JONAH CHAPTER TWO
INTRODUCTION
In the late winter of 1891, the whale-ship ’Star of the East’ was in the area of the Falkland Islands when it sighted a whale. Two boats were sent out with harpoons to catch and kill the creature. But the whale’s lashing tail overturned one of the boats spilling the crew into the sea. All were finally hauled back on board ship except for one sailor, James Bartley.
The whale was eventually killed and its body drawn aboard the ship to begin the process of stripping its valuable resources. By the next day good progress had been made in removing the layers of blubber, so a tackle was attached to its stomach to hoist it onto the deck. The sailors were startled by what appeared to be signs of life inside the stomach lining. Cutting the whale open the sailors found the missing James Bartley!
Bartley was quite insane for two weeks, but when he recovered his senses he told what he remembered of being dragged under the water. Whilst struggling for his life he had been drawn into darkness and felt a terrible and oppressive heat. Reaching out his hand he felt slimy walls that gave slightly to his touch, but he couldn’t find any exit. When it finally dawned on him what most likely had happened he lost his senses and lapsed into a catatonic state.
During his time inside the whale Bartley’s face, neck and hands were bleached deathly white by gastric juices and the texture of his skin was like parchment. He never recovered from this effect. Bartley believed that he would have likely lived inside the whale until he starved to death, as he did not find breathing a problem.
Great story! But is it true? Reports do suggest that this whole story is nothing more than an early urban legend. But whether it’s true or not, we know that there has been at least one man in the world who has truly gone through such an amazing experience and lived – and that man is Jonah!
JONAH 1:17 “But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.”
Here we’re in the realm of the miraculous – an act of God that can’t be explained by natural laws. Now, we mustn’t fall into the trap of thinking that the world goes on its own way and every now and then God breaks through and does something. No, God keeps the whole universe in existence moment by moment, and He set the physical laws by which He governs the world. Miracles are His suspension of those laws to bring about super-natural acts.
A W Tozer declared, “If God said that Jonah was swallowed by a whale, then the whale swallowed Jonah, and we do not need a scientist to measure the gullet of the whale.”
It was a miracle that the creature – be it a whale or whatever – was in exactly the right place and time; that it actually swallowed Jonah and that he survived rather than died. But let’s move on from the creature! The purpose of the book of Jonah is to help us know the creature’s Maker and our God.
What Does Jonah Chapter 2 focus on? It’s a particular prayer that Jonah made. I’m sure we can all talk of unusual places in which we have called on God, but Jonah’s was a first, and I suspect a last – he was humbled in the belly of a sea-creature. But what significant things Jonah’s prayer teaches us:
· SIN SINKS THE SOUL
· HOPE IN THE DEPTHS
· THE LIFT OF GRACE
· COMPASSION RE-BORN
· SONGS OF DELIVERENCE
SIN SINKS THE SOUL
Let me remind you why Jonah found himself where he did. He had disobeyed God; refused His Will, and deliberately turned away. Nineveh was a no-go area for him; Tarshish in Spain looked a much better prospect.
Through his experience with the storm and the sailors God brought Jonah to recognise his sin; to admit without reservation his fault. “Hands up Lord, Yes, It’s me!” The buck truly stopped with him.
Now as the sailors reluctantly threw Jonah overboard – at his request - and he began to sink, he expected that God was finished with him and this was the end: (V3) “You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas…”
(V4) “I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight…’”
(V6) “To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me forever…”
There was no argument on Jonah’s part; he didn’t protest. He didn’t say, “Hey, I don’t deserve this!” His was a simple, open honest acceptance: “I am the guilty one.” He agreed completely with what God was saying to him about his sinful ways.
This is a big part of what it means when you repent to become a Christian and in your walk with God ever afterwards. Look at David’s words in PSALM 32 “I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity,” and PSALM 51 “I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me.”
Before you become a Christian you are constantly on the run spiritually, hiding from your sins; hiding in the darkness. When God saves you, you come out humbled into His light and want everything dealt with before Him. It’s like a criminal charged with one crime, who pleads guilty and asks for a whole series of previous offences to be taken into account. Have you owned your sin and confessed it before God?
HOPE IN THE DEPTHS
But Jonah didn’t drown. He was swallowed by this sea-creature instead. I’m not sure he actually knew what had happened and where he was until he was released. All he probably knew was that he was in the depths and – somehow – living. So he was humbled, confused and terrified in a totally strange environment.
