As we begin looking toward our mission conference next month, I want to share some thoughts with you from the book of Jonah – a prophet who ran from God to avoid carrying a divine warning to the people of Nineveh.
Jonah undoubtedly feared the bloodthirsty Ninevites, but in Jonah 4:2 he plainly tells God that he didn’t want to go because he didn’t want them to repent and find mercy – he wanted God to zap them and eliminate Israel’s enemies.
So he boarded a ship and fled in the opposite direction. But he didn’t get far before God sent a storm to intercept him. Jonah told the mariners they’d have to throw him overboard to stop the storm.
We left off last week with Jonah descending into the deep until a fish takes him on the world’s first submarine voyage!
As hard as it may be for some people to believe that this story literally happened, Christ Himself said that it did. In Matthew 12:40, He said, as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Some people say that the story should not be taken literally – that it was a parable or a symbol. But those same people tend to think that Christ’s resurrection wasn’t literal either.
Hey, you either believe in a God Who can work miracles, or you don’t. If you do, then congratulations – you have a God Who can raise you from the grave someday as well. But if you don’t, well then, sorry Charlie – life’s a bummer, then you die!
Some people say that this “fish story” falls apart because Jonah 1:17 calls it a great fish, but Matthew 12:40 calls it a whale. And according to modern taxonomy, whales aren’t fish, they’re mammals. So there – that discredits the whole tale right off the bat!
But then, of course, neither Jonah nor Jesus were speaking “modern taxonomy”. They were speaking Hebrew and Greek. The Hebrew word used by Jonah is found 18 times in the Old Testament, and every time it is translated fish. The Greek word used by Jesus in Matthew is more generic. It could mean “great fish” or any kind of a sea monster, including whales, sharks, seals, sea serpents or sea dragons. Any distinctions between whales and fish that taxonomists might make thousands of years in the future were irrelevant and beside the point of what Jonah and Jesus were describing – a “big animal that lived in the water” swallowed Jonah and got a bad case of indigestion for it!
You know, people who quibble over things like that are just fishing for an excuse to justify their unbelief. The point they’re really missing is that just as God miraculously delivered Jonah from the whale after three days and nights, so He delivered Jesus from the grave, and so He will miraculously raise all who follow Jesus someday.
So why wasn’t Jonah digested in the creature’s belly? Well, one might say because Jesus wasn’t decayed in the grave. Lamentations 3:22 says, it is of the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed. And that’s the same reason that any of us will not be lost in the grave. Have you cast yourself upon the mercy of God to deliver you yet?
Well, now we come to chapter 2, and the whole chapter is a prayer uttered by Jonah during his three day “fantastic voyage”.
1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly,
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.
10 And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for being a miracle working God Whose ways are higher than ours, Who can do exceeding abundantly above our wildest imaginations – a God for Whom nothing is too hard – a God Who can deliver from the grave, and from every lesser trial we could ever face in this world.
Help us not to flee from Your will, but to follow it – if we’ve strayed from it, help us to get right back in where we fell out. And those who may be among us today without a Savior, may they trust the death, burial and resurrection of Your Son to raise them in the judgment – in Jesus’ name, Amen!
1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly,
This is the first time we see Jonah actually praying in this book. In chapter 1, the sailors who threw him overboard had done a lot of praying leading up to that event, and God marvelously answered them. Now the backslidden prophet has some things to get right with God too, and we’ll see how the Lord deals with him.
The first word of this chapter is Then. It refers back to the closing statement of chapter 1 saying that Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. So it was at the end of his fantastic journey that he offers this prayer, just before the beast spits him out – and it closes with Jonah offering God a thanksgiving.
In fact, while this is called a prayer, there is not one request made in any of the verses that follow – and prayer is typically thought of as making requests. But this prayer is more like a Psalm of thanksgiving. In fact, some of these lines are direct quotes from the Psalms. So we should think of it as a prayer of thanksgiving for his salvation. Apparently the prophet knew that he was about to be delivered.
He says that he prayed out of the fish’s belly. If God could hear him there, then there’s nowhere we cannot pray.
Verse 2 tells us why Jonah offered this thanksgiving prayer – let’s take a look:
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
Jonah prayed by reason of his affliction. Sounds about right. Most people tend to pray more when they find themselves in trouble than when everything’s going all right. In fact, that seems to be one of the main purposes for the trials that come into our lives – to drive us closer to God in prayer, to make us dependent on Him instead of on ourselves. Confined as he was, Jonah was completely helpless and couldn’t lift a finger for himself – he was totally dependent upon God.
