The Prayer of the Powerless

Introduction

How many of you have been in a situation where you deserved to be punished? This is a near daily occurrence for us. We get in our car and we go 56mph in a 55mph zone - we deserve a speeding ticket. The Bible shares with us that we break God’s law and we do this on a daily basis as well. Because of this, as we talked about this morning, we deserve eternal separation from God. I read a story from a prominent Christian author and teacher this week in which he talked about his past, specifically his teenage years. During his teen years this individual would go out with his friends and prank people by ringing the doorbell and running away before the person could open the door. As this went on week after week in the summer, the group of boys escalated to something more daring: busting the mailboxes of some of these same people. After a few weeks of doing this, the boys decided to up the ante once more by staging some fights while stopped at a stop sign. One boy would get out of the car and fake punch another boy while another would bring a baseball bat out and pretend to hit the boy a couple of times. All this is going on with people watching all around them. Finally they would grab the kid and throw him into the trunk and drive away really fast. These boys were reckless and had the cops called on them numerous times because of their crazy actions. As time has gone by, this teacher noted that he and his friends now realize how dumb their actions were and how they are fortunate that they did not get in more trouble than they did because they deserved serious consequences.

We hear stories like this and maybe you are reminded of some foolish choices you have made in your life - I am reminded of the same, such as whenever I played hide and seek on the roof of FBC Ozark! Whenever we remember some of our mistakes, naturally we also are reminded of some of the consequences for our actions.

We looked last week at Jonah’s disobedience and how there is a consequence: Jonah was thrown overboard and eventually swallowed by a great fish. Tonight we will look at the result of this on the life of Jonah as Jonah cries out to the Lord and the Lord answers this powerless prophet.

Jonah 2 NASB95

1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish, 2 and he said, “I called out of my distress to the Lord, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice. 3 “For You had cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me. 4 “So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ 5 “Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, Weeds were wrapped around my head. 6 “I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. 7 “While I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, And my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple. 8 “Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness, 9 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the Lord.” 10 Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.

We must acknowledge that God hears us (1-2)

One of the most incredible things that we see in Scripture and that we experience in our lives as Christians is that God not only hears us when we call to Him but God also answers our prayers! Have you experienced this to be true in your life recently? I pray that you have. Jonah experienced this in chapter 2 as he prays to God from the stomach of the fish and the Lord answered his cry. I love what David Platt says about this fish in his commentary on Jonah, “The fish is an act of God’s great mercy toward Jonah.” We view the fish as a consequence to Jonah’s disobedience, but often times whenever we experience a consequence from God we see God’s great mercy at the same time. Where is God’s mercy in Jonah being swallowed by a fish?

Jonah notes in verse 2 that he was in the depth or belly of Sheol. He was in distress and facing death and destruction. He is hopeless. We see the term Sheol refer to both a location as a place under the earth/the grave as well as a place where people go after they die before God’s ultimate judgment. Jonah cries for help because of his situation. He feared not only possibly dying but also being abandoned in Sheol. Jonah had disobeyed and he thought that he was as good as dead. Yet, even while in the stomach of a fish in the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, God hears His prophet.

Friends, God hears us whenever we call out to Him. This can be hard for us to understand because we don’t often receive an answer immediately and we often don’t get that answer audibly. This doesn’t mean that God doesn’t hear us. Often times it means that we are not listening properly. Think of Jonah’s situation here. This was a prophet who was called to go to Nineveh but he believed that he could run away from God and escape His presence out on the sea. He thought that he could sleep through God’s storm. Yet, now, in the belly of the fish Jonah finally prays to God. Do you see something significant here? Jonah waits until rock bottom to pray.

Why is this the case? Why do many Christians wait so long to finally pray and come before the Lord? As one pastor put it, “It’s because before we hit rock bottom, we think that we can handle being thrown out into the sea.” In other words, before we finally sink and hit rock bottom, we think that we can save ourselves and we can handle whatever situation we find ourselves in. Let us be mindful of the fact that God hears us whenever we pray. This doesn’t mean that He will answer immediately and in the way that we want Him to, but we certainly shouldn’t wait until the last possible second to pray to Him. We should be in constant communication and prayer with God. Ask yourself tonight, “How can I do a better job of prioritizing prayer in my personal life?”

