Let us turn to God's Word in
that second chapter in the book of Jonah. And our text is found
in the first two verses. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord
his God out of the fish's belly, 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. here then in Jonah
chapter 2 and verses 1 and 2. Previously we have considered
something of the prayers of Jeremiah and of Hezekiah And I want us
to continue in a sense with that same theme, thinking of the remarkable
circumstances and situations in which we find these men praying. With regards to Jeremiah, we
saw there in Lamentations 3.55 that he prayed to God, as he
says, out of the low dungeon. And it certainly was the low
dungeon in a very real and physical sense. as we discover in the
book of the prophet Jeremiah and then last time we were considering
Hezekiah's experience there in the second book of Kings chapter
20 when he is sick and sick unto death unable to rise from his
bed and we're told how he turns his face to the wall as Jeremiah
was in the low dungeon so Hezekiah must turn his face to the wall
he can do no more than look to the wall turn from every other
source of any help and cry unto God and to God alone and here
we see Jonah and he prays unto the Lord his God we're told out
of the fish's belly or as we have it in the second verse,
out of the belly of how the remarkable place from whence Jonah makes
this prayer and clearly there is a connection here with what
we read in the opening chapter we observe the opening word here
the beginning of chapter 2 then it was when he was in that situation,
those circumstances that are spoken of at the end of chapter
1. As he'd been swallowed up by the
great fish that God had prepared and was there in the belly of
the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed unto
the Lord his God out of the fish's belly. It's the first time in
the book that we read of this man praying. He'd been exhorted
to pray when he was on board the ship and this great storm
blew up. He was asleep in the sides of
the ship and the master of the vessel comes and tells him There,
in verse 6 of chapter 1, what meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise,
call upon thy God. If so be that God will think
upon us that we perish not. He was exhorted to pray, but
we don't read anything of Him praying whilst on board the ship.
The first mention of His prayer is what we have here when He
has been cast overboard and is now in the belly of the fish. It is quite remarkable really
when we consider the fact that God's word to him was not enough
to move him to prayer. We are told in the opening words
of the book how the word of the Lords came on to Jonah the son
of Amittai. Surely if God's word comes to
a man will that not move a man to pray to God? God's word comes
to us. comes to us when we read the
scriptures, it comes to us we trust under the ministry of the
word, the preaching of the gospel but how often is it that though
God's word comes to us we are not by that move to address words
unto God and we have to be brought into extremities And do we not
see it time and again in scripture? We have it in the words of that
remarkable 107th Psalm. Repeatedly it says, they cried
unto the Lord in their troubles and He delivered them out of
their distresses. It's when men are brought into
troubles that they move to pray unto the Lord God. And the Lord
has to deal with us in that way. He has to make us pray. We're
so slow to pray. Though we have the Word of God
and many exhortations in God's Word, many commandments to pray,
the words of the Lord Jesus in particular, men ought always
to pray, he says, and not to faint. And yet, alas though we
have those commandments and though we have the encouragement where
we can read of the prayers of the saints of God and the remarkable
answers that God gives to their prayers and yet the Lord has
to deal with us I suppose as he dealt with them. He has to
bring us also into extremities. Or the place from where Jonah
cried out of the fish's belly, out of the belly of hell cried
I He says, and thou heardest my prayer. But besides the place,
we do have also to observe the person to whom Jonah addresses
his prayer. It says here in verse 1 that
he prayed unto the Lord his God. He was the Lord's. He was Jehovah. It was the God of the Covenant,
it was the Great I Am that he addressed his prayer to. And this God was his God. He
had that personal relationship with the Lord. Oh, we see him
there in that previous chapter amongst those who must have been
in the main, the idolatrous men, those mariners. They had their
gods. And when the storm came, how
they called upon their gods. We're told in verse 5 how the
mariners were afraid and cried, every man unto his God and cast
forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten
it of them. There is Jonah gone down into
the sides of the ship and he lies there fast asleep. now it is with those men they
have their idols they know not the living and the true gods
it's interesting how having spoken with Jonah we see at the end
of that first chapter that they do begin to address themselves
to the true gods when Jonah had explained to them who he was
and the reason why he was there on board the ship they loathe really to cast him
overboard but they have to do that and then in verse 14 we're
told how they cried unto the Lord and said we beseech thee
O Lord we beseech thee let us not perish for this man's life
And lay not upon us innocent blood, for thou, O Lord, hast
done as it pleased thee. Now they're addressing themselves
to the true God. But this God was really Jonah's
God. He can speak of the Lord as God.
