Jonah Reading Plan | Week 4 – Day 3
Jonah Reading Plan | Week 4 – Day 3
Jonah 2:7 – 10 ESV
Jonah’s Prayer
7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.
8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
a. Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy: Jonah realized that resisting God, running from Him, was like being an idolater.
b. But I will sacrifice to You: Jonah repented from running away from God, and he turned to God with sacrifice and thanksgiving. He promised to pay his vows to God, and do what ever God told him to do,
i. At one time or another, Jonah had probably said what we all have said: “Lord, I’ll do what ever You want me to do.” Now Jonah realized fully that he must stop resisting God and he should pay his vows to God.
c. Salvation is of the LORD: This was more than a statement of fact; it was Jonah’s triumphant declaration. God had saved and would save, and Jonah meant it personally. Jonah’s salvation is of the LORD.
i. Jonah knows this in the close-up picture; he knew that his salvation is of the LORD. He also now knew it in the big picture; that salvation is not of a nation or a race or a language, or not of man at all. No, salvation is of the LORD.
d. At the end of Jonah 2:9 it is clear that Jonah has repented, but we might wonder when did Jonah repent? Jonah showed several marks of true repentance.
- Jonah proclaimed his fear of the LORD and he was honest about his sin and rebellion, no longer covering it up (Jonah 1:9).
- Jonah allowed himself to be cast into the sea (Jonah 1:12).
- Jonah began to pray; he called out to God during the three days and three nights in the belly of the fish (Jonah 2:2, 2:4, and 2:7).
- Jonah had a new heart of gratitude (Jonah 2:9).
- Jonah renewed the commitment to his vow (Jonah 2:9).
- Jonah gave glory to God in all of this (Jonah 2:9).
i. In all this we see that repentance as more than a one-time event. Though it begins at one time, it must continue and mature. Repentance is an event but it is also a process.
1. (Jonah 2:10a) God speaks to the fish.
So the LORD spoke to the fish,
a. The LORD spoke to the fish: The fish worked at the command of God. Just as much as the fish was under the command of God when it swallowed Jonah, it was under His command when it let him go.
b. To the fish: If God can speak to a fish, He can speak to us. Then again, fish probably don’t resist the will of God like we do.
2. (Jonah 2:10b) Jonah is expelled from the fish.
And it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
a. Vomited Jonah: Sometimes we don’t have much of a choice about how we will be delivered. Jonah might have preferred another method, but God had a purpose in this also.
i. Jonah’s deliverance came after Jonah’s repentance was complete. Jonah wasn’t just sorry for what he did; he was now trusting God again. In many believers today, there is a work of God, or an aspect of His deliverance that will remain undone as long as that believer resists Him and refuses to trust God.
ii. Jonah’s deliverance came after three days and nights had passed, providing a foreshadowing of Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus said, For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40).
iii. When Jesus spoke of three days and three nights in Matthew 12:40, it does make a Thursday crucifixion necessary. Rabbinic literature from the time of Jesus explains that the phrase “so many days and so many nights” was a figure of speech that could refer to any part of a day and night. Ellison notes that Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah (around the year A.D. 100) said: “A day and a night make a whole day, and a portion of a whole day is reckoned as a whole day.” This demonstrates how in Jesus’ day, the phrase three days and three nights did not necessarily mean a 72-hour period, but a period including at least the portions of three days and three nights.
iv. Pointing towards the Messiah to come, Jesus Christ, we see that Jonah’s deliverance came after a remarkable demonstration of laying down one’s life. Jonah gave his life to appease the wrath of God coming upon others. But death did not hold him; after three days and nights of imprisonment, he was alive and free.
b. Onto dry land: It is commonly thought that Jonah was vomited out on the shores of Nineveh — but we are not told that this was the case, especially because Nineveh is about 375 miles from the Mediterranean Sea. If Jonah did walk into Nineveh right from the belly of the fish, it would have been a miraculous projection of the fish’s vomit.