Many times a child of God who has wandered in sin will feel as if he cannot pray, as if God wouldn’t hear his prayers now because of his backslidden condition, as if God’s chastening hand upon him is proof that the Almighty has turned against him. But in reality, God allows trials in our lives precisely to bring us in repentance back to him. A prayer for forgiveness and restoration is always heard. Instead of being the last one who should pray, a returning prodigal is among the first.
Notice how Jonah says that when he cried to the Lord, he heard me – very reassuring for someone under the chastening hand of God!
He calls the belly of the fish, the belly of hell. In the Old Testament, the word hell is from the Hebrew “sheol”, which means the grave, the underworld, the realm of departed spirits. Jonah is comparing his prison to a soul captive in the netherworld. The darkness, the isolation, the dread, the discomfort, the confinement, the burial out of the sight of the sun, deep beneath the surface of the world – all of this was the closest thing Jonah could imagine to what death must be like. What a fitting picture he made of what Christ would one day experience!
Verse 3 continues:
3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
When he says thou hadst cast me, he confirms that the hand of the sailors who threw him overboard were simply fulfilling the will of God.
His phrase, in the midst of the seas, literally means, in the heart of the seas – a word for word parallel with Matthew 12:40 which says that Christ was three days and nights in the heart of the earth. Being in the heart of it, Jonah was farther from shore than that a man could swim, and Jesus was fully dead from which none could be resuscitated. His resurrection was no awakening from a swoon any more than Jonah’s rescue was from a swim.
He says, the floods compassed him about, taken from a prophecy of the Messiah in Psalm 18:4, the sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. Verse 16 of that psalm goes on to say that the Lord sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters, as ultimately happens with Jonah.
He says, all thy billows and thy waves passed over me, directly quoting Psalm 42:7.
Baptism is a picture of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection, just as Jonah’s experience is. Jesus Himself said that Jonah acted out a preview of His resurrection, as did Abraham and Isaac (Hebrews 11:17-19) and Moses and Israel (I Corinthians 10:1-2).
4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
Though he feels like an outcast from God’s favor, he says, I will look again toward thy holy temple. That phrase comes from the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple. In I Kings 8:30, he asked God to hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place when His people shall pray toward this place (the new temple he was dedicating)... and when thou hearest, forgive. Jonah is saying, “Alright God, I’m looking toward thy holy temple, I’m praying toward this place, I’m seeking your forgiveness.”
Have you ever felt as though God had cast you aside for something you had done? Just remember – if God seems far away, He’s not the One Who moved. In this story we are studying, did God turn away from Jonah, or did Jonah run away from God? If your fellowship with God seems broken, the remedy for you or me is the same as it was for Jonah – yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
It’s the same thing that David cried out in Psalm 28:2 when he said, Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. The holy oracle would be the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant in the heart of the temple, the throne of God on earth where Moses met with Him face to face and received the oracles, the divine revelations, that he turned around and passed on to the people.
Of course, the Jewish temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, and the ark with its mercy seat has been lost ever since. So where would a penitent child turn to for restoration with his Heavenly Father today? In Revelation 11:19, the apostle John saw the temple of God... opened in heaven. What Moses built was only an earthly pattern of the true temple, the true ark which John saw opened in heaven. And anyone who turns to God will find free access and forgiveness.
Hebrews 4:16 says, Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
When he says the waters compassed him even to the soul, he means the waters were imminently threatening to take his soul – he was about to drown. Jeremiah 4:10 used a similar expression when it said, the sword reaches to the soul. Jonah’s words echo those of Christ foretold by King David in Psalm 69:1, the waters are come in unto my soul – describing His sense of drowning in sorrows. In the garden, Jesus said to His disciples, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, Matthew 26:38.
As for the seaweed wrapped about his head, some people say the fish gulped in seaweed which was wrapped about Jonah’s head while in its belly (a reasonable possibility), or that Jonah sank through floating seaweed which wrapped about him before being swallowed (also reasonable), or that after swallowing Jonah the fish swam through seaweed which was therefore metaphorically wrapped around Jonah (seems weak to me).
