John Calvin Commentary Jonah 1:16

"Then the men feared Jehovah exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice unto Jehovah, and made vows." — Jonah 1:16 (ASV)

Jonah now declares what resulted; and first, he says, that the sailors feared the true God. He uses here the proper name of God, Jehovah; for, as we have already seen, they were given to their own superstitions, as each of them cried out to his own god: but this was a false notion, as they went astray following their own superstitions.

The Prophet now points out the difference: they began to fear the true God. At the same time, it may have been that they afterward relapsed into their own errors; yet it should not be overlooked that the Lord compelled them to have such a fear. The Hebrews, as has already been said, sometimes understand fear in a general sense, as meaning worship.

It is said in 2 Kings 17:32–33, of the new inhabitants of the land of Canaan who had been removed from Persia, that they “feared God,” that is, they imitated the legal rite in sacrifices while worshipping God. But there is an addition in this place which shows that the meaning is more restricted, for it is said to have been a great fear. Jonah means, then, that the sailors and the passengers were not only touched with the fear of God but also had the impression that the God of Israel was the supreme King of heaven and earth, holding all things under His hand and government.

This fear no doubt led them to true knowledge, so they knew that they were previously deluded, and that whatever the world had invented was mere delusion, and that the gods devised by human imagination were nothing but mere idols. We now perceive, then, what Jonah means.

But we must here speak somewhat more extensively about the fear of God. When the Scripture speaks of the fear of God, it sometimes means outward worship and sometimes true piety. When it designates outward worship, it is not a great thing, for hypocrites usually perform their ceremonies and thus testify that they worship God; yet, since they do not obey God with sincerity of heart, nor bring faith and repentance, they do nothing but trifle.

But the fear of God is often understood as true piety; and then it is called the beginning or the chief point of wisdom, or even wisdom itself, as it is in Job 28:28. The fear of God, then, or that pious regard (reverentia) by which the faithful willingly submit themselves to God, is the chief part of wisdom.

But it also often happens that people are touched by servile fear, so that they desire to satisfy God, while, at the same time, they even wish to pull Him down from His throne. This servile fear is full of perversity, for at the same time they chafe against restraint, as they cannot escape His power and authority.

Such was this fear of which Jonah speaks, for not all those whom he mentions were suddenly so changed as to devote themselves to the true God. They had not, indeed, made such progress as this; it was not such a real and thorough conversion of the soul as changed them into new men.

How, then, is it said that they feared? It is because the Lord extorted a confession from them at the time. It may have been that some of them afterward made greater progress, but I speak now generally of the whole group.

Therefore, because it is said that they feared God, we are not from this to conclude that they really repented, so as to become wholly devoted to the God of Israel. But yet they were compelled to know and to confess that the God of Israel was the only and the true God. How so? Because that dreadful judgment filled them with terror, so that they perceived that He alone was God who had heaven and earth under His command.

We see now, then, how that fear of which Jonah speaks is to be viewed. If they afterward made no further progress, it only served to condemn them, because these sailors, having perceived by sure evidence who the only true God was, mingled their wicked and ungodly superstitions with the worship of Him, as many do even in our day.

The Papists hold this truth in common with us: that there is one true God, the framer of heaven and earth. Indeed, they come still nearer, and say that the only-begotten Son of God is our Redeemer; yet we see how they contaminate the whole worship of God and turn His truth into a lie, for they blend the worship of God with that of idols, so that there is nothing pure among them.

However, this main truth is of great service when the Lord stretches forth His hand to miserable men. For if, under the Papacy, there were no conviction that the word of God is to be believed and that Christ the Son of God is the King and Head of the Church, we would have had to employ a long, circuitous argument against them. But now, access to them is easy. When we bring against them the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel, they are restrained by some measure of reverence and dare not reject the authority of the Supreme God.

We see then that this fear is in itself of no great value if people remain fixed in their own mire; but when it is the Lord’s purpose afterward to call them, this fear opens for them the door to true godliness. So it may have been, as I have said, that some of these sailors and passengers afterward made better progress.

But this fear, by itself, could have done nothing more than convict them, so that no excuse could avail them before God’s tribunal; for proof had been given them by which they might know that there was no other God than He who was then worshipped by the chosen people.

He afterward adds that they sacrificed a sacrifice to Jehovah. They were accustomed before to offer sacrifices to their idols, but now they testified that they worshipped the God of Israel, for this is what sacrifices signify.

But it must at the same time be observed that they thereby expressed this confession: that God confirmed the truth of His word. Therefore, when they perceived that this whole affair was ordered by the will of God, they were compelled to bear witness that He was the true God. This was the end and design of sacrifices.

It may, however, be asked whether that sacrifice pleased God. It is certain that whenever people bring forward their own devices, whatever is otherwise worthy of approval in what they do cannot but be corrupted and vitiated by such a mixture, for God, as is well known, allows no associate.

And we must remember what is said in Ezekiel: ‘Go ye, sacrifice to the devil, and not to Me!’ God there repudiates all the sacrifices that were customarily offered by the people of Israel because superstitions were blended with them. God then shows that such a mixture is so disapproved by Him that He chooses rather that the superstitious should wholly give themselves up to devils than that His holy name should be thus profaned.

Hence, this sacrifice in itself was not lawful, nor could it have pleased God; but it was, so to speak, by accident and extrinsically that this sacrifice pleased God—because He designed thus to make known His glory.

Though, then, He repudiated the sailors themselves, yet it was His will that this act should bear testimony to His glory. For instance, a deed is often vicious with regard to people, and yet in an accidental way, it tends to set forth the glory of God.

