Four questions God asks Every Believer
Where Are You Going?
Where Do You Come From?
What Are You Doing?
What Do You Care About?
In this first message from the first chapter of Jonah we talked about the calling of God and what happens when you reject that calling. How you become disobedient, callously complacent, and hardened toward the needs of others and the will of God. We also saw that the story of Jonah is a story of repentance, redemption, and resurrection – not condemnation. And that the story of Jonah is your story and my story.
In this second message we’ll be looking at one of the most incredible prayers ever to come from the voice of a human being.
In fact the whole of the second chapter is a prayer with one verse at the end giving God’s response.
Let’s read it all…
Where Do You Come From?
While Jonah was inside the fish, he prayed to the LORD his God and said,2 “When I was in danger, I called to the LORD, and he answered me. I was about to die, so I cried to you, and you heard my voice.
3 You threw me into the sea, down, down into the deep sea. The water was all around me, and your powerful waves flowed over me.
4 I said, ‘I was driven out of your presence, but I hope to see your Holy Temple again.’ 5 The waters of the sea closed around my throat. The deep sea was all around me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 When I went down to where the mountains of the sea start to rise, I thought I was locked in this prison forever, but you saved me from the pit of death, LORD my God.
7 “When my life had almost gone, I remembered the LORD. I prayed to you, and you heard my prayers in your Holy Temple. 8 “People who worship useless idols give up their loyalty to you.
9 But I will praise and thank you while I give sacrifices to you, and I will keep my promises to you. Salvation comes from the LORD!”
10 Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and the fish threw up Jonah onto the dry land.
Jonah 2
Where Do You Come From?
Jonah came from the belly of a fish
Whale or fish – Real or figurative. Some say it’s figurative. Some say that it is allegory. Some say it’s a parable – like the stories Jesus told to teach a moral truth. Others say that it is first hand narrative of a historical event.
I believe that Jonah is a real guy and he really experienced all that is written in these four chapters. It’s way too long to be a parable. It’s not written like an allegory such as Pilgrims Progress. No this story is shared as a historical and factual event.
There are certainly modern day proofs of men being swallowed alive and surviving for hours if not days inside the stomach of whales but this does not prove that Jonah really lived and really was swallowed by a great fish.
Let us agree to simply accept the scripture at face value this morning and learn what Jonah learned about his life and God’s work.
We began last week with Jonah running from the call of God. We see his repentance and submission to the will of God as he allows – and urges – the pagan sailors to throw him into the sea where God has prepared a great fish to swallow him – whole!
What a terrible thing to endure! I can only imagine what Jonah must have been thinking when they took him by his arms and feet to swing him overboard.
He didn’t thrash about in the waves and try to stay afloat even after the waters calmed. Jonah considered himself lost. He had done a terrible thing in rejecting the call of God and now he was going to receive his just reward – he would sink into the waters, holding his breath instinctively, until his lungs were aching and he breathed the dark, cold ocean water. His lungs would then be filled with suffocating liquid and he would die with seaweed wrapped around his head as he sank into the deep.
Have you ever had seaweed wrap itself around your legs while swimming? I can’t really think of anything more scary than this – not a hurricane, not a shark attack, not a car accident, not a plane crash. Being swallowed whole and alive has got be the most terrifying thing that can happen to a person.
Jonah would sinking into the deep dark pit of death, seaweed wrapped around his neck, the weight of his own sin sucking him under, deep, deep, into the abyss called death.
But this was not to happen. He was given to the sea and he did sink into the darkness of the waters with seaweed clinging to his body but before he sucked in that fatal breath of saltwater he felt the brush of flesh against him and he sensed the presence of a something very large. And then there was a violent rush of water as this great animal opened a gaping mouth and he slid down his throat into his guts.
Are you claustrophobic? If you aren’t you soon would be in this situation! There was the impenetrable darkness, the moist presence of stomach flesh surrounding your own flesh, the sting of acid removing your hair and bleaching your skin. And the smell! Oh, the horrible, terrible stench of fish guts – and there is no escape because you are inside!
This is not something that one easily endures. Jonah did. And, strange as it may sound, he endured it with an attitude of thanksgiving. Jonah did not view the fish as God’s punishment but of God’s salvation.
Remember that Jonah had expected to die. He had done a terrible thing in rejecting the call of God and had – at his request – been thrown into the sea, fully expecting that there in the ocean he would die. His prayer says it clearly – with out uncertainty.
But Jonah didn’t see it that way…
Jonah came From the Belly of a fish
Life Regained! Resurrection; recovery; recaptured, redeemed, reclaimed, salvaged, second chance, getting a “do over”; however you want to say it this fish was a gift to Jonah and a kind of birth into life regained!
It is an image of the conversion from a life sin and the repentance that leads to our death, burial and resurrection in the waters of baptism.
Make no mistake – anyone who experiences death and then regains life is changed forever. Talk to anyone who has had a brush with death. The roses are redder. The sun is warmer. The sky is more beautiful. Life is precious and every moment counts. No longer are the days taken for granted.
The Katrina survivors have experienced this. Jonah experienced salvation in the great fish. Jonah sensed and saw the great fish as God’s deliverance and salvation. Talk about optimistic! He gets swallowed alive and he doesn’t pray for deliverance he prays and thanks God for the deliverance that the fish brings!
