Please read Jonah 2
To someone reading the first chapter of Jonah for the first time it may seem that Jonah’s God is a hard God. He gave Jonah a hard task: he sent him to warn a people notorious for their cruelty that God’s wrath was coming. Then, when Jonah sought to escape by ship, God sent a fierce storm that threatened to break up the ship. Next, when the lot fell on Jonah, he had the sailors throw him overboard into the sea. Finally, when Jonah was sinking in the now calm sea, God sent a great fish to swallow him. Why did God send all this trouble on Jonah? Answer: Because Jonah ran from a task that he found too hard. Is God not a hard God?
When we read the second chapter of Jonah, however, we learn that God is not a hard God. On the contrary, he is a merciful God, and he was merciful to Jonah. He was merciful in sending the storm; he was merciful in causing the lot to fall upon Jonah; he was merciful in having him thrown overboard; and he was merciful in sending a great fish to swallow him. For in running from God, Jonah was not just running from a difficult task, he was running from all that is good. God loved Jonah and would not allow him to run from what was best for him. Why did God not abandon Jonah and call another prophet to go instead to Nineveh? Answer: Because God loved Jonah too much to let him go.
The path away from God is always down. Jonah went down to Joppa, down into the ship’s hold, down into the depths of the sea, and down into the belly of the great fish. And there, in the belly of the fish, Jonah prayed to God. ‘In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry’ (Jonah 2:2). It was when Jonah could go no lower, when his life was ebbing away, and when he had nowhere else to run to, that he at last came to his senses, and came back to God (cf. Luke 15:17-20). Such was God’s love for Jonah that he pursued him until he surrendered.
The worst thing God can do to a rebel against his rule is to leave him alone. There are few more chilling words in the Bible than the words of Paul to the Romans: ‘God gave them over’ (Romans 1:24, 26, 28). They preferred sin to God, so God gave them over to sin. He gave them what they wanted; he left them alone to enjoy their sin; now sin would be their master. They wanted nothing to do with God; he would have nothing to do with them. Their unspoken prayer was answered; they would be without God forever.
But God did not leave Jonah alone. In his prayer Jonah recognized that his being thrown into the sea was no accident. It was God’s doing: ‘You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas . . . All your waves and breakers swept over me’ (Jonah 2:3). He recognized that it was really God who threw him overboard; the sailors were just God’s instruments. And he recognized that these waves that had threatened to swallow him were God’s waves doing God’s bidding.
Why did Jonah go through so much trouble? Not because God was hard, but because he was merciful. God’s purpose in sending trouble on Jonah was not to destroy him but to save him. And God’s purpose was not simply to save him from the sea but to save him from his sin. In the words of the English poet William Cowper, ‘Behind a frowning providence he hides a smiling face.’ Jonah deserved judgment but he received salvation. So Jonah ends his prayer: ‘With a song of thanksgiving, I will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord’ (Jonah 2:9).
The answer to the first question of The Heidelberg Catechism expresses well the truths that Jonah learned in the belly of the great fish. (Please note especially the words that I have put in italics).
Q. What is your only comfort in life and death?
A. That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.
QUESTIONS FOR PERSONAL REFLECTION
- How do I respond when troubles come upon me? Do I turn from God or to him?
- What can I learn about prayer from the prayer of Jonah in the belly of the fish?
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