Jonah was very much a spiritual man. Now in the course of his
praying he is concerned for the well-being of his own soul. He
speaks there at verse 5 in chapter 2, the waters compass me about
even to the soul. All he's in the fish's belly,
he's completely disorientated, he's at the bottom of the sea. God's waves, God's billows are
going over him. And yet he feels something in
his soul, does this man. He's concerned for the well-being
of his soul. He says in verse 7, When my soul
fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came
in unto thee, into thine holy temple. Well, as we consider
these opening verses of the chapter for our text tonight, As we come
to consider the prayer of Jonah, there are two particular aspects
of his prayer that I want to bring before you. First of all,
what does his prayer involve? It involves these two things.
There is a looking to the Lord, looking to God in heaven, but
also more than that there is that entering into the very presence
of the Lord. And we see it in the course of
his prayer. There at verse 4 he says, Yet
I will look again toward thy holy temple. And then in verse
7, the end of verse 7, my prayer came in, onto thee, into thine
holy temple. And it's these two things that
I really want to concentrate upon for a little while tonight.
First of all, how there is this looking to the Lord God in his
prayer. And how vital that look is, it's
the look of faith. Look unto me. and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else
that's the language of Holy Scripture there in Isaiah 45 22 and we
have the New Testament equivalent of course in Hebrews 12 2 who
is the one that we're to be looking to it's that looking on to Jesus
the author and finisher of our faith Though here in his prayer
this is what Jehovah is doing, he's looking. He's looking to
the Lord. But in order to look to the Lord
in this fashion, he must remember just who this Lord God is. What does he say here in verse
7? When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord. I remembered the Lord. and then
his prayer comes in. In order to begin looking there
must first of all be this remembrance of God. And he knew something
of God, he knew something of the character of God. This is
the reason why he was disobedient to the call of God. God had given
him that command that he was to go and he was to preach to
the to the Ninevites. He was to cry against that wicked
sitter because their sins had come up before the Lord God.
But he is loath to do that. Why? Because the Ninevites are
the enemies of Israel. But what will God do with these
Ninevites? Why is God sending a prophet to them? Well, when
he does go eventually, as he is bound to go because God had
called him to go, Look at what he says there in the second verse
of chapter 2. It says, He prayed unto the LORD
and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying when I
was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto
Tarshish, for I know that thou art a gracious God, and merciful,
slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentlessly of the evil.
He didn't want God to deal in that gracious fashion with these
Ninevites. That's why he was loath to go
with the message that God had given him, although it was to
speak against the wickedness of that people. All he remembers
is the Lord. He is well aware of the gracious
character of his gods. I'll be those friends who do
seek to remember that. We read God's Word We meditate
in God's Word, we want to understand something of the character of
God. We were speaking this morning on that blessed attribute of
God's faithfulness. Oh, He is the faithful God. He
is surrounded by His faithfulness. But what a God He is. Now the
psalmist encouraged himself to be ever remembering. He says,
I remember the days of old. I meditate on all thy works I
muse on the work of thy hands. Do we do that? Do we muse on
the works of God, the things that God has done when we reflect
on God's dealings with us throughout our lives, long or short? Do
we not have many mercies to be remembering the goodness of our
God? And how Jonah certainly knew
it. He would agree with the Psalmist. Think of that language that we
have in the 77th Psalm, Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in
the great waters, thy footsteps are not known. Or wasn't Jonah
proving that here in his experience as he's cast overboard, as he's
swallowed by the great fish? God's way is there. even in the
depths of the sin. It's interesting how in that
77th Psalm there is also that idea of remembering, remembering
the Lord, remembering the ways of the Lord. Look at what it
says there in the Psalm in verse 11 and verse 12, I will remember
the works of the Lord, surely I will remember thy wonders of
all I will meditate also of all thy work and talk of thy doings
and then he goes on at verse 19 thy ways in the sea and thy
path in the great waters and thy footsteps are not known oh
Jonah is one who does remember and we're to remember presently
in God's goodness we're to observe that ordinance of the Lord's
Supper? And is it not a feast of remembrance?
