Jonah 2.7-9-Jonah Completes His Song Of Thanksgiving To The Lord For Delivering Him From Death
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday October 31, 2010
Jonah: Jonah 2:7-9-Jonah Completes His Prayer Of Thanksgiving To The Lord For Delivering Him From Death
Lesson # 34
Please turn in your Bibles to Jonah 2:1.
This morning we will complete our study of Jonah’s song of thanksgiving to the Lord for delivering him from death by noting Jonah 2:7-9.
Jonah 2:1, “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.” (NASU)
“While I was fainting away” is a temporal clause indicating that “while” or “when” Jonah’s life was passing or slipping away due to drowning, he remembered the Lord or in other words, he prayed to Him for deliverance.
It refers to the onset of physical death resulting in a permanent loss of consciousness in the physical body due to physical trauma.
Here it does not refer to “fainting” resulting in a temporary loss of consciousness since Jonah is speaking in the context of drowning but rather, it speaks of Jonah’s physical body “passing” or “slipping away” due to drowning.
Physical death would result in a loss of consciousness in the physical body but not outside the body since the soul continues to exist outside the physical body after physical death.
“I remembered the Lord” refers to Jonah petitioning the Lord in prayer to deliver him from death and parallels “I call out” in verse 2.
“And my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple” indicates that as a result of Jonah petitioning the Lord for help in delivering him from drowning to death, the Lord answered the disobedient prophet and saved him from drowning.
The fact that his prayer was answered by the Lord indicates that he prayed in faith since answered prayer requires faith and is thus an expression of confidence in God’s ability to meet one’s need (Matt. 8:10; Luke 7:9; Matt. 9:22; Mark 5:34; Luke 8:48; Matt. 9:29; 17:20; Luke 17:5; Mark 9:29; Matt. 21:22; Mark 11:24; 1 John 3:21-22; James 1:5-8; 5:15).
“Into Your holy temple” refers specifically to the holy place in Solomon’s temple and describes Solomon’s temple as set apart exclusively for the worship of Yahweh or in other words dedicated solely for the use of worshipping Yahweh.
Israel is commanded to pray nowhere else but toward Yahweh’s dwelling place, which He had chosen and designated as to be in the temple in Jerusalem (cf. 1 Kings 8:38; 2 Chronicles 6:29; Daniel 6:10).
In Jonah 2:8, Jonah declares that those who worship idols forfeit God’s mercy available to them.
Jonah 2:8, “Those who regard vain idols forsake their faithfulness.” (NASU)
“Those who regard vain idols” refers to man’s attitude of having reverence for worthless, impotent idols and speaks of having a worshipful trust and reliance upon an idol.
Psalm 31:6, “I hate those who serve worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord.” (NET)
“Forsake their faithfulness” is referring to idolaters “forfeiting” the mercy that God gives to sinners.
In relation to idolaters among God’s people, if they confess their sin of idolatry they will receive mercy from God in the sense that they won’t be disciplined by Him.
However, if they don’t confess it and obey God’s Word, they will forfeit God’s mercy in the sense that they will be disciplined (Proverbs 28:13; Isaiah 55:7).
In relation to heathen idolaters, in the Old Testament if they trusted in Yahweh, they received mercy from Him in the sense that they received the forgiveness of their sins and were entered into a covenant relationship with Him.
However, if they did not trust in Him, they “forfeited” the mercy that God would have given them in the sense that they “forfeit” the forgiveness of theirs sins that was available to them if they have trusted in Him.
In relation to idolaters, among church age believers in the New Testament, if they confess their sin of idolatry, they will receive mercy from God in the sense that they won’t be disciplined by Him and will be restored to fellowship with Him.
However, if they don’t confess it, they will “forfeit” God’s mercy in the sense that they won’t be restored to fellowship and will be disciplined.
In relation to heathen idolaters, in the New Testament, if they trust in Jesus Christ who is the Yahweh of the Old Testament, they receive mercy from Him in the sense that they receive the forgiveness of their sins and are entered into union with Christ and identified with Him.
