PLEASE, PLEAS & SALVATION BY GRACE:
Undeserved delivery
Jonah 2, Psalm 100, Hosea 2:19-20
This morning… let your mind go back to about the time of Christ in Jerusalem.
You are going into the temple to celebrate Yom Kippur—the Great Day of Atonement.
This is the day that your sins will be covered for another year.
The ritual never changes!
God gave it to Moses on Mt. Sinai.
The message never changes!
It’s always salvation by faith—a faith that leads us to change our minds… that brings repentance—and a trust in the Messiah… our Savior.
The text never changes!
It’s always the Book of Jonah.
Paul echoes the main message of Jonah when he wrote to Titus in 3:5 …not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He—God—saved us…
The hero of this book is not the fish!
It’s not Jonah!
It’s God—his love… his mercy… his determination to win the lost… and to bring them into his family.
The central message is God’s great love… and his mercy in offering salvation by FAITH—to anyone… the whosoevers… who will accept this great gift!
So far, Jonah has been going the wrong way.
A reluctant ship’s crew finally tossed him overboard!
Verse 1:17 says: Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Somewhere in this process… Jonah decided—reluctantly albeit, to talk it over with God.
Listen to Jonah’s prayer:
2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish’s belly.
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.
This is where people start having problems believing the story—surviving after being swallowed by a giant fish.
Why? I don’t know, because it has been recorded at least twice.
First, Dr. Harry Rimmer, President of the Research Science Bureau of Los Angeles, wrote: “An English sailor was swallowed by a gigantic shark in the English Channel.
When the shark was caught forty-eight hours later, the man was unconscious but alive!
He suffered nothing more than shock.”
Again, the French scientist, M. de Parville, wrote that James Bartley fell overboard off the Falkland Islands and was lost at sea.
Two days later, his shipmates caught and butchered a whale. You guessed it; they found their missing friend alive but unconscious inside the whale.
We don’t know how long Jonah was overboard.
But we know that by time he was in the belly of the fish…he was talking to the Lord.
Vernon McGee tells a story about a friend of his who caught his finger in a crack of a log and was pulled through the blade of the saw.
Immediately he realized it would take only about forty-five seconds for him to get to the whirling saw blade.
His finger was way out in front of him, as he was dragged along the truck toward the whirling blade.
His finger hit the saw and was cut off.
But that released him, and he rolled to the side and was safe.
In those forty-five seconds, he said,
• He had prayed to the Lord.
• He accepted Christ as his Savior,
• He promised the Lord he would go into the ministry and do His will, and
• He told God a lot of other things also!
Some years later—after he had become a preacher—he said that he told the Lord more in that forty-five seconds than he has ever told Him in an hour’s prayer since then.
When you have to …
• You can say a lot …and
• You can mean a lot … quite quickly.
Anyone who has been in combat … with shells dropping … and bullets singing … knows that.
2:1 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 (out of the place of the dead) cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
We know very little about Jonah… but the language that he uses in his prayer suggests that he was fully acquainted with temple ritual.
He quotes from several Psalms and references other scriptures just as priests do in temple worship.
Jonah knew he was snatched out of the grave … and he gives a prayer of thanksgiving and a pledge to do right.
Regardless of what actually happened… it brought a prayer of psalms to Jonah’s lips.
Listen to his prayer:
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.
God did the casting and these were God’s billows and waves. Jonah is aware that this is God’s doing.
And he knows why he’s doing it!
4 Then I said, ’I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
At best, this is a rhetorical question.
Jonah actually doubted that he would ever see the temple in Jerusalem again.
A literal translation says: I thought I had been banished from your sight and attention, that I would never again see your holy temple!
But, his faith in God is firm.
He is sure of his own death!
And he seems to prefer death to ministering to the enemies of his own country.
But something is missing from his prayer: There is no confession—change of mind—about the assignment that God gave him.
There is no repentance at all—just acknowledgement of the power and presence of God.
5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head.
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.
Nothing but seawater! No fish!
He was tossed and twisted, wrapped in seaweed all the way to the bottom of the sea.
His reference in verse 6 to… corruption … or as better translations have it … from the pit …or the grave, which suggests that Jonah had died.
He opened his prayer with the reference … from Sheol … or hell … or Hades.
And the fact that Jesus quoted 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.
