Jonah: Praying

Previously in the life of Jonah… Jonah is a Prophet of God who was called to Nineveh in order to share a message of repentance to the Ninevites. Jonah refuses to do so and he gets on a ship that is going in the complete opposite direction of Nineveh. God sends a great storm and the sailors are terrified and cast lots to determine whose cause this great storm is. The lot fell on Jonah and Jonah suggested that they throw him overboard for the storm to stop. The sailor at first refuse but then realized that there was no other option. They throw Jonah overboard and then the sailor repent and worship God.

Jonah on the other hand is now in the belly of a great fish.

This is most definitely a story that is told among a group of men who are trying to one up each other.

I feel like this entire book should have started with the phrase “Guys you are not going to believe this!”

This crazy story gets even crazier the longer we read it.

Jonah who was completely ready to die to finalize his running away from God. Now is having second thoughts once death became inevitable.

Today we are going to dive into Jonah’s prayer and it is unlike a prayer that we would typically pray if we were in the belly of a fish.

Jonah’s prayer is a prayer of thanksgiving even though it doesn’t seem like it at the beginning.

Let’s begin by reading Jonah chapter 2:

*PAUSE*

Jonah 2 ESV

1 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. 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. 4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ 5 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; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. 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!” 10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

A quick reminder to clear up any speculation. Whenever this book was written it was after Jonah had already completed the call to tell the Ninevites. So Jonah was not actually in the belly of the fish sitting by a campfire writing this prayer out, however this is Jonah’s prayer in which he said while in the fish.

The craziest thing about this entire book is that throughout all of the storms and running away from God, this is the first time that Jonah has prayed. Jonah did not pray while he was on the boat and all the other sailors were praying to their gods. Jonah didn’t pray until it was almost too late.

This should be a reminder to us all that God wants us to pray and as Christians we need to pray. We also should not ever look at prayer as a last resort like Jonah but rather it should be our first thought. We cannot be a disciple apart from praying to God. If Jonah would have prayed before boarding the ship, how much turmoil would he have possibly missed? Prayers is our way of communicating to the God of the universe and we should look at it in that way.

Also did you catch the whole purpose of his prayer was thanksgiving. Jonah praised God for the big fish and thanked him for the fish. Jonah thanked God while in the middle of a fish’s stomach!

Think about that for a second!

A typical person if they were being tossed around inside a fish’s stomach contents they would not be praying and thanking God.

With that in mind lets look at what Jonah’s thankfulness made him understand and thus applicable to us:

1. Being thankful helps us understand our corruption.

Jonah 2:2–6 ESV

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. 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. 4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ 5 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; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.

Whenever we become thankful for God then we truly realized how corrupt we are as humans.

We are thankful for God’s mercy because we are a corrupt people.

Jonah is in the worst possible pit known to man whenever it comes to running from God.

He is in a literal belly of a large fish. In this belly imagine all of the smells and liquids that are constantly surrounding him, but yet he still believes and trusts in God and is even thankful for God.

Jonah begins his prayer by proclaiming how far away he has ran and that he is in great distress. This should not be a surprise to anyone that he is in great distress, however what we do see is that even though Jonah is living in complete disobedience to a Holy God he is thankful and is completely aware of his corruption.

NEWSFLASH: None of us are good. None of us are perfect! None of us deserve heaven, because all of us are sinners. There is not a single person who can make themselves righteous by living a good life.

Romans 3 further demonstrates this point.

Romans 3:10–12 ESV

10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

We have to get out of the mindset that we are basically good people because that allows for us to think that we are good enough on our own for salvation. We have to realize that God is merciful on those who do not deserve mercy. We need to be thankful for that mercy.

Whenever we are thankful for God’s mercy we are thankful because we are unworthy of His mercy.

Jonah is a prime example of that, because he is a prophet who has been used by God and yet still is running away from him. Jonah prays to God in the middle of his distress

AND

God answers his prayers because he is repentant.

This is an awesome reminder for us that first of all we are not at all worthy of God’s mercy because we are corrupt sinners who are in complete opposition of a Holy God. BUT God reveals His mercy to us through forgiving us when we call on him.

Whenever we are running from God we can always call back to him because first of all we can not ever lose our salvation but second of all because God is a great God.

God not only forgave Jonah but God also restored Jonah to complete his calling.

Lets reread verses 5 and 6.

Jonah 2:5–6 ESV

5 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; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.

In Jonah’s prayer the scene returns back to the water.

So many times we think Jonah is swallowed by the fish the moment he is thrown into the water, but that is not exactly what scripture says.

