0230. Jonah's Prayer

Jonah’s Prayer

"Out of the belly of hell I cried, and Thou heardest my voice" (Jon_2:2).

It is our purpose to note some of the steps set forth before us in Jonah’s prayer.

1. "Out of the belly of hell I cried." This verse expresses the misery of the Prophet. The man who runs away from God will surely be given a cup of bitterness to drink. It is no light thing when one forsakes the "fountain of Living Waters" and begins to hew out for himself cisterns, broken cisterns, which can hold no water.

Sooner or later the backslider will come to know that it is "an evil thing and bitter" to forsake the Lord his God, and to scatter his ways under every green tree.

2. "Thy floods compassed me about, all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me."

These words express the enormity of Jonah’s judgment. So also did David feel when God’s judgments fell upon him, and his young child died.

Floods and billows carry with them the thought of judgments–judgments which overwhelm the soul.

3. "Then said I, I am cast out of Thy sight." Jonah feels that there is no help for him in God. He fears that he has gone beyond the hope of restoring grace. He fears the worst has come; he is in abject despair.

David too cried, "Hide not Thy face from me."

Can there be a sadder experience for a human soul than to feel that he has gone beyond the pale of grace; that there remains no more sacrifice for sin? Oh, how lonely, forlorn and forsaken must that soul feel who fails to get one approving look, one ray of light from the countenance of God.

And yet when the believer sins, God must break fellowship with him. Poor Peter felt that there was not one ray of light left, when he had "cursed and swore" and said, "I know not the Man." From the Cross a few hours later, Christ spoke to John and to Mary, and to the repentant thief, and to the multitudes; but, to broken-hearted Peter, not one word.

For three days the "billows" and the "waves" passed over Peter, and he felt that he was cast out of God’s sight forever. No matter how much the Father loves the saint, He must hide His face when the saint runs away from His presence.

4. "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord." Just so. Jonah’s tears and cry proved a telescope through which he looked and saw, magnified, the grace of God. He began to consider his ways. In the storm, and in the casting of the lot, and in his being thrown overboard, and in his being swallowed of the great fish, he now saw the hand of a loving God.

He remembered the Lord. His sorrows drove him back to God. Thus, in the 3d Psalm, does David record his own experience. His soul had "fainted within him," then he "cried unto the Lord," and "He heard me out of His holy hill."

5. "My prayer came up unto Thee." Bless God that there is never a time when the repentant child of God cannot get through the mists and reach the Lord. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

6. "Thou broughtest up my life from corruption." "Salvation is of the Lord!" What a note of joy and of faith is here! Before Jonah is delivered he counts the work as done. He cries: "I am delivered;" he affirms: "Salvation is of the Lord."

No wonder that, immediately, the fish vomited up Jonah onto the land. No darkness of despair can last, no casting from God’s presence can continue, when once the soul prays through to God.

Jonah restored to victorious prayer and Jonah filled with renewed faith, must be vomited up onto the land.

It is prayer that changes things. It is prayer, the prayer of confession, followed by the prayer of faith in the Living God, that brings deliverance from chastisement.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR