Turning then to that portion
that we read in the book of the Prophet Jonah, and that text
is found in chapter 2 and a part of verse 7. Jonah chapter 2 and
there in the middle of verse 7 the words, I remembered the Lord. It's part, of course, of the
prayer of Jonah, which really forms this second chapter. If we read the whole verse, he
says, when my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord. and my prayer came in unto thee,
into thine holy temple." Considering more particularly here his remembrance
of the Lord. Now, let us at the outset observe
the place from where this prayer was made. The opening verse of
this second chapter, we're told then, Jonah prayed unto the Lord
his God. There is clearly a connection
with what we're told in the previous chapter. And what we read there, of course,
is of Jonah's disobedience, his rebellion against the commandment
of the Lord and all that ensued as a result of his sin, his sinful
disobedience. And ultimately we see him in
the belly of the great fish. And that is where Jonah is praying
from. This is the place of his prayer.
Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God, we're told, out of the
fish's belly. The previous verse, the end of
chapter 1, how the Lord had prepared this fish to swallow up Jonah
and he was in the belly of the fish were told three days and
three nights this is the place then from whence the prayer is
made but how does Jonah himself describe what he is experiencing
in this place he speaks of it as the belly of hell That's the
expression that he uses in the second verse here. Out of the
belly of hell, he says, or as the Margin says, the grave. He
is referring to that that would usually be understood as having
regard to the realm of the dead. out of the belly of the grave
cried I, he says, and thou heardest my cry. It is interesting that
what we have here in this chapter is really the first record of
Jonah actually praying. God's word had come to him. That's what we're told right
at the beginning of the book, of course, the word of the Lord
came on to Jonah. And what is to be the response
of any to whom God's word comes? Surely if God comes to us with
words, we are to respond with words. We should take with us
words and turn to the Lord. But this is the first time that
we read here in the book of Jonah praying. He had been exhorted
to pray, certainly by those mariners in the ship when they found themselves
in such great danger as a result of the storm. We're told now
that Jonah was quite safe and secure, it would seem. He'd gone
down into the ship and he was fast asleep. And the shipmaster
comes to him there in verse 6 of chapter 1 and says, What meanest
thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God. if
so be that God will think upon us that we perish not. He'd been
exhorted even by this man, this man who was not even a Hebrew,
not a worshipper of the true God. He'd been exhorted to pray. God had spoken to him. And yet,
none of these things moves him. Ultimately, God must deal with
him. The Word of God is not enough
for this man. He has to be brought into such
dire circumstances before ever he will call upon the name of
the Lord. Then, from the fish's belly,
Jonah prayed unto the Lord. And of course we know that many
a time this is the case. If a man or a woman would ever
be brought to be truly seeking after God, they must be brought
into the most difficult and dire of circumstances. We have it
there in the 107th Psalm. Time and again, God brings them
into difficulties, we see. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. Then, throughout that psalm,
we see the same truth recurring many, many times in the verses. Verse 6, we just read. Verse
13, Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he
saved them out of their distresses. Verse 19, Then they cried unto
the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. Just go through the 107th Psalm
and see how as those various circumstances of life are mentioned,
so each time as God brings people into those sort of situations.
It's there. and only then did they move to
cry unto the Lord. So the place, the place from
whence this prayer was made is not insignificant. It's when
a man is brought into these difficult circumstances. But then besides
the place, we do well to take account of the one to whom he
prayed, the person to whom he prayed. He addresses his prayer
of course unto the Lord his God. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord
his God, it says, out of the fish's belly. And here in the
words that we've announced for our text in verse 7, when my
soul fainted within me, he says, I remembered the Lord. I remembered
the Lord and my prayer came in unto them into thine holy temple."
How he remembered the Lord and the character of his God is so
often to forget. Doesn't God have to remind us
of the importance of recalling to mind who he is and his dealings? He says to the children of Israel
back in Deuteronomy They shall remember all the way which the
Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness. They
have to be commanded to remember because they are so prone to
forget when we come to the New Testament. Think of the words
of the Lord Jesus as he institutes that Holy Supper. And what is
the point, what is the purpose of it? He says, this too, in
remembrance of mercy. Oh, we are to remember the Lord,
we are to remember the ways of the Lord and so here this is
what Jonah is brought to in the circumstances and the situation
that God in his sovereign providence causes to come into his life
he says I remembered the Lord well let's consider something
of Jonah's experience here And a number of things we can observe.
First of all, Jonah must have had a sense of rejection. It
was as if he felt rejected by the Lord his God. What was his
physical condition? Well, we know he was three days
and three nights in the belly of this great fish. We're told
quite explicitly there at the end of the first chapter, Jonah
was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Now, we're not told here that
it was a whale, but when the matter is referred to by the
Lord Jesus in the Gospel in Matthew chapter 12 and verse 40, that
is the word that is used in our authorized version. Although
the word used literally means a great sea creature, it's not
specifically a whale, but that's the way the translators have
rendered it. There in Matthew chapter 12 verse 40, as Jonas
was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, 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, greater
than Jonas is here. The interesting thing of course
with regards to that particular incident recorded in the gospel
in the ministry of Christ is that Christ obviously recognized
Jonas history as truth that these things actually happened and
the Lord draws a comparison between Jonah's experience of three days
and three nights in the whale's belly, and his own death, and
his burial, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the
whale's belly. Even so, Christ is to be three days, three nights,
in the bowels of the earth. If what we read concerning Jonah
is not true, and there are those, I'm sure you're aware of it,
who would pour scorn on this history that we have in the book
of Jonah, they'd say it's not truth, it's some sort of myth. Well, if that is the case, what
right have we to say that the resurrection of Christ is not
also merely mythical? These two things stand together. Christ draws a comparison between
himself and his experience and that of Jonah. and of course Jonah gives us
a remarkable graphic description of what he felt at this time
when he had disobeyed God and was in this awful situation enclosed
in the belly of this great creature he says Verse 5, the waters compassed
me about even to the soul, the depth closed me round about,
the weeds were wrapped about my head, I went down to the bottoms
of the mountains, the earth with a buzz was about me forever. It was a living death that this
man was experiencing. That was his physical condition.
That was his physical condition. But then Really, we're to understand
Jonah here as one who is speaking also of his spiritual state. Does he not acknowledge in all
of this that God's hand is to be discerned? Look at what he
says in verse 3, Thou, he's addressing God in prayer, Thou hast cast
me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods compass
me about, or thy billows and thy waves passed over me." This man is feeling something
in his soul. Again in verse 5 he says, even
to the soul, the waters compass me about, even to the soul. It's not just his physical state,
it's the man's spiritual condition also. It was the sailors who
had cast him overboard. And they'd done that, of course,
at his own bidding. It is the thing that Jonah himself
had told them they should do in order that the storm might
cease. Take me up, he says, 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." And
yet they are loath to do such a thing. Nevertheless the men
rode hard to bring it to land. They don't want the innocent
blood of this man laid to their charge, but they have to do what
Jonah has said. So they took up Jonah and cast
him forth into the sea. and the sea ceased from her rising. Then the men feared the Lord
exceedingly." Or they do this thing, you see, but it's God
that's in it. God's hand is to be served in all that came upon
Jonah. And the Lord was the one, of
course, who was very much pursuing him as he acted in his disobedience. He had in a sense forgotten God. He turned his back upon God,
upon the commandment of God, but God pursues him. There in
verse 4 of 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. And the margin again indicates
how strong the language is in the Hebrew. The Hebrew is literally
to cast forth, the Lord cast forth a great wind into the sea. He takes the wind as it were
and He throws it, He hauls it after this prophet, this disobedient
prophet. It's God who is pursuing it. He gathereth the waters of the
sea together as an heap and layeth up the depth in storehouses says
the psalm is concerning God but out of that storehouse he takes
as it were a tremendous storm and he throws it into the sea
after this man Jonah and then it's God of course who prepares
the great fish as he pursued the man so he made preparation
because Jonah is yet to obey that command that came at the
beginning of the book. When he is restored, we see in
chapter 3 how the word of the Lord came unto him the second
time. God had prepared a great fish
then to swallow up Jonah. God is in all of these things.
We know that the sailors on board ship, they were obviously perplexed. They considered why it was that
this storm had come. They were experienced mariners.
They were sorely afraid. And what did they do? They went
to seek to establish who it was that was the cause of this trouble. So they cast lots. verse 7 they
said everyone to his fellow come and 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 Jonah now of course the casting of
a lot it's a chance thing as to just where the lot will fall
but we know that God is sovereign the fictitious powers of chance
and fortune I defy, my life's minutest circumstance is subject
to, his eye says, the hymn writer. There's no such thing as chance,
even when he comes to the lot. The wise man tells us there,
at the end of Proverbs 16, how the lot is cast into the lap,
but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. How the Lord
is in it, even in the casting of the lot, As God pursues him,
the lot is cast, this man is identified, this man is cast
into the sea, God prepares this great creature to swallow up
Jonah. How remarkable is this history,
and yet what is Jonah's experience in all of this? He feels as if
he's rejected of God. He feels as if he's rejected
of God, he's disobeyed God, And now he's rejected of God.
