Jonah 2:1-7

I called on your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit.  You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.” You came near when I called you, and you said, “Do not fear.”  Lamentations 3:55-57 (NIV)

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:  Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.   Lamentations 3:22-26 (NIV)

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.  From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.  To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever.  But you, brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God.  “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.  Jonah 2:1-7 (NIV)

The Psalmist tells us in Psalms 42:11:

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?  Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.  Psalms 42:11 (NIV)

In Robert Morgan’s wonderful little book, The Red Sea Rules (which BTW I highly recommend to everyone!) he writes:

“Realize that God means for you to be where you are.”  

“So, take a deep breath and recall this deeper secret of the Christian life:  when you are in a difficult place, realize that the Lord either placed you there or allowed you to be there, for reasons perhaps known for now only to Himself.  The same God who led you in will lead you out.”  Robert J. Morgan 

But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, “The Lord be exalted!”  Psalms 40:16 (NIV)

God is never taken by surprise by our circumstances and each one that He allows in the life of His children is to be instrumental in conforming us into the image of His Son.  He does not want us to be “kicking against the goads” so to speak against His best for our lives – be it ever so hard.  Like Jonah being in the belly of the great fish, there is purpose for the pain.  Also, hardships are no sign that we are not in the center of God’s will, mature and fully assured.

On to our protagonist…

Jonah’s prayer was a great affirmation of God’s faithfulness and availability.  Jonah realized that nothing could separate one of God’s own from Him, and no situation could ever prevent a sincere prayer from being heard by God.  Paul tells us in Romans 8:33-39:

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns?  Christ Jesus who died —more than that, who was raised to life —is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.   Romans 8:33-39

James 5:16 also tells us:

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:16

Like the returning prodigal’s father who came running towards his son, God is ever watching for the return of His wandering sheep – wooing them back with His everlasting love, mercy and grace.  He always remains faithful even when we do not.  He will never disown His own.  Remember Peter’s bold claim of faithfulness forgetting to take into account the weakness of his own flawed flesh?  Matthew 26:35 tells us:

But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.  Matthew 26:35 (NIV)

And after the crucifixion and resurrection the angel’s precious words of Jesus regarding Peter to the trembling Mary in Mark 16:6-8:

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’” Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.  Mark 16:6-8 (NIV)

Out of love, sweet Jesus has the angel mention Peter specifically just so that he would know He hadn’t given up on him!  He always meets us exactly where we are, does He not???  Even in our failures!  For instance, this week I was having a major pity party with my computer continuing to be down (now for over a week) and not being able to do my devotionals nor prepare for this study today.  Couple that with not having a study of my own anymore (that was always so peaceful and quiet, BTW) and presently living amidst constant activity buzzing around me making it so hard to think much less concentrate!  Out of the mayhem, God has a missionary friend call me and proceeded to meet me right where I was – praying over me in the sweetest way and encouraging me on.  God meeting me right where I was through my friend’s call strengthening me (as well as calling me to task!) and praying over my life.  That’s what Jesus does for us! God often comes to us all wrapped up in the flesh of others!

God often demonstrates His love to His children through His children!  He has not given up on me…or you either…and He knows exactly what you are going through - the intensity of the heat and what that heat is to bring about in your life.  And He is ever faithful and loving toward all He has made.  Just as He was for Jonah!              

Faithfulness is rooted in God’s character.  When the fear of death had gripped Jonah, in the gravest of perils the prophet prayed, and his petitions rose to heaven.  God listened to his cry for help and went to his rescue.

What do we do when we find ourselves in the “belly of the whale” so to speak?  Especially when it is of our own doing? Do we try to fervently work our way out in our own strength, or do we mistakenly depend upon the arm of man to save us?  Perhaps could it be that we fall apart and freeze like deer in the headlights or sadly spiral down on any substance or habit that can possibly mask or dull or put a mere band-aid over our hurt and pain.  The correct answer always lies in rushing to the feet of the only One that can save us and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Take it to the foot of the cross.  He is our ever-present help in times of trouble and at all times for that matter.  He is our front Guard and our rear Guard going before us and behind us.  He will never let the righteous fall.  Nor does He ever leave us nor forsake us.  Actually, when we are in our direst need or troubles - even under the tokens of God’s displeasure against our sin as was our protagonist - we must pray.  This will bring the beauty out of the ash because anything that causes us to run to Him in prayer is a good thing.

Remember, however desperate a person’s situation, God listens to prayer and can bring deliverance.  In Jonah’s case, what the sailors could not make the sleepy prophet do in Chapter One of Jonah, the fish accomplished in Chapter Two.  In his distress he called to the Lord and the Lord answered.  If God had put him there, he reasoned, then only God could deliver him, and Jonah knew he had become a rebel whom God might not want to deliver.  As Jonah pictured his plight, he was as good as dead unless the Lord intervened.  Any deliverance had to come from God – and it still does! 

