Prayer From The Depths

Study Notes

“Now the LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” 1:17

For many, the story of Jonah begins and ends with chapter 1 verse 17.  So much has been discussed and debated to the actuality and possibility of these words being true or not being true.  Are we to read these words literally? For some, a literal reading creates problems. Are we to read these words as a parable? For some, reading as a parable creates problems.

And in this room, I suspect there are people from both perspectives – so, lets camp here for a quick minute.  Both perspectives have the possibility to miss the point of the story. For those who cannot buy this as actually reality and history – I want to gently suggest – not everything in the universe can be explained. Not every observation can be quantified…crazy things happen. The word miracle does exist – and the longer I personally live, the more I am able to hear the true stories of the unexplainable… but if you cannot go there with me today – good news – the story still can touch you – it still contains a message from the Lord to you today.

For those of you who don’t have a problem seeing the actuality of this happening: I mainly want to say – that too many people have made Jonah about a fish the MAJOR point of the book, and it is not. To quote Sinclair Ferguson in his book, Man Overboard:

… too much discussion about the great fish can divert us from the real issue. The narrative is not really about the fish at all. It only has a “walk-on part” in this gripping drama. Focus on the great fish and we may lose sight of the great God.

If this text is about the fish, we miss it. We can so be wrapped up into the fish part – that we miss the meaning of what is really happening.

But – it would be weak of me to leave you hanging in this – so let me briefly share how I have come to see this aspect. I think that this event actually happened – and for a couple of reasons.

1. As Greg mentioned last week, the Hebrew translation is “big/huge fish” and not a whale.  While I cannot show you any pictures of any human inside of a huge fish – I just so happened to have gone fishing about a week ago.  I caught a ton of fish in Northern Ontario Canada…

1. Here is my best catch, humble brag J (jeff fish picture)

1. But one afternoon, as we were taking stock of our catch – we looked inside the mouth of one of the fish we caught, and we saw a fish tail coming up from its mouth… so we grabbed something we could pull it out with and….

(fish in fish picture).

1. The fish that was eaten was near the size of the fish that captured it… all to say – I was blown away by what and how whole a fish could swallow. So – bigger the fish – bigger the fish’s lunch J

2. But more than that, Jesus treats Jonah’s story as actual history in Matthew 12:40, as he says:

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth

The fact that Jesus treats Jonah as actual history is fairly convincing for me… given that miracles and Jesus fit hand in glove – if it is real to Jesus – I can follow his lead..

3. The miracle to me isn’t that a fish swallows a human – I can see that possibility… the miracle is that God kept Jonah alive in the belly of the huge fish!

– I have shown you my hand, I believe that this story happened – but more than the history of this story, is the meaning of this story. Can we move to this part together?  Again, no matter where you are – the important part is the meaning of Jonah…

I want to look at 3 aspects to this story that are essential and central to the scriptures selected and to the message today – and not just as interesting aspects to the Jonah story – but my prayer, is that you will find yourself in this story – and as you see yourself as Jonah – you might also encounter the Living God as Jonah did.

First: Jonah is STUCK in the Strom and in the Belly..

• 1) Stuck in the Storm and Belly (1:12, 1:17 – 2:1)

Jonah is stuck, but let’s go back to chapter 1, and remind ourselves how he found himself in this position.

The Lord asked Jonah to go preach to a people-group he frankly disliked (we find out in chapter 4).  He simply did not want to do it – he does not like them and he does not, in his deepest heart, want them to know the Lord.  His hatred is strong. 

The Lord asked Jonah to do something and in response, he did the opposite – he went the other way.  He saw God’s command as optional.  He, rather quickly, made a choice against the Lord.  Jonah was apparently someone who when the Lord spoke to him – felt he did not need to follow … and he had some flexibility.  He could afford to leave quickly, he could even charter the whole boat if he needed too.  He did not need to save up, or have sell some things on craigslist to get enough money to leave town...He could disobey quickly.

Jonah essentially thought he could afford and have the freedom and flexibility to go in the other direction from God.  He thought he had space…

But – in his attempt to get some space between himself and God – God relentlessly pursued him – and pursued him to the point of Jonah now being stuck.  He could not get away from God – in fact, he was now stuck in a storm and in a belly. 

Can you relate to this?  Have you ever found yourself thinking that obedience was optional?  Have you found yourself trying to get some space between what God is asking you to do and you just go the other way? 

To go further, has that worked out for you?  Have you, like Jonah found yourself STUCK in your disobedience?  Have you found yourself in the storm?  Stuck in the belly? 

