THE BOOK OF MATTHEW
Lesson 29, Chapter 8 Continued 2
We took another extensive detour last week in our continuing study of Matthew
Chapter 8 to explore some of the Early Church Fathers in order to trace their
viewpoint on the all-important matter of Believers in Christ having an obligation to
follow, or not to follow, the Law of Moses. What we found was that the very
earliest Church Father of record (Clement of Rome) was discipled at the knee of
both Peter and Paul, and actually served with Paul for a time. He was so involved
with the Church at Corinth that following Paul's death Clement wrote letters
(theologians call them epistles) to the congregation there. Clearly Clement was
seen as Paul's successor and had authority. As history shows, Clement also
became part of the Church government in Rome.
Clement's recorded position was that gentles as well as Jews who follow Messiah
are to obey the Torah (the Law of Moses). He knows nothing of the anti-Jewish,
anti-Law fiction eventually developed by the gentile Church leadership that is
sometimes called the Law of Jesus or the Law of God. This pro-Law of Moses
position was not only recorded by Clement in his one surviving epistle but also
repeated by later Church Fathers Papias and Polycarp. What we find is that after
the Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., and after gentiles took over control of the
Church starting about 100 A.D., the Church Fathers naturally, as a result of their
esteemed positions, were the ones who advocated these various forms of anti-
Law and anti-Semitism.... at first rather mildly and then more militantly..... until we
arrive at the time of Justin Martyr in the mid 2nd century. Justin Martyr was
openly and forcefully anti-Law, anti-Jew and in his famous treatise called A
Dialogue with Trypho he laid out his argument that Christians should not follow
the Law or do anything that Jews do (feasts, Sabbath, day of worship, etc.)
because the Jews were the Christ killers and God had given them over to evil. In
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fact, Justin Martyr said that the Law of Moses itself was a negative institution
imposed upon the Israelites as they left Egypt as a punishment due to their
wickedness.
From this point forward, the Church was nearly entirely gentile in government and
congregation and so in the early 300's at the Council of Nicea, headed up by
Emperor Constantine, the Church laid down a set of authoritative faith doctrines
(they were at that time call canons) that embedded the anti-Jewish, anti-Law of
Moses as a principle foundation of Christianity that has been embraced and led
astray ever since. Without apology or hesitation I stand opposed to this view and
mindset because it is also quite anti-Jesus, even if it is done so out of the same
ignorance I had as a young man. After all; Jesus could not have made it more
clear in His Sermon on the Mount, as recorded in Matthew chapter 5, as He
issued a command (along with a stern warning as to the consequences) that all
of His followers were to obey the Law. Further that no one should ever construe
anything He said that day, or ever, as meaning He has abolished the Law of
Moses, changed it in the slightest way, nor has He created a new Law of Jesus.
But Christianity in general has followed the lead of Justin Martyr and nearly all
the gentile Church Fathers that succeeded him and as a result have disobeyed
Yeshua's explicit instruction thus, sadly, steering the institutional Church
dangerously off course. Here at Seed of Abraham Ministries Torah Class we
shall continue to endeavor to teach and to follow the Law of Moses as Yeshua
has instructed us to do, as much as is possible in the 21st century, and in forms
that represent modern circumstances and realities. We plead with our brothers
and sisters of the faith to reconsider, repent, and reconnect with the entire Bible
and to once again embrace full obedience to God's laws and commands. We
acknowledge that we do not, ourselves, do it perfectly. Whenever it is clearly
impractical or impossible to follow a commandment to the letter due to the
circumstances of our modern times, including the lack of a Temple and
Priesthood in Jerusalem, we shall follow the Law of Moses in the spirit it is
intended, guided by the Holy Spirit that Christ Himself sent to us. And at the
same time pray for God's forgiveness when we fail. These issues of the
relevance of the Law and of the totally Jewish character and culture of Yeshua
are assumed throughout Matthew's Gospel.
Next we discussed the matter of the Roman Centurion who came to Jesus to ask
that He heal the soldier's house slave. After that we addressed Yeshua walking a
few steps from the synagogue in Capernaum to Peter's house where his mother-
in-law lay ill with a fever. Messiah merely took her hand and instantly healed her.
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We also spent a bit of time discussing that Peter's house has been found in
Capernaum and has been excavated and preserved such that visitors to the Sea
of Galilee can see it. Having been there many times I can say that for me,
personally, it is a most moving and affirming experience.
