Message 2
Jonah LIVING “DEPENDENTLY”
In Chapter one we find “THE TRUANT AND TROUBLED PROPHET” living defiantly
In Chapter two we find “THE TRUSTING AND TESTIFYING PROPHET living dependently.
*Note = To fail does not make one a failure. Anyone can fail God.
1 Corinthians 10:12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Almost all the great men in the bible had times when they failed.
Abraham, Isaac, Moses, David, Peter as well as Jonah and many others (myself included) have failed God in some way. I praise Him for 1 John 1:9
In chapter one we saw Jonah fleeing from God. He was thrown overboard and in vs.17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. I don’t know of many who have found themselves in as trying a place as Jonah did. But he did not let his circumstance stop him from praying. This was a much different attitude than what he had in chapter one.
Chapter two contains the prayer Jonah prayed, let’s look at this prayer.
His prayer:
I. Its occasion,
A. Danger = vs.2-3 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 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 found himself first in the turbulent sea, and then in the belly of the whale. There was danger very much present in both places.
B. Distress = vs. 4-5 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.
Jonah knew he had reached the bottom. The waters were around him, the weeds were wrapped around him. Jonah must have considered that this could be the end for him.
II. Its object
A. Forgiveness =vs.4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. Here we find the confession from Jonah that he had turned back to God. He was now looking toward the Holy One. This is ever the case when we realize our sin it needs to be confessed immediately. In vs.7 Jonah said When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. Here again his position caused him to look to God. God puts His backward children in this position to have them turn to Him.
B. Freedom =vs.6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God. Jonah knew God was the only one who could free him from this place his disobedience had brought him.
III Its outcome,
Salvation = vs. 9 b I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.
Song = vs.9a But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving;
We opened with Jonah in a place of distress and end this chapter with him delivered.
Morristown, TN