Jonah chapter two, the book of
Jonah chapter two, and we'll read 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. When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee, into
thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities
forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee
with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that I have vowed.
I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. And the Lord spake unto the fish,
and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. Amen. May God be pleased to bless to
us this reading from his word. Our blessed Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, taught us during his own ministry to understand
that this passage, this passage from the life and experience
of Jonah, the prophet, is a sign of his own death and burial. So when we read the book of Jonah,
we are to think about the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Lord told us and taught us to do that. He was speaking to the
Jews of his own day at the time. And whether the Jews remembered
or not the point that he made, and I suspect they did, we certainly
should remember, as the Lord's disciples certainly did also. The Holy Spirit has recorded
in Scripture our Saviour's words upon this prophecy for our admonition,
for our blessing, for our comfort, for our direction, for our education
and for our faith. We believe these things which
are taught in Scripture concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And what
we see in the life of Jonah and what he experienced, we view
with wonder and amazement. In a sense, the world would look
at this with incredulity. They would say, that's impossible,
what that man experienced. That can't be right. This must
be an allegory. This must simply be a story,
like a fable, certainly designed to teach us something, but don't
take it literally. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ took
it literally and his disciples understood it literally. And
if I can't explain it physiologically, I don't doubt it in truth. The Lord prepared this fish for
Jonah. The Lord it was, the creator
of all things, that took that man into the belly of the whale
and allowed him to remain in there, alive, aware, conscious,
for three days. And that speaks to us of the
days that the Lord Jesus Christ was in the earth, the days of
his own death, burial, and resurrection. This morning I want to take the
opening verse of this chapter that we've read together. The
verse says, then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of
the fish's belly. And I'm just going to take three
straightforward points as we try to bring our thoughts into
conformity with the word of God. I want to think about this first
of all. Then Jonah prayed. I want to
think about this secondly of all. Unto the Lord his God. And then I want to think about
out of the fish's belly, because that's what Jonah tells us in
this prophecy that he has written, this narrative that he has given
us. So then let's take our first
thought. Then Jonah prayed. When did Jonah pray? prayed in the fish's belly. He had just been taken. He had
been roused from his sleep in this boat in the midst of a storm. He had spoken to these terrified
sailors. They had cast dice, cast lots
to discover who the culprit of their fearful situation was,
who was blameable. We always like to find somebody
to blame, don't we? Who was blameable? Who was culpable? Whose responsibility was it for
this terrible thing that was happening? And when the Lord
pointed out, even by the vagaries of lots being cast, as God taught
them, told them who it was that was responsible, Jonah was picked
up and he was cast into the sea. And we are told there at the
end of chapter one that the Lord had prepared a great fish to
swallow up Jonah. And then Jonah prayed. And what a prayer it was. We find it in chapter two. It was short. It was simple. It was personal. It was a simple
account of what happened to him. What was happening to him and
his cry to God for help. Now let me say at the outset
that Jonah probably didn't say these actual words. in this actual
order. This is not a prayer in the sense
that we're giving it verbatim. What Jonah is telling us here
is that these are the things that he thought. These are the
things that he felt. These are the things that he
expressed to God. And he has written this after
the event, recounting the experience that he had and telling us, his
readers, What it was went through his mind, what it was was laid
upon his heart and how he expressed that to his God. It's an account of his feelings,
his thoughts, his hopes, his fears. And it's interesting, I think,
for us to note that there was no record of Jonah praying From
the beginning of this book, when the Lord's word came to him and
told him to go to the city of Nineveh to preach, he didn't
pray at that point. He got up and he left the presence
of the Lord. That's not to say that Jonah
didn't pray at all in that process that we saw in chapter one. In
fact, I think it would be very surprising if he didn't pray. I suspect that Jonah prayed as
those sailors took his hands and his feet and swung him back
and forward, getting ready to throw him over the side of the
boat. That prayer isn't recounted. We're not told about that prayer.
