Jonah prayed from the belly of the fish (v1,2). That is amazing! There is no barrier from where God can hear our prayer. We can pray anywhere, anytime. Not only did Jonah pray but the Lord answered. Jonah quoted from the Psalms in his prayer. He obviously knew them by heart as, I’m sure, it would dark, slimy and messy where he was, he did not have the written word, and he would be in a hopeless situation. What better place could he turn to but the scriptures. I cannot imagine what it would be like, but he compared it to Sheol. Sheol is the abode of the dead, translated as Hades. Maybe he thought at first that that was the end, and he would not come back, but that evidently changed, and he had a peace and assurance that the Lord would rescue him.
There is no better way to pray than by using Scripture. Yes, we can ask God for things, but we must remember to praise Him and thank Him. Of course, we can only use Scripture if we know it. It is good to memorise it, but if we are young Christians, we may not know much of the Bible, so keep reading and even pray as you read by using God’s word.
Jonah goes on to make his plea to the Lord and describes his situation (v3-7) “For You cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. (From Psalm 42:7) Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple.” (Psalm 18:6)
Jonah realised that it was God who had put him where he was not the sailors. He goes on to show his renewed commitment to the Lord (v8,9), “Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy. But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.”
What a change in tone! He had resisted God and tried to run away. He now repented and promised to obey the Lord. He acknowledges that ‘Salvation is of The Lord.” Seems that it was personal in his recognition overall but surely specifically in the rescue from the sea. We have to remember that he was still inside the fish at this point, but he believed that this was not the end. If this had happened to us, would this have been our reaction?
Salvation is indeed of The Lord. We cannot earn it, nor do we deserve it. It is all to do with Him. “Salvation is found in no one else, there is no other Name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
Jonah needed to repent just as the Ninevites did and some marks of his repentance are visible. He confessed his disobedience and sin, accepted the consequences, and began to cry out to God to whom he gave the glory. He made promises and renewed his commitment. Repentance is absolutely necessary for salvation, and it is an initial step to conversion, but it is also a continuous thing.
An interesting conversation follows – “The Lord spoke to the fish” (v10). He controls everything and the fish obeys. “It vomited out Jonah onto dry land” (v10).It does not make pleasant reading, and I am sure that Jonah would have preferred something different but even that shows God’s control as the fish could have spat Jonah out into the sea which could have caused a problem. We are not told where this took place, but it certainly was not at Nineveh as the city is several hundreds of miles from the sea. Jesus said, “It was a sign to the Ninevites” so one can assume that they heard of what happened to Jonah.
