Week 26 Jonah 1
The book of Jonah doesn’t really say much about the lives or interests or practices or customs of Iron Age sailors. But his short story shines some light on their religious sensitivities.
It’s pretty clear the sailors were already religious men before they knew about Jonah because as soon as the storm struck the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help.
But however loyal they were to their gods as soon as Jonah admitted that the Lord was the cause of the storm the crew got a bit more religiously curious (the fact he was Lord of the Sea made him especially relevant). And they ended up praying to the Lord.
The sailor’s prayer was:
O Lord…don’t make us die for this man’s sin…
Don’t hold us responsible for his death, because it isn’t our fault
You sent this storm…for your own good reasons.
It was a good first prayer. The focus was on staying alive & on not being made responsible for Jonah’s death so the sailors said exactly that. And since they’d also figured out that the Lord was behind the storm they admitted that too.
For instructions on how-to-pray I’d normally think about looking through the psalms. But these guys had no time to do anything but blurt out their life-and-death concerns and confirming that the Lord was clearly in-the-driver’s-seat.
So… Two Quick Tips on Prayer: Say something personal about myself. And say something accurate about the Lord.
Note: quotes from Jonah 1:5 14 (NLT)