Jonah: Jonah's Prayer

Jonah 1:17-2:10

Intro: First tell me what happened with Jonah last week? We saw that the boat that Jonah entered on his voyage a storm started. What were the sailors doing as this storm was happening? What was Jonah doing? Sleeping. What was the cause of this storm? Jonah running away from God. You all talked about last week how our sins have consequences even if we do not know it. Our sin can affect other people. Now what did the sailors end up doing to Jonah? They threw him off the boat. When they did that they feared the Lord.

Now that brings us to this week but before we get into this weeks lesson. What would be the worst place to be stuck in for a long period of time?

For me I think the worst place to be stuck in for a long period of time would be a cave. This is Floyd Collins. Floyd was a cave explorer and he was in the caves of Kentucky exploring and he got in a very tight spot to the point where he could not move. Now he was stuck. People heard that he was stuck and would try to find ways to get him out and find ways to get him food but after 14 days stuck in this small space Floyd Collins died of starvation.

In tonight's passage we are going to see Jonah is stuck in a belly of a great fish. Imagine being in the belly of a fish for three whole days well I don’t know if you can really imagine that. But imagine being stuck in a small space for three days. I don’t think many of you would survive.

Tonight we are going to see Jonah stuck in the belly of this fish and we see Jonah give a prayer to God. You could say he gives a prayer asking God to deliver him from the fish and we see that it is a prayer of thanksgiving.

1. Entrance of the Fish (vs. 1:17)

First we see Jonah gets thrown off the boat and we don’t see him start drowning or just get absolutely destroyed by the waves. God was merciful to Jonah and he provided a great fish.

Now as we talked about in the beginning we see throughout the book of Jonah God’s love and how wide it is. We see God show love and mercy to Jonah here in this moment. God could have punished Jonah more and just left him stranded at sea. But He didn’t. God provides this fish and Jonah is in it for 3 days and three nights.

2. Psalm of thanksgiving (vs. 2:1-9)

Jonah is in this fish and what we see next here in chapter 2 we see Jonah give a prayer or a psalm of thanksgiving. This psalm from Jonah falls into two parts. First in verses 2-7 it talks about Jonah’s experience when he was first cast into the water and he stresses the danger of his situation and God’s willingness to answer his cry for help. Then in verses 8-9 we see Jonah’s positive appraisal of the Lord, and his personal response to God’s saving actions.

Jonah’s distress (vs. 2)

First we see in verse 2 Jonah’s distress. Recalls back to when he cried out to God when he got thrown into the sea. Jonah knew why he got thrown into the water and why all these things were happening. He cried out to the Lord and the Lord answered. Jonah says in the second half “out of the belly of Sheol I cried”

What does Jonah mean here? What Shelo is it is the realm of death and Jonah was emphasizing here that God heard his voice even in that place of ultimate separation. You could even say Jonah was thankful that God heard his voice even just trying to separate from his presence.

Jonah’s casting (vs. 3-4)

Verses 3 and 4 we see Jonah recognizes God’s sovereignty. Jonah knew it was God who casted him into the water not the sailors. Jonah knew it was God who caused the storm to happen. Jonah knew only God could be the one that could saved him from the water. Jonah believes he has been casted out of God’s sight but yet he wants to resolve that and to be in God’s sight and to follow him.

Jonah sinking (vs. 5-7)

We see in verses 5-6 it describes what is happening to Jonah in the water. He was surrounded and the more and more he was sitting in the water the more and more he started to struggle to keep his head above water. We see Jonah start sinking into the water. What is interesting about this is verse 7.

He says “When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord.” Jonah kept on praying to the Lord that He would save him or deliver him. As we know the Lord does but in a different way He provides a fish for Jonah.

Jonah’s Thankfulness (vs. 8-9)

We see Jonah’s prayer has produced a proper effect. It has filled Jonah with wonder why anyone would worship or believe in idols. Jonah learned his lesson here that if he leaves God he leaves mercy. And we see Jonah is thankful for God’s mercy here. God could have just left Jonah in the water and just let him drown but He didn’t and he had mercy on Jonah. Jonah is realizing that and he sees God’s mercy in his life and he is thankful for it.

3. Application (vs. 10)

What is the application we can get from this passage? Think about the story of Jonah so far God commands him to go to Nineveh and to preach to them. Jonah says no and tries to run from God’s presence. We see Jonah doesn’t get far as his actions has consequences and God sends a storm and he thrown overboard.

There are times in our life where we are like Jonah there are things that God wants us to do but we don’t want to do them and we make all of these excuses. God uses trials in our lives to turn back to Him.

You can runaway from God like Jonah tried to but God is still going to use you.

God has a purpose for each and everyone of you and He wants you to follow him and live a life that is pointed towards Him. Pursue God. God was merciful to Jonah and gave him another chance and our God is merciful to us everyday how are you going to live for Him?

Reflection questions

How is God using you today?

How are you allowing God to use you?

Have you prayed and thanked God for his mercy he shows to you everyday?