As a result of his three days and nights in the belly of the fish… Nineveh would hear the Gospel… would have an opportunity to believe and be saved from the wrath of God.
Jesus was dead in the earth… so that whosoever believes will be saved and have eternal life.
So, was Jonah dead also?
This makes sense to me … to Vernon McGee … to Dr. M. R. DeHaan … and a few others.
No doubt about it, Jonah was aware of his resuscitation. Read on …
7 "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple. His soul was unconscious—dead to God’s will.
Here, Jonah is still thinking only of himself… and the situation that he is in.
Here we also see a parallel between the reluctant prophet and the nation, Israel.
Like Jonah, Israel was chosen.
Like Jonah, Israel rebelled.
Like Jonah, Israel was disciplines—scattered and abused by other nations up to the present day.
Israel turned a blind eye to God in Jeremiah’s day and sought security in an alliance with Egypt.
Still, today, Israel looks to foreign alliances and military power for its protection.
But until God’s chosen people recognize that Salvation is from the Lord, there can be no ultimate deliverance.
Israel is somewhat arrogant about its “chosen” status.
So was Jonah.
He felt privileged as God’s chosen… but the heathen boat crew bested him in faith.
They repented. They sacrificed. They pledged themselves to the true and living God who calmed the seas that threatened them.
Jonah pouted! “Death before dishonor!
Toss me overboard! Kill me!
At least I won’t have to take salvation to our sworn enemies.”
Now he turns his attention to the sailors who tossed him into the deep.
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
A modern translation explains: Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.
These verses provide a remarkably accurate assessment of the nature of salvation.
Those who cling to or pursue “worthless idols” they forsake the mercy that God provides.
9 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD."
“Salvation is of the Lord!” This is what the Book of Jonah is all about: Salvation is of the Lord!
Jonah brought salvation to the boat crew.
And God wants him to take salvation to Nineveh.
God wants us in fellowship with him so that he can bless us to the max.
This salvation comes in his eternal life package… along with an abundant, fulfilling life here and now.
It’s all a gift from him—a very precious gift.
It’s available to each of us—all who believe him… who trust him—who accept the gift he offers.
In Jonah we see that the plans of God cannot be frustrated; not by Jonah… not be us.
But a sacrifice had to be made to make it happen.
For the ship’s crew… for the heathen in Nineveh…Jonah had to go overboard.
For us… Jesus had to go to the cross.
10 And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
Unlike the prophet, the fish responded immediately.
The point is: God will make possible anything that he assigns us to do.
We simply need to trust Him… and follow him… whether we like it or not.
He knows best!
And he is going to have his way!
God put us here to be the object of his love.
Our purpose is to love him…follow him… honor him.
If we love him… we’ll love living his way.
And he’ll make worthwhile—all the blessings of the heavenlies poured out upon us.
He’ll make us the envy of the unsaved—the unfulfilled.
He’ll still the storms… make straight the way.
He’ll be our fortress in times of trouble.
He’ll reward those who faithfully serve him.
Let me close with this story:
One hot day, a section crew was shoring up the roadbed of the railroad when a train approached. The train eased to a stop with the last car at the work site. A window opened in the air-conditioned, custom-made executive car.
A booming, but friendly voice called out, "Dave, is that you?" Dave Anderson, the crew chief called back, "Sure is, Jim, and it’s really good to see you again."
Dave Anderson was invited to join Jim Murphy, the president of the railroad, for a visit. They chatted for over an hour and then shook hands warmly as the train pulled out.
The crew stood in amazement that their crew chief not only knew the president of the railroad but also was a personal friend. They all wanted to know how it happened.
Dave explained they both started working the same day 20 years before.
One of the guys asked why he was still working out in the hot sun and Jim Murphy had gotten to be president.
Dave explained, "twenty-three years ago I went to work for $1.75 an hour and Jim Murphy went to work for the railroad."
There is a difference:
Jonah was working for Jonah… not God.
He ended up in the belly of a fish.
When we work for a loving God… instead of for ourselves… he makes us fishers of men… and blesses us beyond belief.
Hosea 2:19… God promised… I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion.
20 I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as LORD.
God always gives us a choice:
Accept Jesus as our Christ… and have eternal life… or
Reject him… and suffer the consequences.
Accept Jesus as our Lord—follow his lead—and he will give us abundant life—blessings beyond measure.
Refuse his call… and go our own way… Well, you know what happened to Jonah.