The Lord Jesus says that we are to do this in remembrance of
Him. We are to remember the Lord.
We are to remember all His sufferings. And why did He suffer? Why did
He bleed? Why did He die? Was it not because
of your sin and my sin? were not all the sins of his
people laid upon him? We're to remember that. Here
is Jonah then, he looks to the Lord, but what does this looking
involve? There is this remembrance, this remembrance of the Lord.
He had been cast overboard at his own bidding. It was the thing
that he had told his men to do. He knew He was the cause of their
troubles and there in the first chapter of verse 12 He says take
me up and cast me forth into the sea so shall the sea be calm
unto you for I know that for my sake this great tempest is
upon you I'm the cause of your troubles my disobedience is the
reason why we're in this predicament and yet Amazingly, God's hand
is in all of this. And He acknowledges that here
in the prayer at verse 3, Thou hast cast me into the deep, He
says. God had done it. Thou hast 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. He recognizes the hand of God
in the situation that he is now being brought into. He is a spiritual
man. A man who is mindful of God,
a man who remembers the ways of God. And there we see it so
evidently when we read that first chapter. Here are the mariners,
experienced sailors And yet this storm, this tremendous storm
is overwhelming them. And they can't understand, they
want to find out the reason. What do they do? Come, they say,
let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this evil
is upon us. So they cast lots and the lot
fell upon Joan. Now that was not chance. The
fictitious powers of chance and fortune I defy. says the hymn
writer. My life's minutest circumstance
is subject to His, that is, God's eye. What does the wise man tell
us there at the end of Proverbs 16 concerning the lot? It is
cast into the lap, yes, but the whole disposing thereof is of
the Lord. In the casting of the lot we
discern the sovereignty of God. Why does the lot fall upon Jonah? Because God's hand is in this. Here is God. What is he doing
with this man? He is pursuing him. He is seeking to escape
the presence of God. But when he goes on board the
ship, what do we read there? At verse 4 in chapter 1, the
Lord sent out a great wind into the sea. And there was a mighty
tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. The
Lord sent it out. And we see from the margin that
the Hebrew is very strong. The Lord cast forth a great wind,
it says. He cast forth the wind. Oh, how God pursues him. The Psalmist again tells us concerning
God, He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap,
He layeth up the depths in storehouses, and God takes, as it were, a
wind from His storehouses, and hurls it after Jonah. Here is
the Lord pursuing the prophet, the disobedient prophet. All
God's hand is to be discerned, and as He comes to pray, how
Jonah is brought to recognize that is all the doing of God.
There's no escaping from God. But he knows also that God is
the one who hears prayer and the one who answers prayer. Here
in verse 2, I cry by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord,
he says, and he heard me. He heard me. Out of the belly
of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice." And what does God do? God delivers
him. Here he is in the belly's fish,
but look at what we read at the end of verse 6. He doesn't say,
thou wilt bring up my life from corruption. It's what they call
the prophetic perfect. It's a word of prophecy. It's
what's yet to be. It's going to happen in the future
and yet it is spoken of as if it has already been accomplished.
