This post is adapted from a sermon I recently preached. You can watch the sermon here (forgive the audio and video quality).
Jonah 1:17-2:10
And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying,
“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
yet I shall again look
upon your holy temple.’
The waters closed in over me to take my life;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord my God.
When my life was fainting away,
I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
Those who pay regard to vain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love.
But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the Lord!”And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
What would your last thoughts be if you knew you were about to die and pass into eternity?
In Jonah 2, the curtains are pulled back and we are invited to see the emotions and cries of Jonah, who is a drowning, dying man.
From a human perspective, there is no hope for Jonah. As a result of his disobedience to God, he seems destined to die in the sea. As Jonah is on the brink of death, he has an encounter with the living God.
BIG IDEA: Our disobedience leads to despair and death, but God’s deliverance leads to thanksgiving.
Our disobedience leads to despair and death, but God’s deliverance leads to thanksgiving.
The last verse in chapter one really belongs with chapter two. Keep in mind that while the chapter and verse divisions are helpful tools, they were added later and are not inspired by the Holy Spirit.
1:17 and 2:10 frame this section, which details Jonah’s experience in the belly of the fish.
- 1:17 – The fish swallowed up Jonah.
- 2:10 – The fish vomited Jonah out.
Verse 17 says that “the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah.” The Lord sent the fish to save Jonah.
Jonah did not pray for God to save him from the fish, but he expresses thanks for being saved by the fish.
Jonah’s rebellion brought God’s discipline, but God showed Jonah mercy. In the same way, our rebellion brings God’s discipline, but God is merciful to us.
The Lord is merciful and saves Jonah’s life through the great fish. In chapter 2, we see Jonah’s prayer of thanksgiving for his deliverance from death. Jonah is inside the fish and he recounts his near death experience and God’s mercy towards him.
Our disobedience leads to despair and death (2:1-6a)
Verse 1 gives the setting of the prayer. Jonah prayed this prayer from the belly of the fish.
Verse 2 gives the summary of the prayer that is fleshed out in vv. 3-9. It is a summary statement.
Jonah never prayed for God to save the pagan sailors, but he does thank God for saving him. This says something about his heart, and we’ll see in chapter four.
Well what does v. 2 say about Jonah’s prayer? Essentially, that Jonah cried out to the Lord and that the Lord heard him.
- 2a: Jonah called out to the Lord in his distress and the Lord answered him.
- 2b: He cried from the belly of Sheol and the Lord heard Jonah’s voice.
Jonah realizes that once he is drowning that he isn’t ready to die. And so he called out to the Lord.
Certainly, Jonah had reason to be distressed:
- He had rebelled against God – rebellion against God will leave you distressed.
- He had been disciplined by God – God’s discipline is not pleasant at the time.
- He was drowning and about to die – near death experiences are intense.
The phrase “belly of Sheol” represents death. In most OT references, Sheol is the place of the dead and is sometimes seen as the fate of the ungodly and a place of divine punishment. Simply put, Sheol was believed to be where the soul went after death.
The good news is that the Lord heard Jonah’s voice and He answered him.
Jonah was not dead when he prayed, but he was getting close, as we will see in vv. 3-6a.
3
In v. 3, Jonah recognizes God’s sovereign hand in his situation.
Though the sailors threw him overboard, Jonah knew God stirred their hearts to do so. He says, “you cast me into the deep.”
Jonah was drowning in the sea, and he recognized that it was God’s waves and billows that passed over him (“your waves and your billows”). Jonah knew the Lord controlled the sea (Jon 1:9).
Jonah was in the middle of the sea without a lifeboat, and like the sailors in chapter one, he knew that he could not save himself. He struggles to keep his head above water. Eventually, he will run out of energy and start sinking down into the sea.
4
Verse 4 is the key verse in vv. 1-6. As I previously mentioned, the storm was not Jonah’s main problem. His main problem was that he was living in rebellion against God and needed to have a heart change. When Jonah says that he is driven away from God’s sight, he is saying that he is separated from God.
When people are in rebellion against God, they are separated from Him. For unbelievers, of course this means that they do not have God as their Father, and they are under His just wrath. For believers, they are not separated from God in a salvation sense, but there is a break in intimacy and fellowship.
Jonah, though he was God’s prophet, was driven away from God’s sight. His rebellion against God had led him to get away from the presence of the Lord and to forsake God’s mission.
As Jonah begins to sink into the deep, he decides to look towards God. Jonah says, “yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.” It’s unclear from the text if Jonah literally thought that he would be saved and make it back to Jerusalem to the temple or if he was speaking figuratively – that he was looking to the Lord’s presence and seeking his help. Verse 9a seems to indicate the former. Either way, in some sense, Jonah turned to the Lord.
He finally understood that there was no way out except to turn to the Lord. Jonah refused to cry out to God in the boat, but he does cry out in the waves of the sea. Many people today are living for the world (1 John 2:15-17) without any care of God (Matt 24:36-39), and in disobedience to God (Eph 2:1-3). Often, God must send a storm to get people’s attention before they will seek Him.
Most people don’t seek God when things are going well. A few will seek God during the storms of life. Some people however, have to come face-to-face with death before they wake up and even then, some don’t.
This is Jonah’s plight. He is separated from the Lord, but in His suffering, he turns to God. That is what we must do. In times of suffering and difficulty, we must turn to the Lord.
In times of suffering and difficulty, we must turn to the Lord.
God is gracious to Jonah and He will be gracious to us, but I want to implore you – don’t want until you’re on the brink of death to turn to the Lord. Seek Him while He may be found. Do not love the world but seek first the kingdom of God. Deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and live for Christ.
5-6a
Many people come to the Lord or renew their commitment to the Lord only after hitting rock bottom. Only after a crisis do people realize they are living for themselves rather than living for Christ. God has to show us that we must cry out to God or perish. It’s been said that you never realize Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.
You never realize Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.
God is more concerned about your holiness than your happiness. At times, He will knock out your legs from beneath you to make you dependent on His grace. Scripture says that He disciplines those He loves (Pro 3:12; Heb 12:6).
But here’s the good news. Just as God’s mercy will go down to the depths of the ocean for a rebellious prophet who deserved to die, He will extend mercy to you if you repent of your sins and trust in Jesus and His finished work on the cross.
If it wasn’t too late for Jonah, it’s not too late for you. No matter what kind of sin you’re living in or how far away you feel from God, it’s not too late to turn to the Lord until you’ve taken your last breath.
In verses 1-6a, we have seen that our disobedience leads to despair and death.
In verses 6b-10, we will see that God’s deliverance leads to thanksgiving.