He's in this awful situation and yet God is remembering him. All the time God is mindful of
him. God will not let this man flee from him. What is Jonah's
condition? Is he not one who is sadly backslidden? He's backslidden. And yet, even in this backslidden
condition, we see how God is concerned for him, even as he flees from the presence
of the Lord. What does the wise man say again?
The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.
Always filled with his own ways. or the folly, you see, of his
disobedience. Again, we have the words of another
of the prophets in the book of Jeremiah the prophet, and there
in chapter 2 and verse 17. Hast thou not procured this unto
thyself, says Jeremiah, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy
God when he led thee by the word? or the foolishness of forsaking
the ways of God. And yet this was the case with
this particular man. And so what does he say in verse
4 of this second chapter? I said, I am cast out of thy
sight. I am cast out of thy sight. He feels, you see, as if what
he has done has brought a separation between him and his God. He was
fleeing from the presence of the Lord, and yet there's a sense
now in which he grieves over the foolishness of his own conduct. And he feels that God has cast
him out, and cast him out forever, cast him out into the depths
of the seas. He's encased in the fish's belly. He has that sense then of of
guilt before God because of his disobedience and not only a sense
of his guilt but also he is made to feel his own helplessness
it was so easy for him to do what he did so easy you see to
disobey the commandment of God to flee from the presence of
God that's what he was about there in verse 3 of chapter 1,
he rose up to flee on to Tarshish, we're told, from the presence
of the Lord. He's seeking to escape God's
special presence. He goes to Chopper, finds a ship
going to Tarshish, and he has the wherewithal, he has the fare
to pay, and so he can go on board the ship and he can make his
journey to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Twice there
in verse 3 of chapter 1 we have that reference to him seeking
to avoid the presence of the Lord. Where is he going? He's going
to Tarshish at the western extremity of the Mediterranean somewhere
in Spain it is reckoned is the place where Tarshish would have
been. God had commanded him to travel
eastward to go to the city of Nineveh. But instead of traveling
east he goes as far west as he can possibly go. What foolishness
on the part of this man. So easy to disobey God, so easy
to escape as he thought from the presence of the Lord, but
it's not so easy to return. It's not so easy to return. Is
there not a principle for us, you see? We can be those who
are disobedient and we depart and we go away and we avoid the
presence of the Lord. We go in the opposite direction
to what God Himself is commanding us to. So easy. But it's not
easy for us to return. We cannot do it in our own strength.
What He's got doing with this man, He's causing the man not
only to feel the guilt of his sin, but also his utter helpless
condition. Here is a man who feels himself
to be so cut off, so rejected by the Lord. But then, in the
second place, can we not here see something of Jonah's real
and sincere repentance? He cannot restore himself but
we know that there is one at God's right hand who is exalted
a prince and a savior to give repentance to Israel and the
forgiveness of sins and Jonah you see is remembering the Lord
he must look away from himself he must remember the character
of his God isn't that what faith does? faith yes We're brought
into these circumstances, but faith looks away from the circumstance. From the situation we're in,
faith looks toward God. And God is the only one who can
restore this man. God is the only one who can grant
to him a spirit of true repentance. He says in verse 4, I am cast
out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. Now isn't that the language of
repentance? I will look again. He had sought
to escape the presence of the Lord but now he will look again.
I will look again toward thy holy temple," he says. What is
repentance? Well, you know, we've said it
before, certainly in the New Testament, the word that's rendered
repentance in the New Testament Scriptures is one of those compound
words, two words joined together. And literally, it means an afterthought. An afterthought. It's the word
after and the word for mind. To think afterwards, to change
the mind really. But it's such a remarkable change
of mind that the man's life is now turned about, his life is
turned inside out, his life is turned upside down. It's a fundamental
change that has come into a man when he knows that grace of repentance. Oh, this man is one who was so
changed as a result of God's dealings with him. As we've said,
he was determined to escape from the presence of the Lord. That
was the purpose of his going to Chopper to take the ship. to escape from the presence of
the Lord. As I said, there in verse 3 of
chapter 1, we have it mentioned on two occasions. He wanted to be away from God. But there's no escaping from
God. Really, there's no escaping from God. We know that because
God is in every place. wherever we go. We cannot escape
His presence. It's everywhere. He's omnipresent.
