Jonah Prayed

FROM: APRIL 21 @ 27, 2015

Topic: "Jonah Prayed" Jonah 2: 1-10

In our sweet palate more than anything there should be prayer. JONAH PRAYED! How about if it is said: Keila prayed!, etc. (Jonah 2: 1, "From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God…") Although Jonah fled to not have to go to Nineveh he knew the faith. AND FAITH IS WHAT MAKES HIM CAPABLE OF PRAYING! No place is improper for prayer. If there is need, what is needed is to pray. (Jonah 2: 2 "In my distress I called upon the Lord, and He heard me ...") Instead of entering and remaining in despair, in anguish prayer must prevail, in suffering the prayer, when there is intense concern caused by dangers, threats, pain, grief or sadness WHAT WE NEED TO DO IS PRAY! From hell (Jonah 2: 2 "From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry.”) The voice, your voice must be known by the Lord because you speak to Him in your prayers. Jonah felt as if he was experiencing death and so he struggled to bring his cry to God; he knew he was like dead. Sheol was the invisible world of the dead and for Jonah that’s what it was being in the belly of the fish. The prophet said, "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...” (Jonah 2: 3) It came from God to take Jonah to deep waters. The prophet recognizes the source where his suffering came from. It was not a mere coincidence but the hand of God that sent him there. Then, Jonah said in Vs.4: "I have been banished ..." It is thinking: "Now His eyes will not look at me anymore. I will no longer have His favorable look.” All this would be a fair compensation or payment of God to Jonah for fleeing from the presence of the Lord. He had been running from the presence of God, a divine presence that became a burden from which he wished to escape. But now, he feels that being deprived of it is the more bitter experience for him. How easy it is to turn our back on God! Likewise God turned His back on Jonah turning his sin into his own punishment. Turn your back on God and see if you can make it when He turns His back on you also, when His ears are no longer willing to listen. When God leaves man this is what comes, what Jonah said: "... and the currents swirled about me; all your waves swirled about me..." But, in spite of everything and even when so much evil surrounds us, WE CAN AWAKEN THE FAITH! Jonah 2: 4. "... yet I will look again toward your holy temple (in Jerusalem)". Jerusalem is the place designated for worship (1 Kings 8:38) and to offer thanksgiving. Jonah was able to think ". Although I’m out of your sight, even with the eye of faith, once again I’ll look in prayer towards your temple in Jerusalem, where as an earthly throne you have wished that your worshipers direct their prayers. I will look in prayer toward thy holy temple even if my soul is filled with water, even if the abyss surrounds me, and I am in the depths unable to stand up and my head is full of seaweeds that disturb my thoughts." (Jonah 2: 5 “The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.") "I will look to the temple; I will look to the place designated for worship by the faith that never dies.” Jonah was dragged and tied by the seaweeds that were easy to be pulled by the currents. (Jonah 2: 6 "... the earth beneath barred me in forever ...") The land of the living used its locks and would be closed against him! But, even if everyone puts locks on our lives and refuse to give us an opportunity, IN GOD THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE! Even if the land puts locks, even if I knock on all doors and no one opens, even if I put all my human effort and see that nothing or no one can

free me, GOD INDEED CAN AND HE WILL DO IT! (Jonah 2: 6. "But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God.") It is like saying, "You pull me out of the pit (abyss)." His assuring hope was to be delivered through the infinite resources of Jehovah! The prophet Jonah believed in hope against hope and speaks as if the release was already being fulfilled in effect. (Jonah 2: 7 "When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.") My soul fainted and I remembered Jehovah. This is a beautiful example of the triumph of the spirit over the flesh, triumph of faith over the sense. The difficulties precluded the hope, but the faith revived when Jonah remembered Jehovah, that He is a God of grace and how even now He preserves his life and knowledge in his dark confinement. "...in your holy temple ...," it is the temple of Jerusalem. Like Jonah looks toward the temple with a prayer of faith, he considers his prayer as already heard. The prophet affirms that the vanities men follow are illusory (of a misleading appearance). He refers to the vanity of the earth; money, houses, possessions, etc., that they are all powerless to save and deliver. (Vs. 8) Human beings abandon the mercies of God, they abandon Jehovah. Jonah had abandoned his own mercy; He had abandoned the mercy toward the Nineveh pagans and came to abandon God because of that. But, now worship will be his payment of sacrifice. (Vs. 9) "I will pay what I promised." Jonah offers actions of gratitude. Encouraged by faith and by the safety of his release Jonah gives praise to God. Worship, praise like victory is already won by faith! For Jonah it was a lot of confrontation being inside that fish, to consider his mistakes, then repent and in his prayer and cry to God for deliverance to receive by faith a sure hope. Finally, he says that he will offer sacrifices of worship to his God. Then, (Vs. 10) God gave the command, and the fish vomited Jonah onto land, he was released! Amen.