Route 66: Jonah - Lessons from the Belly of the Fish

Jonah, chapter 2.

Jonah 2 · chapter mention

I was so excited last time with Obadiah I got to read the entire text.

I'm not going to.

I could read through the whole book of Jonah.

I'm not going to do that tonight, but we're going to take a sample from Jonah in chapter 2, and we will be considering a bit more of the book as a whole.

But I wanted to definitely get our eyes right on the text to start tonight.

Jonah, chapter 2.

Jonah 2 · chapter mention

I'll read the first nine verses Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the belly of the fish.

I called to the Lord in my distress and he answered me.

I cried out for help from deep inside Sheol.

You heard my voice when you threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas.

The current overcame me.

All your breakers and your billows swept over me and I said I have been banished from your sight.

Yet I will look once more towards your holy temple.

The water engulfed me up to the neck.

The watery depths overcame me.

Seaweed was wrapped around my head.

I sank to the foundations of the mountains.

The earth's gates shut behind me forever.

Then you raised my life from the pit, lord, my God.

As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you, to your holy temple.

Those who cherish worthless idols abandon their faithful love.

But as for me, I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving.

I will fulfill what I have vowed.

Salvation belongs to the Lord.

What's Jonah all about?

What's the melodic line that was for you, two guys?

Miracles?

Maybe If you grew up in Sunday school, like I did, you heard the story of Jonah from a young age.

It's pretty amazing.

This big fish swallows this guy and he's alive in the fish for three days and then he escapes.

Seems pretty miraculous, it is.

What's Jonah all about?

A little older, you might think it's about racism.

Jonah hated those Ninevites.

He was prejudiced against them and he shouldn't have been.

Also true.

Also true that he shouldn't have been prejudiced against the Ninevites.

Or?

I was talking to one person this week and he brought attention to the end of the book.

It ends with Jonah seems to be having a pity party and sometimes you just got to suck it up and do what God calls you to do and not complain about it.

Also true, right.

So what's Jonah all about?

Well, what we're going to try to do tonight is pull some different threads together from the book of Jonah to work toward answering that question.

And I want to actually start with the words of Jesus, because if Jesus comments on some part of the Bible, that's pretty significant to take into hand.

So let's hold your finger right here in Jonah and let's go over to Matthew 12.

Just so you can see it with your own eyes, hold your finger in Jonah.

Matthew is a little easier book to find.

First book of the new Testament, matthew, chapter 12.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

And look at verse number 40.

This is Christ speaking, for as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the son of man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.

So Jesus sees in at least this central portion of Jonah that we read about Jonah being in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, jesus sees some kind of connection to his own life and ministry and what's coming.

But what's the context here in Matthew 12?

Did Jesus kind of pull his disciples aside and say listen, let me tell you about some things that are coming up.

I'm going to suffer and I'm going to die.

I'm going to rise again.

If you look at Matthew 12, the context is not a private conversation with his disciples about some prophetic things that were going to happen.

The context is there's Pharisees representing Israel who are criticizing him and rejecting him, and they ask for a sign, and he said no sign is going to be given to this wicked and adulterous generation.

So it's a context of Jesus pronouncing judgment against Israel, and Jonah's three days and three nights becomes this sign of resurrection for Christ.

But it seems to be connected with the judgment that's happening or going to happen to the Pharisees, those within Israel that reject Jesus.

Now, next question, with what Jesus says here that I'll just leave open for the time being, is Jesus just happened to call to mind one incident in the life of Jonah as applicable to his current day.

He doesn't say I'll give you the sign of three days and three nights.

He said I'll give you the sign of Jonah.

So is there something more expansive about the nature and character of Jonah's ministry that Jesus sees, and maybe the three days and three nights is not the totality of all that he's trying to convey or bring out.

So we're going to think about that.

Go ahead and turn back to Jonah.

That's what Jesus says.

So we've got Jesus drawing a parallel to his own life.

Often in scripture it's going to point us to Christ.

We're expecting that, hopefully.

While you're turning back to Jonah, there's one other place that mentions Jonah, 2 Kings.

I'll read it for you.

You don't have to turn there.

2 Kings 14.

In the 15th year of Judah's king, amaziah, son of Joash, jeroboam, son of Jehoash, became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned 41 years.

