The Chastening of the Reluctant, Rebellious Prophet: Jonah Chapter 2
Today's message is a continuation of a study on the book of Jonah, which we started last week.
Please turn to the book of Jonah, which is between Obadiah and Micah, just a few books before Matthew which is the first book of the New Testament. If you are using a pew Bible, Jonah Chapter 2 is on page 1324.
Last week, we saw how Jonah said NO!, and tried to run from God. Really, if you think about it, it's a bit funny in a sense: a prophet, someone who knows God only too well thinking that he can hide from Him.
When Jonah tried to run off to Tarshish, God did the first of 10 miracles in the book of Jonah, 5 of which appear in the first chapter; after Jonah said NO, God made the wind to BLOW.
We also saw how God can use the discipline dealt to us in the salvation of others. While God was dealing with Jonah, the pagan sailors went from praying to gods without life, merely pagan gods, to giving their lives to the true, living God.
The second miracle was when the lot fell on Jonah, showing him to be the cause of the problems they were having with the storm.
We saw how the hearts of these heathens were changed through the whole trial, coming to a high point when they saw the only solution was to THROW Jonah into the violent sea. We see the third miracle when God calmed the storm, followed by God preparing a great fish as the fourth miracle. The fifth miracle was Jonah being swallowed by the great fish.
So much in such a short chapter of a book from God's word. Yet, there is more to come.
Here's the three key words to today's message:
Despair, Dedication and Deliverance.
Jonah 2:1-10
1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish's belly.
Now, let's step back abit, looking to the last verse from last week. Jonah was swallowed by the great fish and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
The question comes up--could this have happened? Could a man actually live in the belly of a large fish in the sea? Wouldn't the man die of either drowning, or from being chewed up?
There have been some interesting interpretations of this section of Scripture. J. Vernon McGee thinks that Jonah actually died and was resurrected, and honestly I can't say that this wasn't the case. In fact, the more that I study this the more I do think that it's possible.
Here's the argument in short: McGee and Dr. M. R. DeHaan both believe that the terms "Sheol" (hell in KJV) "the pit" (corruption in the KJV, something that I'll review in a moment). McGee states that he believes, and I hold to this too, that when old Jonah was on his way down from the mouth to the stomach of the fish that he was saying his prayer of repentance. The dedication and deliverance happen after Jonah was raised from the dead. Again, I can see McGee's point, and I think that it's possible. It sure does read that way, and it would fit with Jesus relating to Jonah also.
Is there a fish that could sustain a man's life for three days? The answer is, believe it or not, yes.
(Read portion from McGee)
So, is it possible? Sure. Whatever the view that we have, whether resurrection or survival, both are miracles by the hand of God.
2 And he said: "I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, and He answered me. "Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice.
The way that "I cried" is written in Hebrew is using two different words. The first word, a verb or an action word, means "to call aloud", which is used many times in the Old Testament. (Use instance--call out to a person). But when it is used the second time, it means "a cry for help", particularly a scream to God. (Mention Patty when Rhonda went to the hospital).
3 For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your billows and Your waves passed over me.
Now think just for a moment of the trials and tribulations that we all go through in our lives. We know that in most every trial that we go through that it seems that we don't deserve the trial, that we should find a way out. More often than not, the trials that we endure are from our own making. Although we don't see clearly that this is the case, we do sometimes see this and we know that we messed up big time. As I've said so many times before, you can avoid the sin but you can't avoid the consequences of the sin.
4 Then I said, 'I have been cast out of Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.'
Here is where Jonah really sees the consequences of his sin, and that he could have avoided it. He was in a repentant mindset, and was ready to get right with the Lord.
Here's a neat little thing about this chapter: when Jonah prays "toward Your Holy Temple" he was speaking of the command that was given to the Jews to pray in the direction of Solomon's Temple, where God's Glory, also known as the Shikinah glory, resided. In the Old Testament, the Temple in Jerusalem was where all worship to Jehovah God occurred. If you wanted to pray and worship God, it was at the Temple. The High Priest went into the Holy of Holies, where God's Glory resided. He would offer sacrifice to cover the sins of the Jews.
Now, we are going to see this phrase "Your Holy Temple again in a minute, and you'll see that it means something different.
5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; the deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head.
I know that when I grew up, I had this picture of Jonah in the belly of the whale in my mind that is anything but true. I had the idea that Jonah would have been like Pinochccio was depicted in the movie, and that he could start a fire and get out. I had this idea that things would be nice and cozy.
Well, let's take a closer look at the scripture. First, how many here have ever gutted a fish? I know it's gross. But the inside is cold, damp and smelly. Hey, even if this was a whale, it would still be damp and smelly, but also hot, damp an smelly!
And it's not as though he had a dry place; in fact, the waters surrounded Jonah so much that it seemed to surround his soul. I'll tell you what I think about this here--have you ever gotten so cold that you could feel it down to the bone? Well, I think that Jonah felt the cold and damp right to the bone.
And he knew that he was going down under the water, too. We've watched the toned down version of the movie "Crimson Tide" a submarine battle flick. There's a scene when the ship, the USS Alabama, goe to 1800 plus feet below the ocean and the ship almost imploded. See, the pressure of all that water at that depth would have crushed the Alabama like an aluminum pop can.
Now with the pressure that had to be exerted on the whale, don't you think that Jonah's ears would have popped, or that he would have had other physical feelings that would have occurred to him? Sure. That's how he knew that he was going to "the deep".
Now let me paint you a picture of what Jonah was going through. First we see that Jonah was in the stomach of a living creature, and that water was all around him. It's warm and damp, and stinks to the high heaven. But, that's not all. There would have been hydrochloric acid, and that would have burned his skin, not to mention the eyes and other mucus membranes.
