Jonah Series: Jonah 1:15-The Storm Stops Immediately When the Crew Throws Jonah Into the Sea
Doctrinal Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday January 18, 2026
Jonah Series: Jonah 1:15-The Storm Stops Immediately When the Crew Throws Jonah Into the Sea
Lesson # 17
Jonah 1:15 records the crew responding to Jonah’s advice recorded in verse 12 by hurling Jonah into the sea and immediately the storm stops raging demonstrating to the crew that the God of Israel is sovereign over creation.
The calming of the sea was an answer to the crew’s first prayer request recorded in verse 14 that the Lord would spare their lives.
Jonah 1:1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. 4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.” 7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” 9He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” 10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.) 11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” 12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried to the Lord, “O Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O Lord, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. (NIV84)
Jonah 1:15 records the crew throwing Jonah into the sea in response to Jonah’s instructions to do so recorded in verse 12 but only after praying to the Lord to spare their lives and not hold them accountable for murder.
This action resulted in the Mediterranean Sea ceasing from its raging, which is personified expressing to the reader the Lord’s righteous indignation against Jonah indicating that the prophet is being disciplined by the storm.
“Grew calm” is the third person masculine singular qal active imperfect form of the verb ʿā∙mǎḏ (עָמַד), which is used with the preposition min (מִן) and the masculine singular construct form of the noun zā∙ʿǎp̄ (זָעַף), “raging” and the third person masculine singular pronomial suffix –hû (־הוּ), “its.”
Since the noun zā∙ʿǎp̄ (זָעַף) is always used in the Old Testament of a person’s anger or the Lord’s, the word here in Jonah 1:15 is personifying the Mediterranean Sea as “raging.”
Specifically, since the storm was caused by the Lord Himself, the word is actually personifying the Mediterranean Sea as exercising “righteous indignation” against the prophet Jonah.
“Personification” is the ascribing of human characteristics or actions to inanimate objects or ideas or to animals.
Jonah is ascribing the human action of raging in anger or exercising righteous indignation to the Mediterranean Sea.
This is to convey to the reader that the Lord is not happy with Jonah and is in fact disciplining him with this storm.
There are two categories of divine discipline that are an expression of God’s love: (1) Negative: God expresses His love for His children by disciplining them in the sense that He “punishes” them when they are disobedient to His will. (2) Positive: God expresses His love for His children by disciplining them in the sense of “training” them when they are obedient to His will and in fellowship.
Both categories of divine discipline are designed to keep the believer on track in executing the Father’s will by becoming like Christ.
The Word of God is employed in both positive and negative categories of discipline (Hebrews 4:12).
2 Timothy 3:16 Each and every portion of Scripture does possess, as an eternal spiritual truth the characteristic of being God-breathed. Consequently, it does possess, as an eternal spiritual truth the characteristic of being useful for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for training which is related to righteousness. 17 The purpose of which is that the person belonging to God (the Father) would possess the characteristic of being competent, specifically, by equipping for every kind of action which is divine good in quality and character. (Pastor’s translation)
The Holy Spirit disciplines the disobedient child of God by rebuking them with the Word of God as it is communicated by the pastor-teacher in the local assembly and the purpose of such rebuke is to conform the believer to the will of his heavenly Father, which results in blessing and true happiness.
The Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the pastor-teacher who is the delegated authority in the local assembly, to reprove and rebuke the children of God from the pulpit with the Word of God as an expression of His love (2 Timothy 4:1-4).
God disciplines His disobedient children by permitting adversity, trials, and irritations to come into their lives that are beyond their capacity to handle in order to get their attention and to focus upon their number one priority in life as children of God, which is conformity to the Father’s will.
God disciplines His disobedient children by permitting them to reap the fruits of their bad decisions so that they might learn that conformity to His will is the only way to true joy and happiness and blessing in life (Ezek. 16:43; Gal. 6:7-8).
God disciplines His “obedient” children through adversity and underserved suffering in order to build the believer’s confidence in his relationship with God and to get him to depend on God for his security and protection rather than money and human relationships.
God disciplines His “obedient” children through adversity and underserved suffering in order to demonstrate to the believer the sufficiency of God’s Word in handling any problem or difficulty in life.
The Lord Jesus Christ disciplines the believer in the sense that He rebukes, punishes and trains the believer because He personally and affectionately loves the believer (Revelation 3:14-19).
We are not to get angry or bitter when God disciplines us through the Word, or adversity and underserved suffering but rather we are to listen to what God is trying to say to us and to learn the lesson that He is teaching us so that we might acquire the character of our heavenly Father.
In order to receive discipline without getting bitter and complaining, the believer must recognize and submit to the authority of the Word of God, the delegated authority of the pastor-teacher and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ who controls history and therefore our circumstances.
Proverbs 3:11 My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD or loathe His reproof, 12 for whom the LORD loves He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights. (NASB95)
In Jonah 1:15, the calming of the sea upon throwing Jonah into it demonstrated to the crew that the Lord is sovereign over creation (Psalm 89:9; 93:1-4; 107).
The Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated to His disciples that He was the Lord of the Old Testament by doing the very same thing He did in Jonah’s day in calming the stormy sea (See Luke 8:22-25).
In Jonah 1:15, the calming of the sea was an answer to the crew’s first prayer request recorded in verse 14 that the Lord would spare their lives.
The fact that their prayer was answered by the Lord indicates that the crew prayed in faith, which appropriates the power of God (Matt. 8:10; Luke 7:9; Matt. 9:22; Mark 5:34; Luke 8:48; Matt. 9:29; 17:20; Luke 17:5; Mark 9:29; Matt. 21:22; Mark 11:24; 1 John 3:21-22; James 1:5-8; 5:15).