The fish did not swallow Jonah until he reached the bottom of the ocean! Jonah understood that death was inevitable.

BUT GOD

appointed a fish to be his salvation.

Jonah is thankful for God because without him he would have died.

We just like Jonah were headed for death until God intervened in our personal lives. Before this there was absolutely nothing we could do to be good enough. We are only saved through Christ. God saves those who call upon his name even though none of us deserve it.

Thankfulness brings about our realization of our own personal corruption.

Jonah’s thankfulness also brought about a reconstruction of his priorities.

2. Being thankful helps us understand our priorities.

Jonah 2:7–8 ESV

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.

We can get so caught up in the here and now that we forget the reason why we even live. Jonah realized that when life comes to an end nothing else matters except for Christ. Jonah’s prayer was that God would hear him and forgive him.

This shows that even though Jonah deserved to die at the bottom of the ocean, that God is still merciful to him.

Through Jonah’s near death experience he reassessed his own personal priorities. Jonah is praying to God and understands that in the end God is all that matters.

The idols that the Israelites worshipped, the multiple other gods that the sailors worshipped, and even the gods that each of us worship do not matter in the end.

We have an idolatry problem as a culture because our lives revolve around us.

Our top priority is whatever makes us happy.

Our top priority is how does this or that affect me.

We all have idols or gods in our lives that so quickly take place and precedence over God.

Tim Keller defines and idol as this:

“An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, ‘If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.’”

The crazy things about our idols is that they necessarily aren’t bad things… but they become terrible things whenever we place them over God.

What are some of our idols as a culture:

Cell phones

Social Media

Our body image

Our reputation

Raising children to be the best athlete

Raising children to be the smartest in their class

Alcohol

Drugs

Sports

and the list can go on and on and on.

In the end these idols are not going to save you at all. They may make you life more comfortable on this side of eternity, but have no power in our salvation.

These idols that we have made our reason for living will not save you when you are done living.

Only God can save us through Christ his son. We need to stop living our lives in a way that puts God as a second tier citizen because in the end He is the only One who matters.

Being thankful helps us to understand our own corruptions and to prioritize our lives to make God our sole purpose of living.

In reality though these “idols” are not bad things and can and should be used to point other people to Christ.

3. Being thankful helps us to share the Gospel.

Jonah 2:9–10 ESV

9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” 10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

The story of Jonah is an evident story that there is not a single person that is too far for salvation or redemption.

Jonah is thankful that God has shown mercy to him whenever he doesn’t deserve it. His thankfulness showed him the importance of sacrificing to God. Jonah realized that God saved him from death and that now he is going to sacrifice an animal deemed perfect for sacrificing. Jonah was at the brink of death but wants to sacrifice to God.

We are should be just like Jonah. We were all on our way to eternal death with absolutely no hope at all until God intervened in our lives. We unlike Jonah are not called to sacrifice animals to God, but we are called to sacrifice something to God. What is it that we sacrifice to a Holy God...

Our time.

Our energy.

Our things.

Our idols

We can use our “idols” to draw people to God. You can use your hobby as you evangelism tool!

But ultimately our lives.

Jonah sacrificed to God what was acceptable and we should be sacrificing to God everything that we have because everything we have is a product of God’s mercy on our lives. We should lives our lives as living sacrifice because we are thankful for what God has done for us.

We must never become so complacent in our lives that we forget to thank God for all he has done.

Once Jonah is at the depths of the Ocean does he finally proclaim that Salvation is from the LORD. What God had originally called him to preach among the Ninevites is finally proclaimed from the Belly of the Fish.

Jonah is thankful that Salvation is from the lord because there is nothing else that could save him.

Whenever he got to the lowest points in his life and everything seems to be against us him then he proclaims that salvation is from the Lord.

Why did he have to get so low to be so thankful for God’s salvation?

We can see that the most important thing that any of us can focus on is the salvation of God.

We must share this salvation with everyone because first of all we are saved because God loved us who don’t deserve it. So since we don’t deserve it we should be thankful that we have it.

Since we are thankful we should be spreading the Gospel throughout the entire world. Thankfulness brings about sharing what we are thankful for.

There is a quote from atheist Penn Jillette, of the magician duo, Penn & Teller.

I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward—and atheists who think people shouldn’t proselytize and who say just leave me along and keep your religion to yourself—how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?

“I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.”

Thankfulness brings about an urge to share Christ with all of those around us.

In closing,

being thankful shows us our corruption.

Being thankful shows us our mis aligned priorities.

Being thankful pushes us to share the Gospel.

We need to be thankful for a merciful God and actually let our thankfulness produce action.