that. I have heard it said that such honesty is one of the things that make the Biblical narratives so believable.

“The LORD hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.”
Jonah 1:4 NAS95

Parts of the story to hold on to:

• A great wind;

• an associated storm on the sea;

• and the fact that the ship was about to break up.

If you recall, the Apostle Paul was being taken to Rome when the ship he was on did break up, but that had more to do with stormy conditions that were throwing the ship into the rocky coastline. In the case of Jonah, there was no rocky coastline, it was merely the severity of the deep water conditions that were about to tear the ship apart. How he managed to sleep through this I will never know.

“Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep.”
Jonah 1:5 NAS95

The things I have heard in studying this book with others. There the assumptions that every one on the ship were devout Jews.

Momentarily we will see that Jonah had gone incognito so that the captain and the men would NOT ask too many questions.

Notice that these guys prayed to their particular god. Since that did not seem to be helping, they began to throw the cargo overboard as though lightening the load would help. All the while, Jonah slept.

“So the captain approached him and said, "How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish."
Jonah 1:6 NAS95

“So the captain approached him and said, "How is it that you are sleeping?”

Unless you are very tired, it takes a lot to fall asleep through all that rocking and yelling. I am quite sure that they were yelling at each other.

“Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”

The captain did not let him sleep. There was no need for Jonah to call upon god, as he knew why the ship men were taking a beating; and, besides that, Jonah did not want god to know where he was or why. How foolish, God knows everything.

As the narrative progresses we will see that Jonah knew that God did care about people, especially those that are innocent.

“Then the sailors said to each other, "Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity." They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.”
Jonah 1:7 NIV

“Cast lots”? This is the Greek word gôrāl: The Word Study Dictionary tells us it is “a masculine noun indicating a portion or lot. A lot was cast, probably a stone or stones, to decide questions or appoint persons for various reasons; for apportioning land (Numbers 26:55; Numbers 33:54; Joshua 18:6, Joshua 18:11)”

It comes across like they were throwing dice.

“They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.”

Isn't that amazing how that happened.

“Then they said to him, "Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?"
Jonah 1:8 NASB

“Then they said to him, "Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us?”

What a bizarre way of thinking. I suppose we are to simply ignore their barbaric technique for extracting information and the assignment of responsibility.

At this time, the primary method of identifying that someone was a Jew was the tassels that hung below their clothing. Google's AI overview tells us that “Jewish people wear tassels, or tzitzit, as a reminder of the commandments of the Torah.”

Jonah did not want them to know he was a Jew. I assume because as a Jew he carried great responsibility, and he chose to not have anything – namely the tzitzit that would have exposed his identity.

They demanded, “tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us?”

“Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”
Jonah 1:9 NLT

Look at what Dr. J Vernon McGee tells us about this.

"I am a Hebrew"—that meant a lot. The Hebrews were known to be monotheistic; that is, they worshiped one God, never an idol. They had no other gods before them but worshiped the God, who is the Creator. Jonah says, "I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land." Jonah tells them that he worships the God who made the ocean which they could see right before them being so stirred up by the storm. He made the sea, and He made the dry land also. I think these sailors knew about Israel, but they were pagan and had no knowledge of the living and true God.”

How did they react to what Jonah told them?

“Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, "How could you do this?" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.”
Jonah 1:10 NASB

At this assertion by Jonah, “the men became extremely frightened.” “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”

They said to Jonah, “how could you do this?”

The passage tells us that Jonah told them exactly why he was on the ship, which explains how they suddenly knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord.

“So they said to him, "What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?"--for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy.”
Jonah 1:11 NASB

Is this like throwing a baby into the mouth of a volcano and hoping that the volcano stops rumbling?

Not very logical. Moving on.

“For the sea was becoming increasingly stormy.”

When the narrative begins, Jonah has gone down into the hold and gone to sleep.

In time, as the boat was at sea, a storm came up and the crew did there best to deal with it, but the storm was severe enough to begin breaking the boat apart. After the captain awakened Jonah, Jonah responded with this bizarre reply.

“He (Jonah) said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me, this great storm has come upon you."
Jonah 1:12 NAS95

What promise from God was Jonah leaning on that prompted him to tell the crew to throw him into the sea, from which there would be no coming back?