Not only did Jonah recognise and confess his ill desert, but now hope was beginning to form too. By rights he should have been a lifeless corpse being digested by stomach juices. Instead he was thinking to himself: “What’s happening? I should be dead, yet I’m not. Is there hope is for me yet; even for disobedient me?”
If he was still alive it must be God, and God must be keeping him alive for a purpose. Jonah saw God’s grace and mercy in the preservation of his life; God wasn’t finished with him. So hope rose.
Where did faith’s eyes look? To God Holy Temple. The temple in the Old Testament was the special place where God met with His people; sacrifice was made; forgiveness sought, and lives re-dedicated to God.
Gordon Keddie: ‘The reference to the temple is the key to understanding what is going on in [Jonah’s] heart, as he prays to the LORD…looking to the temple signified for Jonah what looking to Christ as Saviour means for the New Testament believer – nothing less than an accomplished redemption.’
This speaks to the disobedient Christian who in the darkness of his or her sin can find hope in the depths. The ‘yet’ of faith brings the believer to repentance and to look again to the cross, where Jesus Christ God’s Son shed His blood; laid down His life to pay the price of sin.
It speaks to you too, if you have never come to Jesus. You are in the tomb of your sins, the darkness and lostness. But Jesus Christ will deliver you from the abyss if you look to Him and trust in His Name.
THE LIFT OF GRACE
None of us have literally been swallowed by a whale; I sincerely hope that never happens! Yet in a spiritual sense it is the experience of everyone who becomes a Christian. It’s a graphic illustration of conviction of sin, our own unworthiness and inability to do anything to help ourselves.
Why does it have to happen this way? Because it cuts us off from all ideas of self-help which we so tenaciously cling too. It’s as if we are entombed alive – no possible way out. Remember James Bartley reaching out in the heat and darkness, feeling the enclosing slimy walls of the sea-creatures stomach? Then the realisation that – there is no way out! Even so no wisdom, no strength, ingenuity, prowess of our own can deliver us; we can’t talk our way out of this one.
Think of Jonah – what could he do? If he didn’t find hope he would quickly have gone insane. But Jonah did the one thing that God shut him up to – pray; pray to the God who was the LORD of heaven and earth; who made the land and the sea.
(V2) “When my life was ebbing away, I REMEMBERED YOU, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.”
This is where that wonderful word ‘BUT’ comes into its own. In some ways it is the greatest word in connection with salvation:
(V6) “To 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.”
It is only when we are at the end of ourselves that we will humbly look to God. And it is the knowledge of God’s grace that enables us to say BUT! I am like this, BUT God is like that!
“Love lifted me! Love lifted me! When no one but Christ could help, love lifted me,” says the old Gospel hymn.
Have you known the LIFT of God’s grace – though your sins have sunk you into the depths, grace has lifted you up to the skies?
COMPASSION RE-BORN
In his new found grasp of grace Jonah found a fresh grasp of the need of those who are still blind to that grace: (V9) “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” Was Jonah thinking of the Ninevites at this point? He had became self-less instead of selfish in connection with the sailors; now he was coming to terms with mission that God had called him to.
A city, a people, a nation without God may like the Assyrians be strong in battle; may be feared in the world; may consider themselves to be great achievers, but in trusting in idols and not the true God, they have a fatal weakness.
Let’s bring it bang up to date. What have idols got to do with us today? Everything. You see, an idol is anything that we trust in to the exclusion of the God who made us; anything that we put before God. A W Tozer “An idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand.”
Some years ago there was a controversy over an artist who portrayed the late Princess Diana as a Mary-like figure; as someone venerated, like Mary the mother of Jesus so often is in certain religious paintings.
It was suggested at the time that the painter was making a serious point: as religion is dead in so many people’s eyes our devotions have been transferred to the icons of our day – the pop stars, film stars and soccer players and so on – who are given an almost godlike-status and veneration. Diana was certainly in that category.
Jonah didn’t look down his nose at the Ninevites; he didn’t, couldn’t, consider himself better than those who didn’t know the true God. He had experienced his own great need and knew he was in the same boat as them. It was grace alone that had made the difference.
