Gtcotr/ss081014
Jonah
2 NKJV
1
¶ Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish’s belly.
2
And he said: "I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction,
And He answered me. "Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And
You heard my voice.
3
For You cast me into the deep …
Humanity
has a propensity to blame God and others for our troubles. However,
in the case of Jonah, and all humanity for that sake:
There
is a difference between persecution and repercussion.
Some
things we go through we cause and some things come to us seemingly
unfair … however, we must remember, humanity sinned against God in
the Garden of Eden and invited sin, sickness, poverty and pain into
the earth … God is the one dealing with it but He is not the one
who caused it.
Jonah’s
dilemma was a reasonable repercussion … a simple consequence for
his actions and his attitude. Nonetheless, God loved Jonah and God
loved the people of Nineveh. This wasn’t over yet …
Remember:
- The Book of Jonah is about the unfailing mercies of God.
- We will never catch God unprepared for what we are about to do.
Jonah
2
4
Then I said, ’I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look
again toward Your holy temple.’
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"When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my
prayer went up
to You, Into Your holy temple.
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"Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy.
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But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will
pay what I have vowed. Salvation is
of the LORD."
Five
Lessons We Learn From Jonah 2
- Has it come to this?
- Prayer is often the choice of those with no other options.
- Worthless idols are worthless
- Being thankful can seem like a sacrifice …
- Be thankful anyway!
- Pay thy vow
- If I could, I would … but even that depends on God
- Salvation is of the Lord
Jonah
2:10 So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry
land.
At the
end of Chapter 1 Jonah went into the fish and down to the bottom of
the ocean. At the end of Chapter 2 Jonah came up and out of the
fish’s belly and was set on solid ground. However, whether in
despair or on solid ground, it was not the circumstances surrounding
Jonah that had him bound but rather what was on the inside of him.
Jonah,
in the fish or out, at the bottom of the sea or on solid ground,
doing well or doing poorly, running or praying … Jonah was not ok …
Jonah had no peace with God.
Jonah
found no peace because he struggled with God’s will. Jonah simply
had not given his heart to God. Jonah wrongly imagined that life was
all about him.
