Jonah 2

Jonah’s Prayer

Last week we discussed the first chapter of the book of Jonah and through that first chapter we learned a lot about the set up of our story. We know that Jonah is a prophet called by God to go to Ninevah but Jonah refuses to go and runs. He winds up on a boat heading in the opposite direction when God stops him and Jonah is tossed overboard into the violent sea when we last saw him.

Jonah 1:17 “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

Now here I will not get into a big debate on whether it was a fish or it was a whale because either way it does not matter. Both options are outside of the normal of nature that we see so whether God created a fish just for this purpose, there was already a fish there, or it was actually a whale does not matter, what truly matters in this verse is the the first couple of words now the Lord had prepared. Notice that it is in the past tense meaning that this was something that God had already done before this. He knew from the beginning that Jonah would run and be tossed into the sea and so He had prepared ahead of time a fish to swallow Jonah to keep him from drowning and bring him where he needed to go. In all of our lives no matter what situation we have found ourselves in the Lord has already prepared something for us. Sometimes we feel like we have been put into a situation where there is no way out. That for us we must continue living a sinful and wicked life because we are too deep in. We can’t stop ourselves from sinning now. Look at this verse.

1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

God has already before time began prepared a way of escape for you. In your situation right now you have a way prepared for you to refuse sin and seek righteousness. Satan will try his hardest to cloud your vision to make it feel as though that way is not there but stories like this remind us that no matter how fierce the storm, God has already prepared the way of escape for us.

Now inside of this fish is where we see one of the only moments of righteousness come from Jonah through his prayer to the Lord beginning in chapter two.

Jonah 2:1–7 “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. And he said: “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, And He answered me. “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice. For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God. “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple.”

First thing that I want to notice in Jonah’s prayer before we get into the key ideas of it is in verse three when he attributes the billows and the waves to God. It is not just the good in the world that belongs to God. Everything belongs to God. The calm seas and the rough.

Isaiah 45:7–8 “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.’ “Rain down, you heavens, from above, And let the skies pour down righteousness; Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation, And let righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord, have created it.”

God is the author of all things and all things are according to His perfect will. That does not mean of course that all things are good, but we can trust based on what we learned last week that God’s plan is perfectly good so we know that all things will work out for good for us even when we feel like we are being rocked by waves in the moment we can know that those waves are there for a reason and God has a plan for them.

Breaking Jonah’s prayer down here we see him say basically this, I was cast into the waters and sank into them facing death and as I faced death I realized that I wanted your help God so I called out to You and you answered. At this point from his perspective he was tossed into the water, almost died, and is now in a dark fleshy space alive but totally confused and he has been there for three days now, which side point how long was Jesus in the tomb? Three days. What is important though is that Jonah is saying that he was in the pits of despair ready to die and felt like he was about to die but in his moment of desparation he turned to God and cried out for His help and God answered. When we are at our lowest point where are we turning to? What are we turning to? Are we reaching to a friend? A phone? The bottle? The drug? What are we reaching for? It took Jonah three days of isolation but he finally got it right and reached for God and God reached back to rescue him.

Now though looking down to the rest of his prayer in verse 8.

Jonah 2:8–10 ““Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy. But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.” So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”

First in verse eight Jonah tells us that those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy. What Jonah means by this is people who worship anything outside of God. We have talked about this before but what we worship is where we spend our time. Are we worshipping a relationship, a job, school, a club, a friend, a temptation, an addiction? If we are worshipping anything other than God then what Jonah is telling us here is that we are forsaking our own mercy. Forsaking means that we are giving it up or we are abandoning it. So we are turning our backs on the mercy that God is extending to us. God extends to all people the gift of mercy and grace. This gift is not something that all people will accept but it is extended to everyone and those people who live their lives in worship of the world rather than God are rejecting that gift in favor of the world. This is foolish because the world is but for a second in the lens of eternity when living a life of obedience to the Lord has impacts on our eternal souls.

Verse nine gives us a lot to think about. First we have the voice of thanksgiving that Jonah talks about. Think about it again, Jonah has been tossed off a ship into a storm almost drowned and is now sitting in the belly of a fish confused about where he even is yet what he says he is going to do is sacrifice to the Lord with a voice of thanksgiving. Some of us are really good at having a thankful heart when all is going well. When God’s blessings on our lives are easy to see and everything is going perfect of course we are thanking God, but what about when life is low? What about when we are in the pits of sorrow and struggling to get by? Are we thankful then? It can be harder for us to be thankful in those times but I promise you that you have more than enough to be thankful for. The fact that you are living as a free citizen of the US is reason enough in comparison to the rest of the world, but honestly the fact that you have breath in your lungs and a God who loves you is so much more than we deserve that there is no reason not to be grateful to God. The punishment for sin is death, all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God meaning that all of us deserve death and separation from God yet He allows us to live and to grow closer to Him even in our fallen state. This is such a blessing that no matter your circumstances you can be thankful in every season of life.

Now the vow that needs to be paid. As believers when we are accepted into the family of God and adopted as sons and daughters we make a promise to the Lord to live a life of obedience to His word. How are you doing on that? None of us are perfect and all of us can find areas that we are struggling in find these areas of your life and work out how can I live up to the promise of obedience that I have made? What do I need to get rid of in my life or what should I be doing that I am not so that I can live a more obedient life to the Lord?

Lastly in verse eight we get a very important statement to close Jonah’s prayer and it is that salvation is of the Lord. Who is it that prepares the fish and sends it to Jonah? Who is it that reaches out to us when we are weak and gives us the strength? Who is it that while we were still sinners He died for us and reached out His loving grace to us so that we could be adopted as sons and daughters of God? It is the Lord who has done this work. It is no man. It is not that I have earned my salvation through works. It is not that I have come to some realization of my own sin that others haven’t. It is that God out of His love and grace reached down from His throne in heaven and softened this heart of stone and made a new creation in me. It is God who does the work of salvation both in the sense of saving us from our sin and delivering us from our circumstances it is all the work of God and it is God alone who should recieve all glory honor and praise for this work.

Notice it is at this point in Jonah’s prayer that God speaks to the fish and Jonah is vomited onto dry land. It is when Jonah has fully surrendered saying that this world with its good and its bad belongs to the soveriegn and perfect God and no matter what happens I will give Him my praise and thanks for what He has done because all salvation comes from Him alone that God delievers Jonah where he needs to be. Sometimes God leaves us in a tough spot for a bit until we have fully learned our lesson and learned where our hope really comes from so that we can start with obedience in the first place.

Lastly, how was Jonah delivered where he needed to be? He was vomited onto the shore. This is not a beautiful picture and does not really feel like how I would want to be delivered out of something. Sometimes the methods God chooses to use for our dilivereance are not exactly what we would have chosen for ourselves. Sometimes it is ugly and it hurts and its uncomfortable but ultimately we can trust no matter the method God will get us where we need to go and it will all be for good.