Jonah 2

Introduction:

An atheist confronts a group of students who are handing out tracts and praying for people at a shopping center....

As the storm raged and the sea turned, it was determined that Jonah was the source of this supernatural wind. When the mariners asked what they should do to Jonah that they might be saved he told them to throw him overboard.

v.15 they hurled Jonah into the sea.

This seems to be the end of Jonah. Surely, it seems it should be.

He fled the presence of the Lord.

He rejected the word of the Lord.

So now He was experiencing the judgement of the Lord.

But, God is a God of compassion of restoration, and of second chances.

Remember he called Jonah to be a prophet.

He determined that his compassion would be experienced in Nineveh, and nothing would hinder that.

Lamentations 3:22–24 ESV

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

As Jonah was sinking down into the raging sea God’s sovereign power comes into view when he appoints a great fish to swallow up Jonah.

God the creator of all things - Gen 1:21 “So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm,..”

It was not God’s plan that Jonah would finally be swallowed up by the sea, but that one of his creatures would swallow him up in a great act of compassionate care.

What we have in Chp.2 is an account of Jonah’s response to being swallowed up by the compassion of God in the belly of a fish. .

Jonah Pursued the Presence of God (vv. 1-4, & 7).

v. 1 - “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish...”

Jonah is no longer fleeing the presence of God, but pursuing it.

He is no longer trying to find a place where he can be away from the far reaching compassion of God, but clinging to hope that could only be found in him.

Now, let me say, I do believe this was a literal fish. Just like I believe God sent a supernatural storm to display his judgement against Jonah’s disobedience, I believe God sent a great fish to display is compassion to Jonah and the people of Nineveh.

God had designed this fish for this very purpose.

Last week I made the point that in the depths of despair something must die.

Being swallowed by the fish allowed Jonah to experience the compassion that he was commissioned to share with Nineveh.

It has been said that “You can’t take people where you haven’t been.”

Think about it. Jonah, as a prophet, was appointed as a prophet to take the compassionate message of God to a disobedient people - people Jonah believed deserved God’s wrath. But now he was just like the Ninevites, he was disobedient, deserving God’s wrath, but God extended compassion to him.

Jonah was now experiencing the very compassion he would later lead Nineveh to “turn from their evil ways” (3:8).

In the belly of the fish...

Jonah 2:2 “[Jonah] 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.”

Here we see a reversal of chapter 1. Jonah is now pursuing the presence of God from the deep depths of his fear and distress.

We know that Jonah was in a really bad situation, yes b/c he is in the belly of a fish, but he says, “out of the belly Sheol I cried.”

“Sheol” is the place of death. This does not mean that Jonah died, but that he felt as if he was being swallowed up by death when he was sinking down into the depths of the raging sea.

However, Jonah knew God was still in control,

Jonah 2:3 “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.”

Even though Jonah knew he was under the sovereign judgement of God he called out to him with confidence - he believed that he would worship again in the presence of the Lord.

Jonah 2:4 “‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’”

Jonah 2:7 “When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.”

Jonah, in his distress, remembered the covenant promises of God. “By faith, he looked toward God’s temple (the only way to look was up!) and asked God to deliver him; and God kept His promise and answered his call.”

The Holy Temple...

1 Kings 8:38-40 - When Solomon dedicated the Temple he asked the Lord for special favor upon those who look to the temple “whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all your people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart and stretching out his hands toward this house [Temple], then hear in heaven your dwelling place and forgive and act and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways (for you, you only, know the hearts of all the children of mankind), that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our fathers.”

Church, Like Jonah....

When you are facing the consequences of sin, you can trust that if you cry out to the Lord he will restore you.

Jonah Pursued the Word of God (vv. 2-5).

Back in v.2 Jonah said that the Lord answered him. He cried out to the Lord anticipating a response.

He had been fleeing the word of the Lord, but now he looked to the word of the Lord for comfort.

Through out these verses, Jonah references the Psalms as a source of comfort 8 Xs.

Scripture is and lasting source of comfort for the people of God in times of sorrow is scripture.

Jonah recalls the confidence and cries of David.

Ps. 88:6-7 “You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. ”

Ps. 69.1 “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.”

Ps. 31.22 “I had said in my alarm, “I am cut off from your sight.” But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help.”

When facing the consequences of sin, the HOPE you need is contained in the word of the Lord.

In Deut. 5-6, God had given the 10 Commandments to the people of Israel, and in chp. 6 Moses explains that when they enter the promised land they are to keep his law, that they should respect the Lord from generation to generation by keeping his commandments all the days of your life.

Deut 6:4-8 ““Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”

Moses is telling God’s people to know his word, to know his laws, and to teach in every way possible the next generation so that they will not depart from them.

But, to have God’s word is more than just knowing it....

Deut. 6:18 “And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you...”

David further confirms the blessing of pursuiung God’s word when he says in Ps. 119.11 “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

And Solomon, in his wisdom declared, Proverbs 30:5 “Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.”

Church, saturate your life with his word so that you can recall and share it in moments of celebration and crisis.

Jonah cried for the help of God, from the word of God, b/c he believed God would save him.

God Provided Deliverance (v.6, & 10).

Jonah recognized that his situation was as bad as it gets.

Jonah 2:6 “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.”

As Jonah was being swallowed up there was no hope or earthly help. He had descended to “the roots of the moutains.”

He was so deep that he believed he had been entombed by the weight of the sea.

“I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever...”

Like a fortified city, Jonah viewed the underworld as having a gate which was locked secure by bolts and bars: there could be no escaping from it. Once in Sheol, Jonah would be imprisoned there for ever.

Yet, salvation comes from the Lord.

Jonah 2:6b - “You brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.

Jonah’s descent downward was dramatically changed. When Jonah could go no further and sink no lower, God raised him up.

Jonah had done nothing to deserve divine rescue, but God had sovereignly snatched him from the grave.

Interesting - Not everyone will enjoy this salvation...

v. 8 - “Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.”

God’s sovereign salvation is only enjoyed by those who pay regard to the Him rather than to idols.

You see the salvation of the Lord is not universal.

Jonah declared that when we worship idols we forsake the grace that could be ours.

Deut. 32.21 “They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols.”

When we trust in the things of the world - at some point, we will realize that our idols are powerless.

But, the goodnews is salvation belongs to the Lord and we can turn to him and worship!

Jonah declared “with a voice of thanksgiving sacrifice to the Lord, and fulfill his vows.

Jonah’s words echo those of the mariners in Jonah 1:16, and are most likely a rededication of his vow as a prophet of God.

That which he initially set out to avoid, the presence of God and the word of God, he was now clinging to and celebrating!

Salvation belongs to the Lord.

Church, we can be confident in God’s sovereign compassion for his people.

God, in his compassion, has given Jonah a second chances.

Jonah 3:1-2 “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time...”

In all that we have seen, God was compassionately correcting Jonah like Jesus did the church at Ephesus in Rev 2:5 “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first (repeat). If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”

God sent a storm so he would remember his unchanging presence.

God sent a fish so he would repent of his sin.

And, God sent the opportunity for Jonah to repeat the job he was commissioned to do by commanding the fish to spit him onto dry land.

CONCLUSION |

Church, The compassion of God provides a second chance for those who trust in him by faith.

Rahab,

Joshua 2 - is defined as a prostitue.

Matthew 1 - is defined as the great-grandmother of Jesus.

James 2 - she is praised for her obedience to God!

This is the compassion of God!