Jonah 2:1-10
The second chapter of Jonah is a record of the prayer which the prophet lifted up while he was in the belly of the great fish. This prayer is an open window through which we may view Jonah’s thinking during a time of great distress. In chapter one, Jonah’s action (his flight from the presence of the Lord) provides a picture of his thinking at a very different time. In chapter 1, Jonah attempted to flee from God because he did not want to go and to cry out against Nineveh. Jonah thought to go where God could not see him. Jonah erred because one cannot hide from God.
In chapter 2, Jonah finds himself in the belly of the fish which he likens to the belly of hell or sheol. In relating that which transpired within the confines of the belly of the fish, Jonah begins with the declaration that the Lord heard his voice. God did not answer Jonah’s prayer until the Lord spoke to the fish and the fish vomited him out onto dry land (v. 10). This is the last recorded event of the chapter. Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. A lot happened in the three days and three nights prior to Jonah’s deliverance from the belly of the fish. The Holy Spirit moved the human author of the book of Jonah to relate the happenings within the fish’s belly as a series of flashbacks — flashbacks which highlight God’s love toward them who, like Jonah, have gone their own way.
The first flashback is that of Jonah’s crying out from the belly of the fish. Jonah cried out to the Lord because he was afflicted (v. 2). God heard his call. Every detail recorded in verses 3-7 is brought before us such that we might know the heart of them whose prayers God hears and answers. In verse 3, Jonah realizes that God has cast him into the deep and has covered him up with the waters of His billows and His waves. Jonah is cognisant of his predicament. He knows that he is separated from God and why he is separated from God. The prayer of Jonah is the prayer of one separated from Him. The prayer of Jonah is the prayer of him who is enclosed by waters and weeds within the belly of the fish. It is a prayer that can only be prayed by one who knows that he is hopelessly separated from God. It is also the prayer of one who realizes and fully accepts that the course of his life must be God’s way or no way at all.
In verse 4, we learn that Jonah’s prayer is of one who looks “again to thy holy temple.” In looking upon the holy temple, Jonah looks upon the same things that every other individual looks upon when entering the temple. All viewers are confronted with the altar of sacrifice upon which offerings are presented to the Lord. The altar is God’s provision for man’s atonement. The altar of sacrifice is the only manner by which man may approach God. Jonah looked again and Jonah saw the provision which God had made for him. The prayer that Jonah offered up, the prayer that God hears, is the prayer of him who sees the provision which God has supplied. Today, those who look to God’s holy temple are them who look and see the way, the truth and the life — the Son who was without sin who satisfied our every failing. Jonah looked again to God’s holy temple and he saw the provision which the Father bestowed upon all who would accept His love.
In verse 5, Jonah’s thoughts go back to the moment in which he realized the fullness of his inability to deal with his own survival. He was encompassed by waters. The deep pressed upon him. He was entangled with weeds. He was totally helpless. One cannot pray Jonah’s prayer unless one becomes as Jonah, realizing that God, and God alone, is the answer.
In verse 6, Jonah relives the realization that God answered his prayer. Jonah was trapped beneath the mountains. He was hopelessly enclosed forever. He was buried. God then did the impossible, God delivered Jonah from all corruption. Jonah cried out, “O Lord my God” when God raised him up. God, in His love, removed the mountains that had pressed upon Jonah. The mountains were gone! God moved them! Jonah was free, free in deed! Jonah’s moment of realization his new life is shared by all who are born again. Christ has made us free! He has cast our mountain aside. We cry out: “O Lord, my God!”
In one last flashback (v. 7), Jonah relives his deliverance. When his soul fainted within him, he remembered the Lord. His prayer was answered because God, in His love, had made provision for him and all like him — God’s holy temple. Not all who come to the holy temple have prayed Jonah’s prayer. Verse 8 states: “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.” The Lord God has made one provision, a provision of mercy, for all men. That provision is fully revealed to New Testament believers through the Son who said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Mercy awaits all who come to the Lord as Jonah came. All who come to the holy temple to present their own works, present works of vanity and reject the mercy which God has provided. “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). “. . . there is none that doeth good” (Ps. 53:1).
In verse 9, Jonah vows that he will sacrifice with the voice of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is not about what man has done. Thanksgiving is all about what God has done. All who are second born through the Son are called to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. It is our reasonable service because of what God has done (Rom. 12:1). It is our reasonable service to declare that which God has done. God has delivered us from the pit such that we may walk again upon dry land and declare that which He has done.
Let us walk according to His word.
