Our Prayers are Not in Vain

Our Prayers are Not In Vain

Intro:

Read Verses: 1:17-2:10

I have never been in the belly of a fish. I imagine it smells, and it has whatever the giant fish ate recently, decaying. None of us probably will ever be in that specific predicament. But what we do find ourselves in sometimes is a place where everything’s gone; stripped away from us and all we are left with is just us and God. And so we are compelled to focus and reflect on who God is and where we are in relation to Him. This is what we see with Jonah in verse 1.

Big Idea: God humbles you so you can clearly see His saving work

God Answers Your Calls (vv 1-2)

In Chapter 1, verse 17, we are told that God appointed the fish to swallow Jonah after Jonah was thrown off the boat.This was not to end Jonah’s life, but to save it. The word appointed is important to the story and more importantly to Jonah’s development.

The prayer is a mixture or at least has similar tones and phrases of a few Psalms. Verse 2 may be a kind of recap of what Jonah was thinking as he sunk deeper into the Mediterranean Sea after the sailors threw him over the boat. Jonah thought his life was over. Here he was sinking into the ocean, going down, getting farther away from God, just like he was doing in chapter 1.

But now it was very real and he thought he was going to be away from God permanently. Thi is what he says I cried out from Sheol. Sheol was the place where the dead go. Some of the translations may say “grave” or “Hell.” It was thought to be under the earth, so as Jonah sank down, he was essentially getting close to the place literally by both losing oxygen and also as he descended to the sea floor. This also makes sense, because remember in chapter 1 that as the storm that was controlled by God raged above deck and around Him, Jonah was below deck, dead to the world, snoring away.

But Here in the fish, lower than he was in the boat, he is know very much awake and he cried out either literally or figuratively and o his joy and perhaps surprise, God answers Him. It is unclear if Jonah saw the gigantic fish coming toward him as he sank, but I imagine at the point it happened he may have thought that “well, that figures,”. But at least I won’t really drown. It is hard to tell, But it seems that Jonah gets unique perspective of the fish and realizes that the fish is not a punishment, but. Salvation, it is the answer to His prayer.

We have talked about rarer before and one term I used is called a misspelled or rocket prayer. These are the prayers at the last minute that you don't have time for flowery words or long drawn out speeches. This is the “help me!” The or prayer. And Jonah is recognizing that God has answered the prayer.

Jonah was not expecting a fists swallow him as part of his answer to his needs, but he seems to happily take it nonetheless.

In , When Lazarus died Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus but he showed up a few days later. In fact John tells us in 11:6 that Jesus stayed where he was at two days longer. When Jesus and the disciples are close toBethany, Martha is so upset that she goes out to meet Jesus on the road. And you can just see this scene of this woman walking up to Jesus, why she acknowledges later in the chapter as the Son of God and the Messiah in verse 27, chewing Jesus out. Martha tells him, if you had been here my brother would not have died. She is saying you did not answer my request Jesus. You didn’t come when I called you. Now my brother is dead and it is basically your fault. Jesus tells her that Lazarus will be resurrected and Martha, applying what she thinks she knows says yes I get it at the last day we will all be resurrected, but that is later and this is now.

But Jesus answers her I am the resurrection and the life. If you believe in me shall live. After that He proves this with the miracle of bringing back Lazarus from the dead in front of witnesses.

God saved Jonah with a fish and He answered Martha and Mary with resurrecting their brother. Both are miracles. Both are not what anyone expected.

Jonah and Martha recognized who God is but they demonstrated that they do not truly understand what it means when they say that God is sovereign, or You are the Son of God.

We do the same thing. If you are a Follower of God, we can say things, but it is another thing to accept it and acknowledge that God has indeed answered your prayer, even if it is in a way that is unexpected or unlikely.

TS: God does this because he knows our path, he knows where you are going and he knew what you will need for the journey, and he not only hears you, but he is keeping an eye on you.

God Keeps His Eye On You (vv 3-4)

Jonah goes on to recount his drowning. He continues to state that God is in control. He says you cast me into the sea, into the deep, and the current, that you control engulfed or surround me, your waves passed over me.

On one hand Jonah thinks that he had been expelled from his sight, as he slips into the water, but he is acknowledging that God still sees him. He knows exactly where he is. How else would he be able to send the fish directly to Jonah to swallow him.

One way to think about this visually is that God has a giant holographic map with the dots representing us and it moves as we move, he knows where we are.

Remember, Jonah just spent the first part of the story trying to run away and even though it seems like he knew better, he was trying to get away from God’s sight. He thought he could go somewhere God was not and that he could not be found. Jonah thought he could cut off his ankle monitor and get away.

Jonah expresses that he had been expelled or banished from God’s sight, but he actually knows differently. In many of the ancient Near east religions, the gods were localized. So whatever god the people worshipped was confined to a region or a county, but he could not do things outside of that area, but “Jonah was not expressing a belief in the localization of Yahweh to Palestine. He stood with many other Old Testament prophets in believing in the all-present God of Israel. Therefore this phrase must be taken as an expression of emotional consternation at being out of the Lord’s favor.