But I suspect that at the moment that the hands of those sailors
left Jonah's arms and legs, that he cried out, Lord, help me. Lord, help me. And that is reminiscent of another
prayer in scripture. Do you remember who else prayed
the prayer, Lord, save me? Do you remember the circumstances
on that occasion as Peter stepped out of the boat in the midst
of the storm and started to walk to the Lord? Here's what we're told in Matthew
14, verse 30. But when he saw the wind boisterous,
that's Peter, He had started to walk towards the Lord on the
water, but when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and
beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. I refer to this because of the
simplicity of that prayer, and I want to draw it to your attention
simply to show you this point, that those few words that Peter
spoke This prayer that Jonah prayed was a wonderful prayer,
though it was so short and simple and straightforward that you
would think, well, there's nothing to it. And yet there's everything
to it. It is profound. It is deep. It is significant. And if a man
or a woman or a boy or a girl. And these things are not for
old people or for children, they're for us all. And we all should
listen and we all should hear. I see some of you youngsters
here today. You know, I guess you don't always
feel like coming to church. I guess there are times when
you say, you know what, I would rather be with my friends, or
I would rather be at a party, or I would rather be at some
event that's being organised, and I would rather go there than
go to church. and your mum and your dad says,
no, that's not what we're doing. You can do some of these things
after, but at this time, on this day, we go to church and that's
what we do. And I guess there are times when
you think to yourself, I wish I didn't have to and I wish my
mum and dad wouldn't make me. Well, I would like just to say
on your behalf to your mum and dad, thank you. Thank you. for bringing the children to
church. It's important that the children
hear the gospel. And you have the responsibility
and you have the privilege of bringing these children under
the sound of the gospel at this time. Soon they'll be 14 and
16 and 18 and they'll be telling you what they're going to do.
And then they'll be getting a little bit older and they'll be telling
you what you're going to do. But now we come and we hear the
gospel, and we believe it is such a privilege. This prayer
can be prayed by boys and girls, just as much as it can be prayed
by a grown-up. Right there, that prayer was
made to God, Lord, save me. Lord, save me. In this dangerous
position, in this set of circumstances, whatever it might be, whatever
it might be that worries you, whatever it might be that causes
you to be afraid, whatever it might be that brings you to that
place where you think, what am I going to do? I don't know what
to do. Lord, save me. That prayer is
real. That prayer is true. And if we
ever have the opportunity to pray that prayer to the Lord
Jesus Christ with sincerity and earnestness and faith, that will
be a blessed, blessed day in our life. I would go further
than that. I would say blessed circumstances
that bring us to the point of praying such a prayer. You see,
we worry about things happening to us. We see a car careering
towards us and the driver on the other side of the road is
obviously having difficulty holding on to the steering wheel and
making the car drive in a straight line. And we get worried and
we think, Lord, save us. If the Lord causes us to cry
that prayer, He is in control of every situation. He is in
control of the driver in the car. And it's a blessed circumstance
that calls forth such a prayer from any child of God. So let us be a people who value
not only the freedom of access to pray for help from our God,
but also the circumstances that make that prayer come spontaneously. Our prayers need not, should
not be carefully crafted works of art. That's not what a prayer
is. It needs to be impulsive. It
needs to be a genuine expression of our feelings towards God. It needs to be spoken in simple
words, not in complicated words. You're never going to impress
God with your prayers. You might impress the people
around about you, but you're never going to impress God. And sadly, it does often take
a crisis for us just to be as simple and straightforward in
our prayers as, Lord, save me. The Lord's people are never out
of the safe arms of Jesus. We're never out of them. safe
in the arms of Jesus. That's where we are, despite
what we feel. And yet there will be times in
our life's experience, hard times, difficult times, times of chastisement,