His attitude at this point is like that of the young child who was an incurable optimist. To teach him a lesson about false expectations and to bring him down to earth one Christmas his father gave him a garage filled with horse manure. This was after his brothers and sisters had opened all of their many presents. When the boy saw the mountain of manure his face lit up with a grin a mile wide. He dove into the pile and began flinging the stuff every which way and all the while laughing and giggling hysterically. His father asked him what on earth he was doing. His son replied, still digging away, that with all this manure – there just has to be a pony in here somewhere!
I don’t think Jonah was that much of an optimist. In fact, the fourth chapter would indicate that he was a cynic on his good days and a pessimist the rest of the time. That makes his prayer even more amazing!
Jonah’s Prayer was not asking for deliverance! Jonah’s Prayer was one of Thanksgiving!
The entire prayer was one of remembrance, praise, and worship for the deliverance that came from God in the form of this big fish. Jonah saw the fish as God intended – his salvation from death.
There are three important lessons while in the belly of a great fish.
Give Praise and Be Thankful to God
9 But I will praise and thank you while I give sacrifices to you, and I will keep my promises to you. Salvation comes from the LORD!”
Jonah 2:9
Even in the belly of the fish. Or, maybe, especially, in the belly of the fish.
Many of the victims of Katrina are giving thanks and praising God. Some are cursing him for what they have lost. Both have gone through the same experience. Those who have learned to praise and thank God have come from the belly of the fish. Those who curse him will continue to sink into the deep blue sea and drown in their own pity.
It’s about learning to be joyful for what you have and to accept what God gives you to have.
Someone asked me what I prayed for from God this week. I prayed for what I always pray for… contentment.
I talked with a friend of mine recently who was having a rough day so he sat on his bench outside his door at about 5:30 in the am and watched the sun rise. He got up about 10 minutes later – rich and full of God’s life.
Give Sacrificially to God
9 But I will praise and thank you while I give sacrifices to you, and I will keep my promises to you. Salvation comes from the LORD!”
Jonah 2:9
Sacrificial giving does not come from your possessions. Not from your abundance or from your poverty. Sacrificial giving comes from where you come from!
When you come from the belly of a fish you learn that no matter how much you have – that you have nothing. Giving sacrificially is not difficult for the person that counts his possessions as little in the face of his regained life.
In the middle of having nothing you learn to give it all to God. Your time, your abilities, and your money – time, talent, and treasure – all belong to God and you give it sacrificially for his work when you come from the belly of a fish!
Actually, when we have nothing it’s easier to give it all. So the secret of sacrificial giving is to own nothing. My house is not my house. My car is not my car. My retirement funds are not my money nor are they my security.
The reason that churches struggle with finances is that far too many of us have forgotten where we come from.
You see when you come from the belly of the fish you don’t value your clothes because they stink! You don’t value your stuff – it’s gone! You don’t worry about the stock market – it’s meaningless inside the belly of the fish! You are simply glad to be alive.
Now you are free to give sacrificially. Tithes and offerings aren’t a huge deal. In fact when you write the check you’re pleased to be able to use something of what you possess to do something of immensely greater value for God.
We are working hard to meet the needs of people in our world. Katrina victims in the south, people in Ukraine, lonely people with no one to spend Christmas with. But the real work is calling people to repentance in our community. Telling them about how they can discover the abundant life in Jesus. Sharing the good news of new life and how they can escape the forever darkness of sin and death.
We don’t pass the plate here. We have boxes at the entrance. We encourage you to give sacrificially.
Your tithe – a tenth of your increase to the church and your offerings – as God has blessed. Give sacrificially.
Keep Your Promises to God
9 But I will praise and thank you while I give sacrifices to you, and I will keep my promises to you. Salvation comes from the LORD!”
Jonah 2:9
Jonah was a believer. He had committed himself to the work of God – until he got his first assignment and he tuned it down.
Look when you accept Jesus as your savior and take him as your Lord it isn’t a limited commitment. It isn’t, “I’ll obey, as long as I agree with what you are asking of me and it doesn’t cost me too much.
The Bible is filled with stories of people who made promises to God and then broke them. Every one of those people ended up in the belly of a great fish. Oh, for some the great fish was a great desert – like Moses endured when he fled from Egypt and wandered for 40 years. Israel promised to be obedient and then refused to go into the promised land and wandered for 40 years. You picking up a theme here? When we break our promises to God there is a discipline that follows, a punishment, a wondering that both saves us and shapes us.
Part of being in the belly of the fish is “not wanting” to go there again! It was God’s means of salvation but frankly one ride is enough.
Unfortunately, some of us seem to have to ride in the belly of the fish more than once. Look isn’t once enough? It’s important to remember the pain so you can avoid breaking the promises you made to God again and again.
The Belly of a Great Fish was God’s Salvation
God disciplines us to help us, so we can become holy as he is. 11 We do not enjoy being disciplined. It is painful, but later, after we have learned from it, we have peace, because we start living in the right way.
Hebrews 12:10b-11
How do you see yourself? I was talking with a friend in our men’s group the other day – we meet every Tuesday at 6:00 am – and one of the guys said that after struggling with a stronghold in his life when he comes to God in worship that he feels like a dog slinking along the floor with his tail between his legs.
Can I suggest a new image – a different image – the form of a person who has escaped from the sea and has been encased in the belly of a great fish… and now – after a shower and a little “spiffing up” you are ready to do God’s work.
We don’t need to slink into his presence. We have been saved and now we have endured God’s discipline that shapes us and prepares us to do his work.
So… let’s go to work. Every day let’s give him our best – in praise and thanksgiving, in sacrificial giving, and in promises kept.
