“Strange Prayer in a Strange Place”

Series: “God Speaks”

Text: Jonah 2: 1-10

Introduction: (What?)

Once I took my Youth Group to Santa Catalina Island for a weekend retreat. We took the 26-mile trip by boat from Long Beach, CA out to the island. Once we had stowed our gear, we had them to take their Bibles and walk several blocks to a small church. As they entered the building, we took away their Bibles and flashlights. We ushered them into a room with a single candle in the middle of the floor, and no place to sit except on the floor. There we had a very unique prayer meeting and worship service in a very unique place. However, Jonah prayed a strange prayer in an even stranger place.

Explanation: (Why?)

1. Weird Prayer Room (vv 1-3;5-6)

Song writer Jerry Reed wrote a song recorded by Ray Stevens that mentioned a strange place for prayer.

The Preacher and the Bear by Jerry Reed The preacher went out a huntin', it was on one Sunday morn' It was against his religion, but he took a shotgun along He got himself a mess a' mighty fine quail and one old scraggly hare And on the way home he crossed the path of a Great big grizzly bear Well the bear got down lookin' ready to charge The preacher never seen nothin' quite that large They looked each other right smack in the eye Didn't take that preacher long to say bye The preacher he run till he spotted a tree He said "up in that tree's where I auta be" By the time that bear made a grab for him The preacher was a sittin' on top a that limb Scared to death, he tuned about He looked to the sky and began to shout, Chorus; Hey lord, you delivered Daniel from the bottom of the lion's den You delivered Joana, from the belly of the whale and then, The Hebrew children from the fiery furnace so the good book do declare Hey lord, if you can't help me, for goodness sake don't help that bear.

This particular prayer was prayed from the limb of a tree. One person when asked about their where their most fervent prayer was prayed said, “Hanging upside down in a well, with my foot tangled in a rope.” In scripture we find

Sixteen unusual places to pray:

1. At altars of animal sacrifices (Gen 12:7-8; Gen 13:4)

2. Walking in the open field (Gen 18:23-33)

3. At a well (Gen 24:12-14)

4. At a wrestling match (Gen 32:24-29)

5. On a talking donkey (Num 22:34)

6. In chains bound to a mill (Jdg 16:28-31)

7. On an ash pile (Job 2:8, Job 2:13; Job 3:1-26)

8. In the belly of a fish (Jon 2:1)

9. In Sheol/Hades (Jon 2:2; Luk 16:19-31)

10. Standing in a river (Luk 3:21-22)

11. In a wilderness (Luk 5:15-16)

12. At a grave (Joh 11:41-42)

13. On a cross (Luk 23:34-46)

14. In a dungeon (Act 27:23-35)

15. In a shipwreck (Act 27:23-35)

16. Under an altar (Rev 6:9-11)

In our passage today we find #8 in the list; the belly of a fish. “Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish: I called out to the LORD in my distress, and He answered me. I cried out for help from deep inside Sheol; You heard my voice. You threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas, and the current overcame me. All your breakers and Your billows swept over me. The water engulfed me up to the neck; the watery depths overcame me; seaweed wrapped around my head.” (2: 1-3; 5-6) Notice that Jonah prayed to “the LORD his God”. Even though Jonah was being radically disobedient, he still belonged to God.

Sometimes our most effective praying takes place in the most unusual locations. You may have your prayer altar set up where you regularly go for prayer, and that is good. However you should be aware that wherever you might need to pray, God is already there. The Psalmist noted in Psa 139:7-12 “Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. If I live on the eastern horizon or settle at the western limits, even there Your hand will lead me; Your right hand will hold on to me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night’---even the darkness is not dark to You. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to You.”

If someone asks you to pray for them, the best time is right then and the best place is right there. It could be in the aisle at church; it could be in the grocery store, the gas station or a restaurant. There is no place too weird to pray.

2. Who done it? (vv3; 6b)

Another thing to notice from Jonah’s prayer is that God is the One who engineers our circumstances so that we will turn to Him in prayer. In v 3 & 6b he said, “You threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas and the current overcame me. All Your breakers and Your billows swept over me.” “Then You raised me from the Pit, LORD my God.” Jonah acknowledged that the LORD his God was the perpetrator.

On the news this week I saw a church that had burned and the remains were being demolished. The pastor and some of the members were standing by watching the demolition. A news reporter asked if they were sad to see the demolition. Interestingly enough they said, “No, because God has a better plan for this location.” They were convinced that God was not surprised when the building burned, or that the remains were being demolished. They understood that whatever they were going through, God was somehow in on it.

When we were younger we used to marvel that the “old folks” would talk about “the good old days” when they had very little. Often they barely eked out a living. In retrospect they realized that God was at work behind the scenes, and the difficulties they experienced made them the people they later became. We came to realize that God was never caught “off guard” by anything that happened to us. He either caused it or allowed it for the purpose of, as Paul put it, “conforming us to the image of Christ.” The answer to “who done it?” is often, “our Sovereign God did”.

3. Desperate Prayer (vv4;7-9)

In verse 4 Jonah acknowledge that God had temporarily expelled him from His sight. Yet, he did not confess his sin of disobedience. “But I said, ‘I have been banished from Your sight, yet I will look once more toward Your holy temple.’” All Jews prayed “toward the temple” because that is where they believed that God was on earth. Those who were far away would pray toward Jerusalem. Daniel prayed from a window which faced toward the direction of Jerusalem.

In this part of Jonah’s prayer he acknowledged his circumstances but took no ownership of the reason for his circumstances. As some people would say, “he was not on praying ground”. When we approach God in prayer, regardless of how dire our situation, we must remember what the Psalmist said, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the LORD will not hear me.” Psa 66:18. Though Jonah prayed a beautiful prayer, we have reason to think that God’s actions following the prayer were solely to keep His plan in place regardless of Jonah’s unrepentant spirit.

Jonah closed his prayer in vv 6-9. “I sank to the foundations of the mountains, the earth’s gates shut behind me forever! Then You raised my life from the Pit, LORD my God! As my life was fading away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to You, to Your holy temple. Those who cherish worthless idols abandon their faithful love, but as for me, I will sacrifice to You with a voice of thanksgiving. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation belongs to the LORD.”

We don’t know what Jonah had vowed. If we give Jonah the benefit of the doubt, we might surmise that in his vow he somehow consented to go to Nineveh. We do know that he did the same thing that the formerly pagan sailors did. He sacrificed to the LORD and made vows, whatever that means. In his prayer Jonah simply explained his situation and said, I remembered the LORD. Who wouldn’t in such circumstances? This was not even “fox hole” praying. Unless there was more to his prayer than is recorded here, Jonah didn’t even say, “ if You will save me, I’ll go to Nineveh” unless that was the vow that he said he would fulfill.

In v. 10 we see God’s continuation of His plan for Jonah. “Then the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.” What happens next…you’ll find out next week.

Application: (How does this impact my life today?)

From the experience of Jonah to this point we learn that

We can’t run from God

There is a price to pay for disobedience

Prayers of panic, may overlook the fact that God will not hear them if we have unconfessed sin in our lives.

God’s purposes will be fulfilled with or without our compliance.