But now Jonah realizes that as we talked about last week, there is nowhere to hide and He is now thankful for that fact. Because Jonah needed rescuing and God knew exactly where to find him. With Jonah’s statement of seeing the temple again, Jonah is now planning to return to God and his presence because the temple was the dwelling place of God.

When you are lost, God finds you. The parallel to lost is dead. When you were dead, God made you alive. In , the father in the parable of the prodigal son says, “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” The parallel of lost is dead. And Jesus knew what he was saying with the word dead, because he had said earlier, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead” (). There are living dead just like Paul says in — “even while we were dead in our trespasses and sins, God made us alive.” The lost are dead. Spiritually dead. Unresponsive to God.

Jesus came to seek the lost, to make the dead alive again. He came on a rescue mission to bring you back from behind enemy lines. A comical as Hogan's heroes is, it is nothing like the real experiences in the prison camp. It is horrible. While we are in the world, we are essentially in a prison where we think we are free. But when we accept Christ, we truly become free because we get new life through Jesus. We become a new man or woman when they Holy Spirit Dwells within us.

Jonah needed saving just as much or more than he just needed finding and that is what God does, he saves you.

God Gives You a New Life (vv 5-6)

Most of verse 5 and 6 recount the drowning, he is going down, like he wanted to but now the reality was hitting Jonah. There are about 10 thousand types of seaweed or algae growing in the oceans and seas. Although only penetrating to 8-40 meters in most oceans, some are found to depths of 250 m in particularly clear waters which includes the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Brazil. We don’t know far Jonah went, but Jonah is giving us the picture that he is sinking and getting caught up in this underwater forest.

The roots of the mountains. Imagine how dirt and rock is under a mountain and how deep the roots of the mountain would be if they had roots. The bars of the earth are closing like a prison cell door, once they close they cannot or will not be reopened.

All three of these images paint these pictures of isolation from the world of the living and ultimately the isolation from God

But Jonah knows there is good news at then end of verse 6. You brought me out of the pit, out of the grave. You God raised me up. He used the fish to do this to rescue him. Like Lazarus we have been called out of the tomb and given new life.

This is important because it shows us that we are to be like Jesus in every way, including the death of our old selves and the resurrection or new birth. This is pastor the symbolism and importance of baptism. We are raised in the newness of life.

Paul tells the Roman Church In 6:4-7 Just as Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.

Our death has a purpose and that is to fire us from the sin that invades and takes over our lives. God wants us to live for Him and according to His will. He does not want us to be trapped by the evil one.

God Is a Living God (vv 7-10)

Jonah was losing his life and he realizes that God gives life and he was rescued from death. Perhaps the pagan sailors and their praying they did on the ship brought this to his mind, that their praying to idols or false gods had no effect on the storm. and it also serves as a reminder to the audience that Yahweh is the only living God.

If you cherish worthless idols, you abandon your faithful love. The image is again one of the covenant marriage between God and mankind. God loves his creation like husband who loves his bride, but it is in our nature to look at others; to make idols out of what is in front of us.

But in verse 9 Jonah is making or renewing his vows to make a sacrifice but not begrudgingly. Not because he is being strong armed into renewing the vow, but he does so with a voice of thanksgiving.

He is joyful and happy to be acknowledging and following God.

We should take on Jonah’s attitude here in this section as he prays. He is truly happy to be alive, he knows that the fish has been sent to save hm and it was God who provided the salvation.

He did I not swim out of the sea. He essentially put himself into the sea or the problem. He got himself lost and part of being lost is that you don't know where you are. And you can't find your way out of the forest or off the mountain.

So God orders the rescue team To go get Jonah, in this case it is a fish.Sometimes it is your family or your friends that bring the message of salvation.They lower the rope or the cable from the helicopter.

There is a movie coming out in October called the last full measure about an Air Force pararescueman named William Pittsenbarger. On April 11 1966, He was lowered into the jungle to rescue an infantry unit that had been ambushed. Long story short is that Pittsenbarger died but was able to rescue 9 men that day. He stayed on the ground to help the wounded soldiers instead of leaving with his helicopter and put himself in harm's way several times. He gave his life so that others may live, which is the pararescue motto.

Serving a living God requires a sacrifice, you cannot be dead and follow the living. As we read in Romans, we must die to ourselves, we must be crucified daily and resist what our flesh wants and look to. God and the spirit to follow that voice.

Listening to the Spirit is difficult for various reasons. We may think things should turn out a certain way but it turns out different. Satisfying the flesh is often easier and quicker, but in the end it is less rewarding.

But Jonah has turned the corner, he has been rescued and he has more importantly repented of his willful disobedience. This makes it seem like the prophet is on the right path. And he is for the time being.

Conclusion

This chapter may be the “happiest” section in the entire book. These verses contain the story of miracles and grace, praise and thanksgiving, deliverance and renewed hope. When we realize that God has our best interest and more importantly, he knows the big picture, it is easy to go somewhere that we may not be able to see very far down the road.

When we get stuck or turned around, we can have confidence that God can hear our distress call, he never loses sight of us and he will be there to rescue and reviving us.

That is Good news indeed in this dark world, when it seems like things are not going your way or you feel like the water is closing over your head and you are being drowned by the waves of life.

God is there ahead of you, if you get stuck up the Psalms to pray to God. And wait for rescue.