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 frontWith 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,
The 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.