And remember how David very much celebrates that truth in the
language of the psalm. In Psalm 139 he says, Whither
shall I go from my 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, again,
it's the grave, it's the realm of the dead that he's being spoken
of. If I make my bed in the grave, behold, thou art there. If I
take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part
of the sea, Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right
hand shall hold me." Wasn't that Jonah's experience? He's in the
uttermost parts of the sea, and yet still there's no escaping
from the presence of the Lord. God pursues him. But now you
see, as God is pursuing him, so, he has a desire. He would now draw near to God,
no more seeking to escape from the presence of the Lord. The
end of verse 4 he says, I will look again towards thy holy temple. And then in this 7th verse, when
my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came
in unto them, into thine holy temple. how he would draw near to God
now, how he wants that his prayer should enter, that he might know
that blessing of access, that God would hear his cry, even
from the belly of that great fish. Now Jonah's feelings of
conviction, that sense of his sinnership, they were evidently
deep, they were terrible, And we see it in the language that
is used throughout this prayer. In verse 2, as we've said, he
speaks of the belly of hell, or the belly of the grave. It's
a living death that he's experiencing. I cried by reason of mine affliction
unto the Lord, and he heard me out of the belly of hell. the
belly of the grave, cried I, and thou heardest my prayer. And then again, the language
that he uses in verse 6, I went down to the bottoms of
the mountains, the earth, with bars was about me forever, yet
hast thou brought up my life from corruption. Oh Lord my God! The margin there for corruption
gives the pit. I was brought up my life from
the pit. He is experiencing a living death. He's going to see corruption,
he's going to die there in the fish's belly. No wonder he cries
out in verse 7, my soul fainting. within man the language I say that he employs
is so so graphic because his conviction is so deep and so
terrible but it's interesting to observe the experience of
this man and there's a certain progression as the Lord is remembering
him and the Lord is dealing with him he says in verse 4 I will
look I will look again toward thy
holy temple. But then you see here in verse
7, he says, My prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. It's more than look now. He's
looking longingly as he's beginning to remember the Lord. But now
you see in verse 7, how his prayer enters in. Remember the context,
the general context here, this is Old Testament Scripture. This
man was doubtless very much aware of what King Solomon had said
in his prayer at the dedication of the Temple of the Lord. Remember
Now in that prayer, Solomon speaks of the necessity of the Israelites
looking to the Temple. It was the place, of course,
of God's special dwelling in the midst of Israel. That was true initially of the
tabernacle, that was where God dwelt. He dwelt upon the mercy
seat between the two cherubim. And when Solomon was raised up
to build the Temple of the Lord, He recognizes that this is to
be the special dwelling place of God in the midst of his people. And so, prayer would be made
towards the temple of the Lord. We have the record of his prayer,
that long prayer, in the 8th chapter of the first book of
Kings. And this is part of the prayer,
verse 29, that thine eyes may be opened toward this house night
and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name
shall be there, that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which
thy servant shall make toward this place. Which thy servant
shall make toward this place. And then he goes on to speak
of the various experiences of the people. Verse 33, When thy
people Israel be smitten down before the enemy because they
have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and
confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in
this house. Verse 35, When heaven is shut
up, and there is no room because they have sinned against thee,
if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name and turn
from their sin when thou afflictest them and so on. Throughout his prayer he speaks of them
being brought into various circumstances and making their prayer towards
this house. Now this was the very thing that
Daniel did. In Daniel chapter 6 when others
had plotted against Daniel and persuaded Darius the king to
pass that wicked decree that all prayers must be made only
in the name of Darius. What does Daniel do? We see Daniel
as one who will still address his prayers to Jerusalem. There
he is in exile. There he is in Babylon. And this
wicked decree is passed. And we're told there in verse
10 of Daniel 6, now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed,
It had received the royal approval, this wicked decree that all prayer
must be made through Darius. When Daniel knew that the writing
was signed, he went into his house, and his windows being
opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his
knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before
his God as he did aforetime." He prayed towards Jerusalem. he prayed towards Jerusalem and
so here you see in Jonah's prayer as he remembers the Lord so we
have this mention of him praying towards the Holy Temple
towards the temple of the Lord but surely Jonah was altogether
disorientated Here he is at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea
in the Wales Bellum. He has no idea where Jerusalem
is. He would be in utter and total
confusion. Thou hast cast me into the deep,
he says, in the midst of the seas, and the floods compass
me about, all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of
thy sight. How can he know where the temple
of the Lord is? And yet he says, I will look
again toward thy holy temple. Oh, is this not, friends, a spiritual
man? We're not to think here in terms
of the literal temple of the Lord. Jonah understood the significance
of the temple of the Lord. Where is Jonah looking? Jonah
is looking to heaven. The temple of the Lord is not
able to contain this glorious God. What does he say? Isaiah 66, I saith the Lord,
the heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool. Where
is the house that ye build unto me? Where is the place of my
rest? He is looking to God. But he's
looking to God who is a gracious God. All that the temple speaks
of. The place where the sacrifice
was made. The place where the priests of
the Lord were constantly about the business of the Lord's house.
