If you mention the word fear, it is usually thought of with a negative connotation. Yet fear can bring positive results. It is a survival response. In the book of Jonah, we find Jonah running from God. Jonah was like a lot of Israelites and Christians of today. He was proud and thought he was better than others who didn’t worship his God. Because of his proud heart, he did not want the people of Nineveh to be saved. Instead, he wanted God to bring justice upon them and punish them for their sin. He had forgotten that only by God’s grace and mercy can any of us enter into the presence of God. He refuses to go to Nineveh and begins to run from God. His actions proved he didn’t know much about his God. Otherwise, he would have realized you can’t run from the presence of God.
Jonah 1:4-7 “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. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. So, 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. And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and 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.”
God gets Jonah’s attention and the attention of those he is with on the ship. They were not believers of Jonah’s God but feared for their life when this mighty wind blew in unexpectedly. They were experienced sailors. They knew how to maneuver through the seas, but this storm was different. Soon they begin to be suspicious of Jonah. Why? Because everyone was frantic but Jonah. He was in the bottom of the ship asleep! They cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah. Jonah knew this storm was because of him and he told them to throw him overboard. At first, they refused to cast him into the sea, and begin to throw everything else overboard. When this didn’t help, they cast Jonah into the sea.
After they threw Jonah into the sea the storm ceased. It was evident to them that Jonah’s God was the real deal. In Jonah 1:16, we find the mariners no longer feared the storm but feared the one who caused the storm. It was in their fear they saw the awesomeness of God. They saw His power over nature, both to stir up the winds and to calm them. They became believers, offered a sacrifice, and made vows to God. God used Jonah in his disobedience to influence those on the ship to believe in Jehovah God.
Jonah 1:16 “Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.”
Fear can be a great motivation for change. I remember well the week before I gave my life to Christ. We had been in revival meetings, and many were saved. This was not an uncommon thing for our church. I was well familiar with services like these, but this time it was different. All week long I had felt the conviction of my sins, but I was not ready to change. In my mind, if I could just make it through Friday night, I could go back to doing my own thing and everything would be fine. As the week passed by, the conviction became stronger, so strong that I could imagine me dying and going to hell. I remember the night before I gave my life to Christ, I tried to stay awake all night because I was fearful I would die in my sleep. This fear is what brought me to a point of conversion. Since then, I have come to love Jesus more than life itself. I understand what He did for me and how He is continuing to keep me and mold me to be like Him, but it was the fear of God that brought me to a decision of salvation, just like it did the men on the ship with Jonah.