If you can relate to this – you know this – being stuck in the storm has a way of revealing what kind of person we are?  It is in the storm and in the belly we come face to face with the limitations of ourselves… and the freedom we once thought we had, closes in and we are constrained and in tight spaces… and it is in these places we see who we really are.

When we are in the “belly” we are exposed

Are you in the belly right now?  What is being revealed to you?  When we are exposed, we can’t run anymore – and if we are honest, we will admit that it in these times of crisis, these times of difficulty, these times of being stuck – we see who we really are and what we can really do and how we really handle life…

The thing about storms and bellies, is that it is during these times of great exposure, we also can experience great growth… when we come face to face with who we are in the storms and bellies… we have the potential to experience God the way Jonah did – and it is possible, I can give testimony, that it is in the storm and in the belly that we are rescued.  That we are saved.  That we come out more refined, more faithful, more proven, and more connected to God than before being in the belly.

We ought not fear to be stuck in the storms… not fear being stuck in the belly…for it is in those places that we enter new territory – new places with the Lord…

Which is the center of the text today – of what happens when Jonah is stuck… what can happen when we are stuck… which is the second aspect I want to look at.

• 2) The Rescue Within (2:1-9)

The meat of the text today is a rather lengthy prayer that Jonah utters in the belly of the fish.  It contains rich and eloquent words… probably more eloquent than you or I could muster if we were in the stomach of a fish!

The form of this prayer is essentially a Psalm.  The Psalms being human expressions to God about what it is like to live in his world.  It is a psalm of THANKSGIVING, which if we are honest feels a bit out of place. If there were ever a time for a LAMENT, it might be now… but not for Jonah… in the midst of the storm and in the midst of being in the belly – Jonah offers a prayer of thanksgiving.

Have you ever been around someone who is stuck in a storm – yet has the ability to be thankful?  This church is full of them… I recall one person whom I know who lost almost everything in a short period of time.  Without going into detail, this person lost their home, spouse, and job – all within a short period of time.  They were not living in denial – they were not ignoring the pain – but in the midst, I will never forget the person sharing with me that the Lord had been good to them, so good to them.  That they still had hope and faith – and that they had an unshaking sense that the Lord wasn’t away from them but right there with them.

Wow, may we all have faith like this – but this person had a Jonah perspective… that in the midst of the crisis – God was with them… so the prayer of Jonah is filled with intimacy and connection to the Living God DURING the time of crisis.

How does this happen?  While I do not have an exhaustive answer, the prayer that Jonah prays gives us some insight into something very deep and true about Jonah.

His prayer was not an original prayer.  He didn’t start with a blank page.  Every line of the prayer can be traced back to the Psalms.  Jonah knew the Word of God – and in this time of great crisis… in his time of being stuck, he was able to recall and remember the Word of God.

The Word of God helped Jonah RETURN to God

And the Word of God is powerful – the Word of God has an ability to reorient us back to God.  The Word of God helped Jonah return to God.  Chapter 1 Jonah FLED God, Chapter 2 Jonah returned to God… and the Word of God is critical to such reorientation… in our own times of being stuck – the rescue can be found in God through his Word.

Story: Santa Cruz Bookstore and Micah 6:8 – “Love Mercy” – stopped me in my tracks, cleared my mind, brought me peace…

The Word of God helped me return to God…and the

The Word of God will help YOU return to God

Do you have some go-to scriptures for times in the belly?  Write them down.  Keep them close.  Memorize them.  The first one I memorized as a newer Christ-follower was Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.  I can’t tell you have many times I remember this – pray this… even today before this sermon…

The Word of God will help you return to God, as it did for Jonah. The Word of God, we read in timothy, is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training righteousness. 

Jonah needed some rebuking.  Jonah needed some correction – and God, through his Word, was faithful to do just that – and IS faithful to be that for you in the storm… in the belly.

Friends, we don’t have to wait for the storm to be over to be rescued?  Jonah quotes Scripture from the belly of the great fish… before he was delivered he was rescued.

But he was delivered… which bring us to the final point today.

• 3) The Deliverance From (2:10)

Let’s revisit some specifics about Jonah for minute… because I do not want to somehow gloss over the fact that Jonah was disobedient.  Jonah rebelled against God.  Jonah ran from the very mission God called HIM to.