times of correction. times when we are being instructed,
times when we have to learn lessons and we have to be taught to forgo
the dangerous things that we trifle with and tamper with and
the Lord would close down in our lives. But all of these things
are designed by the Lord to lead us humbly back to our first love. Realising this, that the troubles
themselves become mercies and the trials opportunities for
us to trust and find our Saviour to be true. Then our prayers
will possess an earnestness and a genuineness. Then we will discover
the true character of a prayer answering God. Around about 1830,
there was a hymn writer called John Burton, and he wrote this
prayer, and he wrote it for children, but I think you grownups can
listen as well, because it really is a very interesting and insightful
prayer. He wrote this, I often say my
prayers, but do I really pray? And do the wishes of my heart
go with the words I say? I may as well kneel down and
worship gods of stone as offer to the living God a prayer of
words alone. For words without the heart,
the Lord will never hear. nor will he to those lips attend
whose prayer is not sincere. Lord, show me what I need and
teach me how to pray and help me when I seek thy grace to mean
the words I say. Lord, save me. Jonah said, I cried by reason
of mine affliction unto the Lord. You see, that affliction had
been brought upon Jonah in order to shake him out of his lethargy,
to rouse him from his foolishness, to redirect him, to, as it were,
press the reset button and get his attention. So that rather
than pursuing this foolish notion of heading away, the Lord said
to him, now stop Jonah, stop and hear what I have to say. And Jonah is constrained. Verse 2 he says, I cried by reason
of mine affliction. Then good affliction, then merciful
affliction, that caused this man to cry to the Lord. He didn't cry because the sun
was shining. He didn't cry because it was
a pleasant experience. He didn't cry because everything
was going well. He didn't cry because he didn't
have any problems. He cried because of his affliction. And that is the way that the
Lord teaches us who he is and how to trust and depend upon
him. And he cried unto the Lord, and
he heard me. Out of the belly of hell cried
I. Here's the troubled saint. Here
is a man who is a believer in God. Here is a man whom we will
see, I trust, is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Though he may not have known
him by that name, he knew about the saving God who was gracious
and merciful to sinners like him. A troubled saint, and maybe
this morning there are troubled saints here. Maybe you know what
it is to have troubles. Maybe you've embarked in some
of these troubles of your own and okay, they're not going to
perhaps be as terrible as Jonah's but they're just as bad to you
and they're just as fearsome and constraining and afflicting
in your life as Jonah felt in his then let us look at the example
of Jonah and let us look at what Jonah did and let us learn from
the prophet who cried out in his affliction, Lord, save me. What terrors assailed that man,
that prophet? What things did he experience
in those hours that he spent in that fish's belly? He says
it was the belly of a fish, but it felt like the belly of hell. And can we not see something
of our blessed Saviour here? Because all that Jonah experienced
was itself a picture of all that the Lord Jesus Christ underwent. Did he not enter into the belly
of the whale? Did he not enter into the belly
of hell? When he was there in the garden
of Gethsemane anticipating that which would come into his soul,
was he not there experiencing much of the same sentiments that
Jonah here expresses? The Lord Jesus Christ went into
that garden of affliction. And he cried out to the Lord
God for the sake of his affliction. And under the weight of God's
righteous judgment, our Lord Jesus Christ was pressed and
he was crushed. And on the cross, when men were
tearing his body the Lord God was assaulting his soul. Men stripped Christ naked as
they hung him on the cross, and his father covered him with all
of the sins of his people. And there he slew him, and there
he forsook him. Oh, there's lovely gospel truth
in this for our ears today, because we are told that God heard our
Saviour's voice. Out of His affliction, the Lord
Jesus cried to His Father. In Psalm 130, verse 1, we read
these words. Out of the depths have I cried
unto Thee, O Lord, Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications. It wasn't Jonah that cried this
prayer. This was David that cried this
prayer. And yet, was it not a greater
than David? Can we not see in the Messiah?