If God is not on the throne of your life you need to forsake, let go, your idols and come before God in Jesus Name confessing your faults. If you will come God will save; there’s no reluctance on God’s part. He’s made it plain in Jesus that you are welcome. Don’t forfeit the grace He offers.
Christian, when you face a people and society who reject God and His Word, and even laugh at what you say, or threaten you. Let compassion rule you, not fear, or hatred. They are trusting in worthless idols that will turn to dust in their hands.
SONGS OF DELIVERANCE
Jonah was overwhelmed by God’s grace – he was still imprisoned inside the sea-creature, but in his soul he was as free as a bird. Why? Because he learned the lessons God wanted him to take on board. His faith was rejuvenated; he had as it were come back from the dead, and life was beginning to blossom in his soul.
If you know God’s grace you are really humbled by it, awed by God. At the same time you are filled with joy. You can’t help it. That’s why Jonah says (V9) “I with a song of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you…”
Wherever you find grace in the heart there you will find a song too! As someone once wrote: “If it is not strictly true to say…that ‘Methodism was born in song’, we can say with no fear of contradiction that when Methodists were born again they began to sing.” As a result a rich treasure of hymns have been handed down to us from the revivals that took place in the UK and America in the 1700’s.
Let’s never forget to express our thanks to God for all He is and all that He has done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. God loves to hear our worship and praises.
True praise involves not just vocal singing but heart dedication too. (V9) “What I have vowed I will make good.” In the belly of the sea-creature Jonah vowed to the Lord that he would serve Him. If God saw fit to release him Jonah was determined to see those vows through.
When we are in times of trial and in the dark we make promises to God. How important it is to remember our vows (so long as they are biblical and sensible) when He delivers us, and to use our past weaknesses and the great mercy God shows us to encourage and spur us to love and serve Him better. That’s a good way of looking in the past to help us for the future.
But a big question mark can be raised here; something that stifles the song in some believer’s hearts. What if I fail again; what if I get it wrong and let God down? I mean look at Jonah; don’t you know what happened later on in the story?
Now it’s true that Jonah’s failures didn’t stop after he had run away and was restored inside the sea-creature. You’d think, “Surely he couldn’t get it wrong a second time?” And the answer is: “O, yes he could. And did.”
But then we see also that God’s grace toward him didn’t stop either: God persevered. That’s the significance of those concluding words of Jonah’s prayer: (V 9) “Salvation comes from the LORD.”
If salvation and service were in our hands we would have been finished long ago. But as God’s grace persevered with Jonah, so He perseveres with us. His grace is more powerful than any sin, and grace will overcome. “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more” ROM CH 5 V 20.
Did Jonah’s later failure in Chapter four invalidate the grace he experienced here in Chapter 2? Not at all; it was real.
“We ought not to doubt [Jonah’s] sincerity at this point because of his later failure. If you know your own heart and your own capacity for sinful inconsistency in matters of faith and life, you will be only to painfully aware of how real and how common such contrasting experiences are in the life of a believing child of God. Every Christian can identify with both the up and downs of Jonah’s life.” (Gordon Keddie).
What’s important here – in our walk with God and our work for Him – is not to allow the memory of these things that we have repented of hold us back from serving Him now. For once confessed it is forgiven, and God has cast it behind His back never to remember it anymore.
Joni Eareckson Tada offers this very helpful insight: ‘Why do we feel so bad about our past sins? Because we confuse sin with its impression. Got a notebook nearby? Let me show you how it can be so. Write the word ‘sin’ on the top page. Press hard. Now tear of that sheet of paper, crumple it up and throw it across the room. That’s how God forgets your sin. Now take up your pencil and rub it across the new page at an angle, back and forth over the same location where you wrote. And guess what. The ghost of the word ‘sin’ appears. That’s what our flawed memories do. We go back over the deep impression left by transgressions in our life and we feel just as guilty. It’s as if the sin never left. But be encouraged, the impression of sin is not the same thing as sin…will you continue to work over forgiven sin as with a pencil? Or will you let the Holy Spirit work His lovingkindess?’
When Jonah confessed that salvation was of the LORD – not in his own hands, not men, nor angels, nor any created power but totally in God’s hands - it was as if God said: “Right, that’s it Jonah, you’ve learned the lesson you needed to take on board. Now for the next stage of your journey: JONAH CH 2 V 10 “And the LORD commanded the fish, an it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”
