Conflicted Prophet and Persistent God
2 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, 2 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.
3 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.
4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
yet I shall again look
upon your holy temple.’
5 The waters closed in over me to take my life;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
6 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.
7 When my life was fainting away,
I remembered the LORD,
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
8 Those who pay regard to vain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the LORD!”
10 And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
One of the great cartoon movies. The Incredibles is a 2004 American animated superhero film produced by Pixar. the film follows Bob and Helen Parr, a couple of superheroes, known as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl. A unique twist to this super hero movie is that they are forced to hide their powers due to a government mandate. Thats right people got tired of the damage they caused by saving the world and so the government forced them into hiding. They then live a quiet suburban life with their three children. However, Bob's desire to help people draws the entire family into a confrontation with a vengeful fan-turned-foe. IF you are familiar with the movie you may not remember Mr Oliver Sansweet, but he is at the heart of the reason that people turn on super hero’s and force them into hiding. Sansweet is someone that Mr. Incredible saved but he didnt want to be saved. Or at least he saw an opportunity.
Oliver Sansweet’s Lawyer: Mr. Sansweet didn't ask to be saved. Mr. Sansweet didn't want to be saved. And the injury he received from Mr. Incredible's "actions" causes him daily pain.
Mr. Incredible: Hey, I saved your life!
Oliver Sansweet: You didn’t save my life, you ruined my death! That’s what you did!
Mr. Incredible: Listen, you little
Did you hear that?? It is ironic that a superhero went to great lengths to help someone, but that someone didn’t want the help.
That is kind of how the book of Jonah is. God is at work in the world, but the prophet Jonah is not exactly excited about what he is doing so he runs from God. He is resistant.
Jonah ran from God in chapter 1, but god pursues. In this chapter Jonah prays and give thanks, but there is a bit of irony even in Jonah’s prayer, and this irony once again shows us what God is doing in the world.
- Jonah’s Pious Prayer
In this passage Jonah prays to God. He endures a terrible storm, knows the storm has come upon him because of his disobedience to God, and so he is thrown overboard into the heart of the raging sea. But God appoints a fish to swallow Jonah and save him from the raging waves.
There is a lot written on the types of fish in the mediterranean sea that could swallow a man alive and also regurgitate him. I won’t go into that today but it is interesting to read.
These verses contain Jonah’s prayer to God. He cried out to God and God heard his prayer. Jonah was in bitter distress and he cried out to God.
“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.
This is what you would expect. Jonah is a prophet. You would expect him to be listening and obeying God but he has not done that so far. Finally now you see that he turned to God. He cried out for help. V 2 says he cried from the belly of the fish, literally out of the bowels of the fish. The end of verse 2 he says
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.
Jonah is in distress. He went to the depths of the sea. He says he went to sheol. Sheol is the place of the dead. You might substitute or translate it as “the grave.” Jonah is saying he was in the grave. He was dead. The storm and tossing overboard was a judgment for his sin. Sin deserves death. That is what he deserved. It wasn’t that he just needed to swim a little harder. Do a little better. He was in the grave and that brought him well past the limits of his ability. No one can save themselves from death. Everyone must face it. Everyone lives in fear of death. Some are enslaved by that fear.
Song, I want to go to heaven I just dont want to go right now.
Hebrews 2:15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Death and judgment awaited Jonah, it awaits us all. We saw in chapter 1 that Jonah was fleeing from God. You would certainly assume Jonah felt that weight. If you have disobeyed God then it is a terrible thing to be brought into the presence of God and have to give an account.
The Bible teaches that we will all die. We will all die and even more that we will stand before the judgment seat of God to give an account of how we have lived.
Jonah recognizes this and he cries out to God, who is the only one who can deliver him. God heard his prayer and said ok, not today. God spares him from it, for a time.
Jonah is giving praise that God heard his prayer. He is testifying to that. Giving God glory.
“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.
What he is saying is that there is one God, it is Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God who led Moses through the desert. The God who made a covenant with his people that he would redeem them, deliver them out of darkness and sin and death. This is the God you are to serve. Don't mess with other things!
Jonah drops some theological truth bombs.
Those who pay regard to vain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love.
Those who keep, protect or worship idols.
Worthless idols. Worthless is the word hebel. It means breath, wind, meaningless, empty, futile.
Shana: worthlessness, nothing, vanity. Fraud.
-This is what Jonah says idols are. They are nothing. They cannot deliver you, help you, hear you, see you, and they certainly can’t come down to the depths of the ocean and draw you out of Sheol. They cannot appoint a fish to swallow you and carry you back to where you are supposed to be. Jonah is saying there is no God’ but Yahweh.
Idols are certainly among us today. They can be Images, carvings, objects of worship used in religious ceremonies. They can be other god’s. We are to worship the one true God. But in a secular society we often look to others things to save us, give us meaning, take our mind off the problem. Idols are anything we cling to, guard, delight in, protect. It is whatever is most important to you. Idols can be money, possession, sports, looks, cars. Though people give their lives for such things they are ultimately worthless; they cannot do what they promise.
