Introduction
I had a
wonderful conversation this week with an amazing young friend. We talked about
the complexities of doing life and how God’s plan for being in relationship
with Him and with others is so much better than our own plans. Nevertheless, we
are constantly trying out our own plan to see if there is a possibility that it
might somehow be better. We laughed at the idea that created beings constantly
think their plan for doing life is better than the plan of the Creator of life.
But I know that I’m not immune to thinking that my way might be better even
though I know deep down that refusing to be fully obedient to God always ends
badly for me and those around me. God has a specific plan for the way humanity
is intended to be in relationship with him and with others and He expects all
of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ to advance that plan for
ourselves in personal devotion to Him and service to others; for other
believers through encouragement to persevere and discipleship to greater
faithfulness; but especially for those who do not yet believe in Him through
the preaching of the Gospel. When faithful followers of Jesus Christ neglect
their call to advance God’s plan of relationship for humanity, something is
bound to go wrong; someone is bound to get hurt. The consequences of our
disobedience are what we would really like to avoid. We’d like to try our way
when we don’t like God’s way and when our way doesn’t work, we’d like to jump
back to God’s way as though nothing happened. But it doesn’t work that way. If
it did, we’d constantly revert to trying to do things our way and then jump
back to God’s way when our way burns to the ground. The only problem is that
when our way burns to the ground, someone else burns to the ground along with
our way and God won’t stand for that. Therefore, in order to get our attention,
God allows something into our life to reorient us toward His plan for
relationship. It’s usually very painful and can push us to the point of
desperation. However, it usually serves its intended purpose of shaking us
awake to the truth that we are off course and need to make some changes in the
way we think and act.
We see this
pattern play out in the life of Jonah. Jonah was fully committed to following
God and doing things God’s way. That is until he didn’t like something God
asked him to do and then Jonah seemed to think that his way of doing things was
better than God’s way of doing things. The only problems was that Jonah’s way
was going to leave an entire nation separated from relationship with God and
God wouldn’t stand for that. So God sent something to shake Jonah awake—a
violent storm and a big fish. The disobedience to God’s plan and a violent
storm put Jonah on a collision course with a big fish. The reality of Jonah’s
disobedience came to life in the belly of a fish God sent to reorient Jonah
back toward His perfect plan. For Jonah, life quickly went from snubbing his
nose at God’s plan and doing life his way to sitting in the dark belly of a
fish; cold, wet, scared and no doubt wondering what just happened. Jonah
learned the hard way that God’s way is the only way and now that God has his
attention, Jonah gives us A Perspective
From Inside The Fish.
Subject Text
Jonah 2:1-10
1From
inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. 2He said: “In my
distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave
I called for help, and you listened to my cry. 3You hurled me into
the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers swept over me. 4I said, ‘I have been
banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ 5The
engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped
around my head. 6To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the
earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O
LORD my God. 7When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD,
and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. 8Those who cling to
worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. 9But I, with
a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make
good. Salvation comes from the LORD.” 10And the LORD commanded the
fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Context
Jonah
prophesied during the reign of Israel’s king Jeroboam II between 793-753 BC.
God wanted Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh to preach against its sinful
behavior. No small matter when you realize that Nineveh was the capital of the
mighty Assyrian Empire. The Assyrian Empire was not to be trifled with. Their
brutality in war was renown. The Assyrians weren’t just proficient in physical
warfare, they were proficient in psychological warfare as well. They used sheer
brutality to intimidate their opponents. The Assyrians were not just guilty of
gratuitous cruelty in war, they were also guilty of exploiting the helpless,
idolatry, prostitution, and witchcraft. And this is where God wanted Jonah to
go and preach the message of repentance for their sinful lives. So what did
Jonah do, he started running in the opposite direction. Jonah boarded a ship
headed for Tarshish but God had a plan for Jonah and running away to Tarshish
wasn’t part of that plan. When the ship Jonah boarded in the port city of Joppa
was well out onto the Mediterranean Sea, God sent a violent storm that
threatened to destroy the ship and all those on board. The crew took to casting
lots to determine who might have been at fault for their unfortunate
circumstance. But Jonah didn’t need to cast lots, he knew full well who was at
fault. Jonah confessed to the crew that God had a plan that included Jonah but
Jonah had his own plan and it didn’t include God. Jonah convinced the crew that
unless they threw him overboard, they would all be doomed to a watery grave.