Do we not recognize in these messianic Psalms the very words
and feelings of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is that not their lasting
Usefulness to us as the church today, is that not where their
power lies? That this was Christ himself
making this cry. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Hear my voice. Jonah says himself
in chapter two, verse seven, when my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord and my prayer came in unto thee, into
thine holy temple. Psalm 22 verse 4, another psalm
that the Lord himself personally recited on the cross when he
said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He goes on
to say, he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of
the afflicted, neither hath he hid his face from him. But when
he cried unto him, he heard." That's beautiful. That's beautiful
because that tells us that while the Lord Jesus Christ on the
cross was aware of that period of separation, that period of
forsaking, while Jonah when he was in that fish's belly, going
down into the very depths of the ocean, down into the very
feet of the mountains, when the bars came up around about him,
when the weed wrapped about his head. They talk about waterboarding.
And it's supposed to be one of the most grievous tortures that
can be perpetrated. I think they put a towel over
your face and they pour water into it. That would be a lot
like the weed wrapping around his head in a place like that. But whatever the afflictions
that you have to face, The Lord Jesus Christ has testified. Jonah has testified. And I believe
that by faith his people will also prove this to be true. That
when we cry unto the Lord out of our affliction, he hears us. He hears us and he answers us. And that is a wonderful privilege
and a wonderful blessing that you and I possess. Jonah prayed unto the Lord his
God. There is a sweet message here,
too, for us. Because the God to whom Jonah
prayed was the Lord his God. So we're told, first of all,
in verse one, then Jonah prayed. And we're told, secondly, that
he prayed unto the Lord his God. The God to whom Jonah prayed
was the Lord his God. And that's a pregnant phrase. That's a phrase that carries
meaning. Because he is the Lord his God. It speaks of family. It speaks
of familiarity. It speaks of personal knowledge. Jonah spoke to his God, who is
the Lord. There's a personal relationship
being expressed here. Here is the father, and here
is his son. True, Jonah was a prodigal son. He was acting inappropriately. He was wandering, he was rebellious,
he was surly, he was brooding. But he was a child of God nevertheless. God was his God and Jonah was
his child. And when a disobedient child
asks a loving father for help, That parent hears that cry and
that plea. That parent stoops and answers. And Jonah here was relying upon
the covenant promises of God. When he prayed, he prayed to
the Lord his God. He didn't pray to God because
he had been such a good prophet. He didn't pray to God because
he'd done everything that he was told. He didn't pray because
he could look at his works and his actions and say, well, I
merit a hearing. He prayed to the Lord his God
in the midst of his affliction upon this ground and this ground
alone. that God had promised to hear
him, that God had promised to hear his children when they prayed,
no matter what the circumstances of their lives. In Jeremiah chapter 30 and verse
30, sorry, verse 21, we read this. God is speaking. He says, I will cause him to
draw near. and he shall approach unto me. For who is this that engaged
his heart to approach unto me, saith the Lord? And ye shall
be my people, and I will be your God. God does not say, I want
you to be my people. He doesn't say, I hope that you'll
be my people. He doesn't say, please be my
people. The covenant is emphatic. Ye shall be my people. I will be your God. What about free will? God says,
I will cause him to draw near to me. What about man's choice? He shall approach unto me. You see, God constrained Jonah
to pray to him. God brought this about Here is
a dear child of God, a child that needs to be directed, a
child that needs to be helped, a child that needs to be sustained,
and the Lord arranges and ordains and organizes circumstances that
that child will come to Him asking for help. Our heart, naturally
speaking, is hard against God. Our desires are elsewhere. They're pursuing other things,
the lusts of our flesh, the desires of our mind. But he makes us
willing in the day of his power. Tell me this, is this God Is
this Lord God Jehovah, the God who made heaven and earth, who
made all things, is he your God? Could you pray like Jonah to
the Lord, his God? Have you drawn near to him? Have you approached him? Do you
know that the only way to approach God is by His sacrificed Son
on the cross and the blood that was shed there. Do you know that
way of access that the Lord calls His people to, every one? That's the gospel. The gospel
is that God himself has secured the means, has prepared the way,
has opened the door for sinners to approach him by the sacrifice
that he made on the cross at Calvary. Jonah had done everything
contrary to God's will and to God's word. He ran as far as
he could. But the wind of God chased him. The hound of heaven pursued him,
even into the depths of the sea. Run, run as fast as you can. The Lord Jesus Christ will have
you. Suppose he first has to put you
in the whale's belly. You are one of God's people.
