The Reluctant Prophet -- No 10 "And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah," Jonah 1:7. Jonah's response is apparently not given except we take the lack of a response as the answer of Jonah! There was no response that he could give to the challenge of the captain in verse 6. Jonah's lack of prayer is all the more reprehensible in the light of the response of the heathen seamen, verse 5, 7. Three points: 1. Man's awareness of inescapable retribution. 2. The readiness of the sailors to undergo the test of the lot springs from their ignorance of their own sinfulness. 3. The use of the lot has its rights and its wrongs.