In the beginning of this section, Jonah is reminiscent of King David’s prayer in Psalm 18.  Indeed, the whole Psalm is a prayer of deliverance.  In David’s case it was from King Saul and in Jonah’s case it was from the belly of the great fish.  Whatever our enemy, prayer is our answer – the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much.  Psalms 18 of David begins very similar to Jonah’s prayer:

I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.  He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.  I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.  The cords of death entangled me;

the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.  The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.  In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help.  From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.  The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry. Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.  He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.  He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.  He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—the dark rain clouds of the sky.  Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning.  The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.  He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies, great bolts of lightning and routed them.  The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, Lord, at the blast of breath from your nostrils.  He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.  He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.  They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.  The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.  For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I have not done evil by turning from my God.  All his laws are before me; I have not turned away from his decrees.  I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin.  The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.  To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.  You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.  You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.  With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.  As for God, his way is perfect:  the word of the Lord word is flawless.  He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.  For who is God besides the Lord?  And who is the Rock except our God?  It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.  He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.  He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.  You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great.  You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.  I pursued my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back till they were destroyed. I crushed them so that they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet.  You armed me with strength for battle; you made my adversaries bow at my feet.  You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, and I destroyed my foes.  They cried for help, but there was no one to save them — to the Lord, but he did not answer.  I beat them as fine as dust borne on the wind; I poured them out like mud in the streets.  You have delivered me from the attacks of the people; you have made me the head of nations.  People I did not know are subject to me.  As soon as they hear me, they obey me; foreigners cringe before me.  They all lose heart; they come trembling from their strongholds.The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior!  He is the God who avenges me, who subdues nations under me, who saves me from my enemies.  You exalted me above my foes; from violent men you rescued me.Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O Lord; I will sing praises to your name.  He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever. Psalms 18

Jonah’s prayer, like King David’s, is directed to the Lord his God.  Suddenly, we discover Jonah was fleeing no more from God’s presence.  He confesses that even though he had been banished from God’s sight, he would yet look again toward the holy temple and pray.  He is reminding himself and perhaps seeking to remind God of Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 8:27-30 at the dedication of the Temple:

“But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.”   1 Kings 8:27-30

And God’s precious response to that in 2 Chronicles 7:11-16:

When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace, the Lord appeared to him at night and said:

“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.  “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.”  2 Chronicles 7:11-16 (NIV)

Do you realize that now we are the temple of the Lord as well?  We are told by Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:16:

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?  1 Corinthians 3:16 (NIV)

And again in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.  1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)

And lastly in 2 Corinthians 6:16:

For we are the temple of the living God.  2 Corinthians 6:16 (NIV)

Jonah is seeking God’s presence in prayer and claiming Him once more as his Lord.  The Prophet’s focus was on restoring his relationship with God and by faith claimed the promise and looked toward God’s temple (BTW, the only way for him to look was up!) and asked God to deliver him; and God kept His promise (as He always does!) and answered his call.  Jonah new God’s covenant promises, and he claimed them.  This is a good word for us as well.  In our prayers, God loves for us to claim His promises by praying them back to Him.  And we will see he honored Jonah for doing so as well.  From an experience of rebellion and discipline, Jonah now turns to an experience of repentance and dedication and God graciously gives him a new beginning.  Jonah no doubt expected to die in the waters of the sea but when he woke up inside the great fish, he realized that God in His mercy had graciously spared his life.  As with the Prodigal Son, whom Jonah in his rebellion greatly resembles, it was the goodness of God that brought him to Repentance.  Paul tells us in Romans 2:4:

Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance? Romans 2:4 (NIV)

It was the goodness of God that brought Jonah to repentance and gave him a new beginning – a clean slate as it were.  And aren’t new beginning’s wonderful?  There is nothing quite like a clean slate is there?  A clear conscience is a blessing indeed!  The writer of Hebrews states in Hebrews 9:13-14:

The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!  Hebrews 9:13-14 (NIV)

Again, King David writes in Psalms 32:1-5:

Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.  When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;

my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.  Selah.  Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.  I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”- and you forgave the guilt of my sin.  Selah.  Psalms 32:1-5 (NIV)

We never want to wallow in unrepentance in a broken relationship with the Lord of all creation.  Remember, if we cherish sin in our hearts it breaks our relationship with Him.  The psalmist cries out in Psalms 66:16-18:

Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me.   I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue.  If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.  Psalms 66:16-18

Rather, a broken and contrite heart the Lord will never despise.   After David’s fall with Bathsheba he writes in Psalms 51:16-17:

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.  Psalms 51:16-17

As Jeremiah told us in Lamentations – God’s mercy and faithfulness are new every morning – praise Him!  And, as the Prophet Isaiah also tells us, in repentance and rest is our salvation.  Isaiah 30:15 states:

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.”  Isaiah 30:15 (NIV)

Let us not follow the example of the Israelites in Isaiah’s time, rather let us run to Him, as our Prophet Jonah did, and seek Him in prayer, knowing to be true what Isaiah had penned in Isaiah 30:18:

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion.

