From the Fish Pit

Jonah 2:4-7, 9

The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit.

Jonah was broadcasting on a journey from the fish's belly to the pit at the bottom of the sea. He describes this as a place with bars which keep its' souls forever. Jonah, as his prophet, was a child of God not an unbeliever. He should have gone to paradise when he died according to the vision of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 19:16-31. His disobedience to God marked him in this place. Only God could have saved him out of it. There was no doubt that Jonah was dead given the conditions and the length of time elapsed in this prayer. Yet the spirit of man cries out to God. This makes for not only a story of deliverance but also one of resurrection. Resurrection occurs when the dead are brought back to life. The earth barred Jonah in indicating the finality of his situation. This is not just fanciful language. At the end of the prayer, Jonah was still inside the fish's belly for God commanded it to vomit him out onto dry land. This situation echoes 1 Peter 3:19-20 when Christ was sent to the imprisoned spirits who were disobedient during the days of Noah. Disobeying God always has consequences.

I said, 'I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.'

See the banishment from God's sight. "Their angels always" behold "the face of [their] Father" in Matthew 18:10; because of Jonah's disobedience this is not that place. What kind of faith does it take to be locked out from the presence of God when you are dying and still praying to God to save you when you said no to him. What sort of madness is that. The miracle is that God would still do it even when it is too late by human standards. God would still save him even after the time of deliverance has passed. Look at the faith of Jonah to look towards God's temple even after being locked out.

"When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.

God always delivers. It is in His nature according to Jonah 2:9. "The prayer of faith" will raise the sick in James 5:15. This prayer is offered in faith to God knowing who he is. God did not save him because of who Jonah was but because of who God is. Had Satan looked towards God after being cast down and out, God in his mercy would have saved him as in Genesis 3:24. The depth of God's mercy is on display here according to Romans 2:4. He does not delight "in the death of the wicked," as in Ezekiel 33:11, nor yet that of the disobedient. Do not get it twisted; God is not like us. That is why so many of us cannot understand Him.

But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, 'Salvation comes from the Lord.'"

Jonah's complaint was not against the assignment. Rather, it was against God's nature of who he was. Jonah knew that if the city repented, God would save them. So he rebelled against that until God put him in the same situation. Funny how God will often put us in the same situation as what we refuse to endure. Then Jonah cried out to God to experience the same nature of God as those to whom he had previously refused to preach. God's nature of healing, forgiving, being long-suffering, always a good God was put to the test from a disobedient prophet. God allowed this to verify the proof of his love for a people that was hated. Is it not funny how God is.