Untitled Sermon

Salvation comes from the Lord

Review

The Prayer in Context

Recall the uses of “up” and “down” in this book

Down has been the sinful direction. Jonah goes down attempting to get away from the presence of the Lord and avoid obedience to His commission. He thinks that it is better to endure the judgment of God versus the commission of God. His focus is on himself.

Up has been the Godward direction. The fish is the beginning of Jonah’s return. He finally sees obedience to God is better than His judgment. His focus, however brief, turns towards the Lord.

This is a visceral picture of the relationship between God and His created humanity.

We are made to have Him as our once and for all focus. Anything other than that is ultimately unfulfilling and fruitless. Jonah’s journey down has been marked with chaos and death. However, it has also been marked with God’s sovereignty, patience, and grace.

Contrasts between Chapters 1 and 2

Jonah pays the fare to get on the boat, while the fish is free

Jonah sleeps in the boat, while he is awake and alert in the fish

Jonah is prayerless in the ship, while he is very prayerful in the fish

What does this contrast mean?

The Content of Jonah’s Prayer

Thesis: Salvation comes from the Lord.

God brings judgment and salvation

v1c Recognize God’s salvation mixed with discipline.

Divine compassion, mercy, and discipline.

Down has been the sinful direction. Jonah goes down attempting to get away from the presence of the Lord and avoid obedience to His commission. He thinks that it is better to endure the judgment of God versus the commission of God. His focus is on himself.

v2 Recognize that you have a heavenly Father who love you. Cry out to Him and He will bring salvation.

(Thesis of the prayer)

A Prayer of Thanksgiving. This is part 2 of the prayer, thanking God for deliverance.

Hebrew word order. “To the Lord, in my distress, I cried out, and He answered me.”

Up has been the Godward direction. The fish is the beginning of Jonah’s return. He finally sees obedience to God is better than His judgment. His focus, however brief, turns towards the Lord.

v3 Recognize God’s discipline

Jonah’s salvation began with judgment.

God was showing Jonah how obedience to His call was preferable to His judgment.

v4 Recognize God as the only source of deliverance

Jonah had fled from the Lord as hard as he could. He of all people had no right to cry out to the God he had so deliberately forsaken. Yet he recognizes here that the God he rejected is the very God who can save him.

Jonah appeals to God’s mercy and grace for deliverance.

Jonah had fled from the Lord as hard as he could. He of all people had no right to cry out to the God he had so deliberately forsaken. Yet he recognizes here that the God he rejected is the very God who can save him.

v5-6a Recognize how sin separates us from God

This is a visceral picture of the relationship between God and His created humanity.

Jonah recounts his descent.

5“encompassed,” “engulfed,” “wrapped.” -Tomb imagery

“the foot of the mountains.” - polar opposite of where he needed to be

God gave Jonah a taste of what he wanted, and Jonah quickly realized his fault.

“but” signals a Pivot point in the prayer

6b Recognize God is the only one who can save

6b “But you have brought my life up” - no matter how far away he tried to get, God was always near.

7 Recognize where your help comes from

Jonah’s misplaced credit “I remembered the Lord”

All other places in the OT: the prayer says “YHWH remembered me.” Giving credit and praise never to self.

“My prayer came to you” - He could either be appealing to God’s mercy pr his own self-righteousness.

Self-righteousness and pride

No acknowledgment of any wrongdoing, no confession of sin

In the next phrase he turns the focus onto how great he is

This verse and the next foreshadow the racism that is to come. He feels that he deserves mercy but non-Israelites do not.

8 Recognize your own doubts in God

9 Recognize your own propensity to hypocrisy

“Those who regard vain idols forsake their faithfulness (“their experience of divine mercy”).” The sailors- Jonah expresses doubt as to whether or not they would have lasting loyalty to YHWH.

9 Recognize God is continually sanctifying you

Jonah elevates himself above the sailors.

What is not in the prayer is what is most telling about this prideful tone. No confession. No repentance.

We are made to have Him as our once and for all focus. Anything other than that is ultimately unfulfilling and fruitless. Jonah’s journey down has been marked with chaos and death. However, it has also been marked with God’s sovereignty, patience, and grace.

The practice of Repentance

Jonah’s journey of deliverance and bondage to his sin begins in the fish and continues through the remainder of the story. We do not know how he ended up.

Recognize God’s Activity in Your Lif

God brings judgment and salvation

v1c Recognize God’s salvation mixed with discipline.

Divine compassion, mercy, and discipline.

v2 Even

v3 Recognize that you have a heavenly Father who love you. Cry out to Him and He will bring salvation.

(Thesis of the prayer)

Probably won’t look like what you think it will look like.

v4 Recognize God’s discipline

v5 Recognize God as the only source of deliverance

v6-7b Recognize the severity of your sin

From Death to Life

Three Days

Jonah’s “Repentance”

Jonah never admits fault nor asks forgiveness

The Timing of Jonah’s Prayer

Pray well and without ceasing

Jonah

Pray well and without ceasing

Illus. Disobedient child delaying the inevitable.

Our Prayer life indicates spiritual health

The Setting of Jonah’s Prayer

The Timing of Jonah’s Prayer

From the belly to the womb

v1c Recognize God’s salvation mixed with his discipline.

Divine compassion, mercy, and discipline.

From death to life

Three days and three nights are an important timeframe in reference to death and life.

Thesis: Salvation comes from the Lord.

- Abraham’s journey to sacrifice Isaac was three days.

God brings judgment and salvation

- Israelites wander for three days without water before the Lord provides water.

v1c Recognize God’s salvation mixed with discipline.

“Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has [a]wounded us, but He will bandage us. “He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, That we may live before Him.”

Divine compassion, mercy, and discipline.

For He has torn us, but He will heal us;

v3 Recognize that you have a heavenly Father who love you. Cry out to Him and He will bring salvation.

He has [a]wounded us, but He will bandage us.

(Thesis of the prayer)

2 “He will revive us after two days;

Probably won’t look like what you think it will look like.

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

He will raise us up on the third day,

v4 Recognize God’s discipline

That we may live before Him.”

v5 Recognize God as the only source of deliverance

- Abraham’s journey to sacrifice Isaac was three days.

- Israelites wander for three days without water before the Lord provides water.

“Come, let us return to the Lord.

For He has torn us, but He will heal us;

v6-7b Recognize the severity of your sin

He has [a]wounded us, but He will bandage us.

2 “He will revive us after two days;

He will raise us up on the third day,

That we may live before Him.”

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The three days in the fish is a strong image of Jonah’s journey from death to life. Some scholars argue he actually died and God brought him back, but we do not have a viable indication of that and cannot base doctrine around it.

The practice of Repentance