Reluctantly, the sailors tossed Jonah into the sea. The first step of
reorienting Jonah back toward God’s plan was accomplished and as soon as Jonah
hit the water, the sea grew calm. The sailors and the ship were safe. But Jonah
was in the middle of the sea with no chance of reaching dry land. God still had
a plan for Jonah to go to Nineveh but how would that be accomplished now that
Jonah was drowning in the Mediterranean Sea? God would send the answer to that
question in the form of a large fish that swallowed Jonah to keep him safe.
Strange? Maybe. But that “strange” way is going to reorient Jonah back toward
God’s plan. Jonah has stopped running, not just physically but spiritually as
well, and he’s ready to do what God expected him to do from the start. Jonah
thought his plan was better than God’s plan but I’m pretty sure Jonah’s plan
didn’t include a violent storm or a big fish so now Jonah is ready to give us A Perspective From Inside The Fish.
Text Analysis
1From inside the fish Jonah
prayed to the LORD his God. 2He said: “In my distress I called to
the LORD, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help,
and you listened to my cry. 3You hurled me into the deep, into the
very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and
breakers swept over me. 4I said, ‘I have been banished from your
sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’
We pick up
our lesson in vv. 1-4 with Jonah
praying to God in the belly the fish. How far will God go to get our attention?
Well it took dropping Jonah into the middle of the Mediterranean Sea with no
rescue in sight. So he prayed—he was trying not to drown. For you it might be a
miserable, dead-end job with no prospects of something better, so you
pray—you’re trying not to drown. Or maybe you’re married to someone who has
lost interest in you. But you’re committed to being faithful to your vow of
“until death do you part” so you’re only choice is to pray—you’re trying not to
drown. You could be a student trying to succeed but no matter how hard you work
or how much you study, you never feel prepared and your grades don’t reflect
your hard work. You’re always tired, stressed out, and anxious but failure
isn’t an option; it’s not in you to quit so you pray—you’re trying not to
drown.
Do you ever
wonder what God wants to hear from us? Is it, “God I believe in you?” Maybe. Is
it, “God I love you?” Maybe. But there’s something very important missing in
both of these statements. Neither of these statements acknowledge that God’s
way is the only way. As important as both of these statements are in our
relationship to God, there’s one thing I think God wants to hear more than
anything else—“Help!” In that one word, we convey something very important
about God: God is sovereign. God is all-powerful. God is all-knowing. God’s way
isn’t just a better way or even the best way—it is the only way. Jonah’s reference to the grave (or Sheol, which is the
subterranean realm of the dead) implies that the circumstances of his life
represented the end of the line for him and the only thing left for him to do
was to make a desperate plea to God for help. Jonah was alone and in trouble
tangled in seaweed while fighting the waves and the currents in the middle of
the vast Mediterranean Sea. But God heard Jonah’s cry for help and sent a fish
to the rescue. And though Jonah is still praying from the belly of the fish, he
is safe. Jonah has been restored and looks forward to the opportunity to offer
his sincere praises to God. “Jonah’s self-willed flight from Yahweh’s presence
in ch. 1 had been ratified by Yahweh’s ‘so be it’ in banishment from life. The
alternative to saying to God ‘Thy will be done’ is to hear him say eventually,
‘Your will be done.’ The awful
significance of being rejected by God had dawned upon him. Jonah can voice his
despair as the prelude to an expression of confidence, for now he is safe. He
has the sure prospect of renewed fellowship with God in the sanctuary. This is
a new Jonah. He is soon to demonstrate a willing spirit by accepting the
commission he formerly had rejected.”[1]
5The engulfing waters threatened
me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. 6To
the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God. 7When my
life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to
your holy temple.
