Message
Jonah 2:1-10
Rescued by a Merciful God
The story is told of an emergency meeting of the church council called by the senior pastor. At the end of the meeting with nothing accomplished, the pastor looked around and then said, “There’s nothing left to do but to pray!” One of the overseers looked at the pastor and replied, “Oh, no! Has it gotten that bad?”
This is what God says in the Psalms, about prayer:-
Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honour me.
Psalm 50:15
Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!
Psalm 66:20
He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea.
Psalm 102:17
Therefore let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found; surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them.
Psalm 32:6
We can come to God on any occasion, in any circumstance. No matter what we have done. No matter what emotional state we are in. Nothing should stop us from coming to God.
Yet we do … often … stop.
And when we do we stand in a long line of people who did the same.
Today I’m specifically thinking about Jonah.
Especially in light of that last verse. Therefore let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found; surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them (Psalm 32:6).
Let’s read about the situation.
Jonah 2:1-10
When we read this prayer we do need to recognise that it is a faithful prayer. Indeed Jonah incorporates into this prayer a multiple number of Scripture connections.
In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me (Jonah 2:1).
I call on the Lord in my distress, and he answers me (Psalm 120:1).
But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit (Jonah 2:6).
Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit (Psalm 103:2-4)
Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them (Jonah 2:8)
I hate those who cling to worthless idols; as for me, I trust in the Lord (Psalm 31:6)
What we are seeing here is one of the blessings that come with reading the Word, and meditating on the Bible, and allowing ourselves to be covered with the Scripture.
When we are in distress, or we are struggling in life, or we are even at a point where we are in rebellion.
If we know the Scripture and it is a part of our journey we can dig into that well.
Using the words that God himself has used to form our prayers, to come before God, and to speak to him. Allowing this aspect of our journey to move us forward in our relationship with God when we are momentarily stuck.
How often have you had it … that in a situation a Scripture comes to mind which absolutely speaks into that situation.
Or you are looking for wisdom, and then a word of the Scripture comes up and you know that is the wisdom for the moment.
Keep filling up your spiritual reservoir with Scripture in the days when you are close, and feel blessed, and are just so grateful for the presence of Jesus and his love. So that in the days of drought, and discord, and distance, and distress you have a deep reservoir of Scripture to call upon which will come in ways you never expected or imagined.
In his days of rebellion Jonah goes to the reservoir and he prays.
But what sort of prayer is this?
In many ways it looks like a prayer of repentance. Where Jonah comes to his senses and humbly confesses before the Lord that he has sinned. Jonah here sees that Nineveh should know about the mercy of God and it is up to Jonah to prophetically bring that message.
That is what the prayer looks like. And if the book of Jonah finished at the end of chapter 3 I would be very comfortable identifying this as a prayer of repentance. But the book doesn’t finish at chapter 3. It goes on to chapter 4. In chapter 4 we have another prayer of Jonah.
But to Jonah this (the staying of judgement) seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Jonah 4:1-3
When it comes to prayer … well Jonah’s examples show us a different prayer dynamic.
In chapter 4 he prays in anger.
What about here in chapter 2?
There is a prayer phenomenon called a fox-hole prayer. This type of prayer was first identified in the context in the wars of old, especially World War 1. In these wars soldiers would build trenches called “fox-holes”.
One army was here.
The enemy was 100m away, in their foxholes.
Regularly soldiers were called to run across the open space and try and take the opposite trench. Or because they were so close mortar shells would be dropped and it was easy to be injured or to die. A fox hole prayer is the prayer of utter desperation: “God, if you get me out of this I will do anything you want.”
Jonah is praying a fox-hole prayer.
Look at the timing of the prayer
From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God (Jonah 2:1)
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help (Jonah 2:2)
I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight (Jonah 2:4)
You, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit. “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.” (Jonah 2:6-7)
The prayer comes out of sheer desperation. Jonah thought that he just wanted to be thrown into the sea and end it all. But when he is going down … down … down … he finally calls out. His prayer reflects the desperation. It is a fox-hole prayer.
