Part III – The Praying Prophet Jonah Chapter 2

In chapter 1, we were commenting on the fact that Jonah in his blatant defiance, refused to follow the command of God as issued in chapter 1:1-2.  Jonah, blinded by his patriotic spirit and zeal for Israel, decided not to preach to the notoriously cruel people of Ninevah.  Jonah didn’t love the people, and it is certain that he didn’t appreciate the missionary assignment God delegated to him.  In stark disobedience, he decided to evade God; thus God had to demonstrate to him who is really in charge.

When Jonah disobeyed God in Chapter1:3, God manifested His sovereignty by sending out a severe storm upon the sea (1:4).  In chapter 1:4-2:10, Jonah reaps the benefit of his callous decision for disobeying God, by being thrown overboard in to the sea, convinced that he had come close to death (2:2).  But God, who is in absolute control of both the land and sea (1:9), prepared a gigantic whale to store, yes incarcerate, him for three days and nights.  Thus Jonah’s incarceration in the whale is a picture of our Lord being in the heart of the earth for three days and night (Matthew 12:40).  But there is a contrast that should be mentioned at this point.  Jesus Christ descended to the heart of the earth because of His obedience to the predetermined plan of God for man’s sinful plight; however, Jonah’s incarceration was the result of his disobedience in following God’s plan to spare the Ninevites, through the preaching, and their repentance to the hearing of the Word (4:4-10).

Now, in chapter 2, this disobedient prophet becomes a devotional and praying prophet.  In an act of thanksgiving, he is detailing his experience of  almost being at the point of death, with the Lord rescuing him from that awful ordeal (2:1-9).  The Lord, who is the commander-in-chief of our lives, certainly knows how to evoke praise from us.  But, why does God have to get our attention by allowing us to go to the school of  “hard knocks”?  We need to thank Him at all times (I Thess. 5:18).  Don’t wait and get into a storm and begin to pray to Him!  Keep an open line of communion with Him at all times by being in alignment with His Word.  It is through His Word that His will for your life is known.  After a horrible ordeal Jonah made a vow, and declared that : “Salvation is of the Lord” (2:9).

In the expression, “Salvation is of the Lord,”  Jonah was speaking from the fact that God physically delivered from the plight of physical death.  But God has the power to deliver man from spiritual death if man would only accept God the Father’s only provision for the spiritual plight of man -–Jesus Christ (John 5:24, 6:37, 14:6).  As Jonah was saved from physical death, you can be saved from spiritual death if you only believe.  Yes, God’s runaway child (Jonah) has now been “vomited out on dry land” (2:10).  This great fish obeys God all the way.  Let’s see what Jonah is going to do in chapter 3.  Thanks be unto God that He is still manifesting His untold patience with us, and He keeps giving us second chances!

May God Bless!