Let's continue with Matthew chapter 8 beginning at verse 16.
RE-READ MATTHEW CHAPTER 8:16 - end
Here we find Yeshua continuing to do what Jewish Holy Men (tzadikim) do; heal.
In the first 15 verses we found Him healing an interesting array of people; a
person with Tzara'at (a spiritually caused skin condition), then a Roman soldier's
house slave, and then a woman (although He of course knew her well). What is
the common theme among all these folks? They not only don't represent Jewish
religious hierarchy they are also the powerless. We need to be paying attention
starting now as to the position that Yeshua is putting Himself in. He stands in
obvious opposition to the Jewish leadership, while standing with the common
man. I think it would be fair to say that He quite naturally identifies with regular
Jewish folk because that is not only His own background, but also He sees the
injustice built-in to 1st century Jewish society. Considering the things He's doing
and the following He's gaining, without permission or authority granted from
either the Priestly leadership or the Synagogue leadership, He is setting sail on a
collision course with both.
It bears repeating because otherwise we lose all context for what is happening: in
no way do those following Jesus around, begging Him to heal them or a family
member, think of Him as divine or as their prophesied Messiah. He indeed has
dropped some abstract hints of His true mission and identity that hardly anyone
present could have caught. In fact, as we move through Matthew we'll find that at
this point those closest to Him..... His family and His 12 Disciples.... didn't think of
Him as any more than a righteous Holy Man. John the Baptist thought of Him as
something special, someone who was indeed prophesied about, but even he
wasn't entirely certain that Yeshua was the Messiah because up to now Yeshua
had not plainly said so. Thus the hoards who came to Christ, and He spoke to in
the hills above the Sea of Galilee, came primarily seeking healing from all
manner of afflictions. And those who followed Him down the mountain, and those
who joined the crowd in Capernaum, also came for healing. So far we have seen
Christ heal physical ailments. Now in verse 16 we see Him heal an evil spiritual
ailment: demon possession.
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We must also understand that while the Jewish people were so very glad and
excited for this new Holy Man, Jesus, to have arrived, what He was doing was
not so different than what they had seen before from other famous Holy Men who
were miracle healers like Honi the Circle Drawer and then a few years
later Hanina Ben Dosa, both of whom ministered prior to Christ's birth. These
Holy Men were considered as ultra-pious and so their words and prayers were
much coveted by the people. In other words, Yeshua's miracle healings had a
precedent; so these miracles were expected of Him since He had proved Himself
to be a Holy Man, and in none of the Gospel accounts did He ever deny it. Had
He not done the miracles, He would not have been so sought after.
So Yeshua the miracle worker drew people to him (even some gentiles) like
moths to a flame. Jesus turned no one away and effortlessly healed all who came
to Him. It has been pointed out to me that we must not overlook that Yeshua's
healing and His word (His instruction) are organically tied together. Because
Moses is the model after which Matthew patterns Christ, it is informative to read a
pertinent comment made by Philo. In his Vitas Mosis chapter 1, Philo says this:
Moses exemplified his philosophical creed by his daily actions. His words
expressed his feelings, and his actions accorded with his words, so that
speech and life were in harmony, and thus through their mutual agreement
were found to make melody together as on a musical instrument.
Although this was a statement about Moses, it would be difficult to find anything
more lofty and true in the character and deeds of Christ. So we must not read
past Matthew recording that Christ healed the demon possessed and all who
came to Him with but a "word". In ancient times speech was seen as something
great and mysterious; words were thought to possess actual, tangible power. In
our day we don't think of words that way. So when Yeshua merely spoke and the
evil spirit left the possessed man, it held a different connotation for those Jews
that witnessed it than how we think of it now.
Matthew then goes on to say (from his Believing Jewish mindset) that what
Yeshua was doing was in fulfillment of Isaiah 53:4. Matthew says: "He himself
took our weaknesses, and bore our diseases". This is a loosely fashioned quote
from Isaiah; not an exact one. Nonetheless Bible scholars don't doubt that this is
meant to be understood as a quote from Isaiah 53. So Matthew, able to see from
the perspective of hindsight, tells us that Yeshua is the subject of Isaiah chapters
52 and 53. I've mentioned on a few occasions that it was Jewish practice when
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referring to Scripture not to quote long sections but only short passages. The
short passages were not meant to be taken alone but rather they were to direct
the reader to the entire section of the Holy Scripture that was pertinent. Since in
those times there were no such things as chapters and verses or page numbers,
then there was no other way for them to communicate the reference to a
Scripture passage. The intent was for the reader to recognize the passage and
then consult what was written surrounding it.