In my words this morning about storms and bellies – I believe that those seasons just come at times, and that there are seasons that come as a result of our own disobedience.  Let me be clear – no matter how you enter a storm or how you find yourself in the belly of a fish – these times can be redeemed – and it is in those times that faith is deepened, character is molded, redemption lives…

And, no matter how you got there, it is in these times that the Word of God will bring you back to God.  That during these times, the Word of God is the very voice of God speaking truth and reorienting us back to God as the Lord of all of our lives… again, whether you are in the belly because of random circumstance or by your own volition. 

But – Jonah is a story about someone who knew God well… so well he could hear his voice – and who willingly chose to disobey.  Jonah is a story about not caring for the people God cares about. Jonah is about someone with so much disdain for their neighbor, for those who are different that they are that they would rather be dead than evangelize.  Jonah is about clear disobedience.

And the great news about this story, the hopeful news – is that even in this situation, even in this clear example of turning his back on God – that God is who is says he is – and that he is a Gracious, Compassionate, and Forgiving God! 

We see in Jonah – that our God, the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY – delivers Jonah from the mess he got himself into.

God delivered Jonah from the mess he got himself into

And this is great news for us today… that you and I are just like Jonah. We too will ignore the call of God.  We will set our sails in the opposite direction of obedience, that we look to listening to God as optional, that we will fail to see people the way God sees them, we will fail to see the value of the other, we can label people as lost, evil, not worth it -- we live in a world of such labels… just open your feed… listen to our leaders… we too are capable of running away from those who are different than ourselves.

We too will rebel against the LORD directly… and in the midst of the mess we create for ourselves in this life –

God will deliver you from the messes in your life

God is Gracious. God is Compassionate.  And…. God will deliver you from the messes in your life. God delivers us from our hatred. God delivers us from our arrogance. God delivers us from our disobedience.

A few lines from Jonah the rebel prophet… Jonah the unfaithful…

In my distress, I called to the Lord, and he answered me

God answers his children. He is not a cruel father – he is gracious and compassionate.  In your distress – call upon the Lord for he will answer.

But you, lord my God, brought my life up from the pit

Do you believe this? Have you experienced this?  There are a lot of people who feel like life and the world are in the pit these days… and I don’t disagree… but, what do you do in the pit? In the storm? In the belly?  We have our tricks… and frankly, they do not always seem to think that it will be the Lord God who will deliver us… it will be the article I post, the person we elect, research, - these are not unimportant – but brothers and sisters, it is the Lord our God who brings life up from the pit. It is the Lord God who alone will get us unstuck – and vomit us out of the traps we are in… where does your hope for deliverance come from?

When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you Lord

This might be my favorite line in the prayer.  This idea of remembering. Remembering is a HUGE deal to God and a central concept in the spiritual life.  We see it from the start with the annual time of remembering Israel’s deliverance… and we see it in the very act of communion we did today. The Lord asks us to remember him… to remember his ways… and to remember the ways he has delivered his people. As we remember we gain so much… and for today – when we remember God – we remember that he is the God of Compassion, the God of Grace, the God of Rescue, the God of Deliverance.

Journaling is a tool of memory… when we can recall the times God has delivered us before, it gives us hope and peace to be delivered again.

Aren’t we just like Jonah?  That isn’t the point of today – the point is that as much as we are like Jonah – there is no one like our God.  A God who meets us in the belly of the fish.  A God that rescues us from our disobedience. A God who loves us in the midst of our messes… our self-inflicted messes… a God who gives us his Word to heal us, to help us, to reorient us back to Himself and his great and passionate love for us… no matter what… that in our imperfection he is faithful and loving…

To Close… I want to mention something that has been speaking to me this week about Jonah’s prayer… and I am not buying back anything I have said thus far… but the reality is that Jonah offers a pretty imperfect prayer…

• There is no confession (not self-aware)
• Spends a lot of time talking about himself and his circumstances/pain compared to the Lord (self-centered)
• Takes a dig at “those people” (self-righteous)

Essentially, it is

An Imperfect Prayer to a Gracious and Compassionate God

AND I LOVE THAT ABOUT THIS PRAYER… because guess what? Jonah isn’t the only one to offer such imperfect prayers… you are looking at someone who also struggles to confess… who spends lot of time talking to God about myself… and someone who also takes digs at people when I pray… and the beauty… the truth about God is that he hears them…

For he is Gracious and Compassionate.  So – for each of today… if you find yourself like Jonah… running from obedience or offering imperfect prayers… YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT PLACE!

Contrary to popular thinking… the church isn’t a place for the perfect… nor is it a place for the always obedient… I love how Mike Yaconelli speaks about the church:

“The Church is the place where the incompetent, the unfinished, and even the unhealthy are welcome. I believe Jesus agrees.”

(final close)