And this ought to be carefully kept in mind: there is at this day a dispute, indeed a fierce contest, about good works; and the Sophists always deceive themselves by false reasoning (παραλογισμῶ — sophistry), for they suppose that morally good works are either preparatory to obtaining grace or meritorious toward attaining eternal life.

When they speak of morally good works, they refer only to outward deeds; they do not regard the source or motive, nor even the end. When a person’s heart is impure, unquestionably the work which flows from it is also always impure and is an abomination before God. When the end is also wrong, when it is not a person’s purpose to worship God in sincerity of heart, the deed, however splendid it may appear, is filth in the presence of God.

Hence the Sophists are greatly deceived and are very childish when they say that morally good works please God and are preparatory to grace and meritorious of salvation. But can it be that a work does not please God and yet avails to set forth His glory? I answer that these two things are perfectly consistent and are in no way so contrary that they cannot be easily reconciled.

For God, by accident, as I have said, accommodates to His own glory what is in itself vicious; I say, in itself—that is, with respect to people. Thus, even under the Papacy, the Christian name serves the glory of God, for there always remains some remnant. And how has it happened that at this time the light of the Gospel has shone forth and that true religion has been restored, at least in many places?

It is because the Lord has never allowed true religion to be extinguished, though it has been corrupted: for baptism under the Papacy, the very name of Christ as well as of the Church, and the very form of religion—all these have become wholly useless, but they have accidentally, as I have said, been of great service.

Therefore, when we regard the priests (sacrificos — the sacrificers) as well as the people, we find nothing but a perverted worship of God. They presumptuously and indiscriminately add their own superstitions and devices to the word of God, and there is nothing pure among them.

Since, then, they thus blend together heaven and earth, they do nothing but provoke God’s wrath against themselves.

We now understand, then, why Jonah says that the sailors and passengers offered sacrifices. We must, at the same time, remember what I have recently said: that sacrifice was, as it were, a symbol of Divine worship.

For even from the beginning this notion prevailed among all: that sacrifices were to be offered to no one but God. And pagans in all ages had no other opinion of sacrifices than that they thus manifested their piety toward their gods.

Since, then, sacrifices have from the beginning been offered to God alone, it follows that those at this day are wholly inexcusable who join associates to God and offer their sacrifices to mortals or to angels. How can this be tolerated among Christians, since pagans have always confessed that they regarded those as gods to whom they customarily offered their sacrifices?

Now then, since God declares that the chief sacrifice to Him is invocations, as we read in Psalm 1:1, the whole of religion under the Papacy must be perverted, as they pray not only to God but even to creatures: for they do not hesitate to flee to Peter or to Paul, indeed, to their own saints, real and fictitious, in the same manner as to the only true God.

Inasmuch, then, as they rob God of this chief right, we see that they tread underfoot the whole of religion by this sacrilege.

Since, then, pagan people testified that they worshipped Jehovah, the God of Israel, by their external sacrifice, let us learn at this day not to transfer the rightful honor of God to creatures. Instead, let this honor of being alone prayed to be wholly and entirely reserved for Him, for this, as we have said, is the chief and most valuable sacrifice which He demands and approves.

But Jonah also adds that the sailors vowed vows to God. This is a part of thanksgiving, for we know that the object, not only of the holy fathers but also of the superstitious in making vows, has always been this: to bind themselves to God, and also to express their gratitude and to make it evident that they owed to Him both their life and every favor bestowed on them.

This, then, has in all ages been the reason for making vows. Therefore, when the sailors vowed a vow to God, they renounced their own idols.

They cried before to their gods, but now they understood that they had cried in vain and without any benefit, as they had to no purpose uttered their cries into the air. Now then, they made their vows to the only true God, for they knew that their lives were in His hand.

And here we may easily learn how foolishly the Sophists of our day heap together all passages of Scripture that make any mention of vows, for they think that we are to be overwhelmed by that term alone when we condemn their false vows. But no one of us has ever denied, or does deny, that it is lawful to make vows, provided it is done according to what the Law and the Gospel prescribe.

What we hold is this: that people are not thoughtlessly to obtrude on God whatever comes uppermost, but that they are to vow what He approves, and also that they are to regard a right and just end in vowing—namely, to testify their gratitude to God.

But in common vows that are made, there are the grossest errors, as also in the whole of Papal worship, for they vow this and that to God indiscriminately and do not regard what the Lord requires or approves: one, on certain days, abstains from meat; another does not comb his head; and a third trots away on some pilgrimage.

All these things, we know, are rejected by God. And further, when they vow nothing but what God approves, it is still done for a wrong purpose: for they seek in this way to bind God to themselves, and the diabolical conceit of merits always possesses their minds.

And lastly, they do not consider what they can do. They vow perpetual celibacy when at the same time incontinence burns them; and thus we see that, like the giants, they fight with God Himself. In the meantime, they allow themselves unbridled liberty as to whatever they vow.

Let us then know that whenever the Scripture speaks of vows, we are to take for granted these two principles:

1. Vows, as they pertain to the worship of God, ought not to be taken without any discretion according to human fancy, but ought to be regulated and guided by God’s rule, so that people may bring nothing to God except what they know to be approved by His word.
2. They are to keep in view the right end—namely, to show by this symbol their gratitude to God and to testify that they are preserved by His kindness. This was the case with these sailors, who made a vow because they thought that no one but God was their deliverer; and so they testified that when they came safe to shore, they would make it known that the God of Israel had shown mercy to them.