Jinah's Repentance
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Intro
Intro
Jonah’s rebellion had only one conclusion: Disciplin from God.
11 Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.
12 And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.
14 Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee.
15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.
17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Charles Spurgion said: “God never allows Hisd children to sin succsesfully” and Jonah is proof of that.
As scripturew says:
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
For us to rebel against the will of God as Jonah did is to invite the chastising of God into our lives.
And Jonah could have said as the Psalmest said:
18 The LORD hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.
This chastizing was a terrible ordeal for Jonah and produced its goal - sorrow.
Why would a loving God want to induce sorrow in those whom He loves?
10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
Let us now examine the repentance of the Prophet.
As soon as Jonah moves from Rebellion to repentance God gratiously gives him a new begining.
God is so good.
1: He prayed for Godf’s Help
1: He prayed for Godf’s Help
1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly,
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
There are 2 kinds of prayers in the bible: Those born out of Affliction and trhose which come from affection.
God will have his people pray and which one matters not, though He would prefer us to pray from affection.
I have said it countless times: God is concernet with your charicter and not your comfort.
If comfort causes you not to pray, then comfort is easily removed.
as the Psalmest powerfully confessed:
67 Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.
71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
God heard Jonah’s cries for help.
Prayer is an ongoing miracle in the Christians life. That God can hear each of our prayers amoungs the millions that are prayed and have the same time and patience to deal wich each one of His children as thougfh they were the only ones is a true miracle of God;’s power.
William Law said:
“he who has learned to pray has learned trhe greatest secret of a holy and happy life”.
6 In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.
2: Jonah accepted the Lord’s Discapline
2: Jonah accepted the Lord’s Discapline
3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
The sailors diddnt cast Jonah into the sea, God did “Thou hast cast me...”.
By saying those words Jonah was acknowledging that God was discaplining him and that he deserved it.
We love to blame others for our sins but untill we accept responcibility we have not repented.
How we respond to discapline will determine how much we benifit from it.
According to Hebrews 12 there are several ways to respond:
1: We can dispise God;s discipline and fight it.
5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
2: we can be discouraged and faint.
5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
3: We can resist the discapline and invite even stronger punishment, potentually even death.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
or 4: we can submit to the discapline and mature.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Discapline is to the Christian what training is to an athlete: It enables us to run trhe race and reach the goal.
11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Also:
The very fact that God discaplined Jonah so severly is proof that Jonah truly was a child of God, for God only disciplines his own children.
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
3: Jonah Trusted in God’s Promises.
3: Jonah Trusted in God’s Promises.
4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
Jonah was only heading in 1 direction: Down.
Remeber how with Abraham every time he went “down” it spelled trouble? Well look at Jonah:
He want DOWN to Joppa and then went DOWN into the sides of the ship.
3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
Now Jonah was going DOWN to the bottom of the mounatns
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
and would end up going DOWN into the fishes belly.
The point: When you turn your back on God the only diurection your life will go is down.
What saved Jonah?
Simple: His faith in the promises of God.
4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
In his darkness in the belly of the fish Jonah reached out by faith and claimed the following promise:
38 What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:
39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)
40 That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.
When you have gone so far down the only place to look is up.
There are so many promises of restoration and forgivess for the christian.
perhaps the most famnous is:
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
It does not matter which promise you reach for cause each and every one of them is garanteed by Jesus Christ Himself.
20 For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.
4: Jonah Yealed to the Will of God
4: Jonah Yealed to the Will of God
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.
Repentance is not complete untill it ends with you waying the white flag of surrender and submitting to God.
Jonah admits that he valued his own will greater than that of God.
It is a deeply personal and precious moment to see him humble himself.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Jonah concludes his prayer by giving a solomn vow to God, vows he fully intened to keep.
as the Pslamest also said:
13 I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay thee my vows,
14 Which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble.
This promise to God was an attempt at bribary, it wasd a responce to grace.
We must not be tempted to make promises to God as an attempt to “get out” of our discapline.
Many Christians promise God to never do it again, never go there again, never say that again and to do this or that.
But most times they are not vows born from mercy but panic promising to be spared.
Jonah could not have saved himself and no bosy on earth could have helped him.
But the Lord could, and the Lord did.
9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.
This verse is quoted from psalm:
8 Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.
and
39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the LORD: he is their strength in the time of trouble.
How wise of the prophet to have memorised scripture, scripture which helped him put his trust in God.
If you were swalloed up by a whale today, how much of the bible would you have in your mind to take with you?