So we're in Jonah chapter two,
and reading from verse one. 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. For 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. Then I said, I am cast out of
thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. 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 her bars was about
me forever. Yet hast thou brought up my life
from corruption, O Lord my God. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. We could have read more in this
chapter but I wanted to make a break so that we could just
spend a little bit of time thinking more particularly about some
of the things that are contained in it and specifically that are
contained with respect to this prayer of Jonah's. Jonah was in the belly of a great
fish. Now, that is something else. Jonah is in the belly of this
whale. A creature prepared by God, sufficiently
large to swallow him whole and contain him inside its stomach. I have wondered from being a
child what that might have been like. He could breathe and he
could think, but could he move? When he tells us that the weeds
wrapped round his face, was he able to move his arm and pull
those weeds off of his face that perhaps were covering his mouth
and his nose and restricting his breathing? Was he flat out like in a coffin
or was he curled up like in a bag? Was he swirling around in liquid
Did he taste it? It must have been completely
black inside the fish. You know, it's very rare that
we're ever in a place that is completely black. I have been
a few times. And if you switch out the light
that you're carrying in that place, it's almost as if the
blackness, the darkness is physical, is tangible, could be touched.
and it must have been completely black like that inside this fish. Was he hot? Was he cold? What was the smell like? At the end of the chapter, we
find that this creature vomited up Jonah, likely with the other
contents of its stomach. Now these are perhaps childish
thoughts, though not a far stretch, I must say, beyond some of the
references, particularly in verse 5, where Jonas speaks of being
surrounded with water, even to the soul. whether that means
he felt that water entering into his throat and into his stomach.
He speaks about being squeezed and compressed within the animal's
body. Maybe that's where he got his
sense of him descending into the depths, perhaps as it plunged
to the sea floor, he felt that pressure. and he speaks about
the weeds wrapping around his head. Perhaps that was vegetation
that was sucked in when the fish swallowed him. Jonah seems to
have had some sensation of descending into the depths of the sea and
of coming to rest. Maybe he felt a change of pressure
or temperature or movement. And he seems to be able to visualise
the cliffs and the mountains rising above him as though in
some cave or trench on the seabed. And he likens it to prison bars. He likens it to hell. And in all of this, in this situation,
in this place, Jonah tells us all he could do is pray. If ever there was a picture of
helplessness and inability in the whole of Scripture, surely
it's here. And sometimes the Lord brings
His people to the point where all they have left is prayer. Maybe when they're sick. I've
spent time in the company of people who are so sick that they're
motionless, so sick that it's become impossible for them to speak. And all that they can
do is to pray within themselves. Or maybe it's more general than
that, that they're out of options, that they've tried everything
that they can do and there's nothing to get them out of the
predicament in which they find themselves and so they resort
to prayer. There's much to learn, I think,
from Jonah's prayer. So what we're going to do today
is consider Jonah's prayer. And then we are going to consider
Jonah again as the type of Christ and then maybe just draw a couple
of applications. Now let me say something and
I sometimes tell you this before we begin. I haven't divided these
three things into three equal points by any means. Jonah's
prayer is the essence of what we are speaking about today and
we're only going at the very end to touch upon Jonah as a
type of the Lord Jesus and then a couple of applications but
don't worry when you hear me saying point two because we're
already going to have had six different points before that.