He did what was evil in the Lord's sight.

He did not turn away from all the sins Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had caused Israel to commit.

He restored Israel's border from Labo Hamath as far as the Sea of Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, the word God had spoken through his servant, the prophet Jonah, son of Amittai, from Gath Hefer, and the way Jonah begins.

If you look at the first chapter, the word Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai.

So it seems pretty clear it's the same Jonah.

It doesn't just happen to be a different Jonah.

It doesn't just happen to be a different Jonah.

So, although we have Jesus mentioning it in the Old Testament, we have Jonah serving at some point as a prophet in the northern kingdom under this wicked king.

So when Israel's been divided Judah in the south, rest of the tribes in the north.

Jonah's serving in some way there.

Jonah is one of the few prophets who is explicitly told go to another nation and talk to them.

A couple of weeks ago, with Obadiah, prophesied about Edom but he was never told, at least as far as we read to go to Edom.

Jonah is actually told go, least as far as we read.

To go to Edom.

Jonah's actually told go, leave, go to Nineveh and give them God's word.

But this book is part of Israel's scripture.

It's the scrolls they collected.

So, as much as Jonah had a message from God for Nineveh, there's something there that was meant to be for Israel also.

There's something there for us also as well.

There's four basic scenes in Jonah.

Now, this is not the outline, is not the four scenes, but I want to give you this just so you see the movement of the way the book is working in terms of the scene development.

Chapter one Jonah is fleeing from the Lord.

Most of chapter one.

Chapter two he's in the belly of this fish praying.

That's what we read in the scriptures tonight.

Chapter three he goes to Nineveh.

He preaches to them.

They repent.

Chapter four he's outside of Nineveh, having a conversation with God.

So, like I said, we're going to try to take some different threads, thematic threads, from the book of Jonah and see if we can see where this book is going, how it's shaping our thinking and as you look at the first part of chapter one so you can turn to chapter one if you haven't already done that.

If you're chapter two, go back to chapter one.

It starts off by repeating two times that Jonah was fleeing from the Lord's presence.

You see that in verse number three look right there he got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord's presence and then, at the end of that same verse, he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the Lord's presence.

It's an interesting way to describe his activity.

Doesn't Psalm say where can I go from your presence?

Where can I flee from your spirit?

I mean, did Jonah think he could really get away from God?

No, but keep in mind, in this old covenant not everyone had sort of immediate access to God's presence.

There were the priests who could go into the temple, the holy place, but even only the one priest one time of year.

The prophets often had a special privilege.

They often received a window into the divine council and the divine courtroom to receive a message.

And Jonah is confronted by God, but he rejects what God is calling him to do.

God calls him to take upon himself to go to Nineveh and he says no and he goes the other way.

The prophet of Israel rejects his vocation.

That's the first threat I'm pulling out here.

Prophet of Israel rejects his vocation, his calling from God.

Remember when Pastor Doug preached a few weeks ago from Isaiah, the mountain of the Lord will be exalted and elevated.

It's this holy place.

Look at the way the narrator shows Jonah going down and down and down.

Look at verse number three, verse three, he, as soon as he leaves the Lord's presence and the Lord dwells in an exalted place.

He went down to Joppa, he paid the fare and went down into the ship.

In verse number five, he goes down into the lowest part of the vessel and when the sailors find out there's this storm because of Jonah, they throw him even out of the boat and he goes down into the sea the verses that we read in chapter two.

He's crying out from the very depths of the belly of the fish in this watery grave down, down, down, down.

Rejecting God brings judgment.

That's the second threat.

Rejecting God brings judgment.

Now there's an interesting turn of hope, because in chapter one, jonah's judged in a lot of ways throughout this book, but he's thrown into the sea and left for dead.

I mean, that's pretty much almost as bad as it could get right there, right sea, and left for dead.

I mean, that's pretty much almost as bad as it could get right there, right.

So the sailors are what's going on?

And Jonah confesses well, the God, I know the true God, living God.

He's created the storm, and so they throw him overboard.

So he's thrown overboard.

And when he's thrown overboard, though, this is where the hope comes in judgment for him.

As far as he knows, he's dead in the ocean, in the storm, but then the storm stops.

And the rest of these guys, who are probably not Israelites, they're foreigners, they're another nation, and yet they offer sacrifices and vows and call on the Lord in an act of thanks.

