PRAYING FROM THE BELLY
“PRAYING FROM THE BELLY” – Jonah 2
INTRO: VIDEO (Will Rojas)
Background: Jonah ran…God pursued. Sent a storm (grab attention)… sent sailors (confront him, challenge him, question him in his sin)… sent a sea creature (to preserve him and carry him back to do God’s will).
* Our God is merciful to us because of His great love for us…second chances when we have blown it, He still looks to bless us, restore us, revive us from that deadness of sin and self to do His work.
- Ch. 2 – in the belly of the beast Jonah cries out to God.
- Physically – pinned down, pressed against on all sides…dark, damp, uncomfortable. Spiritually – broken, surrendered, deadness (thinks he’s in the grave)…yet in this place He prays to the LORD.
THE HAND OF GOD AND THE HOPE OF JONAH: (V.1-6)
“THEN… “ (1)
- Jonah didn’t pray as he went to Joppa, nor when captain told him to (possibly), but now he does in the worst place.
- We don’t know why he waited 3 days to pray… but his prayer is full of God’s Word (Psalms)
- Prayer is not from a bitter heart (accusing God of wrong), but from a broken spirit.
Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart – these, O God, You will not despise.”
=“prayed to the LORD his God” (ownership)
seen His revelation, power, mercy, reminded…HIS God (covenanted God, faithful God, loving God, reaching out in spite of my sin…Jonah knew it!)
God still calls to backsliders: “Come back, I haven’t changed. You have.” Wherever at, God hears and His people have access to His throne.
Jeremiah 3:22 ““Return, you backsliding children, [And] I will heal your backslidings.” “Indeed we do come to You, For You are the LORD our God.
** are you at a “Then” place? Do what Jonah did…v.2
The cry heard: (2) “I cried out to the Lord” (affliction brought tears – thought he was in the grave (Sheol – grave)…fish belly like that.)
when in affliction, cry out to God… (not man…not drugs…not things)… pour out your heart like water before the Lord (Lam. 3) WHY?
“He hears and will answer”. (v.2)
He knows the voice of His people (bleating of his sheep gone astray), intimately acquainted with all my ways…eyes never off of you, his thoughts are more than can be numbered, his plans are good.
“Prayer in the lowest depths is heard in the highest heavens” – Matthew Henry
- Much of what is said by Jonah is found in the Psalms… 1) He was conscious 2) word of God in his heart 3) prayed God’s Word.
C. The Hand of God & Hope of Jonah: (3-6)
- From distress & danger to Faith & Hope (Jonah’s heart revealed)
(3) Jonah realized that it was God’s hand (not sailors) cast him into the sea. God’s billows, God’s waves (Creator was also Director of things)
Ps. 42:7 Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
(4) “cast out” = (drive out from possession/ divorce) “from before Your eyes”
once a minister, now in a fish belly…my disobedience has driven me out of God’s blessing (ex. Adam/Eve – Gen. 3:24)
Ps. 31:22 For I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before Your eyes”; Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications When I cried out to You.
(ex. China “cast out” & the journal)
- This is how he feels inwardly, and yet there is a hope:
HOPE: “Yet” (only)
Jonah may never see the physical temple, but his soul cries out… “still look to God” (FAITH)
The God of heaven’s temple still hears my cry…soul is his, my faith still stands in Your mercy.
Future view: Faith in God’s Messiah that will enter the heavenly temple for my sake, whose blood will cover all my disobedience.
(5-6) water, weeds, words of distress… Jonah is sinking…darkness…weeds choking… earth closing over him (jailed)… bottom of the mountains…one breath between him and death.
- Possible Jonah wasn’t swallowed right away…God sustained him as he sank.
Ps. 69:1 To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Lilies.” [fn] A Psalm of David. Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to [my] neck.
What David wrote figuratively, Jonah experienced literally…
**JESUS – type of Jonah: “cast out” (forsaken) by the Father (My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me.) He knew affliction and sorrow… garden (Mt. 26:38 – soul exceedingly sorrowful facing death)
HOPE: “Yet” (only He can bring me up, “ascend” from the pit)
Ps. 30:3 O LORD, You brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. [fn]
Jewish hope was the resurrection from the dead into a glorious future and reign with God (Job 19:25-27; Is. 26:19; Dan. 12:1-3) (Israel today: burial places facing Jerusalem awaiting Messiah)
Jonah acknowledges that no matter what happens to him physically, he always has hope in God’s ability to raise him up.
“MY God” (owns the LORD as his…infinite God is owned by finite man)
* Good to reassure your heart of Biblical truths in difficult times…He is your God and you have a “yet” ahead.
THE PRAYER, PROCLAMATION, AND PROMISE: (V. 7-9)
He Prayed: (7)
-fainting, overwhelmed, languishing from this difficulty…sin, shame, sorrow weighs upon him…he prays (messenger sent to heaven to plead his heart).
Ps. 18:6 In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And my cry came before Him, [even] to His ears.
He Proclaimed: (8)
WARNING: keep close to God. Idols are lying vanities (1:5 – sailors), own way is foolishness (no good, no comfort)…keep close to God & find His mercy.
Implication: mercy is waiting to be poured out on us…full measure…new every morning!
** we feel we aren’t worthy to ask God for mercy (true!)…through Jesus we have access to this throne of grace to obtain mercy to help in time of need. (Heb. 4:16)
– Danger is that our tendency is to forsake God’s mercy and try our own ways.
Jeremiah 2:13 “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, [And] hewn themselves cisterns–broken cisterns that can hold no water.
He Promised: (9)
sacrifice of thanksgiving (inward praise),,, pay vowed (outward promise – changed life, go to Ninevah if God desires). Never forsake him, faithfully execute His will.
Same as mariners (1:16) “feared, sacrificed, vowed”
VOWS to the LORD are good if prompted by the spirit of God. (discipline/ honoring God/ sign of true change when life shows what lips profess) Binding promise: (marriage)
Eccl. 5:4-5 (warning) When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; For [He has] no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed–Better not to vow than to vow and not pay.
- God wants us to be men & women of our word because it reflects upon Him.
Why does he make this vow?
“Salvation is of the LORD”. (Only He can save…Deliverer, Sustainer, Savior…from sea, from fish, from myself, ultimately He saves my soul)
Jonah is fully surrendered, and then God acts.
“God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.” – Andrew Murray
THE SPEAKING OF GOD AND THE SPEWING OF JONAH: (V.10)
God spoke:
same God who made all creation, directs the fish to fulfill His will. Calls by name – Ralph… give it up- Chuck…Barfolomew”
Fish spews:
vomited out (thrust out) (human cannonball)
Where? “to dry land…” Not told (possible back where he started, possibly closest coast to Ninevah)
* God’s timing is perfect: When the man of God is fully surrendered (“LORD, have Your way”) then God acts (thrusting him out into His plan – new life, new power, new heart). God uses that “belly” experience to bring Him glory…
This was a “resurrection from the dead” for Jonah:
At God’s Word, in His time, the grave cannot hold any longer & gives up (thrusts out)…gave up Jesus (conqueror of grave) and He would go to set the captive free.
** Jonah sees darkness and death – yet God is moving the fish; Jonah is broken – yet God is building him…How about you? (Storm video)