While I won't do an extensive study of Isaiah 52 and 53, these are short chapters
and we need to understand what Matthew was telling us by his directing us there.
So we will read them completely as would have studious Jews from Yeshua's
time. Turn your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 52.
READ ISAIAH CHAPTERS 52 AND 53 all
These 2 chapters represent one of the most remarkable messianic prophecies in
the Bible. It has been taught thusly in Christendom since the first Jewish
Believers emerged. Matthew essentially identifies Yeshua as "the suffering
servant", which is one and the same as His being "God's servant". So Matthew is
connecting Christ's works of miracles with Him being God's servant. Clearly the
crowds following Yeshua didn't make that same connection and Judaism in
general to this day doesn't either. Judaism either denies the messianic nature of
Isaiah's words or they say this doesn't pertain to Yeshua of Nazareth. Especially
the Orthodox will claim that Judaism does not and never has seen Isaiah 52 and
53 as referring to anything but Israel itself. That is, Israel (the people) are the
suffering servant; not a Messiah. But in fact, a number of Rabbis from the past
have recognized the messianic message of these words and written about it.
There are many, but here is a small sample.
In Midrash Tehillim, Psalm 16.5 we read this portion: Rabbi Levi taught in the
name of Rabbi Idi: Suffering is divided into 3 portions: One, the Patriarchs
and the generations of men took; the generation that lived in the time of
Hadrian's persecution took; and one, the lord Messiah will take."
Ben Ish Chai commented on the Talmudic passage Sanhedrin 93b in this way:
"...through afflictions, the Messiah rises to great spiritual heights. In
addition, his afflictions atone for Israel so that they can continue to live and
perform mitzvot. Since without the Messiah, these mitzvot would not have
been done, he is a partner in Israel's mitzvot. Thus because He loaded him
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up with afflictions like millstones, He loaded Him up with mitzvot as
well........the Messiah is Israel's guarantor; he has undertaken suffering to
atone for Israel's sins in order to shorten the exile".
Even the Zohar, which is the book of foundational faith statements of mystical
Jewish Kabbalah, Shemoth, Section 2, speaks about the same attributes of
Messiah and it largely mirrors Christianity's doctrine on the matter. This rather
unexpected comment about Isaiah 53 is recorded: "When the Messiah hears of
the great suffering of Israel in their dispersion, and of the wicked among
them who seek not to know their Master, he weeps aloud on account of
those wicked ones amongst them, as it is written: But he was wounded
because of our transgressions, he was crushed because of our iniquities.
The souls then return to their place. The Messiah, on his part, enters a
certain Hall in the Garden of Eden, called the Hall of the Afflicted. There he
calls for all the diseases and pains and sufferings of Israel, bidding them
settle on himself, which they do. And were it not that he thus eases the
burden from Israel, taking it on himself, no one could endure the suffering
meted out to Israel in expiation on account of their neglect of the Torah. So
Scripture says: Surely our diseases he did bear, etc. A similar function was
performed by Rabbi Eleazar here on earth. For, indeed, beyond number are
the chastisements awaiting every man daily for the neglect of the Torah, all
of which descended into the world at the time when the Torah was given.
As long as Israel were in the Holy Land, by means of the Temple service
and sacrifices, they averted all evil diseases and afflictions from the world.
Now it is the Messiah who is the means of averting them from mankind
until the time when a man quits this world and receives his punishment."
So the claims many within Judaism make that Judaism does not, and never has
recognized Isaiah 52 and 53 as speaking of the Messiah are not accurate. Yet
we must understand that the reason behind this false claim is because of their
hatred of Christianity and the strange type of un-biblical, un-historical Jesus that
Christians have come to worship. It is no different than the false claim by
Christianity that in the Sermon on the Mount Yeshua abolished the Torah and the
Prophets, and later that Paul denounced the Torah and told Jews and gentiles
alike that it was an ugly, faulty covenant that they were to disavow and disobey.
These false claims are made because of the writings of the Early Church Fathers
who fomented hatred of the Jews and thus an insistence that all things Jewish
(and especially The Law) must be denied and shunned: in time, even the entire
Old Testament.