Notice what Jonah says, If you go after those you forfeit steadfast love. Chesed. God’s steadfast, unfailing, always abounding, covenantal love. His faithful love. The core idea of this is loyalty within a relationship. In regards to love, it means God’s faithfulness to his people.
God made a covenant that drew his people into a relationship with him. He promises to be their God and to be with them. The promise of God’s steadfast love is the greatest promise we have. We do not serve God because we have to, or because he gave us a checklist of stuff to do and not do, no he promises a relationship in which we can know him, walk with him, experience his love based on the promises he has given to us.
And yet he says you can forfeit that love. Turning to idols is turning away from God and his love. It is to forsake it, to abandon it. Jonah knows this. He turned from God. God said go east and he went west. Jonah is one who has forsaken God, but God has heard his prayer.
It is amazing that God heard Jonah’s prayer. Jonah had done nothing to deserve this. The fact that he is still alive is simply an act of God’s grace. Those swelling sea billows were servants of God just wrath to punish Jonah, but God’s mercy spares Jonah. God seeks to save his people from their wicked ways and their idols.
Conversion of Jerome, great theologian of the early church. Perhaps best known for the translation of the Vulgate. Jerome was a brilliant man and academic theologian. He read all the important philosophers of his time like Cicero. Then Jerome had a dream of being before the judgment seat of God. God says who is this. Jerome says I am a Christian. God says, no he is not a Christian, he is a ciceronian. Jerome saw he had to abandon his worthless idols.
I share this story because we see how silly it is to idolize Cicero. Do we see our idols as clearly.
Those who do not share in our worship of idols see how petty those idols are. Jerome knew nothing of the Georgia Bulldogs and the Atlanta Falcons. They knew nothing of Joanna Gaines and Magnolia Manner. They knew nothing of bitcoin and 401k and trusts. The things you are devoting yourself to and forsaking God are **complete nothingness.** Thats what Jonah says. They cannot save you from death. ONly God can do that.
**The phrase “but you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God” is the turning point of the prayer. Here is an expression of praise, a recognition of God’s sovereign power
In the words “salvation comes from the LORD,” Jonah extolled the work of the Lord as Savior. Here also is an emphasis on the Lord’s sole sovereignty in the area of salvation. **may be the key verse in the book.
Salvation belongs to the Lord. Perhaps he knew it theologically before. Now he knows it experientially.
Jonahs offers a great prayer, but there are things in this that should give the observant ready some pause. It seems …
- Jonah’s Conflicted Heart
Jonah’s theology espoused in this prayer is spot on, it echos the psalms and the celebration of God’s great promises and redemptive acts, but Jonah’s life is more complicated. Ironies that cause some headscratching.
Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
yet I shall again look
upon your holy temple.’
Jonah laments that he cannot see God. He longs to look again at the temple of God. The temple is the place of God’s presence, the center of his people and what he is doing in the world. Jonah’s hope in the world is connected to the temple and he can’t imagine not seeing God.
And yet you must remember in chapter 1, that Jonah was fleeing from the presence of the Lord. This was mentioned several times. It is a theme. Jonah wanted nothing to do with God and now all the sudden he laments his loss.
Like my kids lamenting they don’t get to unload the dishwasher because they are at their friends house for the weekend.
Jonah’s words are contrary to his actions. This reminds of a great line in the book/movie gone with the wind. Scarlet is a selfish and conniving high class woman who during the civil war is forced to do the manual work of a farm hand just to get by. She tries to trick Rhett Butler into giving her money but since she is too proud to beg she lies and says she is well off. Rhett is a savvy street smart manipulator himself, takes one to know one. He grabs her hand and realizes the hard work she has been doing and catches her in a lie. When she is caught she begins to cry and wail for being sorry, and Rhet looks at her and says, you aren’t sorry for what you did you are just sorry you got caught. “You're Like The Thief Who Isn't The Least Bit Sorry He Stole, But Is Terribly Sorry He's Going To Jail.” That is not true repentance. Jonah’s life doesn’t line up with his lips. It seems out of alignment
Jonah’s lips and making great statements of God that his life has not aligned with. It also says that the fished vomited him back onto the land. That is interesting, isn’t it? Does say placed, or released or even spat. It vomited him up. It doesnt seem that the fish found Jonah agreeable.
The word translated “vomited” in the NIV is a coarse word and is used in the Old Testament only in images that arouse disgust (Isa 19:14; Jer 48:26; Lev 18:28). While in other versions it is translated “spit” or “spewed,” the word used in the NIV is not only graphic but also accurate.