He will pursue you to the ends of the earth and there will be
no peace. There can be no peace until you
pray that prayer. Lord, save me. So we're told
that Jonah prayed unto the Lord, his God. And we're told that
he cried to the Lord out of the fish's belly. Look at verse three. For thou hadst 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. Jonah acknowledged
that it was God that had put him in this situation. Now someone might say to me,
well, just hold on a moment there. Jonah put himself here. It was
Jonah that left the presence of God. Jonah that went down
to Joppa. Jonah that hired the boatman. Jonah that went into the boat.
You can't blame God for all of that. We're all sinners. Every one
of us. We've all done a hundred things,
a thousand things that we shouldn't have done. We live day by day
in a body of flesh that is constantly distracting us and directing
us away from the things of God. That's just the nature of flesh. It fights against the Spirit. It fights against the things
of God. We're all sinners. But the story
of Jonah is a story about the lengths to which God will go
to bring his people back. The storm was the Lord's storm. The lots that were cast were
designed by God to identify Jonah as the culprit. The great fish
was prepared by God. Oh, even from being a little
tiddler, it was prepared by God in order to serve this purpose
of bringing back his wandering prodigal son. And I believe that
the Lord employs the troubles of our lives to cause us to grow
in grace and to learn of him. More, these afflictions actually
bring about the greater good. And all who follow Christ for
earthly or physical or fleshly prosperity, all who follow Christ
thinking that life will be good for being obedient to him, well,
they'll have their reward in this earth, but it won't be a spiritual reward
and it won't endure. It won't lead them to everlasting
life. There's much religion, there's
much claim to be Christian, to be following the Lord Jesus Christ. There's much pursuit of success
and prosperity as a result of that kind of living. But the
Lord's people know what it is to spend time in the whale's
belly. And they know what it is to be
brought to that place where they cry out in their affliction,
Lord, save me. And that makes the difference
between spiritual and fleshy. Do you know anything in your
life's experience of the deep into which Jonah was brought?
Do you know the deepness of sin Do you know the depths of shame? Have you found yourself in the
midst of these seas? Floods around you, wheat wrapped
around your head, the billows of the Lord, His waves overwhelming
you. That's what Jonah says. He was
brought to that place where it was God's waves and billows that
overwhelmed him. Have you ever, as Jonah prayed,
come to the point where you've thought to yourself, I've been
cast out of his sight. I guess there are some of you
here who know what I'm talking about. I want to show you something
extraordinary as we wrap this up. Even in the depths of despair,
Jonah knew he was secure. We can tell that from what he
says in this prayer. He knew that he was secure. He knew that God was merciful. He knew that God was a God of
grace. Jonah's prayer was not a prayer
of despair. It wasn't like Saul King Saul
or Judas, Judas Iscariot, who despaired of life and took their own lives in the
midst of their despair. This wasn't despair like that. This was despair that was nevertheless
founded upon hope and confidence in God. It was the despair of
a soul who was thrown upon the Lord for mercy. And I believe
that that is the true portion of every child of God. We may be brought low, but we
will never be forsaken. We might be broken, but we will
not be lost. Faith and trust is rooted on
the fact that Jonah could say, I will look again toward thy
holy temple. What possible reason did Jonah
have to be able to say such a thing? Do you know the significance
of that? The significance of that is that Jonah trusted Christ. He trusted Christ. And here's
why I can say that. Why did he refer to the temple
in this situation? Why the temple? The temple speaks
of Christ. It doesn't matter what aspect
of the temple you look at. Throughout scripture, the temple
in its construction, the temple in its constructors, the temple
as far as its furnishings are concerned, The altar and the
laver and the bowls and the temple, as far as its ceremonies are
concerned, all point to the Lord Jesus Christ. And men and women
of faith have always understood it to be so. The Jews, with their
religion and their ritual, performed the rites of worship, but they
didn't discern Christ. Those who had faith discerned
Christ in every activity and aspect of the temple. And that's
what Jonah's referring to here. He says, I will look again toward
thy holy temple. Let me paraphrase that. I will
look again towards Christ. And that's what Jonah is saying
here. Christ is the personification
of the temple of God. And God's children look to God's
temple. We do. We just do. It can be
a hard journey. It can be a deep, dark experience. We're not looking at a building,
we're looking at a person. Hebrews 2 verse 9 says, we see
Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death. Let me put that another way.