This is the language of the Prophet in his prayer. Yet hast thou
brought up my life from corruption. It is so sure to happen that
he can speak of it as if it had already occurred. Oh God says
before they call I will answer. while they are yet speaking I
will hear this is the God you see that Jonah in the very belly of hell that's what he
calls it the belly of hell and yet this is the God that he remembers
oh it is a prayer of faith that we have here all without faith
it is impossible to please God He that cometh to him must believe
that he is, and that he is a rewarder of all that diligently seeketh.
This is the prayer of Faith. Faith, the substance of things
hopeful, the evidence of things not seen. How Jonah then, as
he begins to look towards the Lord his God, he remembers. And
what does he remember? He remembers the character of
the God that he is dealing with. But his looking doesn't just
involve a remembrance of God. There's also repentance here.
There's also repentance. He says in verse 4, Yet I will
look again, I will look again towards thy holy temple. He had looked before. He had
looked before, he had prayed before. But now he was in that
sad backslidden state. He wanted to be away from God. He wanted to escape the very
presence of God. When God had given that command,
Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for
their wickedness has come up before me. There in verse 3 of
the opening chapter, Batz Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish
from the presence of the Lord. All he wants to escape is the
presence of the Lord. And so he goes there and finds
a ship, a chopper, and goes on board
and pays the fare and goes with them unto Tarshish, it says in
verse 3, from the presence of the Lord. All the time he is
seeking to escape that presence of the Lord. And yet, all we
know that there is no escape in God's presence. God is everywhere. David knew that. Think of the
language, again, of the psalmist in the 139th Psalm, that psalm
that so much celebrates God and the omnipresence and the omniscience
of God. David said in the psalm, Whither
shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy
presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I
make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the
wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall
hold me. If I say, surely the darkness
shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea,
the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as
the day. The darkness and the light are
both alike to thee. There's no hiding from God. Oh, he would, you see, escape
the presence of God, he could not. But how different it is
now. Now we see him as a man who wants
to draw near to God. Oh, he wants to come where God
is. He had backslidden. He'd been so wickedly disobedient
to God. He'd gone contrary to the Word
of God. When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thine, into
thine holy temple." All Jonah's feelings at this time were deep,
profound. This conviction that he feels
was so terrible for the man. This is why he speaks of the
fish's belly, as the belly of hell. Margin says the belly of the
grave. It's a living death that he's
experiencing. There in that fish's belly. How
terrible. We cannot really begin to comprehend
what it must have felt like. Suffocating in the belly of this
great sea creature. Jonah must have felt that all
had come to an end. All had come to an end. This
was the consequence of his sinful disobedience. And yet he prays
to God, and he can utter those words there in verse 6, Yet hast
thou brought up my life from corruption. Oh Lord, my God,
the language that he employs, the word corruption, the margin
gives the pet. This is where he is, he's in
the pit, and yet his hope is that he might yet be delivered.
It is, I say again, such a profound experience that this man is passing
through. Here, coming to the words of
our text, how does he cry, by reason of mine affliction, he
says in verse 2. I cried by reason of mine affliction
unto the Lord, and he heard me. My soul fainted within me. What is Jonah experiencing? The
Lord's dealing with him. The Lord, as I said, is in all
of these things. The Lord is chastening him. because of his sinful ways. And isn't this the way God deals
with His children time and again? Remember how the children of
Israel are such a typical people? Israel in the Old Testament,
a remarkable type of the spiritual Israel, the Church of God. And
what does God say to Israel through Jeremiah? Thine own wickedness
shall correct thee and thy backsliding shall reprove thee." And that's
what Jonah also himself knew. Or David could say in the Psalm,
Psalm 119, it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that
I might learn thy statutes. This is what Jonah has got to
do, he's got to learn God's statutes, he's got to learn God's commandment,
he's got to do what God's bidding him to do. And he's being afflicted. The Lord is teaching him. Here we see one who is evidently
a spiritual man, in spite of his sins. Oh yes, initially we
see him in that sad state, backsliding, disobedient. But remember, whom
the Lord loveth, he chastened us. and scourges every son whom
he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, Paul