Jonah adds
detail in vv. 5-7 to the gravity of
his circumstances prior to being rescued by God. Why does Jonah offer this
additional detail? It certainly could have been included in order to highlight
Jonah’s dire circumstances. However, you have to remember that Jonah has changed
course. Jonah wants everyone to know just how bad life can get when we refuse
to live according to God’s plan—we might just pay the price for our
disobedience with our lives. However, it is more likely that our disobedience
will cost us something else; something even worse than physical
death—relational death and spiritual death. This is usually the fallout for
attempting to do life according to our plan instead of God’s plan. There’s also
something else that happens when Jonah adds more detail to the depth of his despair,
it demonstrates the extent of God’s reach. The more dire the circumstances; the
more hopeless the circumstances; the more desperate the circumstances; the more
we are lost; the more we are helpless; the more confused we are; the more hurt
we are; the more pain we are in, the bigger God becomes in our lives and the
more likely we are to tell others about the things God has done in our lives. Ask
the addict who loved the booze or the drugs more than life itself what it was
like to live for the next drink or the next high and then have God reach past
their addiction to rescue them. Ask any sinner what it’s like to be gripped by
the power of sin and what it’s like to be delivered from sin’s death grip on
their lives. Without God’s help, Jonah was doomed. But God still had a plan and
Jonah was still part of that plan and now Jonah was properly motivated to
fulfill God’s plan—not out of fear of punishment but out of awe for God’s power
to save.
“While it
is obvious from a reading of the entire Book of Jonah that the prophet had not
reached spiritual maturity, there were some significant advances in his life.
This prayer clearly shows him turning back to the Lord…It is accurate to call
Jonah an Old Testament prodigal…‘Now the prodigal returns, drawn closer to him
than ever before by the cords of redemptive love. Just as dire physical
extremity forced the prodigal son [in the story told by Jesus in Luke 15:11-32]
to return home in penitence, so Jonah in his last moments thought of the one
who alone could help him as Creator and controller of the sea.’”[2]
8Those who cling to worthless
idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. 9But I, with a song of
thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good.
Salvation comes from the LORD.”
We make
what seems like an odd transition when we come to vv. 8-9 with a reference to idolatry. There hasn’t really been any
mention of idolatry to this point so it seems a little out of place. “Idolatry”
in v. 8 is likely a reference to the Assyrians he will eventually go to visit.
Jonah reestablishes his commitment to be obedient to God’s call in v. 9 and
that means going to preach the message of repentance to the Assyrians who were
guilty of idolatry among their many other offenses against God. But I want you
to understand Jonah’s reference to idolatry on a more personal level. From a
theological perspective, “Idolatry” is valuing something or someone else above
God. Which means that one form of idolatry is loving our way of doing things
more than we love God’s way of doing things. Ouch! I happen to know this
mistake very well. I have often forfeited God’s grace because I loved my way
more than I loved His way. But grace has always been God’s way of dealing with
humanity. How often have you heard anyone in the Old Testament talk about God’s
grace? It’s a common theme of the New Testament but less prevalent in the Old. Nevertheless,
it was because of God’s grace that Jonah was commissioned to go to Nineveh to
preach the message of repentance in the first place. God could have easily just
destroyed the people of Nineveh but His plan was then and still is now, a plan
of redemption and salvation not condemnation and destruction.
Jonah came
full circle from being willfully disobedient to God to recommitting his life to
be obedient to God. Jonah’s encounter with the raging sea and three days in the
belly of a fish is a stark reminder that following our plan leads to death but
following God’s plan leads to salvation. What a beautiful illustration of God’s
salvation by grace alone. There was absolutely nothing Jonah could do to save
himself. All he could do was pray, “Help!” and God acted purely out of His
mercy and grace. “Faith in Yahweh is never as simple as pure obedience versus
pure rebellion, Jonah helps us to see the complexity of faith…In the end,
Jonah’s prayer of thanksgiving is a witness of hope to believers. This hope has
integrity and richness when his thanks are seen in the narrative context of his
situation. He gives thanks in spite of the uncertainty of still being at sea.
He gives thanks knowing he did not deserve rescue. He gives thanks for a haven
in an unlikely place. He gives thanks in spite of deep discomfort. Jonah gives
thanks in spite of his unresolved questions and issues. His is a real and hopeful
faith.