We must acknowledge that God is in control (3-6)

Jonah says that the Lord heard his voice and then transitions in the middle verses to discuss what the Lord has done thus far. In verse 3 we see that Jonah realizes, once again, that everything that has happened thus far has been from God. Notice what we find at the end of verse 3, “All your breakers and billows passed over me.” There was a purpose in all of this and Jonah realizes this. As the great reformer Martin Luther noted, “Jonah does not say the waves and the billows of the sea went over me; but your waves and your billows, because he felt in his conscience that the sea with its waves and billows was the servant of God and of His wrath, to punish sin.” Jonah had disobeyed and deserved destruction, not deliverance. Jonah is experiencing a consequence from God due to his sinfulness. Even in the midst of this, though, Jonah continues to pray. Let this be a lesson to all of us that even in difficult moments of life, we should continue to pray and seek the Lord. This should be our message to others as well - even when life seems overwhelming and as if you are drowning in anxiety and worry, cry out the Lord because He hears us and He is in control.

I want us to camp out specifically in verses 5 and 6 for a couple of minutes as we reflect on moments in our own lives where we have gone astray and take heart in what Jonah shares. Jonah talks about how he was thrown out into the sea and the water encompassed him to the point of death and how he slowly sank. Have you ever watched the VeggieTales story of Jonah? I love VeggieTales, but the Jonah version doesn’t exactly get this part right. In the VeggieTales version, Jonah is thrown out into the sea and almost immediately the fish swims up to him and he is swallowed after a minute or so. Verse 5 seems to tell us a different story - obviously whenever Jonah was thrown overboard the sea calmed but we see that Jonah was encompassed by the water and it slowly brought him in deeper and deeper. Jonah hits the water and the Lord lets him float for a little while. Have you ever tried to just float for a long amount of time in a pool or body of water? Floating for a couple of seconds isn’t that hard but after a few minutes it can be hard to stay above water. Imagine trying to do this out at sea! This would be very difficult. Yet, we see Jonah floating and slowly sinking. Why does this happen? Once again, to emphasize the deliverance and power of God. Did Jonah smell really bad and is that why the fish came and swallowed him? No. Was the fish already underneath the ship and Jonah simply dove straight into its mouth? No. Jonah was descending slowly and says that the earth with its bars were going to surround him forever. In 21st century vocabulary, Jonah was on deaths door and he couldn’t do anything about it. He couldn’t swim harder. He couldn’t take grab a lifejacket or do anything of his own power to save himself.

This is how our lives can feel at times. Life can feel overwhelming and daunting. Before we come to know Christ as Lord this is especially true as we are dead and we don’t even know it! Yet, just as Jonah experienced being delivered into the fish literally, we experience being saved spiritually and all that comes with that. As Jonah says at the end of verse 6, “But God has brought up my life from the pit.” This is another “But God” Scripture verse. Jonah was beyond human intervention, yet God stepped in and sent a fish to save him. Once he was in the fish, though, once again there was nothing Jonah could physically do. He was truly in God’s hands.

This must serve as a reminder to us that no one is too far gone for the Gospel and grace of Jesus Christ. I love how David Platt puts it, “How deep does God’s mercy go? God’s mercy will go down to the sandbars in the ocean for a rebellious prophet who deserved to die. There is no one too sinful for God. God will hear you and He will rescue you forever.” What is our responsibility? We must believe in Jesus Christ and have faith in Him. We live as a new creation. Even in difficult times and whenever we are stranded in the middle of the storm, we trust in the Lord.

We must praise the Lord (7-10)

It is important for us to remember the full context of this book as we read the final few verses of this chapter. Jonah disobeyed God’s command initially. Jonah never prayed until he was in the belly of the fish and he never openly repented for his initial disobedience. This is a prophet who is not as spiritually mature like a Paul or an Isaiah. This is someone who is still growing and has much to learn. This is important as we examine verse 7 especially.

