Simple, sure, and yet solemn, all this!
To accept the punishment of our sin is the first duty of an erring soul. We are not to seek to right ourselves by an effort of our own, when we have gone wrong, lest Hormah (Num. 14) be our portion. Our first duty is to accept, in the spirit of confession, the punishment of our sin, to be humbled under the mighty or chastening hand of God (Lev. 26:4141And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: (Leviticus 26:41)). David did this, and the kingdom was his again. Jonah now does the same. “Take me up and cast me into the sea,” said he to the mariners, in the midst of the tempest, “so shall the sea be calm unto you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.” And they did so, but with a grace that might well shame their betters, which bespeaks the hand of God with them, as it was against Jonah. And Jonah is soon wrapped among the weeds of the sea, down in the bottoms of the mountains there.