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me forever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
It seemed to Jonah that he had descended into the passages of the underworld that would take him to the bottoms of the mountains. He says that the earth, or the world above where the living dwelt, was barred as with a gate to him forever. Even so, Ephesians 4:9 says that before Christ ascended into heaven, He first descended into the lower parts of the earth.
But then Jonah says that God had brought up my life from corruption. And in Psalm 16:10, Jesus says to His Father, thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.
Jonah was miraculously brought back to the land of the living, picturing how Christ would someday rise from the grave. And Jesus promises that all who follow Him will likewise rise from the grave as well. Have you decided to follow Him yet? Have you repented of your sins and trusted in His death, burial and resurrection to deliver you from the grave? Have you called upon Him for salvation?
The bottoms of the mountains in the hidden depths of the sea represented to Jonah where the upper world of the living came to an end. He saw himself as passing from the realm of the living into the nether regions beneath the earth, and he felt as though the barred gates of death were closed behind him forever.
And yet, from that impossible prison, he says, thou hast brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. This echoes numerous Psalms such as 18:16, He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters; and Psalm 30:3, O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave, thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
It was also a picture of how his fellow Galilean, Jesus Christ, would one day descend into the lower parts of the earth, Ephesians 4:9. But Psalm 16:10 promised that God would not leave His soul in hell, neither would He suffer His holy one to see corruption, or decay.
In the dry Palestinian climate, decay would typically become evident after about three days. Remember how Martha protested removing the stone from her brother Lazarus’ grave in John 11:39 saying, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days. But Jesus rose on the third day, just as Jonah’s miraculous deliverance pre-enacted, and so He avoided corruption.
7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
He says, when my soul fainted within me, or as the mist of death was beginning to blind his senses, in his dying moment his last thought was to remember the Lord. And that dying thought became his delivering thought, for in that final instant, his prayer came in unto the Lord, into His holy temple. As Solomon dedicated his newly constructed temple, he had prayed that when any of God’s wayward people should remember the Lord and pray toward this holy temple, that the Lord would hear their prayer and forgive them – and this is exactly what happens with Jonah now.
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
What a contrast the Lord is to the heathen idols. All the sailors he has just seen praying to their own gods, their lying vanities, could not avert the storm (he was no longer aboard to witness their wholesale conversion to the Lord afterwards).
But in the sea himself, he has witnessed God’s salvation of His own servant in showing miraculous mercy to Jonah. The idols, the lying vanities of the Gentiles, abandon them to their doom. Those who follow them forsake the only true source of mercy the world has ever had. Psalm 145:8, The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
But this also drives home the peril of the Ninevites to whom Jonah is called. Jonah is commissioned to take them a message of repentance and mercy, and his heart is being prepared to answer this call at last.
Finally, this thought is a commentary on Jonah’s own rebellion. He feared that in preaching to the savage Assyrians, they would show him no mercy. He vainly imagined that running from God was his only hope of salvation. But with a fish, God has proven that His mercy is all that Jonah ever needed to count on. When Jonah ran from God, he ran from His only salvation. The only safe place in a fallen world is the center of God’s will.
9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.
Jonah says, But I will sacrifice unto thee. He repents of his former mistrust in the mercy and protection of God. He immediately offers God the only sacrifice available in the belly of the fish – his voice of thanksgiving from a heart overwhelmed with gratitude for deliverance from what had been certain death.
Hebrews 13:15 says that we are to offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks unto his name.
He says, I will pay that I have vowed, and we’ll see that he immediately sets out for Nineveh to fulfill what God had called him to do. Vowing to fulfill what God was chastening him for refusing would be the one promise God was looking for in all of this, and that must surely be what Jonah means by it.
He declares that salvation is of the Lord, as though he already had some prophetic premonition that he was about to be delivered. Even in his darkest distress, even in his backslidden condition, the bedrock of faith in Jonah’s innermost being was that salvation is of the Lord.
And a genuinely born again child of God, regardless of the trials he faces, regardless of the sin he may stray into, can never truly from his heart deny the Lord who bought him. Peter may feel forced to do it around the devil’s campfire on the night that all forsook Christ, but that was not what Peter truly believed as he showed by going out and weeping bitterly afterwards.
John the Baptist may have struggled with doubts when facing Herod’s execution and sent his disciples to ask Jesus, Art thou he that should come, or look we for another? But in the end, he knew who the Messiah was.