In verse 7 we see that Jonah remembered the Lord and he notes that he has received the grace and mercy of God and he rejoices! Jonah is fine whenever God’s mercy is helping him out, but fast forward to Jonah 4:2 and whenever Nineveh receives God’s grace and mercy Jonah throws a fit. Why is this the case? Because he thought that Nineveh didn’t deserve mercy but rather that they deserved judgment because of their wickedness! Do you see the irony here? Before we pick up our stones to throw at Jonah, though, we need to carefully inspect our own hearts because this can be easy for us to do as well, can’t it be? It can be tempting to rejoice whenever we receive divine mercy and throw a fit whenever our enemy received divine mercy. We can be tempted to play the “I’m not as bad as ______, so I deserve this but they definitely don’t” game. Why can we not play this game? Because the Bible is clear that we are all sinners. This includes you, me and the terrorists overseas who are persecuting Christians as we speak. We are all sinners and none of us deserve God’s mercy - yet He gives it to us! Who are we to say to God, “this person doesn’t deserve this”? What we will see as we continue this study is that the theme of this book is that salvation ultimately belongs to the Lord - Romans 9:15 shares this truth

Romans 9:15 NASB95

15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

For Jonah, he didn’t like this idea because the people of Nineveh didn’t deserve mercy and love from God. Yet we know that God loves us. He loves other nations besides Israel and Jonah needed to learn this lesson just as all of Israel did and we need to learn this lesson today as well as Americans. As one of my mentors put it several years ago, “God doesn’t look at a Christian in America and a Christian in South Africa and say that the American one is better.” There is this feeling that exists in many Americans that “we are the best in the whole wide world” and we are the best at lots of things. We have a great economy, we have so much freedom, we have the best military and some of the best standards of living in the world. These are good things! But whenever that seeps into the church do you see how it can be dangerous? This was the same thing that happened with the Israelites. They were God’s chosen people but they weren’t God’s only people! The kingdom is larger than any one group or nation. This is something that we must keep in mind and rejoice about!

While lots of people look at different things, thoughts, ideas and gods to save, we know that there is salvation in Jesus and only in Jesus. The Lord saves. The Lord saves whoever calls upon the name of the Lord - this is great news! Consider the change in Jonah’s life before and after going into the fish.

Before the fish, Jonah is running from God’s plan. He has not prayed to the Lord and he nearly caused the death of his shipmates. After the 3 days in the fish, Jonah is rejoicing and giving thanks to God. He is ready for his mission to go to Nineveh. What changed in the fish? He received a second chance from God. Isn’t our God a God of second and third and fourth chances? This is good news for us tonight because I don’t know about you but I need my second and third chance a lot of times because I simply miss it sometimes! Yet, our God is a God of reconciliation and restoration. Even when we go astray, as the prodigal did, He is there for us and offers mercy and forgiveness. This should make us thankful for salvation because we don’t just receive mercy once, we receive it on a daily basis, don’t we?

This is good news and we are left with the Lord commanding the fish to spit Jonah up onto dry land and this is exactly what happens. Isn’t it interesting to see how simple things work with the Lord? Jonah runs away, the Lord calls the wind and waves to go rock the boat and they do. Jonah is thrown overboard and the Lord calls a fish to go swallow Jonah and it does. Jonah is in the fish for 3 days and is ready to fulfill his duty and the Lord calls the fish to spit him out and it does. Our God is so powerful that all He has to do is say something and it will come to pass.

Conclusion

In the New Testament we see Jesus prove His divine authority with the sign of Jonah in Matthew 12:40

Matthew 12:40 NASB95

40 for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Just as Jonah was in the heart of the sea for 3 days and nights, Jesus goes into the grave/Sheol for 3 days and nights as well. This too was a part of God’s divine plan. Jonah deserved death because of His disobedience, Jesus never disobeyed and did not deserve death. As we discussed this morning, aren’t you thankful for the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross as He became our substitute and serves as our mediator right now? Jonah, like us, deserved death, but received mercy from God. We receive mercy each and every day, yet sometimes we fail to recognize it as such. May we ask the Lord to open our hearts and eyes to see His mercy in our lives each and every day. May we share this same mercy with others on the way as we see that salvation is not just for some. It’s not just for the wealthy or the intelligent, rather in the book of Jonah we see that salvation is for people from other nations as well. It’s for the sailors, for Jonah, and even for the people of Nineveh. Today the Gospel message is for all and we have a duty to share and support those who are sharing it.

As we do this and as we find ourselves in the midst of the sea, let us pray with thankfulness and joy to our God and remember all that He has done in the past, all that He is doing today and all that He promises to do in the days to come. He is faithful. I know that He can, I believe that He will, and even if He doesn’t, He is still God and I will trust in Him. Let that be our prayer and mindset this week.