I am several books into a series written by Michael Connelly. The protagonist (English major word for main character) is a police detective in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles named Harry Bosch. Bosch is a superb detective, it seems always finding the unseen thread that connects to the solving of the crime And he often clashes with the authorities in doing so, while ultimately being proved to have been right.
Bosch is a complicated character, with a "non-traditional" background--and yet somehow, despite having grown up in situations that you'd think might not lead to it, he has a conscience that causes him to consider how actions he has taken may have contributed to tragic results. In the book I am in the midst of, a former partner on the police has died (suicide or homicide isn't clear yet) and Bosch is grappling with whether his vocal defending of his former partner's innocence, and having his partner stay with him to shield from publicity ended up bearing a large responsibility in the death, which was not at all what Bosch's intention was.
It is an interesting question in all of our lives. What good intentions contribute to bad results? We can all remember those people who were important and helpful along the way in our lives--by what they did, by what they said. And we can probably remember those who, perhaps not even meaning to, were less than helpful, and perhaps even hurtful, with long-term effects. None of us lives in a vacuum. What others do affects us, for good or for ill; what we do affects others too.
This second part of Jonah's first chapter kind of gets at that. It does posit a perspective on God's activity that I'm not entirely certain is universally true--but in this story it is certainly seen as being so. The storm that has come up that is causing such panic on the boat--they have even thrown the cargo overboard to try to stay afloat and alive--is understood as something brought on by some action on some individual's part. They cast lots (a method used in those times to determine such things) and the lot falls on Jonah--he is responsible. Whatever he has done is the reason that nature is messing with them--and as he has admitted that he is trying to run away from what his God would have him do, that confirms for the other passengers that Jonah must be the reason for their problems.
Jonah agrees. He says that getting rid of him will get rid of the storm. So they toss him overboard, and the storm dies down.
I prefer to see this as a metaphor, an analogy, an allegory. An individual's behavior doesn't cause God to create a storm (although all of our behaviors causing climate change may have something to do with the unstable environment that leads to storms. But that's another thought for another day). But this story does seem, in symbolic form, to remind us that any individual's actions has impact on more than that individual. I don't believe that an individual's actions causes God to mess with other people to go after that individual. But I do believe that we are all tied together in this world, much more than we usually think about, and that is something that God intended, and intends..
OLD TESTAMENT Jonah 1:10-17
10 Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, ‘What is this that you have done!’ For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them so. 11 Then they said to him, ‘What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?’ For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, ‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you.’ 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, ‘Please, O Lord, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.’ 15 So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 17 But the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.