167 What was the cargo?

I like to copy the whole chapter onto paper when I do an inductive study.
Here's the first round of Jonah. It really helped e to do this quiet time because there's a lot of madness going on around me and I can't handle it without going to the one who's in control. He told me to go for Jonah again, so I read the story. One thing that stood out to me was the part where "They threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship," 1:04. My thought was "What was the cargo?" Maybe there was someone waiting in Tarshish telling his family, "Once that shipment we invested in from Joppa gets here, we'll have it made for life." Or maybe it was like, "Don't worry, kids, just hold out until the medicine arrives from Joppa and we'll make you all better," (I was thinking of Balto, you know?) That is, it could have been a good and valuable thing. Or maybe it was a bad thing. Maybe it was illegal drugs or weapons ("Tarshish is going down when my boat comes in.")
Why does it matter? Because the cargo was dropped to save them from the storm. The storm was there to stop Jonah from running away, and Jonah was running away in disobedience. The boat probably sustained heavy damage in addition to loss of cargo and the people running the ship certainly lost some income because they couldn't deliver whatever loot they had to toss.
There are two things this made me conclude two things: 1) Any individual's disobedience (yours, mine, our parents') can cost someone else everything, so we have one more reason to obey and to be sobered to the consequences of any wrong we're doing now 2) The harsh consequences may still be used for good, (like the fact that the men believed because of the storm and offered sacrifice as well as slim possibility that the loss of cargo prevented an act of terror.) so we should see that the one in charge is still in charge and we should be thankful for his grace and power.