Jonah 1:15-16

The immediate cessation of the storm proved to the sailors that Yahweh really did control the sea (cf. Matthew 8:26). Therefore they feared (respected) Him, offered a sacrifice to Him (when they reached shore?), and made vows (perhaps to venerate Him, cf. Psalms 116:17-18).

"The book of Jonah contains within its few pages one of the greatest concentrations of the supernatural in the Bible. Yet it is significant that the majority of them are based upon natural phenomena." [Note: Gaebelein, p. 83.]

These mariners were almost certainly polytheists, so we should not conclude that they abandoned their worship of other gods and "got saved" necessarily. However their spiritual salvation is a possibility. The fact that they made vows to God may point to their conversion.

Note that these pagan sailors feared God more than the prophet did (Jonah 1:9). By their actions they gave Him the respect He deserves, but Jonah did not.

"In this episode the sailors are a foil for Jonah. In contrast to Jonah, who preaches but does not pray, the sailors offer prayers to God. In contrast to Jonah, who says he fears God but acts in a way that is inconsistent with his claim, the sailors, who barely know Jonah’s God, respond to him in genuine fear." [Note: Chisholm, Handbook of . . ., p. 411.]

"Through the defection of Jonah a ship’s crew acknowledges the Creator’s power, comes to the point of worshiping him, and acknowledges him as Lord. If this is the outcome of Jonah’s disobedience, what will God bring to pass as the result of Jonah’s obedience?" [Note: Baldwin, pp. 563-64.]

This story is full of irony. [Note: See Edwin M. Good, Irony in the Old Testament.] When someone knows God but chooses to disobey Him, that person begins to demonstrate even less compassion for others, less faith in God’s sovereignty, and less fear of Him than pagans normally do.

"Above all, the story thus far extols the fact that sin does not pay and that, try as the sinner will to escape, he is God’s marked man. The wages of sin are death." [Note: Allen, p. 213.]