A passage that Jonah may have known comes from King David.

“When David saw the angel, he said to the LORD, “I am the one who has sinned and done wrong! But these people are as innocent as sheep—what have they done? Let your anger fall against me and my family.”
2 Samuel 24:17 NLT

The Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament is bold enough to tell us this.

“He (Jonah) willingly endures the punishment, desiring to perish and not let others perish on his account,” Jonah confesses that he has deserved to die for his rebellion against God, and that the wrath of God which has manifested itself in the storm can only be appeased by his death. He pronounces this sentence not by virtue of any prophetic inspiration, but as a believing Israelite who is well acquainted with the severity of the justice of the holy God, both from the law and from the history of his nation.”

I am not so sure that we can assign such nobility to Jonah, especially if we have read the entirety of the narrative. They heard what Jonah said, and, for the moment ignored it.

“However, the men rowed desperately to return to land but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them.”
Jonah 1:13 NAS95

You almost get the impression that they thought he had lost his mind. The obvious factor was the severity of the storm and the associated waves. Anyone going in that water is not going to live.

Up to this point, I have avoided the terminology suicide, and why?

Because the religious connotations are that those who do such commit self-murder and, therefore, are lost to hell's flames forever. I know this because it was a rant that I heard frequently in my household.

And so, what do we do?

We avoid and dance around the obvious because it is too uncomfortable to talk about.

And yet, how do we see God handle this case with Jonah?

He brings Jonah back to life and uses Jonah as an example of the course of action that Jesus would have to travel to bring salvation back to humanity. Jesus angrily retorted to the scribes and pharisees.

“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You." But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.”
Matthew 12:38-41 NKJV

We had this discussion during the course of Pastor Eric Mason's video teaching, how that this was NOT Pinocchio, nor did Jonah have a card table and a candle that never gave up it's light. The leader of our group, almost as if he was trying to admonish me, said Jonah was made to live for three days in the belly of that fish. If you insist on buying into that claim, then you might as well pull Matthew chapter 12 from your bibles, as you are scoffing in the face of God's power and Jesus's activity from the cross to the throne.

If this challenges you, then you need to rethink death. Killing the body is only a passing thing, and since the body carries the genetics passed on from Adam, then to us. Sorry, but this body must die because we cannot take this sin-broken body into eternity with us. That is why the soul is preserved, and we are given new bodies.

Romans 6:4  Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:9  knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

And one day soon, death will no longer have mastery over us.

1 Corinthians 15:21  For since by a man (Adam) came death, by a man (Jesus) also came the resurrection of the dead.

If you are still breathing, then this resurrection is primarily symbolic through the acceptance of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:26  The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

To abolish something is to permanently get rid of it; this will only happen at the Bema seat of Christ, which is an aspect of our being caught up to be with Jesus.

What I just gave you was the shortlist, as this theme is an integral part of our life in Christ.

Do you know why Jesus did not approach Lazarus's tomb until the fourth day after death?

Because the Jews wholeheartedly believed that the soul stayed in the body until the third day. The fact that Jonah is spoken of in this manner allies itself with Jesus' own death that was to come and how He, too, was thoroughly dead when He came off that cross.

Read the eleventh chapter of John's gospel, and you can take in the entirety of the story, but pay close attention to these words.

“So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days.”
John 11:17 NKJV

Jesus waited so that there would be no questions as to whether He, through the power of God, raised Lazarus from the dead or if it was just a fluke. As Monty Python used to say in several of their comedy skits, he's only half dead.

This discussion would be null and void if Jonah had been anything other than dead.

“Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. Therefore they cried out to the LORD and said, "We pray, O LORD, please do not let us perish for this man's life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You." Jonah 1:13-14 NKJV

They understood that Jonah would die in those waves. Isn't it odd that there is no talk about suicide or the aftermath of murder?

Maybe God is not as focused on that as we are with our religious ideals and traditions.

And so, into the ocean, went Jonah.

A thought that keeps running through my mind is the number of people who commit suicide by police officers. While most of us realize that running at a police officer with a knife or a pellet pistol is a sure way to die, few of us call it suicide.