If you have ever vomited you know this. I remember one time we went to a church service and then went out with some friends to get wings. We waited forever, the service was terrible and when the waitress brought the food she was confused and had to smell my wings to make sure they were the right ones. I knew it was a bad sign. We all ate, and those wings settled in my stomach like an atomic bomb. It was not a good night. What made it worse was Amanda had been planning a surprise date the next morning with some good friends of ours. I woke up in the morning feeling terrible. But there was no way I was going to mess up her surprise date. We went to our friends house. Amanda and her friend blindfolded me and Steve and next thing I knew we were in the parking lot of disney world. First thing we did there was space mountain. I don’t boast of my prayer life. Some people like to state how they are prayer warriors. I don’t want to overstate how I stack up with others. But I will say this, I do not believe there has ever been another grown man pray more on Space Mountain than I did that day.
I ate something that didn’t agree with me. It disrupted my normal pattern. Something doesn’t agree with this fish. It seems to be Jonah’s hypocrisy. Interestingly enough,
for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), [28 lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.” Leviticus 18:27–28.
In some ways Jonah is illustrative of every Christian. We have a perfect God and our lives will always fall short of what he calls us to. OUr theology will always be better than our lives. But we also have to see that God is after something in his people.
God is not pleased with mere talk, nor outward actions that are contrary to a person’s real desires. He wants our heart. He wants our devotion. Not compliments. He refines us like silver. Adversity tests us. It shows us what we are really about. It purifies our motives. Many serve God because they want stuff from god. They are manipulating him. When they dont get what they want they turn from him.
Most people just want to look at certain way and are not interested in whats going on inside, in the heart. Do you want your spouse to just look a certain way or do you want them to love you from the core of their being. This is what God is after. When we let him into our hearts we experience salvation. We begin to experience life as it was meant to be. We begin to long for him, and not just try to say the right things to get by.
In the Bible belt this is extremely common. People grow up more concerned about doing the right things and having the appearance of serving God rather than having their hearts changed. Some people may be here today, and you miss the glory days of living in rebellion to God, but you are too old to do that, others wont allow you. You know the right things to say but your heart is not changed. God doesnt want lip service. He doesn’t want you to be one way in church and another way with others. He detests those who work to keep parts of their lives secret from others.
-dressed up for church but didnt go to church.
-dont want people to know what they did.
Running from God. Avoidant of God. Know who he is and what he has done but their lives are not in line. God will pursue you. He may expose you. And it is all for your true healing.
God has called Jonah, but Jonah ran. He has saved Jonah from death and Jonah has thanked him, but has Jonah’s heart really changed. The author does not specifiy so we can only speculate. Jonah is in the gray. And if we need to speak something of certainty, its taht the gray is not good.
Are you still holding on to your idols? Do you still long for them and love them? Have you brought your life before God? There is so much more of God for you to experience.
- The Salvation of God
Jonah did get it and he is placed solitary confinement to think about it. Jonah is thinking and learning in the belly of the fish. God is working. He has done things that need contemplating.
God is working in Jonah’s life. Jonah is in a tight spot. But God’s mercy is all around him. People on the outside can often see our idols better than we can. People on the outside can often see the grace of God better than we can. Jonah is in the bowels of fish, which is not my first place to go for a three day weekend.
Jonah remembers God when his life is fainting away. He is about to lose it all. So many people don’t turn to God until this point.
When my life was fainting away,
I remembered the LORD,
and my prayer came to you,
He may be turning to God but he certainly does not get it all. God’s grace is all around him. Everything he said is true, but will he rest in it fully and completely.
God continues with his people who dont get it. He shows his love to us by sending one to save us by grace.
40 For just 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. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
Jonah went down in to death. He is raised to new life and experiences salvation. He will then share this with the Ninevites. Jonah was suffering for his own mistakes and he did not fully understand the persistent love of God.
Jesus will go not near the grave, but into the grave, and he will do it not for his own mistakes but for ours. He bears our punishment that we might be saved. And in his death we see the love of God. Jesus dies for our obvious sins but also for our secrete sins. He knows it all. God does not withhold his son, and when we see what he did we ought not to withhold our affection. We turn to him with all our heart.
We are to respond to with faith and repentance. We receive it by faith, and by changing hearts. We recognize our sin and our fleeing from God. We recognize our cowardice and running rather than confronting. We recognize our apathy in not making a clear break from past sins and turing to Christ.
When we see this we cannot keep going on our own way. We also cannot be content to hide our sin and live in it. We trust in him with all our heart and weight.
Chair ill.
Charles Blondin is a famous tight rope walker. In the summer of 1859 he walked 160 feet above Niagara falls, going multiple times back and forth between Canada and the United States. Huge crowds on both sides looked on with shock and awe. Once he crossed in a sack, once on stilts, another time on a bicycle, and once he even carried a stove and cooked an omelet!
On July 15, Blondin walked backward across the tightrope to Canada and returned pushing a wheelbarrow. After pushing the wheelbarrow across while blindfolded, te crowds had watched and "Ooooohed" and "Aaaaahed!" Thats when Blondin asked for some audience participation. He asked the crowed if they thought he could cross with someone in the wheel barrow. The crowd shouted. Then he asked who would get int. No one responded.
There are many that like the idea of faith, but they are not willing to truly trust God. That means you are not walking with God.
