Dr. Richard L. Strauss
August 21, 1960
Jonah, the son of Amittai, was a prophet of the Lord. According to 2 Kings 14:23-25, Jonah was a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel in the days of Jeroboam II, one of Israel's many wicked kings. God called this Israelite prophet to do a very strange thing indeed, to go to the capital of one of the most powerful, and most wicked nations on the face of the earth, and preach judgment for their sins. Because of his extreme patriotism, Jonah had some doubts as to the wisdom of God's will. After all, had not Assyria already threatened Israel in the days of Ahab (Shalmaneser's Inscriptions make this claim)? Was not Assyria Israel's most feared enemy? Just about 100 years after Jonah, Assyria did march into Israel, took the people captive, and completely destroyed the capital of Samaria (721 BC). Humanly speaking, Jonah was right. It did seem like a rather foolish thing to do. From the human standpoint, his action was perfectly understandable. From man's view point Jonah had every right to question the wisdom of such action.
But the true servant of the Lord doesn't always have the right to look at a situation from man's viewpoint, from the human standpoint. Ours is not to question, ours is not to ask the reason why. Ours is simply to obey. And that's what Jonah didn't do. He rebelled against the Lord, he resisted the will of the Lord, he disregarded the command of the Lord, and he decided to go AWOL. In the first chapter of the book that bears his name we saw Jonah on the boat, a picture of rebellion. The chapter described vividly his disobedience, his discovery, and his discipline.
This evening Jonah is off the freighter, and he has himself a submarine in its place: a live one. And so we see Jonah in the fish, a picture of restoration. We shall divide this chapter into three parts as we did with chapter 1, and see Jonah's difficulty (Jonah 1:17), Jonah's devotion (Jonah 2:1-9), and Jonah's deliverance (Jonah 2:10).
Jonah's Difficulty (Jonah 1:17)
You remember, last week we said that this verse properly belonged in chapter 2. Well some critics say that it doesn't belong. If we could throw out 1:17, and 2:1, and so get rid of this ridiculous yarn about a fish, then they would accept the story as possible historical fact. But in spite of what the critics think, God's Word says, "And 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."
Now, the first thing that we must clarify is this. The whale that swallowed Jonah was not a whale. The only reason we hear so much about Jonah and the whale is because the King James version of Matthew 12:40 says "whale." But the Greek word in that verse simply means "sea-monster," which could be a whale, or any other great fish. But the Hebrew word in Jonah 1:17 means fish. And most everybody knows that a whale is not a fish, but a mammal. We don't know exactly what kind of fish it was, but we do know it was a big one!
Do you see the word "prepared" in that verse? It doesn't mean "to create," but "to appoint." It doesn't seem that God built a special kind of fish for this occasion, but that he appointed one of the great fish in the Mediterranean Sea to be at the right place at the right time. Are there any great fish, not whales, in the Mediterranean Sea capable of swallowing a man? It so happens that there is a species of shark that grows to about 25 feet long, and that on one occasion, when one was caught and cut open, there was found a whole horse in its stomach. In the year 1758, it so happens that a sailor fell overboard in a very great storm in the Mediterranean sea, and was immediately taken into the jaws of this kind of shark, and disappeared. The captain ordered a gun, which was standing on the deck, to be shot at the shark, and when it hit the fish, it vomited the sailor who had been swallowed and he was rescued by a small boat lowered into the water for that purpose, very much alive.
So this much we know. The story of Jonah being swallowed by a great fish, and living to tell about it is not quite so fantastic as it sounds. It really could have happened.
How about the time involved here? Would not the digestive process cause Jonah to be killed in a short time? Three days and three nights is a long time. Well, it so happens that by the Jewish method of reckoning, three days and three nights could have been just slightly over 24 hours. This was the Jewish way of saying simply, parts of three days. The Lord said He would be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. Yet, from the most satisfactory reckoning we can come up with, He was buried Friday night, and rose before dawn Sunday morning, part of three days. The same thing could have been the case with Jonah.
But let's get back to Jonah. We have called this verse, Jonah’s difficulty. This was as good a word to describe his predicament as I could find. It was really a deliverance. This fish saved Jonah's life. If it had not come along at that very instant Jonah would have been dead. So he could thank the Lord for salvation, which he does in the following prayer. But yet, he had to face facts. Though he was alive, that wouldn't last long if he didn't get out of that fish, pronto. It was at the same time, both a deliverance and a difficulty, and it is all part of God’s program of discipline for his erring servant. The Lord has to put Jonah in a place where He could talk to him. And sometimes God has to do that with us. We keep moving, because the Lord can't get to it so easily that way. "I've been awfully busy," is about the best excuse for laxness in the things of God that I know. At least, more people use it than any other one excuse. So sometimes, the Lord slows us down a little, gets us backed into a corner, then He can talk to us.
We've treated the historical fact, and the spiritual application which involves discipline. But I think probably the most important thing here is the typology which the Lord Jesus gave us in Matthew 12. The Lord used Jonah as an illustration of His death, burial, and resurrection. This is a tremendous thing. Long before the Lord was betrayed and tried, the jealous hypocritical Jewish leaders asked the Lord for a sign. They wanted to know by what authority He came teaching what to them was strange doctrine, healing the sick, gathering a following. What right had He to claim to be the son of God? Let Him give some irrefutable sign. To this the Lord answers that the only sign they shall receive (beyond the many they had already seen), what is the sign of the prophet Jonah (Matthew 12:39). What was that sign? It was the sign of resurrection.