So let's progress. We're going to think about Jonah's
prayer first of all and this is by far the biggest part of
what I want to say. And I've got six elements of
that prayer that I want to just draw to your attention. Here's
the first one, or at least here's an introduction to these points. So this is the introduction to
the six points. Jonah was undoubtedly a man familiar
with prayer. Jonah was a believer. Let us
never forget that Jonah is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jonah
trusts God. Jonah is a minister of God. He is God's prophet and he has
been revealed as God's prophet and vindicated as God's prophet. His prophecies came true. And having said that, that Jonah
was familiar with prayer, I doubt he'd prayed much in recent days. Maybe he had when he observed
the storm at the shoulder of the ship's captain. Maybe he
shot up a prayer to the Lord as he saw the ferocity of that
storm. Or maybe he did as he was thrown
overboard into the water. Lord help me. And yet I cannot imagine a man
who is fleeing from the presence of the Lord would be very much
inclined to pray. But now that's changed. In the
belly of the great fish, in the depth of his trouble, Jonah prayed. Because prayer is a cry to God
for help from a needy soul. Why do we pray? What is it about? What are we doing when we pray
to the Lord if we're not asking for his help? And true prayer
is a privilege of grace inspired by the Holy Spirit. By no means
is all that is said In the name of prayer, true prayer. True
prayer is a privilege of grace inspired by the Holy Spirit. And now in this moment of need,
Jonah prayed. Do we sometimes like Jonah forget
or probably purposefully neglect to pray? Do we ever purposefully
not pray because we know it's incompatible with what we're
doing or the way we're feeling? I'll tell you this, it's hard
to sin and to pray while we're sinning. It's hard to fellowship
with God when we're harbouring guilt or when we're self-justifying
our conduct. And it's pointless to seek God's
help when we're doing our own thing. And Jonah knew that. Jonah found it easier to sleep
through a storm than to pray to God. And here's an important
lesson from Jonah's experience. Jonah prayed when he was desperate,
when he had nothing else that he could do. Let me put that
another way. Jonah had to be really desperate
before he prayed. And I suspect that we all know
the difference between praying and saying our prayers. We've
said before, whatever brings us closer to the Lord is good
for us. Be the experience easy or hard. And it's the hard ones that are
the shortest routes to the throne of grace. In dealing with Jonah, as he did, we see God's faithfulness
towards his elect children. It was God who put Jonah through
this experience. It was God who put Jonah in that
fish. God prepared that fish. He sent
the storm, he prepared the fish, and he took him to the bottom
of the sea in order to bring that man back to that place where
he could pray. Here we see the wisdom of God
in dealing with this disobedient man. Jonah ran, but he couldn't
hide. And using a storm and a fish,
the Lord caught him and the Lord reeled him in. So here are the
six things that we notice concerning this prayer. Number one, it was
a prayer for help. Verse two tells us, I cried by
reason of mine affliction. Dare we say that afflictions
are not always bad? Someone might say, well, yes,
it isn't you that's afflicted. But Jonah needed an affliction
to bring him back to the Lord. We all have hardships in our
life. These are God's ways of working
with us. As Jonas sank into the depths
of the sea and as his senses swirled in the blackness and
the fluid and the stench, he was aware of being trapped and
helpless within the fish. And he'd nothing else to do but
cry to the Lord for help. And cry he did. In his affliction
and out of the belly of hell he cried. And the Lord heard him. Twice
Jonah tells us in one verse, the Lord heard him. Let this
be a lesson for us. If the Lord afflicts his people
for any reason, with any kind of affliction, he waits to hear
our prayers and hear our prayers he will. And he will answer our
cries for help because he brought those afflictions to us for that
very reason. So firstly, it was a cry for
help. Secondly, this prayer was a prayer of humility. Jonah was humbled. Let us be
in no doubt about it. Jonah knew it was the Lord who
had done this. He tells us in verse three, thou
hast cast me into the deep. This wasn't random. This wasn't
circumstantial. This wasn't sheer bad luck. Let
us never interpret life's events in that kind of superficial way. We believe in providence and
the Lord is working His purposes for our good by His active management
of this world. Now, if our good could be accomplished
in another way, better, the Lord would do it. For His ways are
efficient and effective and kind and wise and good. so that what
does happen is the best. All things work together for
our good. What is happening is for the
best. And humbly and penitently, Jonah
acknowledged the hand of God in this predicament and he sought
mercy at the throne of grace. and he teaches us thereby as
an example to all the Lord's people that we may do so too. So this was a prayer for help
and it was a prayer of humility. Thirdly, it was also a prayer
of fear. In verse four, Jonah has a moment
of fear. and we might say that would be
expected but it's more than that, it's more than that. There's
almost a sense in which Jonah is aware of the awfulness, the
belly of hell, he's aware of the awfulness of his predicament
and yet there's something else here. There's a sudden rush of
terror grips him and it is this, that God has forgotten him and
that he is in fact a reprobate. And suddenly Jonah thinks, That
explains everything. I'm a reprobate. That explains
a lot. Jonah had tried to flee from
the presence of God. So God had justly cast him out
of his sight. That's what Jonah says. That
was his moment of fear. I am cast out of thy sight. Was Jonah in darkness? Absolutely
he was in darkness. He was in the belly of a fish.
