Surrender

Today, we conclude our sermon series studying the book of Jonah. We can summarise the series in this way: rather than being resistant, reluctant, and resigned, our salvation in Jesus Christ compels us to be responsive, receptive, and rejoicing as we go willingly into this world with the Good News!

Last week, we left Jonah he’d been hurled into the Mediterranean Sea. You recall, he was in the process of running in the opposite direction from where God called him to go. He was running away from God, and God was ardently pursing him. While he was sleeping below-decks, the Lord God sent a violent storm upon them, such that the sailors feared for their lives. They offered sacrifices to the sea god, the land god, the storm god, any god they could think of, but nothing worked. Finally, they woke up Jonah to get him to pray to his God.

After casting lots to discover who was the cause for the storm, the lot fell to Jonah. Jonah explained who he was and what he was doing. He told them, "In order to save the ship, you must throw me overboard. Offer me as a sacrifice to the Lord God who is in heaven, who created the sea and the dry land."

After a valiant effort to row to the shore, they hurled him into the sea. Now, this is how my mind works… how did they hurl him? Did some of them grab him by the arms, some by the legs and then, one, two, three, hurl him overboard? Or did two guys lock their hands together, get him to put one foot in their hands, and then, one, two, three catapult him overboard?

As a result of the storm, and Jonah’s testimony, was that the sailors feared the Lord exceedingly. They offered a sacrifice to Him, and made vows. Here we see God’s grace and patience. Even in Jonah’s sinful act of defiant disobedience, God used him to bear witness to these sailors. God used him to evangelise them. And the sailors prayed, and made vows. As I mentioned last week, it is my hope that they kept their vows, and they found a saving faith in the coming Messiah.

While Jonah was in the now calm sea… I wonder how much time passed between being thrown overboard, the immediate calm, the sacrifices of the sailors, and the great fish? Was there a moment, when the seas were calm, when Jonah was treading water, that he was able to look over at the ship, and the captain and the sailors looked at him and they thought, hey, why not haul him back aboard?

Were they in the process of getting ready to throw him a rope when all of a sudden, the fish came up and opened its mouth and swallowed Jonah? You can almost picture the sailors turning to one another and saying, “Did you just see what I just saw? Yes, yes I did.

It seems unbelievable, doesn’t it? How can a man live in the belly of a whale? Let’s stop thinking from our point of view, and look at things from God’s point of view. God created the universe, simply by speaking. God can do whatever he wants with his creation. He can just as soon cause a tremendous storm as end it. He is not bound by anything, he is almighty God. What is harder to believe? That Jonah spent 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of a whale, or that Jesus rose from the dead after 3 days?

Just as the Lord provided ravens to feed Elijah, so the Lord appointed a large fish, a leviathan, a whale, one of his creatures to save him. Thus Jonah was saved from the sea by God, and was kept alive in the belly of the fish. And, in the darkness, in the fear, in the loneliness, in desperation, Jonah prayed to God! He had been fleeing from God, he saw how foolish he was, and he turned to God in prayer.

Now, one more point to make here, the distress we are in can be caused by our own sin, yes. But our distress can also be caused by the sin of another person, a catastrophe, the loss of income, loss of a loved one, our health, anything. It is when we are in such situations that we are compelled to call out to God. Indeed, we see in the scriptures, not only in Jonah’s case, but in all of Israel—and here, Jonah seems even to be a foretaste of the exile that would come first to the Northern Kingdom, Israel, and then to Judah. Most of Israel would be taken from their homes and brought into captivity, first by the Assyrians and their dreaded capital city of Nineveh, and then by the Babylonians. Why was the exile necessary? To motivate the people of Israel to repent.

When God sent the storm upon Jonah for disobeying him, what happened? When God exiled Israel for worshipping other gods, what happened?

In each case, they turned back to God in repentance. Jonah turned to God in a prayer of confession: “In my distress, I called out to the Lord. He answered me.” Yes, of course God answered him, he did everything so that Jonah would call out to him, so that Jonah would be in a place to hear God’s answer.

Jonah described his situation: out of the belly of Sheol I cried and you heard my voice.

Jonah, knowing he was as good as dead, knowing that his circumstances had put him in a terrible place, he turned from his willful disobedience and did the only thing he could do—he prayed to God, and God heard his prayer.

Jonah’s feelings here are on full display. He was cast into the deep, far, far way from any human help. He was tossed to and fro, cast down and down and down. He was in the very depths of the earth. He could not do anything to help himself. He was fully at the mercy of God and God’s creature.

And there, at his most helplessness, he did the one thing he could do: he remembered God’s goodness. He remembered God’s promises, like Job did, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:25-27). Jonah’s words echo Job’s, “I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.”

And still, Jonah went deeper. Still holding onto the promises, he described his near drowning, down, and down he went. Despair filled his heart and his mind. He thought he would die. But then he confesses, “yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you in your holy temple.”

Brothers and sisters, there are many times in life when we despair. We are all growing weary of COVID. Some are perhaps fearful and uncertain about the future. What will the economy look like? Are we racing to inflation? Are we racing to more and more uncertainty? Are we racing to the collapse of western civilisation? Do you feel as helpless as Jonah did?

In his moment of doubt, fear, and loneliness, Jonah called upon the Lord, and the Lord answered him. Three days and nights he was in the belly of the whale. The Lord took a good time to answer, but he did answer.

In our present moments of doubt, fear, and lonelinesss, we must call upon the Lord. Do not waste this time. Do not waste COVID. Do not waste this opportunity to turn to the Lord in faith. The Lord will answer our prayers also.

Jonah reminds us in verses 8 & 9, “Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with a voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

Maranatha congregation, do not pay regard to vain idols and forsake your hope of steadfast love. The world is constantly pushing and pressing. But the world follows after the devil, the father of lies. He is constantly asking, “Did God really say?” Maybe Jonah was tempted to think, “Did God really call me to preach to Nineveh?” Do not pay attention to the flattering words of the devil. Do not listen to him.

Now is the time to pray to the Lord God. Yes, there are a lot of changes happening in Maranatha right now. Just as Jonah cried out to God from the belly of the great fish, so it is opportunity to cry out to God. Don’t waste this opportunity. Invite the Lord to examine your hearts. Invite the Holy Spirit to identify your motivations, your hopes, your plans, your dreams. Invite the Holy Spirit to identify and shape Maranatha’s hopes, plans and dreams. Bring everything in alignment with God, and His Word.

Jonah, in the belly of the whale, finally learned to surrender. Surrender, Maranatha, to the Lord your God. Surrender to Him. Surrender to His Will, to His Word. Stop pretending and playing church. Stop seeking your own preferences and couching them as though they are the Lord’s. Stop treating one another carelessly. Stop gossiping and slandering. Stop treating some people differently than others.

Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh. Jonah believed they were his, Israel’s enemy. But God had mercy upon them, God provided Jonah to preach to them so that they repented. But theirs was only a surface repentance. It didn’t last, and eventually, Babylon swallowed them up too.

Let the Holy Spirit cut you to your heart. Spend time in prayer with God daily. He will show you the way you should go. Turn to the Lord in prayer, as Jonah did. The Lord delighted in Jonah’s prayer. The Lord answered him, and the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

The Lord God caused Jonah to suffer many uncomfortable things, unbelievably difficult things—do you think he was ever able to get rid of that fish smell? But the Lord did so in order to vomit Jonah into obedience. Let us all learn from Jonah, so that we don’t have to go through what he did! Amen.