While Jonah never died, his predicament certainly pictures death, just as his coming forth from the fish pictured resurrection. This was the sign of the prophet Jonah, and by it the world has received demonstratable proof that Jesus of Nazareth truly is the son of God. No other religion or culture can claim that it's leader lives, that he conquered sin and death, and purchased for his followers eternal salvation. The Jews got their sign, yet they believed not. So the world today ignores him who came forth from the grave. Like the mob on Mars Hill, the sound of the resurrection often produces indignation and scorn, when it odds to bring them repentant to the foot of the cross. Jonah in the belly of the fish has a real message for a world outside of Jesus Christ.
Jonah's Devotion (Jonah 2:1–9)
Jonah 2:1 says, "Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God out of the fish's belly." The remainder of the chapter, except verse 10, is concerned with his prayer. It is certainly an usual prayer, for there is not one petition in it whatsoever. Nowhere does Jonah pray that God will deliver him from the fish. He is praising God, and thanking Him for His present deliverance from death. All through the psalm is a confidence that this partial deliverance is a token of God's full deliverance which is yet to come, while he never asks for it, nor mentions it. We can learn a great deal about prayer from this. Prayers do not have to be filled with petition. I think God would like to have us worship him in a prayer like this occasionally, a prayer of thanksgiving and trust.
There is another thing about prayer that we learn here. The words are not all Jonah's. They are largely quotations from the Psalms. There is a close parallel here between Jonah’s prayer and about 10 different psalms. The attitude of Jonah’s heart was best expressed in the words of the Scripture, and how often that is the case with us. Let's look at Jonah's psalm for a few moments tonight.
In Jonah 2:1, he acknowledged that he cried to the Lord and was heard. "Out of the belly of hell cried I, and You heard my voice." Some have endeavored to prove from the statement that Jonah actually died, and that this prayer is from Sheol. This is not necessary. The Psalms characteristically use this figure to note the danger of death as imminent. Note Psalm 18:5. The psalmist was not dead on this occasion, but he says, "The sorrows of hell compassed me about." Jonah, swirling around in the angry waters, recognized that death was near, and had cried to the Lord, as he now reveals from the belly of the fish.
In Jonah 2:3, Jonah fully recognized that this was of the Lord. "You cast me into the deep." The sailors actually did it, but it was part of God's disciplinary measures, and Jonah saw it as such. He accepted it as from the Lord. Notice it says, "Your billows and Your waves passed over me." It seems as though Jonah saw the water itself as the servant of the Lord to chastise him. It was a hopeless situation. When he was cast into the deep, it seemed as though he was banished from the very sphere of God's sight, His protection and care. It was a moment when Jonah felt almost separation from God (Jonah 2:4). In all this misery, Jonah still had the feeling in his heart that God would allow him to approach His presence, and worship before Him in His holy temple.
In Jonah 2:5, Jonah goes on to describe that awful experience in those moments before the fish swallowed him. The waters were all around him. They closed in on him from every side. The sea weed that grows on the ocean floor wrapped around his head. It seemed like he went down to the very bottom and that the whole earth was gripping him with the bars of death, like an inescapable prison. Yet from all this the Lord had brought up his life--from this ocean grave the Lord had saved him, whom Jonah calls, "the Lord my God" (Jonah 2:6). When he was about to give up all hope, when his soul was about to sink into the darkness of death, he remembered the Lord, and he prayed. That was the prayer God wanted to hear.
We are not told what he prayed, but I am confident that this was the prayer of confession and restoration and the plea for deliverance. This was the prayer that came into the presence of God and was heard and answered, the prayer that brought the fish to Jonah's rescue (Jonah 2:7). Child of God, this is the prayer God is waiting to hear from you. In our day, it's the prayer of 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." It ought to be prayed the moment you fall into sin.
Don't wait until God has to bring you to this place. Jonah should have prayed this prayer the moment he got the idea of running from God. Then he should've turned around and done what God had told him to do. He would have saved himself much grief.
In Jonah 2:8-9, the prayer concludes with a vow of thanksgiving--with a note of praise, praise for the Lord, the only One in whom is salvation. They that hold to false vanities, who make to themselves idols and false objects of trust, forfeit any hope of help from the Lord (Jonah 2:8). But Jonah will sacrifice to the living Lord, and carry out the vow he made in his time of distress. He ends his prayer with a triumphant note, "Salvation is of the Lord." Full deliverance has not yet come to Jonah, but now that his trust is in God, and his heart has been turned back to God, he confidently expects deliverance.
Jonah's Deliverance (Jonah 2:10)
Such confidence and trust does not go unrewarded by God. In verses 1 through 10, Jonah speaks. In Jonah 2:11, God speaks and this old fish, once again, beyond any powers of his own, just as he was brought to a certain place at the right time, now gets the urge to regurgitate, and Jonah finds himself safe and sound on dry land, ready to do God's bidding.
Let me emphasize the basic spiritual principle underlying this chapter, an eternal spiritual principle that is just as true today as it was in the life of Jonah. Let's get to the principle by taking a bird's eye view of the chapter. In Jonah 1:17, the Scripture tells us that God had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. We often get the idea that the fish was there to catch him when the sailors through him over. That was not the case. Chapter 2 describes the events leading up to the partial deliverance of Jonah 1:17, and to the final deliverance of Jonah 2:10. In the terror of those underwater moments, Jonah was conscious that this was God's doing, and that it had a purpose. Through it all he had a certain amount of confidence that God would work it all out. But not until he is about to lose consciousness in death (Jonah 2:7), did he turn to God in prayer and full confession of sin. That brought deliverance, partial deliverance.
His life had been saved, his heart was right with God (that came through confession). Now he needed full deliverance and blessing in service. That came through confidence in God. Like we have said before, all trouble is not discipline, but when it is, here is the general principle: If sin is the cause, confession is the cure. Then confident trust in God will bring full and complete victory, via your personal life, family life, or service for God. Here is a real case where prayer changes things.
Continue to JON-3: Jonah at Nineveh - Resignation