Now, I don't know these sailors, whether they truly were converted, I can't answer that question.

But and this is the third thread the prophet's judgment brings salvation to the Gentiles.

He's thrown overboard, but they're saved.

In chapter two, which is the chapter that I read Jonah's crying out from the belly of the fish and it sounds like one of David's Psalms.

If I just read that part of Jonah's prayer and I didn't read anything about the fish or whatever you'd think, oh, it must be David when his enemies are chasing him and he doesn't know what's going on or where to be.

But it's Jonah and he seems to be crying out in genuine turning to the Lord.

In chapter three, when Nineveh hears the message of God's judgment, what do they do, this foreign people?

They turn in repentance and cry out to the Lord.

So chapter two is similar to chapter three in the sense of there's a crying out of Lord.

I've got no other options.

Lord, have mercy on me.

In chapter two it's Jonah, the prophet of Israel, crying out.

In chapter three it's this foreign nation of Nineveh crying out.

But regardless of who you are, when you cry out to God in genuine repentance, there's hope.

So, fourth thread, if I can put it this way, those who cry out to God in true repentance find resurrection, hope.

Now we think of resurrection as only life after death.

But the language that Jonah uses, of the weeds are wrapped around me and I'm down in the pit and I'm in your bars.

He's as good as dead.

And then the fish spits him out on dry land.

Nineveh hears the message and it's you're going to be judged, god's going to condemn you.

And they're saying, oh no, we don't have any hope.

But then God relents and gives life.

So it's this kind of resurrection to hope as the people cry out to God.

And then chapter four is an interesting way to end the book because it doesn't end with Jonah's prophecy and the nation's repentance.

It ends with Jonah having a conversation with God outside of Nineveh.

He's got kind of a bad attitude and we wonder, when you read the book of Jonah again, if you're thinking about it's got kind of a bad attitude.

And we wonder, when you read the book of Jonah Again, if you're thinking about it from the perspective of a children's Sunday school story.

It's like, well, just there's the fish and God did an amazing thing, which is true, but that's not how the book ends.

It doesn't actually leave you with the fish, it leaves you with Jonah out there and we don't know what happened to Jonah.

Did he come to his senses?

What happened to Nineveh?

They all repented and God spared them.

Did they become like?

We don't read later scriptures of them having this legacy of godly offspring.

What happened to Nineveh?

We don't know.

It's kind of like a cliffhanger story.

But the story ends with God.

It ends with his speech and his character, just like how it began when the word of the Lord comes to Jonah.

So if you're thinking of Jonah as a story first and foremost about him, or even the Ninevites, that's not what you're left with.

You're left with God.

So look at chapter 4, verse 2.

Jonah says he knows that God is gracious and compassionate and slow to anger and abounding in faithful love.

And in the very last verse of the book, chapter 4, verse 11, it's God speaking and yes, he's confronting Jonah about his lack of compassion.

But the Lord says may I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people?

And he, jonah, you don't care, but I care.

That's how the book ends.

So fifth thread is that God wants to reveal his mercy to the nations.

Okay, so let's review.

I know that was that.

I gave you a lot there.

Let's review that.

Thread number one the prophet of Israel rejects his vocation.

Thread number two rejecting God brings judgment.

Number three the prophet's judgment brings salvation to the Gentiles.

It happens in the sea and then it happens when Jonah's put in the fish.

That finally turns him to give the message of salvation to those that are outside.

Number four those who cry out to God in true repentance find resurrection, hope.

And number five God wants to reveal his glorious mercy to the nations.

And that seems like a little bit of an overarching bigger thread in terms of emphasis than the rest of those threads.

You're done.

No, I'm not done.

Those five threads are about Jonah.

Remember I said this is a story for Israel.

It's part of their scripture.

So let's think about those five threads just a little bit in light of the whole nation of Israel and their history.

The prophet of Israel rejects his vocation.

That's the first thread.

Didn't God call the whole nation of Israel to be a light to the Gentiles?

Didn't he say here's my law.

When you keep it, other nations are going to look at you and see your wisdom.

So they weren't.

Israel wasn't called to be a missionary in the way that we think of immediately sail somewhere and tell someone.

They weren't called the same way that Jonah was.

