Jonah - Chapter 2

Let’s Continue...

The storm, though terrifying and costly, is an act of God’s grace.

He commands the seas, which obediently confound the reluctant prophet from attempted abdication of his calling.

Think on this...God often allows storms into our lives in order to redirect our course. However, his actions are always ssssssssssasssssss, never punitive.

Question:

When storms come our way, how can we look at them from a divine perspective? What should we ask from God in them?

We must never forget; Jesus paid the full price for all our rebellion against God.

There is no punishment left for us—only grace, forgiveness, and redemption.

We can rest assured that the storms God allows our way are always for our good and His purpose.

Let’s look at verse 14…

Jonah 1:14 CSB

14 So they called out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, don’t let us perish because of this man’s life, and don’t charge us with innocent blood! For you, Lord, have done just as you pleased.”

Before they commit the deed, they commit themselves to prayer. When the storm first broke in verse 5 we find them desperately crying out to their pagan idols. As the events of the chapter have unfolded, those idols have been abandoned. It is Jonah’s God to whom they now pray.

They plead with the Lord not to blame them for what they are about to do—take Jonah’s life.

Here’s the irony that struck me...Usually we ask forgiveness after sinning. Here the request is ahead of time.

With no other options the sailors reluctantly throw Jonah overboard and immediately the seas become calm.

Taking Jonah and throwing him overboard may have been all that was left to the sailors, but it was still an act of faith.

Seriously, this is huge...There could be no going back now.

Not only were they casting Jonah into the deep, but they were casting themselves upon God at the same time.

There must have been immense anxiety among them as they tossed Jonah over the side.

Would God answer their prayer not to hold them accountable for Jonah’s life?

They did not have to wait long. The raging sea grew calm the instant Jonah hit the water.

Throughout chapter 1 the fear of the sailors has grown.

It is a steady progression, not merely in intensity but in the focus of its direction.

In verse 5 they are afraid at the storm.

In verse 10 they are terrified at their plight as they realize from Jonah’s answer that, in the storm, they have come face to face with Jehovah.

But at the point where the sea becomes as smooth as glass and it would appear the crisis is over, they are seized with a very great fear.

This time it is for the Lord Himself.

They are not seeking something from Him; they are seeking Him.

Without apparently waiting until the ship finally limps home, they offer a sacrifice and make their vows.

The vows look ahead to what is to come as they promise to serve the Lord.

Their experience is nothing less than a wholehearted conversion, having abandoned their idols during the course of the storm, and sought the face of Jehovah as the turbulent waters are subdued.

Jonah had unintentionally converted and entire crew of Gentile sailors.

Question:

Consider the poor and compromised example of obedience and service that Jonah set before the sailors. Why then were they were still drawn to the God Jonah purported to serve?

Onto Chapter 2

Before we start, let’s ask this question:

How was God present with you when you were at your lowest point?

Jonah 1:17 NLT

17 Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

Jonah 2 NLT

1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. 2 He said, “I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me! 3 You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves. 4 Then I said, ‘O Lord, you have driven me from your presence. Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.’ 5 “I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head. 6 I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever. But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death! 7 As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord. And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple. 8 Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies. 9 But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows. For my salvation comes from the Lord alone.” 10 Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.

So when we read of a great fish swallowing Jonah, it is as well to accept it at face value.

We spoke about this last week. This is not a work of fiction or a parable, it is a historical writing.

And then from inside the stomach of the fish, Jonah prays. Apart from the opening and closing verses, chapter 2 is entirely prayer—quite a change from Jonah’s silence before God in chapter 1.

We should also note that the fish is appointed by God. Even down to its precise placement within the Mediterranean Sea and the opening of its mouth, its every movement is directed by the Lord.

Has anyone in here seen the movie The Dark Knight? In a scene in The Dark Knight, the police get Batman to retrieve a criminal who has escaped to China, beyond their jurisdiction and reach. The criminal is quickly apprehended and returned to Gotham for prosecution.

God provides a great fish—the ancient equivalent of an Uber—to get Jonah back on track to where he wanted him to be (1:17).

There is no place and no one that is outside of God’s jurisdiction and his reach. We can run to the far reaches of the earth and still he is just as near as ever. David writes about this in Psalms 139:7–10.

Psalm 139:7–10 NLT

7 I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! 8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. 9 If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, 10 even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.

Jonah’s prayer

Although Jonah prays from inside the fish it is not his first prayer.

