Jonah 2 - 2.0

Introduction

One night when I was in college in Athens, I went out to grab some terrible quality but wonderfully cheap teriyaki chicken, and I almost never made it home. I was sitting at a red light, the only car around since it was well past reasonable teriyaki hour, when the light turned green. Now I had my dog, Skye in the backseat, and right when the light turned green, she started chewing on something she wasn’t supposed to, so I turned around to get her to quit. It took just a couple seconds total, but when I turned back around and began to press down on the gas to navigate through the intersection, out of nowhere a car blazes through the intersection right in front of me at top speed, right where my car would have been had I not been ever so slightly delayed.

The whole thing was over in a matter of seconds, but if you’ve ever had a similar experience, in the immediate aftermath of something like that, the full weight of what just happened and more importantly, what could have just happened, rolls over you like a tidal wave. Massive amounts of adrenaline flood through my body, and my mind and heart began to race. It wasn’t that I saw my life flash before my eyes, but in that moment my eyes were drawn to the boundary of my life in a new and fresh way, such that I was awakened to my own mortality.

Have you ever had an experience like this? Well this is the experience that Jonah has as we dive into the second chapter here.

If you remember, Jonah had fled from God’s presence, striking out on his own, believing he knew better than God, and was headed for Tarshish, the direct opposite of what God wanted for him. And all the while we see that the choices that he’s making are leading him down, down, down into spiritual apathy to the point that he’s not aware of the ruin he’s causing others, nor is he aware of God’s presence and powerful acts of redemption happening around him. He doesn’t see any of it, and he’s eventually thrown overboard, and as he’s sinking into the depths of the sea, God sends a great fish to swallow him up. And while normally being swallowed up by a fish would mark the death of Jonah, we find that Jonah is in fact very much alive, and he’s awake to God in a new way. God’s instrument of death was actually an instrument of grace that has given Jonah new life and a second chance, and we find that in the belly of the fish, Jonah is praying a beautifully poetic prayer to his God.

God uses hardships in our life as a means of mercy.

Lets dive into this prayer in verse 1.

English Standard Version Chapter 2

2 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.

All of Jonah’s choices have finally caught up to him and now he’s in a very dark, confined space in the belly of this beast. And in this dark, cramped, and probably terribly smelling place, Jonah cries out to God.

Throughout the Old Testament, a common way to describe Israel’s sin and faithlessness and the consequences that they suffer as a result is to use the metaphor of being swallowed up by a great beast. One of the earliest prophets, the prophet Hosea says in :

Crying out is always our last option, isn’t it? We only cry out for help when we’ve exhausted all other options and nothing has worked to get you out of the hole you’re in. And anyone who has been in a situation like that, when all your resources have been spent, and you finally do cry out for help, you know that there is no shame in it all. If you’re crying out for help, you know it’s all you’ve got left, and so there is no shame in it at all.

“Israel cries out to me, ‘Our God, we acknowledge you!’ But Israel has rejected what is good...” So Israel is claiming to know and live according to God’s ways, but in reality they have turned away from him (does that sound like someone you know from Jonah chapter 1?). So what’s going to happen as a result? “an enemy will pursue him…so Israel is swallowed up.”

I talk to a lot of parents of young children these days, and the one thing every has said is to not be afraid to ask for help, because when you bring your little one home it is pure chaos for the first few weeks, and it will quickly bring you to the end of yourself, and there is no shame in crying out for help.

Jeremiah, speaking about the nation of Babylon that comes and takes the people of Israel captive and carts them off into exile because of their rejection of God, he says this in : “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured us, he has thrown us into confusion, he has made us an empty jar. Like a monster he has swallowed us and filled his stomach with our delicacies, and then he has spewed us out.”

So Jonah is brought to the end of himself and he shamelessly cries out to God, and what do we see God is doing? He’s listening. Now this is so opposite to how we typically think about times of hardship and dark places of life, isn’t it? We tend to think that in those seasons of hardship, isolation, and confusion, when life is suddenly a confining space, we tend to think that God is not listening, because he’s abandoned us. He’s no where to be seen.

Last example, , written after the people have come back from exile we see this: “If it had not been for the LORD who was on our side when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us.”

But Jonah comes to the opposite conclusion. He understands God to be very much present with him in his situation, which is unusual for him thus far in the story. Remember when he was on the boat in chapter 1, it was the pagan sailors who were aware of God’s presence and involvement, and it was Jonah who was sleep walking through it all. But now, this harrowing experience has awakened him to God’s presence, and he’s vividly aware that at the bottom of the sea, where he’s got nothing left but to cry out, in this dark, place God is there with him.

So what we see in this business about Jonah being swallowed up by a great beast is this metaphor used to describe the consequences of Israel’s sin and rejection of God, this metaphor is being played out in the life of Jonah, as his sin and his rejection of God have led him into grave consequences so that he too is now swallowed up.

But what is God’s involvement? How is God present? Look at verse 3.

But as with all the other prophets, when God’s people find themselves in the belly of the beast, we find that God’s faithfulness is greater than the people’s unfaithfulness, and the prophets declare that God will mercifully preserve his people through their suffering and bring them out on the other side into a new and brighter life. And so, with Jonah in the belly of the beast,

English Standard Version Chapter 2

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.