But God had appointed Israel to be his, the guardian of his scripture and his mouthpiece of character that nations would see them and want to turn to the Lord.

How did Israel do with that vocation, with that calling from the Lord?

They reject it.

Instead of being a light to the nations, they want to be like the nations.

Give us a king like the nations.

Give us idols like the nations.

Give us practices like the nations.

They reject their calling.

Number two rejecting God brings judgment.

Hasn't Israel seen this time and time again in their history?

In the Old Testament don't we see rejecting the Lord judgment, rejecting the Lord judgment.

Number three the prophet's judgment brings salvation to the Gentiles.

This is not as transparent, but think about some of the key figures.

If you think about Jacob, the father of the Israelites, his 12 sons, the Bible spends the most amount of time on Joseph.

What happens to Joseph?

He's put down in the pit.

He's left for dead.

He shipped away.

He's in the prison.

He's left for dead.

He's shipped away.

He's in the prison.

He's lied about, but he emerges from the prison and he helps rescue Egypt from a famine.

Think about the book of Isaiah.

We're going through that book right now.

It calls Israel the servant of the Lord.

Through that book right now, it calls Israel the servant of the Lord, and yet Isaiah is constantly talking about judgment that's coming to the servant of the Lord, and yet there's hope in the book of Isaiah that ultimately the Gentiles are going to see light and experience salvation when you fast forward to the New Testament.

The Jews of Jesus' day rejected him and Jesus pronounced his judgment on them.

But then what does Paul say in Romans 11?

Their rejection was salvation for the Gentiles.

It was mercy for the Gentiles that they returned to and they heard the gospel Number four those who cry out to God in true repentance find resurrection, hope.

We see certain kings in Israel, like David, who says against you and you only have I sinned, and God restores him.

We do seem to see seasons in Israel's life where they turn to the Lord and they're not cut off forever.

God brings them back.

There's resurrection hope in the nation of Israel, and remember Romans 11, those branches that are cut off.

But later Israelites come and if they have faith they'll be grafted in.

They'll receive mercy from the Lord.

God wants to reveal his glorious mercy to the nations.

Why does God send Jonah on this mission?

Because he wants to reveal mercy to the nations.

Why does God call Israel to be a light to the Gentiles, because he wants to show his mercy not just to Israel but to all kinds of people.

And that brings us back to where we started, with Christ, with Jesus.

So now we've Jonah, jews, jesus, if you can think about Jonah in that context.

Tonight we looked at Jonah with those threads, looked at the Jews.

Now let's think about Jesus.

The prophet of Israel rejects his vocation, but this is the reverse when it comes to Christ.

Here am I, I've come to do your will, o God, your laws, within my heart.

This prophet of the Lord who comes down Rejecting God, brings judgment.

Well, jesus never rejected his father, but he did actually come to suffer judgment for all those Jews and Gentiles who belonged to him, who were chosen by God, all those he came to take their judgment, the rejecters.

And, yes, number three Jesus's judgment brings salvation to the Gentiles.

He opens up the way for all kinds of people, jew and Gentile alike, so that those number four who cry out to God in true repentance find resurrection, hope, not just temporary rescue from disaster.

Like the sailors in the sea which, again, maybe they truly had some spiritual grasp with the Lord, we don't know they found that salvation from the immediate storm.

Christ comes and it's resurrection, hope eternally.

It's all the weight of sin that would take us down, down down to hell forever.

No, not, if we're trusted in Christ and Jesus comes to reveal the Father's glory.

He came full of grace and truth.

The same God who revealed himself in Jonah as a God of mercy mercy for the Ninevites, mercy for pagan people.

Jesus reveals there's a God who would be so merciful.

He wouldn't just even allow us some opportunity to save ourselves, as if that were even possible, but he's going to come and do all the rescuing, all the saving, himself.

So what's this book of Jonah all about?

About miracles, yes, there's miracles.

It's about racism.

Yes, there's prejudice.

That's wrong Jonah's part.

It's about not having a pity party.

Yes, that's true.

But there's a bigger story of Jonah.

So here's how I would summarize it God will secure his purpose of mercy to the nations through the dying and rising of his prophet.

That's a little long.

I tried to make it more concise.

If you had a better idea, come talk to me afterwards.

