Jonah was seen to be the cause of the storm beating on the ship.

Jonah 1:7-9

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“And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” So he said to them, “I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Jonah 1:7-9

To “cast lots” is like drawing straws and the one with the shortest straw is the one chosen for a specific task. [This was a common practice in those days, and even in Acts 1:23-26 lots were cast to choose the Apostle to replace Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus]. The lot fell on Jonah, so he was determined to be the cause of the trouble that came against the whole ship. The men of the ship wanted to know who Jonah was, and he clearly said that he was a Hebrew who feared the Lord, the God of heaven, who is the Creator of all things.

Just before Jesus Christ was delivered up to be crucified, the Pharisees came together to “cast lots” to determine who was responsible for the uprising and stirring up the great windstorm within the Jewish culture within the Roman Empire. The lot fell on Jesus, but He was being used as a “scapegoat” because they feared that the Romans would squash and desolate the Jewish community. The Jewish high priest said, ^“If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation. John 11:48 The Pharisees were the ones stirring up the people, “But the chief priests stirred up the crowd, so that [Pilate] should rather release Barabbas to them.” Mark 15:11 The people “…were the more fierce, saying, “[Jesus] stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place.” Luke 23:5 The Jewish high priest said, “…it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.” John 11:50

We live in a culture today that has determined the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be a plague to society. Instead of belief in the born-again experience through the Spirit, there is an entity that replaces the conscience and spirit to give people what to think, feel, say, and do. This entity enlivens the image of the beast to live and speak through people. Any opposition from Christians is considered troublemaking and a source of social storms. Revelation 12 describes the extinction of Christian births. The global culture is groomed to the mark of the beast by what they are given to say and do.

Jesus clearly proclaimed who He was, “Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.” John 14:9-11

As people born-again through the Spirit, we do not need to ask who Jesus is because we know Him from within the spirit, even as Peter who said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” “Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:16-18

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11