So this is interesting. In chapter 1, it was the sailors who cast Jonah out into the sea, but here Jonah says that it was God. It’s God’s waves that passed over him as he sank into the deep. In all of these circumstances and hardships that have brought him to the end of himself so that he has cried out for help, he sees in them God’s hand and God’s involvement.

Now let’s stop for a second a think about this. We know that Jonah has hit rock bottom because of the choices that he has been making. Is God responsible for the choices that Jonah has been making that have brought him to the bottom of the sea? Is God responsible for our sinful choices that bring us into difficult spaces? No, of course not. He’s not responsible for the stupid choices we make that have landed us in the belly of the fish.

But we’re not always in these difficult circumstances because of the choices we’ve made. Sometimes we find ourselves at the end of ourselves because of the decisions of someone else. You’re let go from your job because the higher ups mismanaged the company and now have to downsize. Is God responsible for their choices that have spilled over into your life and that have brought you into difficult times? No, he’s not the author of that .

And sometimes it’s no one’s fault that we’re in a dark season of life, it’s just the reality of living in a world that is subject to death and decay and the consequences of sin, but again God is not responsible for that.

But Jonah sees that whether it’s our own sin or someone else’s sin or just life in this world, however it is that we are are brought into hard situations of life, God is not caught off guard. He’s not surprised, and in fact, as Jonah is indicating here, there are times when the hardships that we’re facing are actually a part of God’s plan for us. This doesn’t mean that he is the author of our hardships, but it does mean that he will work through them redemptively for his purposes.

So Jonah says that God is with him in this uncomfortable space, but he is with Jonah in a way that we may not always be comfortable with.

And here’s why many of us are uncomfortable with this. Because many of us, okay and I’m in this boat as well, many of us by default believe that we’ve invited God into our lives to bring us safely and comfortably and securely to our eternal destination. We assume that God will be with us, keeping us well and above water in this life until we receive the fullness of his promises in the next life. God’s greatest priority is to make us happy and safe.

But there’s two major problems with this: the first is that this understanding of God’s presence with his people is nowhere to be found in Scripture, and second, if that is your understanding of God, then inevitably your life experiences will expose that your God is either not real or has left you when you needed him most.

But here’s the thing. The Scriptures tell us, what Jonah is hinting at here, is that God’s greatest priority for us is to call us to himself and to shape and mold us to be his people - to shape us into a people who know that they owe everything to their Creator, who trust him wholeheartedly because he has shown himself to be faithful. That’s his greatest priority for us, and there will therefore be times when we find ourselves in the belly of the beast, where there’s no where left to go but to cry out, and it’s actually a great mercy of God that he will use to shape and mold us. One pastor called this a severe mercy of God.

It is a severe mercy to be in the belly of a fish, to be brought to a place where we are utterly humbled in life and utterly dependent on God, and while it may feel like the worst place to be, what Jonah reminds us is that it may actually be the best thing for us. It’s a severe mercy. But the point is to know that there is no sin of my own or sin of others that spills over into my life that’s beyond God’s redemptive reach, that God will not use to shape and to mold me in wonderful ways. And that is God’s highest priority.

Let’s continue on in Jonah’s prayer to see how God uses hardships in a way that makes them a means of his mercy, as Jonah begins to recognize his need for God. Verse 4.

These experiences strip away the clutter of our lives so that we can see what is most important.

English Standard Version Chapter 2

4  Then I said, ‘I am driven away

from your sight;

yet I shall again look

upon your holy temple.’

Now, Jonah wanted nothing more than to be as far as possible from God. He wanted God out of his life. He wanted to make his own decision because he thought he knew best, and he sees where that life had led him, to the bottom of the ocean, and for a horrifying moment, he thinks that he actually got what he wanted, to be removed from God’s presence, and all of a sudden, the idea that he actually gets what he wanted seems like the worst thing possible.

You know this feeling. When you finally get what you want only to find that it doesn’t actually satisfy, it doesn’t actually deliver what you were looking for, and you suddenly have no taste for it anymore. Suddenly for Jonah, he has no taste for running from God, and now all he wants, all he desires, all he longs for is his holy temple - which is the epicenter of God’s presence.

Jonah thought he was running away to find life - he thought God was the cosmic buzzkill and he wanted no part of it, so he runs to Tarshish thinking he’d find life, but now at the bottom of the ocean he finally sees that he wasn’t running to life, he was running from life, by running from the God who gives life. And for Jonah to see that, he had to be brought down into the belly of the beast.

Look at verse 5.

English Standard Version Chapter 2

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;

Here we see that Jonah goes back to describing his situation. In this description, does it seem like Jonah feels that his circumstances are in any way reversible? No, the image we get is that it’s all over now. No, the way he sees it, he’s got nothing going for him. But look how he ends this bleak outlook...

English Standard Version Chapter 2

yet you brought up my life from the pit,

O LORD my God.

