The Messenger (Jonah part 2)

Jonah 2 (TNIV)

1 [a]From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. 2 He said:

       "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.

    3 You 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.

    4 I said, 'I have been banished

       from your sight;

       yet I will look again

       toward your holy temple.'

    5 The engulfing waters threatened me, [b]

       the deep surrounded me;

       seaweed was wrapped around my head.

    6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down;

       the earth beneath barred me in forever.

       But you, LORD my God,

       brought my life up from the pit.

    7 "When my life was ebbing away,

       I remembered you, LORD,

       and my prayer rose to you,

       to your holy temple.

    8 "Those who cling to worthless idols

       forfeit God's love for them.

    9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise,

       will sacrifice to you.

       What I have vowed I will make good.

       I will say, 'Salvation comes from the LORD.' "

    10 And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Footnotes:

• 1. Jonah 2:1 2:1-10 is numbered 2:2-11 in Hebrew texts.

  2. Jonah 2:5  Or waters were at my throat

So far Jonah has been talking mainly with his feet - running as fast as he can in the opposite direction.  But in chapter 2, Jonah finds his voice, albeit from the belly of a very large fish with water up his nose.  At least God now had his attention!  As we listen to Jonah's prayer,  it becomes apparent that Jonah is still not getting all of it quite right . . .  yet, despite Jonah's take on it in his prayer, it is God who sends the fish to rescue Jonah from himself.  And so Jonah has time to think and gain a little perspective.  He didn't get it all figured out there, but God got him to the next step in his journey, and by the time he gets to the end of the prayer, and finds himself dripping wet with more than sea water on the shore, He is much further along than he was when he began.

It was in the belly of the large fish that Jonah finally began to realize that we are saved by grace in spite of our disobedience, not because of it.  To what extent Jonah may have understood this before he took off for Tarshish, we don't know.  But by the time Jonah was deposited on shore, he had come to experience it.   Jonah had taken the next step in his journey toward where God was taking him.  He wasn't done yet, there was (as we shall see in future installments in this series) still a ways for him to go.  But what Jonah goes through here forms the foundation for the next steps, as Jonah begins to internalize the message for himself.  

Take a few moments to reflect on Jonah's prayer to the right, and perhaps a time (or times) in your own experience where spending some time in your own version of the belly of a great fish allowed you to begin to internalize what God was wanting you to grasp.

If you would like to listen to the sermon again, or perhaps for the first time, you can click here to access our sermon library.

For Further Thought . . .

As you listen to Jonah's prayer, what is it that seems to have come into focus the most clearly for him?

What parts of Jonah's prayer reflect that Jonah still didn't quite understand it all yet?

What parts of the story do you connect with?  Why?

Interestingly enough, almost all of the various sections in this prayer seem to be quotations from or allusions to the Psalms.  Do you notice any parallels - and if so, what kinds of insight does this give us into Jonah's (and our) experiences?