MAN’S NATURAL RELUCTANCE TO KILL

The sailors were reluctant cast Jonah overboard, verse 13. This seems to me but another evidence of the grace of God in their hearts.

1. This is an ancient instinct. That reluctance, in part at least, sprang from that instinctive horror of shedding man’s blood. “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man,” Genesis 9:6.

2. It is a universal instinct. It is more clearly felt and understood where the Bible is taught but even in the absence of such light it exists. Here it is found amongst pagans but recently converted, verse 5.

How wicked are those who can casually act contrary to such an instinct — the IRA!

3. Even where parliaments have dispensed with God’s law and outlawed the death penalty, the instinct remains. Horrific crimes bring it to the minds of the bereaved and they express the wish that it were still available.

4.The reason for this abhorrence is man being made in God’s image.  “In the image of God made he man,” Genesis 9:6. Though sadly defaced and obliterated by sin, yet there remains elements of it. The murder of a human being is a supreme crime! In a sense it is a striking at God. It is an act motivated by the devil. “Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning,” John 8:44.

5. The sailors were especially reluctant to slay Jonah for they perceived him to be a true prophet. In the verse 10, the men reacted in fear on being told by Jonah that he was a prophet. Subsequent events strengthened that fear.