He's not looking to some literal temple. He's looking to God. He's looking to God in heaven.
In fact, is he not looking to the Lord Jesus Christ? because
we know that that temple was, but typically it was a type of
the Lord. He himself said, destroy this
temple in three days, I will build it again. But there in
John chapter 2, the Jews think that he's speaking of the temple,
the literal temple there in Jerusalem, but we're told he spoke of the
temple of his body. He's speaking of his own resurrection
from the dead. He is the fulfillment of the
temple of the Lord. And this is the one to whom Jonah
is looking. This is the one through whom
Jonah will enjoy the blessing of entrance into the very presence
of God, in whom we have access. Tone in and through the Lord
Jesus Christ. What does he say here in verse
7? My prayer came in unto them, into thine holy temple, it's
through the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him,
we have access. By one Spirit unto the Father,
says the Apostle to the Ephesians. Through the Lord Jesus Christ,
through His mediation, by that gracious ministry of the Holy
Spirit, who helps our infirmities, and
makes intercession with those groanings that cannot be uttered.
through Christ by that ministry of the Spirit there's that blessed
meeting with God the Father we have access unto the Father it's
all in and through Christ in whom we have boldness and access
with confidence by the faith of Him as Jonah remembers the Lord as
Jonah remembers the Lord so he is favoured with that true repentance
because Christ is the one through whom he will come to God Christ
is the one who is exalted to give repentance and the forgiveness
of sins but then what do we see also here we see at the end Jonah's
great prayer finishing on this note of thanksgiving Verse 9, I will sacrifice unto
thee, he says, with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that
that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. All he is brought to this to
acknowledge that God is God. That God is the only one who
can save him, God is the only one who can restore him. Salvation
is of the Lord. This is the language of faith,
is it not? And that faith, of course, is always joined to repentances,
to graces. They come together. God himself
has brought them together. And what God has put together,
man is not a Buddhist thunder. This is the ministry of the apostles,
is it not, testifying both to the Jews and to the Gentiles'
repentance toward God and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ?
Here is a man who has a spirit of real repentance. He's restored
from his awful, sinful backslidings. He knows real repentance. And
that repentance is wedded, I say, to faith. and though his condition
is dire and dreadful and terrible, and yet here we see him in the
midst of it all rejoicing, coming before God with thanksgiving. The hymn writer says of that
true evangelical repentance, nor is it such a dismal thing
as tis by some men named, a sinner may repent, and sing, rejoice,
and be ashamed. Well, he repents, does this man,
and he sings, I will sacrifice unto the Lord, he says, with
the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed
salvation is of the Lord. All his restoration is due to
the goodness and the grace of God. He remembers the Lord. He remembers the character of
God. All that that name, Lord, declares of God's faithfulness,
it's the covenant name, of course, the name that's derived from
what God says concerning Himself, the Great, I am, that I am the
One who delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, the unchanging
Jehovah. When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord's salvation. is of the Lord. And now, this
is what we must be doing, friends. We must constantly remind ourselves
of the character of our God. We must remember who God is,
wherever we are, whatever our circumstances. It is for us to
remember where God is and to remember the works of our God. The psalmist says, Psalm 143,
I remember the days of old, I meditate on all thy works, I muse on the
work of thy hands. Ought to be those who would do
such a thing as that, to remember, to meditate and to muse on all
the works of God. And then those words of another
of the prophets, those words of Jeremiah, in the book of the
Lamentations, in chapter 3 he says, remembering mine affliction
and my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my soul hath them still
in remembrance and is humbled in me. This I recall to mind,
therefore have I hope. Yes, we remember. Not only the
Lord, we remember our own folly, our own foolishness. and all
that that brings in the way of affliction and misery, wormwood
and gold, Jonah knew it. He says, does Jeremiah the prophet,
my soul, have them still in remembrance? And he's humbled. He's humbled
in them. This I recall to mind, therefore
have I hope. Oh, there's humility, yes, but
there's also hope. When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord. Oh God, help us to remember the
Lord. And my prayer came in unto her,
he says, into thine holy temple. May the Lord be pleased to bless
these things to us. Let us now conclude our worship as we sing
the hymn 1056 the tune Umbersley 385 the hymn 1056 see a poor
sinner dearest Lord whose soul encouraged by thy word at mercy's
footstool would remain and there would look and look again how
oft deceived by self and pride as my Poor hearts have been turned
aside, and Jonah like us fled from them, till thou hast looked
again on me. 1056