says, God dealeth with you as with sons. Oh, he is the Son
of God. He knows that grace of adoption. Oh, no, chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness. to them who exercise thereby,
and he's exercised and now we see so much of his exercise here
in the content of this remarkable prayer that he prays out of the
fish's belly out of the fish's belly, the belly of hell his
prayer is to God he remembers the character of his God who
knows what God is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness,
who repenteth of the evil. That's the God that he is crying
to. And he knows now that he will not call upon such a God
in vain, though he is being sorely afflicted. Oh, he pries by reason
of that affliction. But he remembers this, The words
that we have there in the opening verse of Hosea 14, God says,
I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for
mine anger is turned away from him. And that was the case, was
it not, with this man. Jonah's experience, his experience
of repentance, and it was so real. What had he done? He'd been observing lying vanities. He confesses that. In verse 8,
They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee
with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord. Oh, there's where His prayer
to God really comes to a climax. He acknowledges the sovereignty
of God in salvation. Only God could save him. Just
as when Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, he is turning from
every other possible help or comfort. He can only turn to
the Lord God, and this is what Jonah is also doing. His repentance,
I say, is a genuine repentance. Godly sorrow, workers' repentance
and salvation not to be repented of, says the Apostle. The sorrow
of the world worketh death. Oh, this is not the sorrow of
the world, this is Godly sorrow. This is Godly sorrow, working
that real, that true repentance in his soul, as he remembers
the character of God. You see, that repentance, it
doesn't just come from the conviction of sin under the law. Law and
terrors do but harden, all the while they work alone, but a
sense of blood-bought pardon soon dissolves the heart of stone. This is Jonah. It's the remembrance
of God and the character of his God that is so vital. And as
he remembers, so he looks. As we said here in verse 4, Yet
I will look again. And where will he look? I will
look again towards thy holy temple. There is that looking, and then
subsequently, more than looking, there is that actual entering.
In verse 7, my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. Oh, it's more than a looking
now. There is a blessed progression here. Now, what is the significance
of this reference to the temple? He is doubtless mindful of the
prayer of King Solomon at the dedication of the temple. That
long prayer that's recorded twice, it's recorded in Kings, it's
also recorded in Chronicles. We have it, for example, in the
first book of Kings chapter 8 and look at what he says in the
course of his prayer there in verse 29 he's praying concerning
the temple the provision had been made by his father David,
David wanted to build a temple, David was a man of blood and he was not permitted to build
the temple, his son would do that Solomon the man of peace and
as Solomon prays now at the dedication of the temple and here in verse
29 of that 8th chapter that thine eyes may be open toward this
house night and day even toward the place which thou hast said
my name shall be there that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer
which thy servant shall make toward this place." Now Jonah
doesn't know where the temple is. Jonah is at the bottom of
the mountains. Jonah is swallowed in the fish's
belly and is in the depths of the seas. He's got no idea at
all where that that temple of the Lord is, but he'll look to
it. He'll look to it, in a spiritual sense. Last time when we were
considering that prayer of King Ezekiel, when he turned his face
to the wall, and I said then, was that the wall nearest to
the temple? We know how that previously,
when the the Assyrians had come and Sennacherib
had sent his general Rabshakai and there had been that taunting
of the men on the wall of Jerusalem and then they had come to King
Hezekiah with that message from Rabshakai And what did Ezekiel
do? Well, we're told there in 2nd
Kings 19 how he goes to the temple of the Lord, he goes to the house
of prayer and then subsequent to that we see how Sennacherib
actually sends a letter to the king and he does the same thing
with the letter that he receives from Sennacherib, he takes it
It says later in that 19th chapter, and he spreads it before the
Lord. This was his pattern, he would go to the temple. He would
go to the place of prayer just as Solomon had intimated in his
prayer at the dedication. And although there in chapter
20 he was sick and it appears he was going to die and he he
could not rise from his bed he could not actually go to the
temple but he looks to the temple and then subsequently his prayer
is heard and answered so the prophet comes and tells
him Thus saith the Lord, the God of David, thy Father, I have
heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears. Behold, I will heal
thee. On the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord."
