God's Giant Fish & Jonah’s Grateful Prayer

Jonah  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Pray & Intro: The book of Jonah is particularly about God’s compassion (his grace and mercy) to the lost, and how sometimes God’s people don’t share that heart for the lost. Such is the case with Jonah.
· Jonah’s epic fail is bigger than his flopped attempt at getting away from God’s will (which we covered last night). Jonah has a heart condition. But even Jonah’s failure does not change God’s faithfulness.
· We’ll see today with God’s Giant Fish & Jonah’s Grateful Prayer that Jonah makes an important turn in repentance and restoration to God’s calling, but we learn later that in spite of Jonah’s gratefulness for God’s mercy to him, he’s not a fan of God being gracious to the Ninevites.
· In chapter 3 with Jonah’s second chance, we learn that even though he obeys God’s second commission in going to Nineveh and saying what God told him to, Jonah’s heart remains hardened.
· As we reach the end and God deals with Jonah’s heart, we are finally left with a question to Jonah and to each of us, “Should God not be a God of compassion? How should my heart respond to God’s compassionate heart?”
For now though, we turn again to God’s mercy to Jonah and Jonah’s thankful response.
Jonah 1:17–2:10 ESV
17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. 1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. 3 For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. 4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ 5 The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head 6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. 7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” 10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
The bookends of Jonah’s prayer (or you might say the frame around Jonah’s prayer) is God’s fish (swallowing Jonah and later spewing him out).

God’s Faithfulness Through A Big Fish

1. Hold the phone! Is this an Unfathomable Tale?
a. Yesterday we already argued from scripture of the historicity of this account. (2 Kings, Mt. 12 & 16, “the word of the Lord came to Jonah”)
b. (But we shouldn’t try to deny that this) Stretches ordinary scientific boundaries:
i. Fish big enough to swallow a man? (Tell me you’re not picturing Geppetto right now, Pinocchio’s creator and father) – The Hebrew word here used for fish is translated in the Greek Septuagint as (κῆτος), confirmed by Jesus in Mt 12:40. It means big or huge fish or whale or ANY large sea monster.
ii. What’s miraculous is Jonah staying alive in there for at least part of three days! (3 days and 3 nights)
c. Don’t just “suspend disbelief,” eradicate it.
i. Does God have trouble with the laws of science that he himself set in place? – Luke 1:37, “for nothing will be impossible with God”… in its context.
ii. Where does your disbelief stop? (Jonah, flood, Creation, virgin birth, resurrection?)  I confess, to me it’s almost absurd that we must have this conversation before we can get to the meat of the passage. (the absurdity, not in account but in the doubt)
Unrelenting God
Jonah was unwilling, but God relentlessly pursued Jonah’s submission.
a. Recall that Jonah ran from the presence of the Lord and would rather die than go to Nineveh. (Instead of repenting, tells them to cast him into the sea.) – God gives him a taste. (of the grave, of hell)  Jonah describes his near-death experience as if he were crying out from Sheol (the underworld, the realm of the dead… also “land,” “pit”), as even the metaphorical bars of the gate were closed behind him. – The worst part about Hell, cast out of the presence of God  What happens to those who resist God?
b. It’s good news that God is an unrelenting God! – Rob Salvato: T-shirt: Search & Rescue  It’s God’s nature to seek those who run from Him, & to save those who turn to Him. – "for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Lk. 19:10)
An Unlikely Rescue & An Unpleasant Journey
a. You never thought anyone would be thankful for being swallowed by a fish, but here we have that exact scenario. Apparently sinking very deep into the water (“roots of the mountains” – hyperbole, intentional exaggeration for effect) —> Jonah cries in distress for help (underwater and overwhelmed). God’s rescue chopper is a huge fish or other sea monster that swallows the prophet whole to prevent his certain drowning.
b. We’ve established that there are sea stomachs big enough to house a man, but not comfortably! – God’s method of getting Jonah’s attention was extreme (but necessary) and even this rescue mission is undoubtedly quite unpleasant—dark, acidic, hot, smelly, stifling. —> Affliction drives us to the Lord. (God wants us to know how weak we are to find sufficiency only in Him. If we don’t get it, sometimes he puts us in a place to get it.)

(God’s Time Out) Resulted in Jonah’s Grateful Prayer

– God wants us in fellowship with him. —> (God got Jonah’s attention!) Jonah’s Response: Jonah prayed a prayer of thanksgiving from the belly of a fish! His prayer of gratitude includes his recognition, recollection, and redirection.
What did Jonah recognize?
(that resulted in such thanksgiving)
a. God is sovereign (Jonah knew God’s hand was at work for him to be thrown in the sea and for the fish to rescue him from drowning)
b. God is justified in his discipline (Jonah)
c. God had saved him when he was utterly desperate and did not deserve rescuing
What did Jonah remember?
“I remembered the Lord.”
a. God, the one true God, sovereignly hears and answers prayer – That’s why idolaters are wasting their time and energy. (recalling the pagan sailors, and probably an indictment against Israel’s tendency for the same)  He is our hope of steadfast love.
b. God is merciful and forgiving – throwing himself on the mercy of God  How far gone is too far gone? (irretrievable) (God’s inexhaustible mercy)
How did Jonah redirect himself?
a. Seek God – (the turning point) praying toward God’s Holy temple (instead of running from the presence of God, he turned his face back to God) - With a broken and contrite heart (Ps. 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.) —> Pray when we face failure – Even (or especially) when we feel like we have no right to call upon God.
b. Jonah remembered and returned to his vow: as a Prophet. – If we have trusted Christ as Savior, we have been called to forsake the world and turn (back) to following Christ alone, treasuring Him alone.

God’s Response: Unfathomable Grace (Unmerited Favor)

1. Yes, this fish regurgitated Jonah (projectile vomit). Again sounds (and no doubt was) unpleasant (although dry land sounds pretty good after that watery prayer), but God graciously delivered Jonah and gave him a second chance to obey, a second chance to be God’s ambassador, a second chance to mend his heart attitude.
2. God’s unfathomable grace to Jonah and to us as well —> Matthew Henry: “Jonah by this miraculous preservation was designed to be made…
a. A monument of divine mercy, for the encouragement of those that have sinned, and gone away from God, to return and repent.
b. A successful preacher to Nineveh; and this miracle wrought for his deliverance, if the tidings of it reached Nineveh, would contribute to his success.
c. An illustrious type of Christ, who was buried and rose again according to the scriptures (1 Cor.15:4), according to this scripture, for, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so [will] the Son of man [be] three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, Matt. 12:40. Jonah's burial was a figure of Christ's.”
[Conclusion:]
If you are His and you are looking to Him, God is making progress in your life.
He brings you out of the pit again for progress in your life. (Hint: Learn from other people’s pits.)
· God isn’t done yet. (Jonah)
· God can and wants to bring others out of the pit and make progress in them as well.
· Changing people’s hearts is God’s specialty. Let him change yours.
Today you will do one of two things in your heart: You will draw nearer to God or you will move away from Him. Which way will you turn?
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