(Jonah 2:1-10)
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish, 2 and he said,
“I called out of my distress to the Lord,And He answered me.
I called for help from the depth of Sheol;
You heard my voice.
3 For You threw me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the current flowed around me.
All Your breakers and waves passed over me.
4 So I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight.
Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
5 Water encompassed me to the point of death.
The deep flowed around me,
Seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 I descended to the base of the mountains.
The earth with its bars was around me forever,
But You have brought up my life from the pit, Lord my God.
7 While I was fainting away,
I remembered the Lord,
And my prayer came to You,
Into Your holy temple.
8 Those who are followers of worthless idols
Abandon their faithfulness,
9 But I will sacrifice to You
With a voice of thanksgiving.
That which I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation is from the Lord.”
10 Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.
TODAY'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATION:
Remember Job? Job was faithful and obedient to the Lord. While God allowed Satan to test him, and make him very alone and uncomfortable and tormented for a long, long time, Job remained faithful and obedient. I mean, the guy had questions, but he refused to "run away" from the Lord. And the Lord blessed him for this!
Now, here we have Jonah, in the belly of a great fish, for "only" three days. Although, this situation, a result of his own actions, would have seemed quite dire, yet somewhat poetic! As Jonah tried to run away, God helped him get even further. I mean how far away can one get than in the belly of a fish in the middle of the sea wrapped in seaweed? Now, think about it! Had God not sent this fish, Jonah would have surely died at sea! Therefore, God protected Jonah (from himself)!!!
I'm assuming that when Jonah cried out to the Lord, it was still with stubborn pride, because he held out for three days! Maybe it was then that Jonah felt he had no other options, or the battle with his own pride kept getting in his way. We will see later that Jonah was still sulking and angry at God.
Holding onto grudges is never healthy. At least when it is towards people, it makes sense, since none of us are not perfect, and even when we don't want to, we will hurt each other. Yet, we are still told to forgive those who hurt us! This is not just to help facilitate reconciliation with each other, but to maintain our own physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health. But, holding a grudge against the Lord who is holy, perfect, righteous, fair, just, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, loving and caring...?
It sounds insane why anyone would hold a grudge against God, or think about running away from Him. Yet, I confess that there have been times I have run away, and it was miserable. But, God is so very patient and gracious! And not only can God reach us anywhere, He wants to, because He cherishes us and wants to save, heal, restore, nourish, strengthen, protect, equip and help us, within a close, personal relationship with Him!
Whether the Lord saved Jonah from the fish or not, if Jonah had died there in that fish, he was saved from eternal death because he was a believer. But since God was not yet finished with Jonah here on earth, Jonah was physically delivered to shore. My takeaway from all of this is not just about confessing our sins as soon as possible, but trying not to ever run away from God in the first place! I mean - we will - but if we can avoid all of that, why not strive to continuously live in God's will?
To not run away doesn't just mean physically, it can be mentally, emotionally, and definitely spiritually. And instead of looking at it from a negative standpoint, we should consider this from a positive standpoint. For everything in life, let us run to God and His word to find out what He says, pray about it, and then trust that the Lord will work all things out! And when we do stumble or stray, as soon as possible, run back to God and confess. THIS is how we remain steadfast!
(FYI: if someone being in a fish for 3 days sounds too incredible, watch this episode from "The Undersea World of Jacque Cousteau" called "The Fish That Swallowed Jonah" from 1976. People often assume it was a whale that swallowed Jonah, but these experts on sea life say that it was most likely one of the larger species of groupers. The Fish That Swallowed Jonah, Episode 35 of 36, Jacques Cousteau Odyssey - YouTube
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