We see the salvation that is of the Lord. And it doesn't matter
what set of circumstances we encounter one another as the
Lord's people. We may be grieving, we may be
bruised, we may be battered, we may be hurt, we may be broken,
but the Lord's people still look to the temple that is Christ.
We still, in the midst of all our afflictions and despair,
we trust, as Jonah did, in the Lord and His mercy. Jonah could testify, Thou brought
up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. How did the Lord God
do that? Well, how does He do it for His
people? He did it in Christ. Christ tasted
death for us. Christ bore our sins. Christ carried our sorrows. He was stricken, afflicted. He was smitten of God. He died under the just curse
of the law. He propitiated God's wrath in
that moment. And we find, by faith, our God
to be a just God and a saviour. Truly, as Jonah declares in verse
nine, salvation is of the Lord. Child of God, Not only has Christ
taken our place as our substitute, but he has risen again for our
justification and promise of eternal life. Eternal life. We only have a few short years
in this world, and those years invariably are full of trouble
and strife, but they are coming to an end soon. and that eternal
vista opens up before us. And all of the goodness and the
grace and the pleasures of eternal life with God, with Christ in
heaven, are our inheritance and our possession. Acts 2.24 says,
Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because
it was not possible that he would be holding of it. It's not possible that the child
of God will be held by the bars of death. It's not possible.
Death isn't strong enough for that. How did God loose the bands
of death? By the simple word of his power. We're told Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father. He probably didn't
even have to speak. It was just the glory of the
Father that raised Christ from the dead. Romans 6 verse 4 says,
As Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Verse five, for if we have been
planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also
in the likeness of his resurrection. Look at verse 10, the last verse
of the chapter. The Lord spoke to the fish. What did the Lord say to the
fish? The Lord said to the fish, let him go. The Lord said to
the fish, release him. The bands of death cannot hold
the Lord's people. A command will go forth, release
them and the graves will open and our bodies will ascend into
the presence of our Saviour. Death is just a sleep. It's a passage, and it's a short
passage. John 5, verse 24 says, Verily,
verily, truly, truly, be absolutely certain and assured of this.
It's emphatic. He that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me hath everlasting life. and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. I like to think about that like
the baton being passed by the runners in a race as they pass
the baton one to another. Death isn't going to hold us,
it's just going to pass us to life. It's just going to pass
us. It's just a short handing over. Death can't hold us. He shall
not come into condemnation but his past. from death to life. This body has to go to the grave
because it's fresh flesh, it's dirt, it's dust, it's what it
was made from and it goes back to the same thing. But even at
that, death doesn't hold our dust, it passes it to life for
we are part of a new creation. Jonah is a picture of Christ.
but also he's a picture of every child of God saved from hell's
judgment and given eternal life. Jonah prayed from the fish's
belly and he was delivered from the fish's belly. God grant us
grace to be likewise delivered by the mercy of God this day. Amen.