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Verse 18 explains that when Yeshua saw the crowds He gave orders to His
Disciples to take Him to the other side of the Lake. Yeshua was still at
Capernaum and some of His Disciples would have had their fishing boats there
so a boat was easily obtained. Why did Yeshua instruct His Disciples to leave
Capernaum? Did the crowds grow so large as to become unruly? Were the
numbers so great that there would have been no end to the healings requested?
Was He exhausted (yes, Jesus was human and got just as tired and worn out as
we can)? Was it simply time to take His miracle healing ministry elsewhere? We
don't know. But we do know that it was Yeshua's idea to leave; He commanded
His Disciples to get a boat and take Him to the other side of the Lake. Where was
the other side of the Lake? A few verses later we're told that He arrived in the
territory of the Gadarenes. Capernaum was at the Northwest part of the Sea of
Galilee and the territory of the Gadarenes was at the Southeast part of the Sea;
about a 45 degree angle across the Lake, so the journey was around 12 miles.
But before He boarded the boat a Scribe approached Him. While the CJB
correctly calls this person a Torah-teacher, the official position was called Scribe.
And indeed they were Torah-teachers..... even better, they
were Tanakh-teachers....who operated within the synagogue system. That is,
they had no attachment to the Temple or to the Priesthood. The Scribe calls
Jesus didaskalos in Greek, which translates to teacher in English. Because this
Scribe was almost certainly a Pharisee, it would have been in this context that he
was speaking to Christ. Thus the KJV rightly translates the Greek as Master
because a run-of-the-mill teacher was not the Scribe's intent when He addressed
Yeshua. Rather he sees Him as having authority, and thus we find the term
Rabbi used in the CJB. Rabbi means "great one" and fits well with the scene
taking place, here. The Scribe asks if he can accompany Yeshua; he says he will
follow Yeshua wherever he goes. "To follow" meant to come under the authority
of someone. This was the standard way that the religious Jews chose a Rabbi (a
Master) to sit under and be discipled during that era (as opposed to the way that
Yeshua, the Master, chose His first disciples).
Yeshua responded to the Scribe in a rather unexpected way. He quotes an
ancient folk expression about foxes having holes to live in, and birds having
nests, but then adds that the Son of Man has no home of his own. Now clearly
the meaning is that Yeshua cannot promise this Scribe a place to live or food to
eat because Yeshua lives day to day at the hospitality of others. Having said He
has no home, He doesn't mean it literally. His mother Miriam was still living (and
as far as we know she was still living in her own home, the same one in Nazareth
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that her husband Joseph brought her into when they were first married), so
Yeshua of course could go there. But at this point in His ministry Yeshua was an
itinerant preacher and healer. What is most important about this statement is
Christ calling Himself "The Son of Man".
"Son of Man" was a favorite title that Yeshua regularly called Himself. Clearly
Jesus had much respect for the prophet Daniel as in Matthew chapter 24 He
speaks of him and a prophecy Daniel made concerning a son of man.
CJB
Daniel 7:13-14
13
" I kept watching the night visions, when I saw, coming
with the clouds of heaven, someone like a son of man. He approached the
Ancient One and was led into his presence.
14
To him was given rulership,
glory and a kingdom, so that all peoples, nations and languages should
serve him. His rulership is an eternal rulership that will not pass away; and
his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
Because Yeshua now identifies Himself as Daniel's son of man, we understand
something that Daniel and his readers couldn't have. You see, the term "son of
man", which was written down in the Book of Daniel in Aramaic, is bar-enosh.
It's Hebrew equivalent is ben-adam. While it literally is translated to English as
"son of man", what it meant to the ancients was "human being". However now in
hindsight we understand that we can view Daniel's words in both
the P'shat sense and in the Remez sense. That is, the P'shat is that this
"someone like a son of man" means "someone like a human being". However in
the Remez it hints at something more. "Son of Man" now becomes a title for the
Messiah; a human being that is indeed a man, but more than a man. "Son of
Man" is a name Yeshua called Himself more than 80 times in the New
Testament, but He also used the term "Son of God". The standard interpretation
of these two titles is that Son of Man speaks of Christ's humanity, and Son of
God speaks of His divinity. However in reality, it is the reverse. Son of God was a
term used in the Bible for Israelite kings long before it was used of Christ; and
there was no thought that these kings were deity. The subject is fascinating but
extensive. I spoke in depth on it in my Torah Class study on Daniel lessons 19
and 20; so you can go there for further study.
