Along the way, a great storm arose and threatened to break up the ship. The experienced mariners, terrified, started jettisoning the cargo and crying out to their gods for deliverance. All the while, Jonah was below deck—sound asleep. In desperation, the captain of the ship went below and confronted Jonah, demanding: “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish” (Jonah 1:6).
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Jonah confessed his involvement and was thrown overboard into the raging sea. Some may ridicule the account of what happened next, but—with a very special miracle—the tempest was quelled and God delivered Jonah using a great fish.
The ship captain’s urgent call to awaken is a familiar theme in the Bible. Many people simply tune out and “sleep” in the face of obvious danger or impending disaster, rather than face the brutal reality of their situation.