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by GLENN PEASE
03/12/18
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Based on Jonah 2

     The early settlers of the New England Colonies knew what it was to suffer and to endure great difficulties. They had frequent days of fasting and prayer on which they would bring their distresses before God. Constant dwelling on the sorrows of life led them to be gloomy and discontented. Some even decided to go back to their fatherland and face persecution. Finally, at one of the meetings where it was proposed to appoint a day of fasting and prayer, one of the old colonists who had apparently been doing some deep thinking, stood and said that he thought they had done enough brooding over their misfortunes and that it was high time they started to consider some of their blessings.

       He went on to point out that the fields were increasing in harvests, the rivers were full of fish, the woods were full of game, the air was sweet, the climate was good, and they possessed what they had come for, which was full civil and religious liberty. His advise was taken, and they proclaimed a day of feasting and praise, and that is why we have a day of Thanksgiving arising out of a situation that appeared to many to be hopeless.

        Thanksgiving is a necessity in the life of a believer, for without it there is a tendency to dwell on the dark side of life. It is real, but it is not eternal. It is not an adequate foundation on which to build a life of faith. Jonah realized this, and he is one of the best examples in Scripture of what a believer's attitude ought to be in a hopeless situation. When I say hopeless, I mean from a human standpoint, and without divine intervention. This is the kind of situation Jonah was in when he was cast into the sea. We want to examine his reaction because it holds much instruction as to how a believer should respond in a hopeless situation. The first thing we want to establish is the timing of Jonah's prayer.

       In 2:1 we read the word then, and the question is when? If we take it in chronological order from 1:17, it would be at the conclusion of the 3 days and nights in the fish's belly. Does it make any difference when he said it? Yes, for the time of it explains why it is strictly a prayer of thanksgiving and dedication without any requests. If this was a prayer at the beginning of his experience, it would be one of crying out for deliverance, but here he refers back to that original cry for help in the past, and now he give thanks that it was heard. He recalls his experience of sinking in the sea, and of his cry for help after he had lain unconscious in the fish for 3 days. Now he has regained consciousness just before he is vomited out.

        This means that Jonah is still in a humanly hopeless situation, but he does not look at it from that angle. He dwells instead on the fact that God heard his prayer and has kept him alive. He is thankful in the midst of a horrible and hopeless situation. He does not at this point have any promise that he will be delivered, but he has faith to believe that if God spared him from drowning, He will also spare him from the fish as well. He didn't even ask for it, however, for he was so grateful for his deliverance thus far that he could only think of commitment and vows. This ought to be our attitude always. We have been delivered from the greatest crisis in the universe. We have escaped damnation through Christ, and our gratitude ought to outweigh all the aggravations and burdens of present trials. The basic attitude of the Christian is to be one of thanksgiving. It may sound unrealistic, but it is really not if one is fully aware of what it means to be saved. Jonah was still in a mess, but he was so conscious of the mercy and presence of God that he could be joyful even in the very jaws of death.

       One of the values of prayer is that it is possible when nothing else is. If one is conscious, one can pray anywhere at any time under any circumstance. No prayer was ever offered from a more perilous place than this prayer of Jonah, and yet it was heard with no more difficulty than if offered from a church or prayer room. If God can hear and answer prayer from the depths of the sea, He can do so under any possible circumstance. This prayer of Jonah makes it clear that where you are and what your position is makes no difference. Sam Walter Foss wrote this poem about the prayer of Cyrus Brown, which illustrates the point.

The proper way for a man to pray,
Said Deacon Lemuel Keyes,
"And the only proper attitude
Is down upon his knees."

"No, I should say the way to pray,"
Said Reverend Doctor Wise,
"Is standing straight with outstretched arms
And rapt and upturned eyes."

"Oh, no, no, no," said Elder Slow,
"Such posture is too proud.
A man should pray with eyes fast-closed
And head contritely bowed."

"It seems to me his hands should be
Austerely clasped in front
With both thumbs pointing toward the ground."
Said Reverend Doctor Blunt.

"Last year I fell in Hidgekin's well
Headfirst," Said Cyrus Brown,
"With both my heels a-stickin up
And my head a-pointin down."

"An I made a prayer right then and there, T
he best prayer I ever said,
The prayingest prayer I ever prayed,
A-standin on my head."