Nonetheless clearly (at least clearly to Matthew) Christ did not mean to say that
this "human being" had no home of His own. Rather the mysterious person that
Daniel spoke about was Yeshua of Nazareth as the Messiah, and here He was
standing there, in person, on the Sea of Galilee and publicly claiming Daniel's
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"son of man" title for Himself.
Now in verse 21 yet another man comes forward and wants to go with Christ.
This man is already a disciple (a follower, but not one of the original 12 Disciples)
so it is not someone making a new or sudden decision. His request to do
something first before He follows Christ reminds us of Elijah and Elisha.
CJB
1 Kings 19:20 He (Elishah) left the oxen, ran after Eliyahu and said,
"Please let me kiss my father and mother good-bye; then I will follow you."
Yet we mustn't take this too far, because Elijah gave permission for Elisha to
indeed do as he asked, while Yeshua did the opposite. So what are we to make
of Christ's response to the disciple's request to go home and bury his father?
That is, saying to him "let the dead bury the dead". Some see this as very harsh.
Others see it as breaking more than one Torah command; first to honor your
parents but also the mandatory requirement to bury the deceased immediately
and to go into 7 days of mourning. All kinds of solutions to this have been
proposed including that it is a Hebrew or Aramaic expression that has been
mangled or obscured by translating it to Greek. In the end it DOES mean
something, and I think clearly it means that following Yeshua in faith trumps all.
But it certainly can't mean to break the Law of Moses in order to do it! My
suggestion is that it indeed sounded harsh to the disciple and probably to the
crowd surrounding Christ. But then again, think about what He would say a bit
later than lands in a similar manner upon a listener.
CJB
Matthew 10:37 Whoever loves his father or mother more than he loves
me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than
he loves me is not worthy of me.
As severe as that sounds, Luke's version is even stronger, as he puts the same
thought in the negative.
CJB
Luke 14:26 " If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, his
mother, his wife, his children, his brothers and his sisters, yes, and his own
life besides, he cannot be my talmid.
I believe what we have in Matthew 8 is this: we must not think that here stands a
Jewish son in Capernaum talking with Yeshua after leaving his father at home, a
corpse, and still not buried! That would have been the height of breaking both
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biblical law and Jewish Tradition. While there were several nuances in Tradition
about burying the dead, it is unthinkable that a son would leave his dead father to
go hear a person speak (even a Holy Man) and then return later to handle the
burial. Death and burial were very serious matters that pre-empted nearly
everything. The matter of familial involvement could not be subcontracted out
except in the rarest of circumstances. On the flip side, however, is that if a parent
were very elderly or sickly, his son might not wish to venture far because his duty
to be present for the burial and all its arrangements was a deeply embedded
virtue in Jewish culture. It wasn't like today when, because of embalmment, a
burial can be postponed for a while to make it more convenient for all family
members to arrive and attend. So while in no way can I be certain, these realities
to me add up to the disciple's father not actually being dead....yet... but rather the
son wanting to go back home and enjoy just a little more of the good life until his
father did eventually pass, and the disciple was finally ready to follow the
Messiah as his true Master, but on his own timetable and terms. To me, this is
where the lesson lies. Otherwise we have a cranky Jesus telling this young man
that he must forego standard Jewish burial practices for his father, or that the
spiritually dead ought to bury the physically dead, thus putting this disciple in an
impossible bind through no fault of his own.
So how do we measure Yeshua's responses to these two followers? And how
does this fit with the prophetic fulfillment of Isaiah that He came to suffer terribly
and unselfishly for the sake of sinful humanity? We find a super-compassionate
Holy Man on the one hand, and a rather abrupt no-nonsense Master on the
other. Here's what we must recognize about Our Savior: He is a complex being.
Our Lord is greatly merciful and loving (just as His Father is); ready to comfort us.
Yet He is not one whose "goodwill towards men" can be trifled with, or taken for
granted or under the assumption that it will be given under any circumstance. He
indeed is Savior, but He is also Lord and King and therefore while He gives love,
He expects to receive love. And, like His Father, the love He seeks amounts to
obedience.
