What is the context?
The Lord sends a violent wind, and the ship is in danger of breaking apart. The sailors cry to their own gods and throw cargo overboard to lighten the ship.
Jonah has gone below and fallen into a deep sleep. The captain wakes him and tells him to call on his God, hoping they may be spared.
The contrast is striking. The men who do not yet know Jonah’s God are urgently seeking help, while His prophet is absent from their efforts. The captain’s command to get up recalls the command Jonah received at the beginning, but now it comes from someone caught in the consequences of his flight.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry sees the storm as God pursuing Jonah and his sleep as a picture of spiritual insensitivity. Wesley emphasizes the captain’s hope that Jonah’s God might look on them with pity. Both attend to the contrast between the sailors’ urgency and Jonah’s inactivity.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.