His first prayer came as he was tossed into the water.

He had gone down to Joppa, down to the ship, down into its hold, and then finally he sank down and down in the sea.

It was not the horror of drowning that terrified him, but the thought of being abandoned by the Lord in death.

Despite his long and determined flight from the presence of God, the prospect of ending his life outside the presence of God, and then for ever, are too terrifying for words.

And so, as the final seconds of his fragile life approached, he cried out in immense distress to the Lord, his God (despite Jonah’s disobedience he had never stopped looking upon the Lord as his God). In the desperation of that cry the Lord answered and rescued him.

The Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah (1:17). Suddenly Jonah is snatched violently and thrown headlong into a hot and constricted mass of rotting vegetable matter.

Through the utter confusion of what is happening to him, he eventually comes round and realizes that he can breathe—after a fashion. And then it dawns on him what has happened.

The Lord has answered his prayer for deliverance!

So now, from inside the fish, Jonah reflects on what has just happened to him.

His prayer is one of thankfulness and hope.

It is also full of description as he recalls the extremity of his trials.

From the depths he had cried and from the depths he had been heard.

Quite rightly, he does not blame the sailors for throwing him into the water but sees that the Lord has been behind all of it Jonah 2:3

Jonah 2:3 NLT

3 You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves.

Jonah acknowledges that he had been sinking down—a process that had begun before he even got to Joppa in 1:3.

The self-induced downward slide had brought him to the very gateway of death. He describes himself as being at the depths of the grave, but the Lord his God had brought his Jonah 2:6

Jonah 2:6 NLT

6 I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever. But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death!

Hope

Imagine what it must have been like inside the great fish?

The heat, the overpoweringly nauseous smell and the burning of the stomach acids must have been horrific.

Maybe Jonah was slipping in and out of consciousness and alludes to it in verse 7,

Jonah 2:7 NLT

7 As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord. And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple.

But there is hope here. The Lord who has saved him so dramatically from the water will surely deliver him at last.

Jonah could have confidence that the Lord who had answered this initial prayer would bring him final deliverance (v. 4). He would yet sing praises of thanksgiving (v. 9a) and would return to useful service (v. 9b).

The Lord’s answer

Jonah’s prayer went straight into the Lord’s dwelling place (v. 7). From there the Lord answered him (v. 2). Not only was this in stark contrast to the pagan idols who had been impotent to answer the desperate pleas of the sailors, but it was also in complete contrast to Jonah himself who had turned a consistently deaf ear to the Lord throughout chapter 1.

But we should note that while Jonah’s first prayer, from the depths of the sea, was answered spectacularly and immediately, as indeed it had to be, his second prayer from within the fish was answered after a considerably long time.

It was to be three long days before Jonah would finally be delivered.

We can only speculate what went through his mind during that period. He had no way of measuring time, of course, but it must have seemed endless. Certainly, when it eventually ended it is likely that Jonah was physically incapable of lasting very much longer.

Question:

So why did the Lord not answer sooner?

Why did Jonah’s ordeal have to be so drawn out?

Jonah probably lived the remainder of his life wondering why God had left him for such a long time before answering his prayer.

It is significant that he took the trouble to find out just how long he had been inside the fish and then record it in his narrative.

In doing so, we have an insight into God’s purposes here—a purpose which is wrapped up in redemptive history.

Jonah’s experience would be a visual aid for the disbelieving Jews in Jesus’ day. Anxious to see a sign, the Son of Man would give them just one—‘the sign of the prophet Jonah’ (Matt. 12:38–41).

After his death and burial Jesus would be in the heart of the earth for the same length of time as Jonah had been in the belly of the great fish—three days.

In other words, there was a purpose to the three days, even if Jonah never learned what it was. The initial swallowing of Jonah and his eventual discharge on to the beach were in divine hands.

But so too was everything else that occurred, including the elapse of time between those two events. With the benefit of hindsight we can see the purposes of God coming to pass even though it meant that Jonah’s pleas for deliverance from the fish were not answered immediately.

Question:

Consider Jonah’s prayer. It mostly describes his anguish. Does he actually ask God for anything in these verses?

Closing

In Closing, let’s each take time this week to meditate and ponder this lesson.

How is God speaking to you right now?

Consider this week the questions we posed:

-How are you seeking God during the “storms” in your life?

-Are you reflecting Christ’s genuine love to those who do not know Him?

-What things has God done to redirect your life toward his purpose?