Look at Jonah’s attitude in prayer
You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas (Jonah 2:3)
That is not what happened. Jonah didn’t want to repent while he was on the boat because he didn’t want to go to Nineveh. So he got the sailors to throw him overboard.
Which when you think about it is a cruel thing to do isn’t it. “I’m the cause of this storm and it is my God that is bringing the storm – but if you throw me overboard it will stop.”
Jonah doesn’t even have the integrity to step off the boat himself.
Now Jonah is trying to reframe the whole narrative … God you hurled me. You are to blame for my predicament. If you do I will sacrifice to you. It is a fox-hole prayer.
When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord (Jonah 2:7)
This is after he has been brought up from the pit. As he sits in the belly of the fish thinking that this could be the end … slowly being digested as fish food … in is then that he remembers.
But he doesn’t remember that maybe he should confess his sin.
And he doesn’t remember that the Lord has been the one who acted first. It was the Lord who provided the huge fish. It was the Lord who prevented Jonah from sinking to the very depths. Jonah doesn’t remember that. In fact Jonah is starting to put a whole new spin on the events as they have unfolded.
I called to the Lord …
I called for help …
I will look again toward your holy temple …
I remembered you, Lord …
My prayer rose to you …
I … I did it. My piety. My spirituality. My efforts. I don’t remember the desperation, I just start thanking myself. It is what often happens after a fox-hole prayer.
Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. (Jonah 2:8-9)
Watch me God. I’m not like those heathens who don’t worship you. I am so much better. I’ll follow you. I’ll be faithful.
That is going to come back and bite Jonah isn’t it. Because at this very moment on the surface on a calm sea those so called worthless-idol-worshipping mariners and calling on the name of the Lord. And their fear of God has become fear … awe, wonder, reverence … for the Lord.
I’m not like others. I have a better spiritual life. I can say that now. But I conveniently forget that in the midst of the desperation I behaved in exactly the same as any other person who forgets God. I really don’t want to admit I uttered a fox-hole prayer.
Desperation. Self-congratulation. Piety and spiritual accolades. Comparison.
This is Jonah’s prayer.
There is no confession or repentance.
There is no humility.
There is very little acknowledgement of just how merciful God really has been.
It isn’t really much to offer is it.
Yet Jonah is rescued by God’s Unanticipated Mercy.
Fox-hole prayers … may be uttered in complete desperation; but God still hears them. And God still responds to them.
Not because we have humbled ourselves.
Not because we have said the right words.
Not because we have the right attitude.
And certainly not because somehow we are better than others.
But just because his character is mercy.
In his mercy the Lord keeps Jonah in the belly of the giant fish for three days.
A rebellious prophet, with nothing more than a fox-hole prayer, preserved. Till that moment when Jonah is suddenly thrust out of the belly of the fish and vomited onto dry ground. Saved from death and given life.
It is a moment that fully encapsulates the mercy of God. So much so that, centuries later, it becomes a sign.
38 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” 39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 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 12:38-40
What is the sign?
A place which ought to be a place of definite death, after three days proves to be a place of life.
A belly of a giant fish.
And the heart of the earth, which is a tomb.
You don’t go into these places and expect to return. But Jonah did. And Jesus is telling the Pharisees that so will He. We know that is exactly what happened. It happened because a merciful God wanted to rescue a sinful people who were in a desperate situation.
God did this even before those fleeing from Him are aware that He is actively making a way
… from certain death, to eternal life.
… from the belly of death – a big fish, a tomb – to hope of another day.
The sign of Jonah is … hope. Hope for us fox-hole praying – desperately sinking – seaweed eating – pit dwelling – sinners that God’s Unanticipated Mercy is a mercy that will rescue.
Pursued and captured … his mercies are new every morning … by the Gospel of Christ.
Prayer
