0240. In Anguish, Cries to God

In Anguish, Cries to God

"Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord out of the fish’s belly" (Jon_2:1).

"And I will pour upon the House of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication: and they shall look upon Me Whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one that mourneth for an only son" (Zec_12:10).

The bitterness of Jonah’s experience as he was carried down to the bottom of the sea; as the weeds wrapped about his head, as he felt that he was cast out of God’s sight forever, is a clear and concise setting forth of the bitterness of Israel during the hour known in the Bible as, "The Day of Jacob’s Trouble."

Yet it was in the belly of the fish that Jonah learned to pray. It is in the hour of Jacob’s trouble, in the hour of Israel’s greatest grief, that she will once more turn her face toward her Jehovah God.

Israel is to be made ready to welcome the "Descending Messiah" by the throes of her agony. When darkness shrouds the land; when all joy has gone; when the city is left in desolation; when its gate is smitten with destruction; then Israel will turn her face toward God and cry, "Deliver me, for Thou art my God."

The Bible gives us some foregleams of the language of Israel’s prayer, as by the testimony of the "two witnesses" and by the very bitterness of her anguish, she turns her face upward in anticipation of the Lord’s return and of her own restoration and rest.

Let us hear Israel’s cry: "Return for Thy servant’s sake, the tribes of Thine inheritance. * * Our adversaries have trodden down Thy sanctuary * * We are Thine * *. Oh that Thou wouldst rend the heavens, that Thou wouldst come down."

It is true. As Jonah prayed, so will Israel pray. As Jonah cried, "Salvation is of the Lord" so shall Israel cry; and the Lord will hear her cry. Then, "the Lord thy God shall come, and all the saints with Thee." "And the Lord shall be King over the whole earth."

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR