WE continue to meditate on Jonah's fearful experience as he records it for us in his prayer. We have considered his experience in a general way. Now we must look at the verses which make up this prayer.

The fact is that we all go through times of distress from time to time, and as Christians we experience distress through our Christian experience. Jonah's distress came to him because he was disobedient to the Lord, and we may also find ourselves in a similar situation, though perhaps less terrible than that of Jonah. The experience of Jonah also relates to the experience of death which we all have to go through at some time in our lives, and the experience of death can vary in how we are able to face it from one Christian to another. The wonderful thing about Jonah's prayer is that he does not hold back anything of the distress that he endures, and describes for us graphically the emotions that flooded his mind and soul. We are expected as Christians to be able to face distress and the time of dying with faith and joy in Christ, and if we find ourselves fearful and frightened, then we fear that there is something wrong with our faith; and if we confess to it, we are afraid that others will feel that there is something wrong with our spiritual life. The fact is that we should not be afraid to be open with our fears and emotions for all of us have to confess, at least to ourselves, that when push comes to shove we are not able to be so full of faith and strong as we imagine we should be. The case of Jonah is so encouraging for he exposes himself in his distress to our view, and reveals his fears and doubts, and shows us that faith can be real and strong in the midst of such experience of apparent failure in faith.

THE OPENNESS OF JONAH.

Jonah is totally open with us concerning his experience. He tells us the way he felt. He opens up to us his fears. He tells how he felt despair. This is comforting. Let us notice what he reveals to us.

In verse 2 he says he was in the depth of the grave. In other words he felt himself dying and facing death, and implicit in this declaration is the feeling of nervousness in the light of this. Then in verse 3 Jonah tells us how he felt. He was being tossed about helplessly in the waves and sinking helplessly as the waters rolled over him. He was gasping for breathe, with all the horror of such an experience of drowning. This was bad enough but he also felt something further, which is peculiar to a child of God. In verse 4 he felt that God had forsaken him and that he was lost. He speaks of it as being banished from the sight of God. He feared God had given him up because of his sin, and hell loomed awfully before him. This sense of banishment was enhanced by the overwhelming grip of the sea and fish which he expresses in verse 5. The sense of hell he had is expressed in the imprisonment he describes in verse 6 – the earth beneath barred me in for ever.

Jonah opens this all up to us in total honesty, and how helpful this is because as Christians we are not immune from fears. Satan comes with all his accusations and doubts. Our spiritual consciousness of our sin and falling short of the glory of God is ever present. The world may feel that what we see so really as sin is nothing at all, but we know better because we have been taught concerning the holiness of God. Jonah did not cease to be in the love of God although he suffered this despair, and we have his testimony that God brought him through safely, and did not reject him for his weakness.

JONAH DID NOT QUESTION GOD.

Jonah was in total submission to God. He did not question God's dealings with him. He acknowledged that all he was experiencing was by the action of God. He acknowledged that his sin had brought this distress upon him.

He expresses God's hand in his experience. He says in verse 3 “You hurled me in the deep, into the very heart of the seas.” He submits to the hand of the Lord. He accepts that God had a right to do as wished with him, and in this he accepted that his sin deserved such action from God.

Yet there is no complaint at the action of God. Jonah never doubts the justice of God in his dealings with him. Here is a fact of true Christian experience. We know our sin, and that it deserves everlasting retribution. Like Isaiah in the temple we look on the holiness of God, and see ourselves without defense before his justice. This is not the whole story of our faith, but it is there so we never complain against God actions and say they are unjust.

JONAH CALLED ON THE LORD.

In spite of all this, in his extremity, Jonah called on the Lord. The anchor for his soul was in what he expresses at the end of verses 6. He could say of God that he was his God. He prays to the Lord his God. His action in his need was to place himself in the hands of the Lord, and throw himself on the mercy of God. Prayer was all he could do, but he did not pray in desperation, but with faith in the goodness and mercy and love of God. In verse 2 again he tells us he called for help from God. At the moment of death his mind went to God and he remembered the Lord (verse 7) and he prayed to the Lord.

Here is the heart of the Christian's faith. We feel all that our sins deserve, and we may feel a blackness surrounding us and a terror that seems to deny our salvation, but we never lose the comfort of the word of God and the promises of God in the Gospel. In spite of what we may fear, we remember the word we have believed. We remember the promise of the Gospel that whosoever believes has everlasting life. We remember the promise of Jesus that whosoever comes to him he will never cast off. We remember the gracious invitation of Jesus to come to him and receive rest for our souls. All these and many more gracious words of the Lord in Scripture are our anchor and we trust in the sure word of God which we know can't lie. We hold on to and plead before God that he must forgive us because our trust is in his Son who has taken our sins and their just deserving, and God would be unjust to visit those sins on us when Jesus had already suffered their full retribution.

In spite of how we feel we cry to the Lord and hold on to the promise of his word just as Jonah did, and in this faith, although the fear is just as real, we are given that anchor for our soul that knows that we can't be lost, for God has given us this faith and he will not allow us to have believed in vain.

Jonah, like all Christians, had this assurance of the word of the Lord that endures for ever, and can not be overthrown. Here is the encouragement to live in the Word of God, and fill our souls with its truth, for then in these times of need we will find that it is the anchor that holds us fast in the love of God, and relieves our souls.

JONAH'S TESTIMONY.

Whether Jonah was given, in the depth of his distress, a confirmation of God's salvation, or whether he testifies to God's salvation after he had been restored to life on dry land, it is hard to tell. Some believers find assurance coming to them in the midst of their suffering, but others are not so blessed and find that God has been faithful to all his promises in salvation after the event having been brought through the experience safely. However what Jonah testifies to is the complete and utter faithfulness of God, and that he is a saving God, and saves all who put their trust in him.

In verse 2 Jonah says that God listened to his cry. This is an assurance that the believer has even in the blackest times. God's answers to prayer in the past are the believers assurance that God does hear prayer, and the way into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus is real and sure. Jonah's testimony to God's hearing and answering his prayer is for our comfort and assurance in our life.

Then Jonah testifies to God's salvation in verse 6 when he says “You brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God. In the case of Jonah he was raised from the dead and went on to preach in Nineveh. We have this testimony to God's salvation, which assures us God will be faithful to us also as we believe his words of salvation.

I feel that there is here in the experience of Jonah a very real declaration of salvation. Jonah was suffering for his sin. He placed his trust in the Lord. He remembered the Lord (v.7) as he died in the fishes belly, and then by the power of God he was raised to new life and was a new man as he returned to the will of God. Surely this is an illustration of salvation in Christ. As we believe we die with Christ. By faith we were in him when he suffered on the cross. In a very real sense being joined to Christ by faith our old Adamic self died with Jesus on the cross and is no more. Then being united with Christ by faith, we rise from the depth of death with him in his resurrection. We are raised a new creation. We are created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness. This is the result of the union with Christ by faith that has been bestowed upon us, so whatever our distress we can pray and know that we are safe in the arms of Jesus, and nothing can separate us from his love.

This assurance Jonah testifies to in verse 7 when he says his prayer rose to God in his holy temple. This is the life and privilege all believers have been raised to. We have access into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus.

CONCLUSION.

Let us never be cast down and feel we are a failing Christian, or even doubt that we are a Christian, when the billows of distress encompass us and we seem to lose the light of our salvation. Jonah's experience assures us that this does not mean God has forsaken us, or that we have never been a Christian.