Jonah Series: Jonah 1:15-The Storm Stops Immediately When the Crew Throws Jonah Into the Sea
Doctrinal Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday January 18, 2026
Jonah Series: Jonah 1:15-The Storm Stops Immediately When the Crew Throws Jonah Into the Sea
Lesson # 17
Jonah 1:15 records the crew responding to Jonah’s advice recorded in verse 12 by hurling Jonah into the sea and immediately the storm stops raging demonstrating to the crew that the God of Israel is sovereign over creation.
The calming of the sea was an answer to the crew’s first prayer request recorded in verse 14 that the Lord would spare their lives.
Jonah 1:1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. 4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.” 7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” 9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” 10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.) 11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” 12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried to the Lord, “O Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O Lord, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. (NIV84)
Jonah 1:15 records the crew throwing Jonah into the sea in response to Jonah’s instructions to do so recorded in verse 12 but only after praying to the Lord to spare their lives and not hold them accountable for murder.
This action resulted in the Mediterranean Sea ceasing from its raging, which is personified expressing to the reader the Lord’s righteous indignation against Jonah indicating that the prophet is being disciplined by the storm.
“Grew calm” is the third person masculine singular qal active imperfect form of the verb ʿā∙mǎḏ (עָמַד), which is used with the preposition min (מִן) and the masculine singular construct form of the noun zā∙ʿǎp̄ (זָעַף), “raging” and the third person masculine singular pronomial suffix –hû (־הוּ), “its.”
Since the noun zā∙ʿǎp̄ (זָעַף) is always used in the Old Testament of a person’s anger or the Lord’s, the word here in Jonah 1:15 is personifying the Mediterranean Sea as “raging.”
Specifically, since the storm was caused by the Lord Himself, the word is actually personifying the Mediterranean Sea as exercising “righteous indignation” against the prophet Jonah.
“Personification” is the ascribing of human characteristics or actions to inanimate objects or ideas or to animals.
Jonah is ascribing the human action of raging in anger or exercising righteous indignation to the Mediterranean Sea.
This is to convey to the reader that the Lord is not happy with Jonah and is in fact disciplining him with this storm.
There are two categories of divine discipline that are an expression of God’s love: (1) Negative: God expresses His love for His children by disciplining them in the sense that He “punishes” them when they are disobedient to His will. (2) Positive: God expresses His love for His children by disciplining them in the sense of “training” them when they are obedient to His will and in fellowship.
Both categories of divine discipline are designed to keep the believer on track in executing the Father’s will by becoming like Christ.
The Word of God is employed in both positive and negative categories of discipline (Hebrews 4:12).
2 Timothy 3:16 Each and every portion of Scripture does possess, as an eternal spiritual truth the characteristic of being God-breathed. Consequently, it does possess, as an eternal spiritual truth the characteristic of being useful for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for training which is related to righteousness. 17 The purpose of which is that the person belonging to God (the Father) would possess the characteristic of being competent, specifically, by equipping for every kind of action which is divine good in quality and character. (Pastor’s translation)
The Holy Spirit disciplines the disobedient child of God by rebuking them with the Word of God as it is communicated by the pastor-teacher in the local assembly and the purpose of such rebuke is to conform the believer to the will of his heavenly Father, which results in blessing and true happiness.
The Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the pastor-teacher who is the delegated authority in the local assembly, to reprove and rebuke the children of God from the pulpit with the Word of God as an expression of His love (2 Timothy 4:1-4).
God disciplines His disobedient children by permitting adversity, trials, and irritations to come into their lives that are beyond their capacity to handle in order to get their attention and to focus upon their number one priority in life as children of God, which is conformity to the Father’s will.
God disciplines His disobedient children by permitting them to reap the fruits of their bad decisions so that they might learn that conformity to His will is the only way to true joy and happiness and blessing in life (Ezek. 16:43; Gal. 6:7-8).
God disciplines His “obedient” children through adversity and underserved suffering in order to build the believer’s confidence in his relationship with God and to get him to depend on God for his security and protection rather than money and human relationships.
God disciplines His “obedient” children through adversity and underserved suffering in order to demonstrate to the believer the sufficiency of God’s Word in handling any problem or difficulty in life.
The Lord Jesus Christ disciplines the believer in the sense that He rebukes, punishes and trains the believer because He personally and affectionately loves the believer (Revelation 3:14-19).
We are not to get angry or bitter when God disciplines us through the Word, or adversity and underserved suffering but rather we are to listen to what God is trying to say to us and to learn the lesson that He is teaching us so that we might acquire the character of our heavenly Father.
In order to receive discipline without getting bitter and complaining, the believer must recognize and submit to the authority of the Word of God, the delegated authority of the pastor-teacher and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ who controls history and therefore our circumstances.
Proverbs 3:11 My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD or loathe His reproof, 12 for whom the LORD loves He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights. (NASB95)
In Jonah 1:15, the calming of the sea upon throwing Jonah into it demonstrated to the crew that the Lord is sovereign over creation (Psalm 89:9; 93:1-4; 107).
The Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated to His disciples that He was the Lord of the Old Testament by doing the very same thing He did in Jonah’s day in calming the stormy sea (See Luke 8:22-25).
In Jonah 1:15, the calming of the sea was an answer to the crew’s first prayer request recorded in verse 14 that the Lord would spare their lives.
The fact that their prayer was answered by the Lord indicates that the crew prayed in faith, which appropriates the power of God (Matt. 8:10; Luke 7:9; Matt. 9:22; Mark 5:34; Luke 8:48; Matt. 9:29; 17:20; Luke 17:5; Mark 9:29; Matt. 21:22; Mark 11:24; 1 John 3:21-22; James 1:5-8; 5:15).