Whatever their nationality, these men knew that there was a responsibility for the insupportable death of a human.

“So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD and took vows.”
Jonah 1:15-16 NKJV

However, they picked up Jonah, and he, like Jesus, went compliantly.

What was the idea behind Jonah being thrown overboard?

I believe that God fully intended to halt Jonah's escape and change his direction. God also used Jonah as a future analogy for Jesus—this is where Jonah's death played a role.

Look, you can try to sell people fairy tales, but the reality is that God made the laws of physics. Apply vicious winds to any large body of water, and you will have waves sufficient to sink boats. I have seen this on two occasions, and I had to steer our little fishing boat out of one of them.

Even if you could stop the wind, it would still take several minutes for the waves to calm down.

Does information like this make the Bible a book of lies?

Hardly, but what it does show us is the influence humanity has upon the telling of the story. In the case of Jonah, did he, as he was splashing wildly in the deadly waves, time the situation in order to relate how long it took for the seas to calm? I scarcely think so as he had other things on his mind, especially since most people who commit suicide really don't want to and will try to fight what they have done. And we are about to meet an extremely large fish that had been specially ordered for the purpose of taking Jonah into its mouth.

“Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”
Jonah 1:17 NKJV

How long can you stay alert without oxygen?

About 15 seconds.

How long can your brain live without oxygen?

About 4 minutes.

A Basking shark. It swims about exclusively in the Mediterranean Sea, and though it is NOT meant
to be a man-eater, it can undoubtedly open its mouth wide enough to suck a human inside. Considering that a human is merely an annoyance to a fish that feeds on krill, it becomes evident that God had to motivate this fish to grab Jonah, hang on to him (underwater) for three days, and then spit him out (dead) on a beach, most likely in the region of Aleppo Syria. I would imagine that it was a short conversation.

Here, we end chapter one of Jonah, but I have inserted several provocative terms and assertions, such as suicide, murder, and the death of Jonah.

Why?

I have had these discussions with “fellow believers,” and I am aware that many choose to believe that Jonah remained alive in that fish for three days. This false belief, based on tradition and a lack of knowledge, forces you to ignore logic, reason, and physical laws that govern our ability to live and breathe—which God made and integrated into our daily lives.

When it comes to death, there are several forms and applications.

1. Physical death, which is the cessation of breath, is what most of us associate with death.

   No doubt, there is a loss of friendship and companionship.

   Does your inability to breathe kill your spirit?

   The answer is no, although I suspect many people have, in a sense, killed their spirits.

2. The other death has everything to do with your spirit or soul. The perplexity is that the soul is eternal, made in the image of God, who is a spirit. So, death, as far as God is concerned, is eternal separation from God.

The more important question you need to answer is, what kind of death did Jonah experience?

Obviously, he ceased to breathe, and yes, his body died because of that action. Held in the mouth of that big fish, Jonah began to decompose. Another obvious problem that feeds into our traditional supposition is that Jonah remained alive inside that fish. A part of our being able to understand what the book of Jonah is telling us lies in how he writes. This takes us into Jonah chapter 2, where he speaks as though he is alive. Ask yourself, could God have given him an in-depth review of his life in those moments on the beach where he regained his mental capabilities? Could Jonah have been given a recollection of what happened to him in those first 15 seconds before he blacked out?

Think about the unimaginable possibility of a dead Jonah getting spewed upon a beach and then having any awareness of what had just happened. The most reasonable solution is that God deposited all these thoughts into Jonah’s head and heart, including the events that brought Jonah to the beach in Syria. Many of you see this as nothing short of preposterous, but that is exactly what I think when you try to convince me that Jonah remained alive inside the belly of this massive shark.

Consider Moses. Scripture implies that the history of humanity on earth was passed on to Moses, and he re-conveyed that information to us through the books of Genesis and Exodus. If you were to be honest, you would have to say that there are things in Genesis alone that can make your head swim, such as Cain, who, having killed Abel, says, surely people will find me and kill me. People, where did he get the idea of people? I say this because the false but common understanding is that there are now only three people on the earth.

Surely, Moses struggled to understand the things he was asked to write, and even more incredulous, he was asked to believe them.

This can only be God.