And in those moments of trial, he experienced another kind of
darkness, a darkness of the soul. Not only was he in the belly
of the fish, he was in the belly of hell. And Satan is only too
quick to sow seeds of doubt in the mind of a believer concerning
God's attitude towards us. in such circumstances as that. And sometimes it's greater than
a moment. Jonah had this thought for a moment, sometimes it's
greater than a moment, sometimes it can go on for a long time,
that a believer gets into that place where there's a darkness,
there's a depression, there's such a shroud over our mind and
over our soul. that we feel as if we're dead
towards God, that we're a reprobate, that it's all just been fanciful
in our mind and that we've never been a believer at all. We forget
the good things. We forget the mercies. We forget
the blessings. We forget the comforts. We become
preoccupied with the darkness. and we interpret all these other
things as being misunderstandings and misapprehensions on our part.
Our fears are claustrophobic and they press in on us until,
like Jonah, being compressed in the belly of that fish, all
seems hopeless and we are convinced that the Lord has cast us away
and cast us out of his sight like Jonah was. But fourthly, Jonah's prayer
was a prayer of faith because all was not lost. Let me say
this emphatically. The Lord does not put faith in
a person's heart to leave it stillborn and to leave it dormant. Sooner or later, by one means
or another, the Lord will stir up our faith and lift the blackness
of doubt and fear. It will happen. So let me say
this, if you are going through a period of this darkness, a
period of this blackness, a sense of this belly of the whale, the
Lord will be faithful. He was to Jonah, he will be to
you. Jonah didn't have a lot of time,
but he knew what he had to do. And I want you, perhaps if I'm
speaking to you right now in this stage of the sermon, this
stage of my thoughts, I want you to note this. You for whom
the darkness of being a castaway, the darkness of being a reprobate
is real and perhaps even regular. Look at what Jonah did at once,
immediately. Jonah countered his fear of being
a castaway by looking to Jesus Christ. Now you might say, how's that?
How did he do that? What are you talking about? Well,
look what he says. He says in verse four, He says
in verse four that he's a castaway and then in the same breath,
in the same breath, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. And what is that? That is him
saying that he will look to Christ. He will look to Christ. he says,
yet I will look again toward thy holy temple, he is saying,
in effect, I will look to Christ. These old boys knew that Christ
was an anti-type of the temple. We keep talking about David being
a type of the Lord and the types of the Old Testament all pointing
towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the anti-type, he is
the fulfilment, he is the reality, he is what they all look forward
to. And Christ was the anti-type
of the temple so that when Jonah says he would look again to the
temple, he's looking at the type. He's looking at where he worshipped.
He's looking at where the Ark of the Covenant was located. He's looking at where the mercy
seat was for sinners like him. It was where blood was shed every
day, offerings were made and atonement was obtained. Let me
say it bluntly, it was where Christ lived. and where the presence of God
dwelt. And Jonah knew that the Lord was in his temple
and that when fear was in his soul, that was his response. Yet I will look again unto thy
holy temple. He was saying, no greater, no more, No sooner will I fear for my
soul than I will look to Christ. And that's what I want you to
hold on to. I want you to have this almost
as an immediate response, as a natural reaction. I want you
to hold this as something in your mind that when Satan says
to you, you're a castaway, you're a reprobate, when that darkness,
when that blackness comes, you immediately say, yet I will look
to Christ and then do it. Jonah was saying this. He is
saying, I don't have another argument. I don't have another
plea. If I am a castaway, I'm a castaway,
but let God cast me away, looking to Christ for all my salvation. And will that happen? Never. There never was a soul lost while
clinging to Christ's cross and pleading the blood of God's Son. So cling to Christ's cross and
plead the blood of God's Son every time Satan tells you you're
a castaway. And let me say one more thing
on this. It wasn't the first time that Jonah had done that.
He said, yet I will look again. Yet I will look again. I suspect
that Jonah was a man who suffered from a lack of assurance. he
had learned because he was a mature believer, he had learned that
the only way he would be able to cast off this darkness, this
blackness, this depression, this belly of hell feeling that he
had was to go again to the blood of Christ, go again to the cross,
whether it was a spiritual release that he got. I'm not talking
about something mystical. I'm talking about the fact that
that is to be your mantra. Every time the devil comes with
this dark thought, repeat to yourself, yet I will look again
and then do it. Look to Christ. Think on him. Think on his work. Remember what
you've heard in the gospel services that you've attended. Remember
what you've read in the scripture. Remember the testimony that you've
received. What you've heard of the grace
and the gospel and the salvation and the grace and the glory.
And plead his blood. And the devil won't stay long.