Jonah’s hardship has given him new eyes to see his life with a greater degree of clarity and honesty. He recognizes that all he’s got going for him is his God’s commitment to redeem his life. That’s all he has going for him.

Maybe this has happened to you or to people you know. We go through these difficult times in life, times where perhaps we’ve seen the boundary of our lives, and these hardships have a way of stripping away the clutter of our lives so that we can see what is most important and what is most true. As Jonah is in the belly of beast, all the distractions, all the clutter of life falls away, and he’s left with the fact that truly the only thing he’s got in life, is that his God is committed to him - commited to redeeming him from the pit that he sees no way out from, committed to molding him in the image of Christ, committed to pursuing him with life.

There is so

What a sobering place to find yourself, discovering that the only thing we’ve got going for us is our God’s commitment to us. When we come to that place, a place that often we only find when we’re walking through seasons of great difficulty, but when we come to that place, we’re forced into a posture of humility and trust and dependence, which is a wonderful place to be. And so we see the paradox of God’s severe mercy, for Jonah, this may feel like the worst thing to possibly ever happen to him, but in reality it may just be the best thing, because he’s learning the truth of who he is, that he is a frail and flawed human who’s Creator has turned to with deep mercy and grace and faithfulness.

And we find that this realization becomes the motivation for worship and perhaps most shockingly, songs of gratefulness for Jonah. Verse 7:

When we turn to Jesus in our hardships, we are assured of God’s commitment to us.

English Standard Version Chapter 2

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!”

Here we see Jonah turning the corner, when at his lowest point in life he has this profoundly positive experience. He says that he remembered the LORD. Remembering the LORD is an important idea found throughout the Scriptures, and it entails remembering all the gifts and blessings and provision that the LORD has shown you throughout your life.

And this is precisely what Jonah had ignored or crowded out of his life before the belly of the beast when he declared his independence from God on the way to Tarshish, but now, as a result of this terrible thing that has happened to him, he remembers all the amazing ways that God has shown him love and grace and favor.

And what’s crazy is that he’s having this positive experience, he’s having these feelings of gratefulness towards God while still in the belly of the fish, while still suffering and enduring the hardship that he’s in. And how can that be? Has Jonah lost it here? Has the oxygen finally run out on him? How is he actually feeling grateful in the midst of this terrible time?

And this is one of those things that our non-Christian family and friends just won’t get, which means it’s an amazing opportunity for sharing the gospel with them by how we respond to these difficult season of life.

How is he actually feeling grateful in the midst of this terrible time? The answer comes in what Jonah keeps turning his attention to. What does Jonah turn to in order to remember who God is and the commitment that he’s made to Jonah. Twice now he’s said that he has turned his attention to God’s temple, which for him is the epicenter of God’s presence, it’s the source of all of God’s favor and grace. And for the Christian, where is the epicenter of God’s presence and the place where we can turn to to remember who God is for us, even if my life is passing away? It’s Jesus!

This is so important for us when we walk through difficult times like this.

Jonah teaches us that our life circumstances are not what we look to for an accurate picture of God’s feelings toward us. They are not reliable indicators of God’s commitment to us. There is one place that we can look to for an accurate picture of God’s feelings toward us and that is in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

This is what it means to become a Christian - to come to the belief that the life that Jesus lived for us, the death that he died for us, to forgive us and to make us new, and his resurrection that offers us a new life with God - that is only thing that we have, and the only thing going for us.

And what happens, is when we come to the place where we believe that, it no longer matters what happens in our life, because I know that my life is not my own, and because we know the one who we belong to, and he is utterly committed to me, and there is no hardship in my life that he will not use to mold and shape me in profound ways, and I know that because I see it in Jesus, and so we can worship and give thanks even in difficult seasons.

Jonah

And what happens, is when we come to the place where we believe that, it no longer matters what happens in our life, because we know the one who we belong to, and he is utterly committed to me, and there is no hardship in my life that he will not use to mold and shape me in profound ways, and so we can worship and give thanks even in difficult seasons. Notice, Jonah is not giving thanks for his dire circumstances, he’s giving thanks in his dire circumstances because he’s come to realize that no matter the messy state of his life, God will be with him, and will use his situation for Jonah’s benefit.

Conclusion

Jonah discovered that he was running from the only thing he ever really had, but because of God’s severe mercy, he was brought to the bottom of the sea, to be reminded of his need for God and of God’s commitment to him.

I know that many of us are going through or know folks who are going through very difficult seasons of life right now, and I’m not here to tell you that what you’re going through is a severe mercy of God. What the Scriptures are speaking to you this morning is that no matter what hardship we find ourselves in, we can be certain that God will use them in redemptive ways, like he has here for Jonah. And so this prayer is an invitation to see the mercy of God in our hardships, and to place ourselves in a position of trust. Do I trust that God has my best in mind? And where can we go to be assured of that trust? We can go and we point one another to the life, death, and resurrection Jesus - where we can clearly see God’s commitment to our good, and we know that his commitment to us, is all we have, and all we need.

The truth is that we may not be spared the belly of the beast, but God mercifully uses that experience to work profoundly in our lives in ways that he otherwise could not. Let’s pray.