And even from the fish’s belly, Jonah never doubts that salvation is of the Lord.
Before we finish this chapter, let’s consider one more thing – Jonah’s experience is representative of his entire nation. His reluctance to witness to the Gentiles of their offences against the Lord, that they should seek His forgiveness and salvation, is just a biopsy of Israel’s general refusal to be the light to the Gentiles they were called to be.
Instead, they joined the Gentiles in worshipping their lying vanities as Jonah joined this idol worshipping crew in fleeing from the Lord. And his subsequent drowning in the sea (the sea is a symbol of the heathen nations in Revelation 17:15) is an example of what His people as a whole will experience at the hands of these very Gentiles they have unequally yoked themselves with.
Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, in just a few generations will swallow the northern tribes from which Jonah comes. And an even bigger fish, Babylon, will in turn swallow both Assyria and Judah, the southern tribe. But when His people finally repent of their sins, they are loosed at last from their captivity, as Jonah is in verse 10:
And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
How ironic that asleep in the bottom of the boat, Jonah was in imminent danger. But afflicted in the belly of the fish, he was perfectly safe! How do we explain this? Only one way – in the ship he was fleeing God’s will, in the fish he was returning to it. The safest place for any child of God is always in the center of His will.
Now at last God commands the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
That word which tells the light to be, and it is, which tells the fig tree to wither, and it withers, which tells the dead to rise, and they come – that word commands the fish to vomit out the prophet, and it is done. In all of this mortal creation, man alone is given a free will to follow or flee from God’s commands.
Upon what dry land was Jonah cast? I have heard some preachers imagine that the fish spent the three days hurrying the prophet straight to Nineveh itself and spat him up right outside the city gates. Jonah came slogging into the city reeking of fish gut and commanding everyone to repent.
But since Nineveh wasn’t built on a seashore, that seems highly unlikely. It was built on the Tigris River. To get there, the fish would need to have swam around virtually the entire continent of Africa and part of Asia. Then this saltwater fish would have to swim 50 miles up a freshwater river and do it all in three days.
For this reason, most students suppose that Jonah was probably tossed up somewhere along the Jewish or Syrian coast – possibly near his point of departure in Joppa. From there, he would take the overland route toward Nineveh that God had wanted him to take in the first place – a journey of some 600 miles toward the east. It would have taken him about a month to get there.
You know, many times, the best place to get back into God’s will is exactly where you got out of it. Did God call upon you to teach a Sunday School class, enroll in a Bible college, forsake a besetting sin, and you left His will rather than submit to His leading? If the opportunity is still there, get back on where you got off, and do it as quickly as you can!
Now you may be here today, and you’re not a child of God, and you’re thinking, “Good grief – if that’s how God treats His own followers, you can leave me out!” But what you should be thinking is that if that’s how God treats His followers when they disobey, what in the world will He do with His enemies! In fact, that’s exactly what I Peter 4:17 says: judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it first begin at us, then what shall the end be of them that know not God?
You know, God’s children may not be sinless, but they do sin less.
And when they sin, you can either dismiss them as hypocrites and use that as an excuse to reject the Savior, or you can shake your head at how God disciplines them and use that as an excuse. Or you can quit making excuses, leave God’s children for Him to deal with, and consider where you’ll be when the time comes for Him to deal with you.
And the only safe place to be in that day is at the foot of the cross where His Son, Jesus Chist, died to pay for your sins, because that assures that the power of His resurrection will raise you as well.
I’ve often said I don’t mind death so much – I just don’t want it to be permanent! So if you died today, could you look forward to a resurrection to life, or would you be facing an even severer second death in the world to come?
Is the God you worship a miracle working God? If He could deliver Jonah from his problem, what have you got that’s too hard for Him?
Do you feel like you can’t pray – because you’ve made this mess, and now God just wants you to lie in it! Well, yeah, He does want you to lie in it – until you’re repentant. That’s kind of the point of the affliction. But if you’re ready to be delivered from your sin, then God is ready to give you beauty for ashes, to restore the years the locusts have eaten, and to make the glory of the latter greater than the former.
The safest place on earth is the center of God’s will – so are you fleeing God’s will or following it? If you’ve gotten out of it, why not get right back in as closely as you can to where you left it?
