Jonah 1:4 - Homiletics

Nature and God.

There is a Hebrew directness and energy in this language describing the storm which overtook the unfaithful prophet. Some would be satisfied to say that we have here simply a poetico-theological expression descriptive of a natural phenomenon. But surely the Hebrew idiom here employed is the vehicle of a great truth. The Lord does send the wind and raise the tempest; and the Lord also calms the waters and stills the storm.

I. THE ATHEISTIC VIEW IS THAT NATURE IS A REALITY AND GOD A FICTION . Many scientific, and non-scientific, readers too will say—The storm did arise, but this was in accordance with natural laws, and there is no room and no need for the hypothesis of a Deity. Facts are facts, and regularities and uniformities are undeniable; but with explanations, with personal agencies, we have nothing at all to do.

II. THE PAGAN VIEW IS THAT NATURE IS THE OUTWARD EXPRESSION OF THE PRESENCE AND ACTIVITIES OF INNUMERABLE DEITIES . According to the heathen, the sea and the land, the woods and the fountains, had their several deities, whose actions accounted for all changes. In the tempest, Jonah's fellow voyagers cried every man unto his god. The mood of the deity might vary, his purpose might change.

III. THE SUPERSTITIOUS VIEW lS THAT NATURE IS GENERALLY INDEPENDENT OF GOD , BUT IS SOMETIMES VISITED BY A DIVINE INTERFERENCE . When all things proceed in an even course, it is supposed that there is no need to presume a Divine presence. But when anything happens which is unusual, this is taken to be an evidence of the interposition of a superior Power. The calm is Nature's work, the storm is God's. A capricious, arbitrary Providence is the superstitious man's deity.

IV. THE RATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS VIEW SEES GOD IN AND BEHIND NATURE IN ALL HER CHANGES . God is the Author of Nature's laws. "The sea is his, and he made it; and his hands formed the dry land." Divine purpose, intelligence, wisdom, benevolence, are to the thoughtful and pious mind manifest in all the scenes and operations which Nature presents to us. We need not be pantheists, and identify God and Nature, in order to see and to glorify God in all his works.