For the Lord is a God of justice.  Blessed are all who wait for him!  Isaiah 30:18

We do ourselves the greatest injustice by waiting to turn in repentance to the Lord.  It appears that the effect of Jonah’s experience in the belly of the great fish had converted the rebellious prophet into a prophet of prayer and thanksgiving, and that, my sweet friends, was a very good thing.  Albeit, Jonah’s prayer was born out of affliction rather than affection.  He cried out to God because he was in danger, not because he delighted in the Lord.  But better that he should pray compelled by any motive than not to pray at all.  It is doubtful whether any believer always prays with the purest and holiest motives – Amen??? Certainly, our desires and God’s directions sometimes conflict.  Sadly, like many people today, Jonah saw the will of God as something to turn to in an emergency, not as something to live by every day of one’s life.  And for that he was the loser.  He could have saved himself (and others) much trouble and expense if he had been willingly obedient at first.  

Jonah was experiencing what the sailors experienced during the storm:  He felt certain he was perishing.  Yet, no matter how fearsome the deeps are for frightened humans, God is always in control of the flooding waters and it is His intent to use these waters to bring blessing and victory to His people rather than curses and defeat.  Like a refiner of gold, He is ever conscience of the heat of the fire always seeking to see His reflection.  It is good for God’s people, and especially preachers, to remember what it is like to be lost and without hope.  How very easy it is for us to grow hardened toward sinners and lose our compassion for the lost as did Jonah.  As He dropped Jonah into the depths, God was reminding him of what the people of Nineveh were going through in their sinful condition.  Like Jonah, they were both helpless and hopeless.  Jonah sank as low as he could go – his journey spiraling downward in Chapter One is now finished.  Like we said last week, when you turn your back on God, the only direction you can go is down.  He had reached to the roots of the mountain and humanly speaking escape was impossible.

Oceans of ink have been spent trying to explain how Jonah could have lived inside the fish, literally the wording is, “in the womb or entrails of the fish.”  The Bible is silent on this and expends no effort on such details.  It simply assumes God can accomplish such miracles as the fish was provided by Him in Jonah 1:17. Those critics who dismiss the story of Jonah as a myth or fable, reject the miraculous element of the God of the Bible.  Controlling one great fish is not too difficult a problem for the God who can cause the sun to stand still or divide the Red Sea.  Jesus treated the Book of Jonah as an historical fact, comparing Jonah’s experience in the belly of the fish to His own time in the tomb in Matthew 12:40:

“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”  Matthew 12:40 (NIV)

God heard Jonah’s cries for help from the “belly of the whale” and He will hear our cries as well.  Prayer is one of the constant miracles of the Christian life.  To think that our God is so great that He can hear the cries of millions of people at the same time and deal with their needs personally is mind boggling!  God is willing and able to provide for all His children, no matter where they are or how great their needs may be.  

“He who has learned to pray, has learned the greatest secret of a holy and happy life.”  William Law

I have found this to be true: Through earnest prayer, God will either change my circumstances or change my heart in my circumstances – either way, I am ultimately blessed.  Also, I know God always elevates His Word.  Therefore, to claim His Word in prayer, praying and claiming His promises over ourselves and our families back to Him as Jonah did with his words:  “yet I will look again toward your holy temple” (Verse 4) and “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.” (Verse 7) – God will bless that endeavor.  He will never go contrary to His Word.  Ever.  It is the firm foundation upon which we can stand because it stands firm in the heavens - eternally.  As in Jonah’s case, he reminded God of His promise to Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:11-16 – “Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place” – and prayed so effectively.       

Our Prophet goes on to say in Verse Three of Chapter 2:

You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.  Jonah 2:3

Jonah was acknowledging that he accepted God’s discipline.  It wasn’t the sailors who were responsible for casting our Prophet overboard into the stormy sea, it was God Himself.  When Jonah spoke the words “You hurled me into the deep” he was stating that God was disciplining him and that he deserved it.  He knew he was in the wrong for running away from God’s will.

How we respond to discipline from the Lord is hugely important as it will determine how much benefit we will receive from it.  According to Hebrews 12:5-11 we have several options:

And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”  Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.  Hebrews 12:5-11 (NIV)

This passage tells us that we can despise God’s discipline by making light of it and by not taking it to heart; we can also be discouraged, fainting and growing weary from it; we can resist it and invite stronger discipline, possibly even death; or we can submit to the Father of our spirits and live, maturing in both faith and in love.  Discipline is to the believer what exercise and training are to the athlete.  It enables us to run the race with endurance and reach the assigned goal without losing heart.  The fact that God chastened His servant is proof that Jonah was truly a child of God, for God disciplines only His own children.  God is desirous that every child of the King reaps a harvest of righteousness and peace that only comes to those who are trained by discipline.  Never resent God’s discipline for He always has our best interest at heart.      

These are Beth’s personal notes, due to this fact sources are not often stated.