“In ‘A
Sermon on Preparing to Die,’ Martin Luther compared the death/resurrection of a
believer to the birth of a child who moves from the confines of the womb into a
broad new world. ‘Just as an infant is born with peril and pain from the small
abode of its mother’s womb into this immense heaven and earth, that is, into
this world, so man departs this life through the narrow gate of death. And
although the heavens and the earth in which we dwell at present seem large and
wide to us, they are nevertheless much narrower and smaller than the mother’s
womb in comparison with the future heaven. Therefore the death of the dear
saints is called a new birth.’ Jonah, like all believers called by Yahweh, must
be reborn by God’s grace.”[3]
Application
10And the LORD commanded the
fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
After three
days inside the fish, God commanded the fish to “vomit” Jonah out onto the dry
land according to v. 10. Nasty! Right? But isn’t that what we feel like when we
finally get around to admitting that our plan has failed? Whether we are
faithful followers of God or not, when we refuse to acknowledge that God’s way
is the only way, life, in one way or another, manages to chew us up. And when
we finally commit or recommit our lives to God’s way, it feels like life has
spit us out. Disobedience to God, regardless of what form it takes has a
profound impact on us and those around us even after we have changed course.
Hurtful actions can’t be undone and hurtful words can’t be unsaid. Nevertheless,
God gives us the opportunity to move forward with a renewed commitment to be
obedient to His way of doing things. Sins are forgiven and reconciliation with
God and with people is possible. And with reconciliation the wounds caused as a
result of disobedience can begin to heal.
The amazing
young friend I referenced at the beginning was intimately familiar with the
pain and dysfunction that results when people either don’t know or reject God’s
way of doing life. Her experience is all too familiar for all of us to some
extent. Whether your spouse is abusive or your father is always absent or your
mother drinks too much or your employer is oppressive or your teacher is
unfair, we’ve all been wounded by someone’s disobedience to God or we have
wounded someone by our own disobedience to God. But like Jonah, there’s a way
back for us; a way toward reconciliation—reconciliation with God and with
people. However, unlike Jonah, we aren’t destined to spend three days in the
belly of a fish because Jesus, in a way, did that for us. Spin the clock
forward 700+ years and Matthew records an interaction between Jesus and the
Pharisees. Here’s how it reads:
Matthew 12:38-41
38Then
some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to
see a miraculous sign from you.” 39He answered, “A wicked and
adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it
except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40For 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. 41The men of Nineveh
will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they
repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.
God had a
specific plan for salvation and Jesus was that plan. The Pharisees didn’t want
that plan, they wanted their own plan. But Jesus wasn’t having any of it.
Jesus’ way wasn’t a better way or even the best way. Jesus’ way was the only way! However, this time God
wouldn’t send a fish to the rescue, Jesus would be the one to come to the
rescue. Instead of spending three days inside a fish, Jesus would spend three
days inside a grave and after three days, Jesus would emerge from the grave
much like Jonah emerged from the fish. Salvation for the Ninevites would come
through Jonah’s message of repentance. Salvation would be available for all
humanity through the message of Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from
the dead. God has a plan and that plan is for humanity to be in relationship
with Himself and with people and that plan begin and ends with Jesus. In
between, God has given us the Scriptures which detail His plan for the way we
are to live. We can embrace it and live life to the fullest as opposed to just surviving
life or we can ignore God’s plan or reject God’s plan or run from God’s plan
but don’t be surprised if you find yourself screaming for help and trying to
keep from drowning in the consequences of your choices. But don’t worry, it’s
never too late to change course and reorient your life toward God’s plan. Who
knows, with God in the mix, you might get your very own fish and you might even
be able to give us A Perspective From
Inside The Fish.
[1]
Leslie C. Allen, The Books of Joel,
Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah—The New International Commentary on the Old
Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976), pp.
216-217.
[2]
Billy K. Smith and Frank S. Page, Amos,
Obadiah, Jonah—The New American Commentary, (Nashville, TN: B&H
Publishing Group, 1995), p. 250.
[3]
James Bruckner, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk,
Zephaniah—The NIV Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan,
2004), p. 87.
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