Jonah 2 King James Version (KJV)

Jonah 2 King James Version (KJV)

2 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly,

2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.

5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.

6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.

7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.

10 And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

There are times in every faithful believer's life that we are found 'in the belly of the whale' circumstances. Make no mistake, the story of Jonah is very real, and he literally was in the belly of a great fish or whale of some kind for three days. It really is incredible and quite overwhelming to consider, yet it did happen. I really can't imagine being cast into a raging sea, being certain of death, and then being swallowed whole by a giant sea creature. That really is just like going from the fire to the frying pan. Not only would we be certain of death in that scenario, but a particularly gruesome death at that. I mean I would rather just drown than to be slowly digested in the stomach of a giant fish of some kind. Well, however it took place, Jonah was preserved and able to breathe for three days, and at some point he got the notion that maybe God would miraculously deliver him from certain death. He must have just accepted death for a couple of days, and when he saw he wasn't dying he probably figured it was time for him to get very seriously real with God about the whole thing. So when he got to the very bottom of his spirit there in the bottom of the sea, and emptied his heart out to God; God spoke to the fish and the fish or whale or whatever it was emptied itself of Jonah. I just can't imagine what it would have been like to have actually lived that circumstance in real time. Yet there are times in our lives that we may find ourselves in circumstances that mirror Jonah's, not literally or physically, but in spiritual principle. In other words if God is trying to get us to a certain place in our spirits and lives, and we balk on him; he may use drastic circumstances to paint us into a corner where we simply have to get to the bottom of our hearts and come to terms with what he is trying to get from us. Oh yeah, did I mention the part about how a process like that can sometimes be just about as harrowing as being swallowed by a whale?

If we want to do a thing our way when God wants us to learn to let him do it his way, he can come up with some seriously extenuating circumstances by which he can persuade us to give in to his ways instead of our own. And there are times that it truly can be as desperate as being in the belly of a whale or great fish in the midst of the sea. We can find ourselves just as trapped in our circumstance as Jonah was in his, and there will be absolutely no way out but to come clean on all counts and cry out to God from the deepest place of our being. It brings some of the Psalms of David to mind, like this one: "I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies" (Psm. 40:1-4). That sounds a whole lot like Jonah's predicament to me, don't you think? David wasn't in the belly of a whale, but whatever his "horrible pit," and his "miry clay" was; it's certain that it wasn't any fun. And even as Jonah declared, that those who "observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy;" even so David realized that "turning aside to lies" is not the right way out of any difficult circumstance. I have to add the following passage of one of David's Psalms, to punctuate the point: "For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place" (Psm. 66:10-12). Again we see that even though God may bring us into grueling circumstances at times, and we may be trapped in these situations for a season; his intent is always to "bring us out into a wealthy place."

As David said in the previous passage, "Blessed is the man who maketh the Lord his trust." It all comes down to the reality of knowing that God is altogether good, and that he wants nothing but good for us. It just happens to sometimes be the case that he has to bring us into 'bad' circumstances in order to develop further good in us, so that we can do further good in this life, and glorify him thereby. But it is beyond doubt that we can implicitly trust his good intent toward us, even if we find ourselves in the belly of a whale or in a horrible pit of miry clay. As it is written: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose... What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8:28,31,32) If Jonah and David could trust God in the belly of the whale, and in the horrible pit and miry clay; how much more can we trust God in every circumstance, seeing he has forever demonstrated his good-will toward us by means of the suffering and death of his only begotten Son in our place? It's an easy call, regardless of where we may find ourselves at times in our lives; yet it doesn't necessarily always feel like such an easy call. But then again that is why it is called "the trial of our faith," wherein we are "tried with fire." We need only remember that these trials are "more precious than of gold that perisheth... [that we] might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" (I Pet. 1:7). Our key is to do what Jonah and David did, and trust God fully, knowing that there really is no other viable alternative. And it is more than certain that he is able to be trusted with all our heart, because what he said in Jeremiah is just as true today: "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end" (Jer. 29:11). That is truly all we need to know and be assured of, and we need only believe. Amen.