Beloved radio friends, we greet you in the ever-precious and the worthy name of our beloved Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We welcome you again to the study of God's Word. We pray that you will be interested, and deeply so, in the study of the prophecy of Jonah, which we have just commenced. We're in chapter one of this prophecy, and we have called the title of the chapter and its subject matter. a disobedient prophet fleeing from the Lord and caught in the midst of a great storm. We come now to Jonah and the storm, which is related in verses four to the end of chapter one in this wonderful story. The record of this story and this storm brings the words of the poet to my mind when he wrote, saying, God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. He plants His footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. For here we have in the story of Jonah the prophet caught in the midst of a great storm. Our prophet Jonah finds the ship going to Tarshish from the port of Joppa He pays the fare and he goes on board. Yet instead of having a smooth journey upon the ocean, we read in the fourth verse these words. But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Now the storm came because of Jonah. because he was fleeing away from the presence of Jehovah. Now one thing is very certain. The prophet may flee, but God was still able to control the elements of the sea by a sovereign, omnipotent power. For the winds, they are the servants of God, and God was after his runaway servant. You know the words of Psalm. One thirty-nine. They may have come to Jonah's memory, for Jonah undoubtedly knew the Old Testament scriptures which had been written long before him. And his memory may have indeed been prodded in this stormy experience, for which he himself was the cause. When I quote, if I may, Psalm one thirty-nine, verses nine and ten. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. Certainly Jonah, our prophet, he realized that there was no possibility of out sailing and getting out of the reach of God's power. But how many there have been, and how many persons there are still today? who have the false impression they can run away from God and get out of his reach? Don't you believe it, my friend? God will catch up to you, and you will regret that you ever tried to flee from God. And I wonder if there are any of my friends that are in that situation. May I say there is no use for you to have any conception You can hide yourself from the presence of God. He is omnipresent, as well as omnipotent and omniscient. Now in verse five of our story, when the storm began, now we realize and we find recorded the great fear and the terror of the sailors upon the boat. Then the narrators were afraid. They cried every man unto his God. They cast forth the wares or the merchandise that were in the ship into the sea, in order to lighten the boat of them. Now these sailors were not unexperienced. They were accustomed to storms, but they realized this was no ordinary tempest, and they were filled with great fear. Probably most of them were sailors of Phoenician origin from different places, but well acquainted with the sea. And we note they called upon the different gods that they worshipped, as heathens do. And in addition, they began throwing much of the merchandise of the ship overboard into the sea, to prevent the ship from capsizing. For we read verse five, every man cried unto his God, and they cast forth the wares that were in the ship unto the sea to lighten it of them. But what about Jonah? Where was Jonah all this time? What was he doing? Verse five goes on to conclude by saying, But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep. The indifference of the prophet could not be greater. How could this ever be? How could he ever sleep in them if such a storm? Well, he may have been extremely fatigued, we cannot tell. But there is a lesson to take home to our hearts and to our consciences. When sin and disobedience is persisted in, it often brings with it the insensibility to evil. And Jonah, for a servant of God, was unfortunately traveling in the wrong direction. And that was he was going down. Had you never noticed in this... study and the story of Jonah, the repetition of this word down in this prophecy of Jonah. We know that in verse three Jonah went down to Joppa. In the same verse he went down into the ship and was soon fast asleep. And then later on in verse fifteen we shall see the sailors casting Jonah down into the sea. And then in chapter two He finds himself down in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights. And there, while he was in the belly of the great fish in chapter two, he prayed, and he confessed, I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. And he hit the bottom. He most certainly did. Now, if any person, whether a child of God or not, dares to run away from God, the direction they travel can be but one. And that is down. It may be pertinent at this point in our story for each one of us to ask ourselves this question, spiritually in relation to God, which way is my soul traveling? Let the question search your heart, my radio friend, and let me faithfully warn any and all of my unsafe friends. Please take care. Do not go down to ultimately the destination of hell. For if you ever get down into the pit, there's no escape from that place. For Christ came to save you from hell. May God help you to come to him, if never you have. But then note the uncanny superstition of these sailors. The sailors and the master of the ship, they sensed that there was something unusual and extraordinary regarding this storm, and they all prayed. For... though they prayed, they wondered whatever had happened to Jonah. And what a rebuke it was to God's servant when we read in verse six, the shipmaster came to him and said unto him, What meanest thou o sleeper arise? Call upon thy God. If so be that God will think upon us that we perish not. What a shame that the true prophet of God has to be called to pray and to be called to pray by a heathen man. Oh, beloved, when I think particularly of a group of people in the world today in the Far East, in the Oriental land, have you ever known that the Mohammedans, followers of the Prophet Mohammed so-called, they pray five times a day, and from their tempo prayers, their mosques in Jerusalem, I have heard the call to prayer. I've heard it sounding out at four o'clock in the morning. And the Muhammadan priests could be heard seeking to awaken the Moslem, to call them to the temple for prayer. And often they would say, Prayer is better than sleep. I wonder, my friend, how many professing Christians, myself included, lift their hearts to God in prayer more than once, if at all, once a day? We're not told that Jonah prayed when the shipmaster awakened him. He probably did. But the storm continued with all of its fury. And then you find in the seventh verse the most unusual thing going on. The casting of lots by the sailors. Listen to the words. They said, Everyone to his fellow, Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots. And the lot fell upon Jonah. These men concluded that one person upon the ship must be guilty of some great crime, and they decided to cast lots to find who it was. Now, doing this was not against the will of God in Old Testament times, and even in the early history of the New Testament. It was done in Joshua's day. It was done in the days of Saul and Jonathan. It was done in Acts chapter one. When the Apostles, the eleven, chose Matthias to take the place of Judah, and in Proverbs chapter sixteen and verse thirty-three we read, The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of Jehovah. Now, I don't know what way they did this casting of lots, but the lot pointed out guilty Jonah. How they cast lots? I'm not certain. But the divine result of it was this. It exposed the cause, the real cause of the terrible storm, and it was guilty Jonah, the prophet of God, who was running away from his master. Now lest any Christian be misled and think this casting of Lot should be done today, let me remind my fellow believers that after the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we never read of any Lot being cast amongst the company of believers. For the indwelling Spirit is now the all-sufficient guide in our lives for each believer. And he will guide us in accordance with the truth of the Word of God. But now let's conclude our message as to what takes place when Jonah is aroused, when he is challenged to pray, when the lot is cast as to who is the cause for the terrific storm. The lot we again repeat. pointed out guilty Jonah. Please let me state, consider the situation carefully. Here was a disobedient prophet running away from his God, and he's exposed by heathen men as being guilty for the storm that raged around them. What a situation for a prophet of God to be in. My beloved fellow believer, may you and I be careful and be obedient to our Lord. Father, we pray thy blessing upon the truth of thy word, by the Holy Spirit's power, and by his convicting grace. For the glory of our Savior, amen.