He will enter the house of the Lord, the temple of the Lord
again. All the significance of the temple of the Lord. And this
is what Jonah also desires to look toward. But as I say, it
can't be understood physically. He doesn't know where the temple
is. He's disorientated. He doesn't
know north, south, east or west. He knows nothing. He's in total
confusion. Surely we're to understand the
words in that spiritual sense. The temple, the holy temple that
he's looking toward, that he's desiring now to enter into. Are
we not to see the Lord Jesus Christ in it? The temple is a
type of the Lord Jesus Christ. when he said to those Jews in
the second chapter of John, destroy this temple and in three days
I will build it again. They think he's speaking of the
temple there in Jerusalem. He's not. He's speaking of himself.
He's speaking of his body. He's speaking of his death. It is the Lord Jesus Christ that
Jonah is looking to as he comes with his prayer. All King Solomon
directs us to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Templar type of Christ.
Jonah also directs us to the Lord Jesus Christ, directs us
to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Remember the words of
Christ himself during the course of his ministry, how he speaks
of these men in Matthew's Gospel, and there in Matthew chapter
12 and verse 40 following, As Jonas
was three days and three nights in the way of Belen, so shall
the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this
generation and shall condemn it, because they repented at
the preaching of Jonas, and behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
The Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with
this generation, and shall condemn it. For she came from the uttermost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold,
a greater than Solomon is here." Who is this one who is greater
than Solomon, greater than Jonah? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it is through Christ. And only through Christ that
ever Jonah's prayer would enter into heaven itself, only through
the Lord Jesus. He alone is the mediator. He
only is the Great High Priest. And having risen from the dead
on the third day, and Jonah's experience here is spoken of
by the Lord Jesus Christ as that that is typical of his own resurrection,
having risen from the dead, has not Christ ascended on high and
now entered into heaven itself? Or we are told time and again
there in Hebrews that Christ has entered in once into the
holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us. And so Jonah's prayer my prayer
came in unto thee into thine holy temple it's through
Christ it's through Christ who entered into heaven itself says
Paul now to appear in the presence of God for us and this is where
we must come oh this is where we must come with our prayers
in whom Paul says We have boldness and access with confidence by
the faith of Him. Oh, what it is to be those raised
up together, made to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. What a blessing. What do we know
of these things? To enter into that within the
veil with the Christ, the forerunner has gone for us. All we see here
at Jonah prays. And that place from where he
makes his prayer, even from the fish's belly, the
belly of Hal the Great, all seems over, all seems lost. And yet, it's not just the place,
it's the person, the one to whom he addresses himself. He prayed
unto the Lord his God. Oh, it was Jehovah the Great
God, the God of the Covenant. That God who has revealed himself
now in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then Jonah
prayed unto the Lord his God, out of the fish's belly, 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. will not God hear our voices
if we do but cry to Him. Here we see that Jonah did not
pray in vain. The Lord heard and the Lord answered. This man was restored. Now does
the chapter end? The Lord spake unto the fish
and he vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. He's delivered. All but more than that, is He
not forgiven? Though He disobeyed, though He
backslidden. In chapter 3 we see how the Word
of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go
unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching
that I bid thee. O God, you say, God delivers
him, but God also restores him. He is still the Lord's servant. He is still the prophet of the
Lord. God's hand is in it all. Even
when Jonah is there in that terrible place, when he cries, when he
pries, when he calls, none of it is in vain. The Lord hears,
the Lord answers. Or that we might be those friends
who learn from what we read here in God's Word, these things that
are written for our learning, that we through patience and
comfort of the Scriptures might have hope, be it the prayer of
a Jeremiah or the prayer of a Hezekiah, the prayer of a Jonah, or that
we might be enabled by the grace of God to come in with these
men and to enter even heaven itself. When my soul fainted
within me, Jonah says, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came
in unto thee, into thine holy temple. Oh, the Lord bless his
word to us.