Read Jonah 1:17–2:10
Questions from the Scripture text: Who had prepared what (Jonah 1:17)?To do what to whom? Where was Jonah for how long? What remarkable thing happens after these three days and three nights (Jonah 2:1)? To Whom does he pray? What else is He called? From where does Jonah pray? What had he done to Whom (Jonah 2:2a)? Why? What did YHWH do (Jonah 2:2b)? From which belly had Jonah first prayed (Jonah 2:2c)? And what had God done (Jonah 2:2d)? Who had cast Jonah where (Jonah 2:3a–b)? With what effect (Jonah 2:3c–d)? What primary difficulty did Jonah have (Jonah 2:4a)? And what does he yet hope to do (Jonah 2:4b)? How had this judgment been expressed (Jonah 2:5)? What burial had Jonah received (Jonah 2:6a–b)? Yet, what (Jonah 2:6c) had Who (Jonah 2:6d) done? What two things does Jonah call Him? What had his soul done (Jonah 2:7a)? What did he remember (Jonah 2:7b)? With what action (Jonah 2:7c)? To where did his prayer go (Jonah 2:7c–d)? What people (Jonah 2:8a) do what to themselves (Jonah 2:8b)? So what will Jonah do (Jonah 2:9a)? In what manner (Jonah 2:9b)? To fulfill what (Jonah 2:9c)? Declaring what (Jonah 2:9d)? How does YHWH respond to this prayer (Jonah 2:10)? And what does the fish do to Jonah?
What does God’s mercy do for sinners that He is redeeming? Jonah 1:17–2:10 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eleven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God brings those sinners whom He is redeeming to an end of themselves, so that they cry to Him and receive resurrection from death.
One of the reasons that this is a very important chapter is because Jesus’s repeated statement that “no sign will be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah; for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (cf. Mt 12:39–40, Mt 16:4). Jonah himself became a sign to the men of Nineveh (cf. Mt 12:41).
There are actually two prayers here. The one that is introduced in Jonah 2:1, when Jonah is revived within the fish, is the prayer of thanksgiving and praise that has its climax in Jonah 2:9. This prayer is in response to God’s answer to the first prayer: the cries of Jonah’s heart (and mouth) as he was dying in the sea (Jonah 2:2).
The judgment of death. Jonah had rightly understood that the sea was more to him than just water; it was the judgment of God. Before he ever entered the belly of the fish, he was in the belly of Sheol—a flood-judgment (Jonah 2:3) that was something of a personal version of the worldwide judgment of Gen 6–8 (cf. also Ps 42:7).
It may have been sailors’ hands, but it was the Lord Who had cast Jonah into the deep (Jonah 2:3a), because the Lord was casting him out of the favor of His sight (Jonah 2:4a). Jonah had attempted to flee from the presence of YHWH (cf. Jonah 1:3), and now he was being cast from presence of YHWH’s favor. Be careful what you wish for.
Even if Sheol and the pit here are not literal, and Jonah was merely near death, the feeling of resurrection is genuine (cf. Heb 11:19). This is a “resurrection” that every believer knows. Hasn’t this been your own experience, dear reader? Were you not under the death-judgment of God, Who heard your cry anyway, and raised you from the dead in Christ? If not, then it may be that you are still under death and need to cry out to Him like Jonah!
The prayer for salvation answered. Brought to an end of himself, Jonah turns his heart and mind (eyes) to YHWH’s temple (Jonah 2:4b), and the Lord hears him from there (Jonah 2:7). It is from Sheol (Jonah 2:2), from the pit (Jonah 2:6), that YHWH has heard him and saved him. Though you be ever so low, you are never out of hearing distance of the infinitely exalted God! Idols are truly worthless (Jonah 2:8a). They are not at all exalted, but there is no level of nearness that can give them ears to hear you. They have no power. They can have no steadfast love (cf. Jonah 2:8b). How futile that dead men call upon dead gods! Jonah was not party to the worship service for YHWH that followed his plunge into death (cf. Jonah 1:16). He may not even know that the sea has been stilled (cf. Jonah 1:15). Their cries to their idols yet ring in his ears, perhaps even convicting him for not having evangelized those poor idolaters.
Salvation’s praise offered. This brings us full circle back to the prayer that began in Jonah 2:1, the one after Jonah finds himself, no longer dying in the belly of the sea, but resuscitated in the belly of the fish. This is a prayer of thanksgiving and praise. We offer thanksgiving to Him as a spiritual (and vocal!) sacrifice (Jonah 2:9a–b). And we proclaim His praise to others as we declare, “salvation is of YHWH!” The Lord responds to this praise by telling the fish to vomit Jonah onto the land.
When have you felt yourself under a sentence of death from God? When have you cried to Him and found life from Him? With what thanksgiving to Him have you responded? With what proclamation of His praise to others have you responded?
Sample prayer: Lord, out of the belly of Sheol we cried to You, and You heard our voice. You were right and just to put us under a sentence of death, nd to bury us under the flood of Your wrath. And You have been powerful and merciful to raise us from death and to save us. We have cried to You in the past, and You have heard us from Your holy temple. We cry to You now, confident that You will hear us again. Salvation is of You, O YHWH, so be glorified in saving us we ask, through Christ, AMEN!
Suggested Songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH98A “O Sing a New Song to the Lord”
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