Then, the animal dives, causing pressure to be exerted on Jonah's person. Fear rushes in on Jonah, and he can't even move because of the seaweed that is tangled around him everywhere, including his head. He's captive in a creature, and can't even move.
6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains; the earth with its bars closed behind me forever; yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God.
Now here's a kicker. For those people that say that science is right and that Christianity is wrong, all you have to do is to point them to this verse.
Good science is okay. For instance, we know that gravity exists. But for those people that say that we came from a monkey, I have to say what I saw on the bumper sticker of a friend's car--"There's no monkey in my family tree!"
Anyway, look at this: According to D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and the Christian Radio Show "Truths that Transform", mountains, channels and abysses (deep ravines) in the ocean floor were only discovered in modern times.
Look at this:
1504 Juan DeLeCasta--first soundings of the ocean floor; he said that the ocean floor was flat, and sandy like a desert.
1873-British ship Challenger in 1873 was outfitted soley to examine the sea bottom, vast channels 4500 fathoms, 5.5 miles of chasms in the sea.
WWII, with the advance of echo technology, showed a vast number of chasms and abysses
Yet, what do we see here? The Bible tells us that mountains are under the sea. When was the book of Jonah written? About 722 years BC, or before Christ. That would mean that since the discovery of abysses and chasms weren't discovered until 1873, then this would mean that over 2500 years before the official discovery of the terrain in 1873 Jonah wrote about them in the Word of God.
We also see the mention of bars which are small undersea "wrinkles", and Jonah paints a word picture by using them almost as prison bars.
God rescued Jonah from what Jonah thought to be a watery grave.
7 "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple.
Instead of praying toward a "temple made with human hands, Jonah prayed "up" to God, to His Holy Temple. This speaks of Jonah praying to God, remembering that God is in charge, and that he did have a repentant heart.
(Review repentance)
8 "Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy.
Like I mentioned last week, you can't run from God. Some people skip out on church, and skip out on those that they know are Christians because, though they might not admit it, they are running from God. The darkness hates the light, and we can see in these two passages of God's Word that this is indeed the case:
I Jn 1:5-10
5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
Here, John uses a figure of speech to show the difference between God, who is light (truth) and that there is no evil, no unrighteousness at all in Him.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
How many people are in the pews today, or say that they are saved but live like they are straightway from Hell on Monday through Saturday? How many? When people like this are associated with the church, is it any wonder that the unsaved people call us hypocrites? The word hypocrite comes from the Greek word "hupocrates", which means to wear a mask. To fill the part of an actor. To act like someone that they aren't.
When we act like the unsaved, with foul language, watching movies and TV shows that we shouldn't, hanging around a crowd that we shouldn't, gossiping about others and always finding fault, is it any wonder the unsaved are leary of us?
7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light (do what He commands in His Word), we have fellowship with one another, (each other and fellowship with God) and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
(Story by J. Vernon McGee)
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
The truth is the Word of God, and that we are saved and living it.
9 If we confess (homologeo) our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Fellowship can be restored by asking
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
Would I call God a liar? Not on a bet.
James 1:23-25
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. (NKJ)
Like I've mentioned here before, our sin problem can be right in front of us and we just might miss it. Sometimes we don't see the sin because we are just hearers of the Word, but not doers of the word. This is what happened to Jonah; Jonah knew the Holy Scriptures and that God's assignment to the Jews was to be a light of truth to the world. Yet, Jonah did as other Jews and sometimes we do too--he turned tail and ran away.
You can avoid the sin, but you can't avoid the consequences of the sin that you commit. This is what happened to Jonah.
He let his heart become embittered toward his enemy, and did not want to see them saved. In fact, he wanted to see them dead.
We know the difference by yielding to God, praying to Him and studying His word. But it's not enough to know the Bible, we must live it. When we know the Word and do the Word, we will be blessed out of our socks!
9 But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD."
Did you thank God today when you got up? When you ate breakfast? When you missed a deer in the last week or so that was standing beside the road as you buzzed by? Do we work together with God, thanking Him? Do we just use God as a 911 call?
God wants us to be in a deep relationship with Him, and he holds out His hand to you. If you are saved, He longs for you to be closer to Him. If you aren't saved, and want that close relationship with Him, why wait? If God is calling to you, to either come closer to Him in service or if He's tapping you on the shoulder to invite you into His family, go to Him today.
"Salvation is of the Lord." It is God that does the work. It is God who provides the faith in your heart. It is God who calls to you, and seeks you out.
Salvation is actually three part. First, we have been saved, past tense. When you were saved, if you are saved, God gave you eternal life and it started right then.
John 5:24
24 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. (NKJ)
Second, we are being saved, present tense. God continues to work in our lives, changing us and molding us into newer better images of Him. But we don't ever become perfect. Just more in His image.
Sanctification (being set apart) and Salvation (being saved from eternal death) go hand in hand. We become more and more dedicated to His service as we go on our path, and we become less and less like the "dead in our trespasses and sins" former selves.
Third, we will be saved, future tense. When we die, we are freed forever from our old sinful fleshly desires. We will be saved from that forever.
10 So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. (NKJ)
What a way to end the story, being puked up on the beach.
But the story doesn't end right there. The story will continue next week when we will see the greatest one month evangelistic crusade in the history of the earth.
God Gave Us His Word--I Jn 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in (trustworthy belief) the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Rom 6:23a For the wages of sin is death (first death is physcial, second death next)
Rev 21:8 "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."(also is eternal separation from God and all that's good)
Rom 6:23b ...but the gift (can't be taken back) of God is eternal life in (or with) Christ Jesus our Lord.
Rom 10:9-10, 13
9 that if you confess (Gk on the same page) with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in (trustworthy belief) your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Rom 10:13 For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.(from eternity in torment)"