       In verse 2 Jonah refers to the past in his prayer, and in doing so he gives a biblical example of the validity to do so. At one point I became skeptical of the reality of much public prayer. I use to think it was foolish to tell God what He already knew. It was obvious that the person praying was informing the rest of the people and not God. This seemed like a defect until I saw that this is a common characteristic of biblical prayers. Prayer is a human activity and must, therefore, have the limitations of man's finite abilities. When we pray we must inform those with us of the circumstances and background, and all sorts of facts that God knows perfectly. Public prayer is conversational communion with God, and it would be rude to make it a private line experience and not let others in on the nature of the conversation.

       Jonah is in a private situation, but even there it is natural for us to refresh our own minds on God's past mercies, and to speak in prayer for our own benefit. Prayer is revisiting the blessings of God and His guidance, and then thanking Him for it. Jonah goes back over the horrible experience he had passed through. He called to God out of his distress when he was drowning. He refers to it as the belly of hell-the place of death.   In other words, he had the feeling that this was the end and all hope was gone. But yet all hope was not gone, for he still prayed. Where there is life there is hope is always true for the believer, for God can and does deliver even when it appears to be too late.

      In verse 3 we see Jonah reviewing the tragic experience, and he makes it clear that he has no ill will against the pagan sailors. He does not even mention them, but attributes the casting over into the sea directly to God. This was typical of Jewish thought. They would ignore all secondary causes, and refer to God as the direct cause of things. Our thinking tends to bring in the means, and so we say God did such and such a thing by means of His Word, or through His servants, etc. People debate such things as whether it was the pagans or God who threw Jonah overboard. There are many such foolish debates, and they are foolish because both sides are correct. God does things by means of people and so both are the cause.

       Jonah gives us a description of what it felt like to be drowning. The waves and billows were his first impression because he was thrown into a raging sea. In verse 4 we see that he felt forsaken of God. He felt that this was the end. We know, however, that God was present, but His presence does not depend upon our feelings. Jonah felt forsaken, but it was a subjective experience. He is a believer who has reached the end of his rope.   It is a hopeless situation, and yet it is just here where the believer's hope is to go on shining, and that is what Jonah's hope does. In the very breath he uses to confess his hopelessness he also confesses his hope.

        He says, "Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple." How can he mix such confidence with such a calamity? Some feel that he refers here to a hope of life beyond in God's heavenly temple. If so, we see an indication of hope for forgiveness and cleansing after death. If he referred to the temple in Jerusalem, it means he had confidence that God would rescue him from death. Either way it is an amazing hope to have in a hopeless situation. The heavenly temple seems likely, however, for he mentions it again in verse 7, and it is not likely that he was thinking of worship in Jerusalem, but rather of his hope of being in God's presence soon. This is a more likely thought of a saint at the time of death, and Jonah felt this was the end for him. Since is was an Old Testament concept that God's temple would be in heaven, there is no reason to doubt Jonah's hope of life after death.

       Jonah went down to Joppa in disobedience to God, and then he went down into the ship to sleep, and now he has gone down to the depths of the sea. He has been on the downward path ever since he fled from God. Now he has reached the bottom, and seed weeds are wrapped around his head. He has reached the end of the line. In verse 6 he expresses his hopelessness again, for he was sunk beyond help, and he would be in this prison of water forever. That was his feeling at the moment he was there, but now he has awakened in the fishes belly. He is alive, and the second part of the verse expresses his present reaction. It was a hopeless situation, but even so he says, "Yet thou hast brought up my life from corruption O Lord my God." We see the parallel with the resurrection of Christ who saw no corruption.

      Jonah had reached the bottom, and yet God pursued him and brought him up. Here is a theme basic to the whole plan of God.   It is the Gospel, for man however corrupt and forsaken by God is still the object of God's love. The most depraved of men whom God must despise is still a man for whom Christ died. In this case Jonah is a an example of a backslider who has forsaken God's plan, but God has still not forsaken him. Jesus broke through the very gates of hell to restore man to the fellowship of God.

       Verse 7 makes it clear that Jonah was still a believer even though he was a backslider and guilty of terrible disobedience. He never had any intention of forsaking his faith. It was only his duty that he was forsaking. He turned to the Lord and in his distress he found that God will not cast out any who come to Him. In verse 8 he realizes the folly of putting anything ahead of God's plan. He had let nationalism become a superior loyalty above God. It was an idol, and the result was that he lost the mercy and grace he might have had by putting God first. This is a warning to all believers who put a good ahead of the best. Loyalty is not an absolute virtue. If one is loyal to anything, no matter how good, but which is less than God, one has turned what might have been virtue into a vice.

       In verse 9 Jonah closes his prayer with thanksgiving and commitment to obedience and praise. Jonah had learned the hard way that obedience is a supreme virtue. He is grateful to God for the chance to put it into practice.

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