In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.”
We all know the Sunday
school story about Jonah who refused to obey God’s command to him to preach to
the people in Nineveh. The people of Nineveh were wicked and Jonah was probably
too scared or too scornful of the people there, and he ran away instead. He got
on a boat to go somewhere else to ‘escape’, but the boat got into a big storm.
The sailors on the boat realised that they needed to pray in order to be saved
from the storm. Jonah did not realise this himself, he had been sleeping
soundly when the sailors woke him up! Eventually, Jonah told the sailors that
he had been running away from God. He told them to throw him into the sea to
save them all from drowning, so the reluctant but terrified sailors cried out
to God and threw Jonah overboard as suggested. It is interesting that after
Jonah ran away from God’s command, he encountered a group of God-fearing fishermen
and got them into a big and dangerous storm. They were the ones who prayed
at first and who had to help deliver him. Perhaps when you are disobedient to
God, He sends faithful people to help you but the whole process of helping
a disobedient person can be very difficult and turbulent. Anyhow, Jonah ended up in the sea and God sent a big fish to
swallow him up.
Jonah could have
drowned to his death in the sea if God had not sent the big fish along to
swallow him. Nevertheless, in general when you are swallowed up by another
creature you do not survive for very long. You will likely be squeezed by the
intestines of whatever has swallowed you, suffocate and die. So the fact that
Jonah survived for 3 days indicates that this was a miracle and part of God’s
plan to save him. At some point during those 3 days, Jonah’s heart turned from
cold avoidance to urgent seeking. Finding yourself in severe trouble can often
do that to you! In Chapter 2, Jonah cried out to God with everything that he
had. He realised that he was as good as dead (v2) because God had hurled him into
the seas (v3). However, he was filled with hope because he knew that God had
saved him. Even though he was in the depths of the sea, he had not drowned. He
realised that God had a plan and probably realised that he should start praying
very hard! He repented and vowed to preach that Salvation comes from the Lord
(v9) as God had instructed him to do to the Ninevites. As soon as he vowed
this, God commanded the fish and Jonah was vomited onto dry land. God wanted to
know what Jonah’s heart was before he ‘released’ him. God was looking for
obedience from Jonah. I suspect that if Jonah had not vowed to be obedient to
God, or if he had just complained or felt sorry for himself, he would have
stayed inside the fish for much longer. In the rest of the book Jonah goes to
Nineveh and preaches to the people about God, and they repent. Jesus himself
used Jonah’s story, when he told the Israelites that “as Jonah was a sign to
the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation” (Luke 11:30).
Jonah’s story appears to foreshadow Christ’s death and resurrection., and our
salvation through Him.
This chapter tells a
powerful story of how it is never too late to repent while you are still alive.
You might be in a situation that seems terrible or as if your very life has
been lost. You may feel lost, condemned, ridiculed, or in great danger. You may
wonder where God is hiding, in your time of trouble. However, the solution is
to pray and seek God and to trust that He hears our prayers. It helps to search
our hearts and actions to see if there is anything we need to do in obedience
to God. Have we been running away from something He has commanded us to do? Is
there anything we have been trying to avoid? Or perhaps there is something new
He wants us to start praying for. God can bring a breakthrough into our lives
because He is the God of deliverance! He is able to turn around even the most
difficult situation for good and turn our lives into the most powerful
testimony of salvation.
Suggested Prayer
Almighty God. I thank You
that You are the God of salvation and that You hear all my prayers. Forgive me
if I have been disobedient or if I have avoided doing the right thing. Help me
to repent and to turn my heart completely to You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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