He didn't with Jonah. so that Jonah's prayer also became
a prayer of hope. And he tells us that in verse
five. Jonah tells us, the waters compassed me about, even to the
soul. The depth closed round me, or
closed me round about. The weeds were wrapped about
my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with
her bars was about me forever. You remember the old Negro spiritual,
nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Well, I don't think it's
helpful to compare trials, but there can be few more harrowing
experiences in this world than Jonah's. And yet Jonah trusted
and hoped in the Lord through it all. So whatever your harrowing
experience might be, whether it's longer or shorter, whatever
it is, I think Jonah's was probably worse. And sure, there are times of
fear and there are times of faith. But for Jonah, there were times
when he had to give himself a talking to and remind himself of God's
faithfulness and remind himself of God's covenant promises. And
that is what he did in this passage. That is what he did in this prayer
of hope. He said, when the waters compassed
me about even to the soul, I will look to the temple because Christ
is my rock and my foundation. When the depth closed me round
about, Christ is my sun and my shield. When the weeds wrapped
about my head, Christ brings me back out of the darkness and
the shadow of death. When I went to the bottoms of
the mountains and the earth with her bars was about me forever,
well, Christ breaks my bands in sunder. The believer's hope
is always in Christ. It was for Jonah and it must
be for you. And sixthly, this was a prayer
of gratitude. Verse six tells us, yet hast
thou brought up my life from corruption. Jonah is recounting
here this prayer after the event. He is telling us after the event
what he prayed during the experience and how he felt in the whale's
belly. In the belly of hell. And after
the event, he was able to say the Lord had indeed brought him
back physically from corruption in the fish by delivering him
back to dry land. And yet Jonah was a believer.
He had a deeper hope than mere human life and well-being. Even
in the depth of the sea, in the belly of the whale, he trusted
in Christ for salvation and he had hope in Christ. And faith
will triumph. Faith will be vindicated. When our hope is in God's covenant
promise, then to live is Christ and to die is gain. So brothers
and sisters, don't be afraid of dying. Every single person
who ever lived has died. With the exception of two, if
I'm not mistaken. And very likely you will too.
But we die in hope when we live in Christ. In truth, we don't
die at all. We just leave this body for a
while until we need it again. And Jonah's confidence was in
the God who was faithful to his promise, even when the prophet
proved to be unfaithful to his God. Jonah called to him, Oh
Lord, my God. And that is a beautiful prayer
in itself. Oh Lord my God, the one true
God, Jehovah. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. If he's your God too, then you
have nothing to fear. Here's the second point that
I'm going to mention in my three-point division. Jonah as a type of
Christ, We've mentioned before how the Lord called Jonah's three
days and three nights in the whale a sign, a sign to his generation
and to all generations. Jonah testifies that God brought
up my life from corruption. Jonah was, of course, a sinful
man. While our Lord Jesus did no sin,
neither was guile found in his mouth, Peter tells us. So remember
that all the types that we speak about, they all fall short of
the excellence of the anti-type. And yet our Lord was like Jonah. Our Saviour was confined like
Jonah, three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Our
Lord Jesus Christ came to where his people were in this world
of sin. in this world of death and corruption
in order to take our place, take our place under that sin and
death and corruption. And that too was part of the
sign. He who suffered and died did
so that God's elect who were placed into his care in the covenant
of grace would not suffer death and corruption. And spiritually
speaking, this is what the Lord has accomplished. Christ, in
fulfilling that role, as in Jonah's prayer, was also preserved from
corruption and he was raised again to life. This is the proof,
this is the testimony of God that he has accepted Christ's
sacrifice on our behalf. This is our assurance, this is
our confidence, this is our hope. Death has no hold on the one
who is life. And Jonah was delivered from
the belly of hell, and he was freed from the depths of judgment. And like Jonah, the Lord Jesus
descended to the depths of hell for his church, and he bore our
judgment in our place. And then he ascended victorious
over death, over hell, over the grave. and he did so for us all. He credits us all with those
very things. Jonah's experience is a type
and a sign given by God to point us, to point the church, to point
the people of God to the Saviour, Jesus Christ. And finally, and
it's just a paragraph, A little bit of an application just to
wrap this up for us all. Jonah's affliction and his deliverance
had a purpose and an end. And we're going to see that in
the coming weeks, God willing. But you and I are taught hereby
to trust in the Lord in the midst of our afflictions and to look
to Christ in times of need. Now we know this, we've been
taught this. We are being taught this right
now by Jonah. So that in our own troubles,
we have a pattern of response. May the Lord remind us of these
things when we are in trial and we are tempted and we are persecuted. And may the Lord bring us through
our afflictions and closer to himself even in the very patterns
that he has chosen to use in scripture to teach us. Amen. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us.