How many thousands..... perhaps millions.... of people have heard the Gospel
message and said that they "weren't ready" to accept it, yet. As much as not, it
was not because they didn't suspect it was true; it's that they understood enough
to know that they couldn't continue the lifestyle they were leading if they turned
away from their sins, and turned their life over to Yeshua. When people ask me
why human beings sin and even continue to, knowing better, I tell them it's
because we enjoy it. We like the sinful things we do otherwise we'd be quick to
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give them up. How many thousands of millions of people will live in eternal
darkness because they assumed they had a lot more time to live, and then
maybe in old age they would finally turn to Christ, only to die suddenly before
they made that decision. And how many more had their hearts moved by hearing
the truth, but didn't make thinking about it or acting upon it a priority. Instead their
thoughts turned back to everyday life, its temptations and its challenges, never
again to think seriously about salvation. The issue Jesus was addressing with the
disciple who wanted to go back home until his father died, was allegiance and
priorities that potential followers of His must necessarily face. For in the biblical
realm, love is closely linked to allegiance and loyalty. Allegiance and loyalty
establish the order of our priorities. Remember what Christ said earlier in the hills
above the Lake:
CJB
Matthew 6:24 No one can be slave to two masters; for he will either hate
the first and love the second, or scorn the second and be loyal to the first.
You can't be a slave to both God and money.
Thus after saying it as a principle, Yeshua has now demonstrated it in practice in
dealing with the Scribe and the potential follower as He was about to board a
fishing boat to cross the Sea of Galilee.
In verse 23 Yeshua is now on the boat and heading for Gadara with several
disciples on board. Suddenly a storm blows up, the Sea begins to churn, and
dangerous waves start lashing at the small boat He is in. The disciples are
certain their death is imminent and begin to panic. These boats are meant for the
calm waters of the Lake; they are not designed to fight against this kind of severe
weather. As the disciples (who are fishermen used to being on the Lake) become
alarmed we find Yeshua is fast asleep.
For those who have toured Israel with me, you will have visited the Jesus Boat
museum at the Nof Ginosar Hotel in Israel. They have an actual fishing boat
made in that same period, which was buried in the mud of the seashore, and
discovered by a man who lived on the associated Kibbutz. Viewing it helps us
understand how small and puny a boat like this would be against a raging sea.
But it also makes us ask: how in the world could Jesus sleep on such a crowded
and uncomfortable craft, let alone in the midst of it becoming tossed about in a
storm?!
And yes, these sorts of storms do blow in suddenly and can be quite perilous. I
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was out on the Lake on one of the rather large tourist boats that can hold 100
people or so when some foul weather suddenly blew in. We were in no danger
but the swells and then waves formed in a matter of minutes. It was
uncomfortable enough that the trip had to be cut a little short or risk having some
seasick passengers to contend with. I could immediately imagine what it must
have been like for that little fishing boat that had just set sail from Capernaum as
it bobbed around on the churning waters.
No doubt this story was recorded in all 3 synoptic Gospels because of its close
association with another prophet that Yeshua identified Himself with: Jonah.
Christ said:

CJB
Matthew 12:40 For just as Yonah was three days and three nights in
the belly of the sea-monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three
nights in the depths of the earth.
Notice how He manages to connect not one but two prophets and prophecies to
Himself: that of Jonah and of Daniel. The subject of Matthew 12:40 was of course
Jesus speaking about the burial cave He would repose in after His crucifixion.
However note the similarity between Jonah's Mediterranean sea adventure and
Christ's on the Sea of Galilee in our story of Matthew chapter 8.
CJB
Jonah 1:1 The word of ADONAI came to Yonah the son of Amitai:
2
"Set
out for the great city of Ninveh, and proclaim to it that their wickedness has
come to my attention."
3
But Yonah, in order to get away from ADONAI,
prepared to escape to Tarshish. He went down to Yafo, found a ship
headed for Tarshish, paid the fare and went aboard, intending to travel with
them to Tarshish and get away from ADONAI.
4
However, ADONAI let loose
over the sea a violent wind, which created such stormy conditions that the
ship threatened to break to pieces.
5
The sailors were frightened, and each
cried out to his god. They threw the cargo overboard to make the ship
easier for them to control. Meanwhile, Yonah had gone down below into the
hold, where he lay, fast asleep.
6
The ship's captain found him and said to
him, "What do you mean by sleeping? Get up! Call on your god! Maybe the
god will remember us, and we won't die."
There's more to be gleaned from the story of the tempest on the Sea of Galilee.
And we will explore that the next time we meet.
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