However, if they do not trust in Him, they “forfeit” the mercy that God would have given them in the sense that they “forfeit” the forgiveness of theirs sins that was available to them if they have trusted in Him.
So mercy is available to both the believer and the unbeliever and is appropriated through faith.
Jonah appropriated God’s mercy that was available to him as a member of the covenant people Israel by exercising faith in the Lord by praying to Him for deliverance from death.
In context, Jonah is thanking the Lord for the mercy he received from Him even though he was disobedient to the Lord and refused to go to Nineveh and proclaim judgment against it.
God’s love is “merciful” meaning that God is compassionate towards His enemies and pardons them (Eph. 2:1-7).
Mercy is God acting upon His policy of grace and withholding judgment and is a manifestation of Who God is and is thus helps to compose His glory (Ex. 34:7).
The mercy of God is related to the believer’s salvation since God saved them on the basis of His mercy and not on the basis of human merit or actions (Tit. 3:5).
Jonah 2:8 as well as the entire prayer of thanksgiving implies that Jonah has confessed his sin of rebelling against the Lord and fleeing from his service commission to the Lord and not going to Nineveh to proclaim judgment against it.
This is further indicated in that in Jonah 3, we have Jonah obeying the Lord’s command. Jonah confessed his disobedience to the Lord and repented, i.e. changed his attitude and went to Nineveh.
However, Jonah 4:1-2 reveals he did not confess his hatred of the Ninevites and did not repent of his attitude towards them.
In Jonah 2:9, Jonah vows to fulfill his promise to offer a sacrifice to the Lord and publicly praise him and affirms that salvation belongs to Him.
Jonah 2:9, “But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the Lord.’” (NASU)
“But I will sacrifice to You” is setting Jonah in contrast to idolaters by emphasizing that he offers a sacrifice to the Lord with thanksgiving.
It refers to Jonah offering Yahweh a sacrifice by killing an animal as an act of worshipping Him.
“With the voice of thanksgiving” indicates that Jonah’s sacrifice of an animal would be accompanied by a song of thanksgiving to the Lord for sparing his life.
In Old Testament Israel, formal expressions of thanks which Jonah speaks about were made at the Temple and prior to this structure, the Tabernacle (Leviticus 7:12-15; 22:29).
Along with the words of the thank offering, the worshiper was to bring food in the form of cakes of both leavened and unleavened bread, unleavened wafers, cakes of fine flour and meat.
These would be eaten with the priest in the presence of the Lord and all of the meat was to be eaten on the day it was offered (see 2 Chronicles 29:31; 33:16; Psalm 50:14, 23; 107:22; 116:17).
This prepositional phrase in Jonah 2:9 refers to an offering that was also a song of praise (2 Chronicles 29:31; Nehemiah 12:27; Psalm 42:4; 69:30; 95:2; 100:4; 147:7; Isaiah 51:3; Jeremiah 30:19).
“That which I have vowed I will pay” refers to Jonah performing that which he promised to do, which was to offer a sacrifice in the Temple accompanied by a public declaration in the form of a song of thanksgiving to Yahweh for delivering him from drowning.
“Salvation is from the Lord” speaks of Jonah’s deliverance from drowning when the Lord sent a great fish to swallow him and ends this psalm of thanksgiving as well as summarizes the song’s theme and echoes Jonah chapter one since both chapters end with vows of sacrifice.
The fact that the Lord delivered these pagan idolaters from death and not just Jonah was to teach Israel who read this book that God is the God of the Gentiles and not just Israel as Paul taught in Romans 3:29.
Jonah was being taught along with Israel that God will save whomever He chooses to whether Jew or Gentile as Paul also taught in Romans 9:14.
The Lord is rebuking Jonah and Israel’s racial bigotry towards the Gentiles.
Salvation whether spiritual or physical is not exclusive to Israel but is available to the Gentile as well as long as they turn to the Lord in faith.