As Jonah was being tossed about by the waves perhaps he was thinking “It’s bad enough being asked to go to Nineveh, but now I’m about to drown!” But, at this point, God steps in!  In verse 17 of chapter 1 we read: ‘And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was inside the belly of the fish three days and three nights.’  It’s here, inside the fish, that Jonah’s heart and mind turned to the Lord in prayer because at that point he has a startling moment of clarity (v1)!

Jonah had been running away from the Lord, but now he realises that everything that has happened to him was under the Lord’s control. His prayer is in the form of a Psalm.  His situation is desperate so he cries out to the Lord.  When this occurred may not be a 100% clear at first, but my gut feeling is it was when he was thrown into the sea as we have no indication of him praying before that.  But it’s when he’s found out (1:7) he starts to clarify the situation as seen by his statement in chapter 1 verse 9.  The sailors had no problem accepting his guilt because they could see the evidence for themselves as their comment in verse 10 of chapter 1 could be phrased: “Are you crazy?”[1]  Jonah’s command to pick him up and throw him into the sea probably shows that he realised all that was happing was the Lord’s doing and the Lord controlled his destiny from the moment he had started running away!  Therefore Jonah, now thinking in a logical theological fashion, cries out to the only one who can do anything about his situation (v2).  But there is an aspect in verse 2 which is rather interesting, and that is how Jonah equates his experience with death.  Jonah equates Sheol as separation from the Lord.  But now there’s good news; the Lord has heard him!  As John Calvin puts it: ‘Jonah, as we shall hereafter see, directed his prayers to God not without great struggle; he contended with many difficulties; but however great the impediments in his way, he still preserved and ceased not from praying.’[2]  This is encouragement when we face mounting troubles; we pray to the Lord as there is no place that we can be physically or spiritually separated from God’s love and care!

Verse 3 emphasises Jonah’s new found understanding of God’s sovereignty with the phrase: ‘For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas,’ and: ‘all your waves and billows passed over me.’  In Jonah’s mind, the sailors were instruments of God judgement upon him.  This understanding of God’s sovereignty over land and sea was first acknowledged in Jonah’s confession to the sailors that he was the cause of their trouble (1:9).  Yet, at this point in Jonah’s experience, this aspect of God’s sovereignty truly terrifies him as he realises he is suffering the Lord’s righteous judgement and seems been excluded from the Lord’s presence (v4).  Today we properly can’t understand how important the temple was in Jewish thinking, but, to the Jew, the Temple was the very place where God connected with his people and Heaven and Earth, in effect, met (1 Chronicles 28:2).  Verse 4 gives us an indication of this as he will be able to look again to the Lord’s: ‘holy temple.’ and that makes all the difference for him in his present situation.  He gives a vivid description of downing in verse 5 and the picture we get in verse 6 is him being dragged into the deepest depths with the air in his lungs almost gone.  The language is interesting as it gives a picture of Jonah being in an impregnable prison.  Lloyd Oglivie notes that: ‘It was believed that the world of the dead had an imprisoning door that once close behind a person there could be no extraction. Jonah went down for the third time and gave up.  The grave of the sea had him, or so he thought.’[3]  But this was not the case as the sea was at God’s command.  Jonah had cried out to the Lord and now he acknowledges that the Lord: ‘brought up my life from the pit’ (v6).  The word: ‘pit’ within the context of Jonah prayer could be rendered ‘Sheol’.  But as David reminds us in Psalm 139:8: ‘If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!’  As Gordon Keddie notes: ‘Even in Sheol- the grave – the Lord is with his people!’[4]  Jonah’s sin had taken him far from the Lord, but the Lord reached out to him!  We might find ourselves in similar circumstances; due to our disobedience.  But like Jonah, we should know that the prayer of repentance is not limited by the distance we have put between ourselves and God.  Despite that distance, God is never deaf to the cry of a repentant sinner!Verse 7 now gives us the exact point when Jonah’s thoughts turned to God. It was when his: ‘life was ebbing away’. He may have been praying beforehand, but these were probably angry prayers the sort that would have been asking “why must I to go to Nineveh?”  Or, as he was thrown into the sea, “what have I done to deserve this?”  Or, as he was swallowed by the fish, “Lord, could you possibly make this worse?”  We shouldn’t expect answers to angry prayers (although sometimes God is incredibly gracious, as we see in chapter 4)!  But Jonah’s tone has changed.  Despite God’s judgement being the cause of his suffering, I’m guessing he remembered God’s wonderful nature which is seen so clearly in chapter 4 verse 2 that the Lord is: ‘a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding steadfast love, and relenting from disaster’ (echoing Exodus 34:6-7).   Despite Jonah saying this with disapproval there, it makes the difference here.  Jonah stops being angry and prays a prayer that can reach God and is answered.  The illustration of his prayer rising to God’s temple may refer to the custom the Jews had where they turned towards the temple when in prayer.  As Calvin puts it ‘Jonah says that his prayer entered into the temple of God; for that was a visible symbol, through which the Jews might understand that God was near to them.’[5]  Jonah has got his perspective right as his focus is now on God.  This is remedy for us when a situation starts to overwhelm us.  Stop looking at the situation and focus on God, then we will start to get the right perspective!

Verses 8-9 act as a conclusion to the Prayer. Jonah thinks of the sailors and their fruitless prayers.  Jonah’s experience had proved that their idols were: ‘worthless’ and could provide no help whatsoever.  Help had come when Jonah was thrown into the sea and strangely, both he and the sailors saw the Lord’s grace.  The sailors in that God stilled the storm, and Jonah in that God had provided the fish.  At that point the sailors were a good example of people without God.  Whatever people use to shape their life if is not God then they will forfeit grace.  Rather interestingly, the word for ‘idols’ literally means ‘snare’.[6]  Jonah ends his Psalm with a statement of intent; he will praise and thank God (v9).  What is meant by him sacrificing to God is not altogether clear.  It could mean Jonah will make a sacrifice when circumstances allow, which, interestingly enough, is the response of the sailors (1:16).  Jonah’s concern is that salvation is the property of the Lord as no one else can impart it.  Jonah’s and the sailor’s recent experience stands as testament to this as neither party could have saved themselves.  Only God and his supernatural agencies can do that!

To be continued…..!

[1] James Bruckner, The NIV Application Commentary, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2004), 45.

[2] John Calvin, Jonah, Micah and Nahum, A Commentary on the Twelve Minor Prophets, Volume 3, The Geneva Series of Commentaries, (Edinburgh, the Banner of Truth Trust, 1986) 76.

[3] Lloyd J. Oglivie, The Preachers Commentary, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Old Testament Volume 22, (Nashville, Thomas Nelson, 1990) 433.

[4] Gordon J. Keddie, Preacher on the Run, The Message of Jonah, Welwyn Commentary Series, (Darlington, Evangelical Press, 1986), 58.

[5]  Calvin, Jonah, 85.

[6] T. Desmond Alexander, Jonah (with David W. Baker {Obadiah} and Bruce K.Waltke {Micah}), Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, (Leicester, Inter-Varsity Press, 1988), 117.