I know, but let me repeat that again God will secure his purpose of mercy to the nations through the dying and rising of his prophet.

Jonah is as good as dead in the sea.

The sailors are saved.

He's as good as dead in the belly of the fish.

But after three days he comes out.

Nineveh hears and believes Praise God for his mercy.

Israel's as good as dead.

But Ezekiel says oh, these dry bones, they're going to live.

Israel's cut off and Gentiles are grafted in, but then more Israelites are grafted in.

Praise God for his mercy.

We see Jesus, the great prophet of Israel, sacrificing himself, and his sacrifice was successful.

And we know he's successful because he rose from the grave and he's received the inheritance of all the nations.

Praise God for his mercy.

Last thing for you today.

I'll leave you with this.

So again, god will secure his purpose of mercy to the nations through the dying and rising of his prophet.

Last thing for today, just something for you to think about this week.

In Jonah 2, did you notice that Jonah says he'll look towards God's temple?

He says it two times.

Verse number four I will look towards your holy temple, verse number seven my prayer came to you, to your holy temple.

What's he talking about?

He's in the belly of a fish in the Mediterranean Sea somewhere.

The temple's back in Jerusalem.

He's not doing any looking to the temple.

Okay, and remember the reading from 2 Kings.

He's a prophet, any looking to the temple.

Okay, that's that's.

And remember the reading from second kings.

He's a prophet to the northern kingdom.

He's not even a prophet that we read about, at least to the southern kingdom.

So he doesn't seem to have a lot of the northern kingdom.

Under this bad king was setting up false places of worship.

Jonah is is fleeing God's presence.

Jonah is fleeing God's presence.

So the way the book begins, he's fleeing God's presence.

Where would Israel go to find God's presence?

First and foremost, the temple.

So it's almost as though he's leaving the place he needs to be.

But then in chapter two, he's recognizing there's one true temple.

It's not getting away from God, it's not false worship of the northern kingdom.

There's one true temple and I've got to look there, I've got to submit myself to God.

So you have the prayer with the temple language, you have the beginning a little bit, and then look in chapter 4.

Okay, he has this relapse.

So, like Noah coming out of the ark and Israel coming out of Egypt, jonah comes up out of the waters and he's recommissioned, he's ready to go and he preaches.

But then setback.

He's upset and verse number five of chapter four says that he goes from the city of Nineveh away from God, out east.

The first person in the Bible that's described that way he went from the presence of the Lord east, is Cain.

That's not a very good overtone, right of what's going on here.

But then Jonah, 4, verse 5 says that Jonah makes himself a shelter.

Jonah 4:5

That's what the NIV says, that's what the CSB says.

I think the ESV uses the word booth, this specific word in chapter 4, verse 5, it's not always used in a religious sense, but it is often used in a religious sense.

It's the word in Leviticus and Deuteronomy that says it's a festival of booths or a festival of shelters, this celebration where the Israelites make these special tents to commemorate what happened when they came out of Egypt.

There's feasting and celebration.

It's the same word.

I don't see our brother Bob Wepler tonight when he preached from the book of Amos I'll rebuild the booth of David that's fallen.

Exact same word there, booth or shelter, that's used.

And here's Jonah making himself his own booth.

You got God's anger burning down on Nineveh.

They repent and God relents.

Now Jonah's the one who's angry.

He's ticked off.

Do you do well to be angry.

Jonah's like yeah, I think so.

Do you do well to be angry?

Jonah's like yeah, I think so.

I'm pretty ticked off.

And Jonah's one that's angry and the sun is scorching down on him and his head, the sun that God made the burning anger on the Ninevites.

Now we've got the sun and Jonah's feeling the sun, so I'll make my own shelter.

How does that work for him?

Verse number six sorry, let's go.

Verse number five.

It does say that his shelter he made that little booth that he constructed.

It provides shade.

But then in verse number eight, it says the sun is being down on Jonah's head so much he wants to die.

Well, what about his booth?

Well, his booth wasn't really cutting it.

His booth wasn't really giving him the shade that he needed.

Verse number six there's a plant that provides shade for Jonah's head.

So the plant seems to be doing a better job than the booth.

Where did the plant come from?

The plant came from God, the booth came from Jonah.

It's God's shelter, not Jonah's shelter, it's God's plan.

God provides the plant to rescue Jonah from his.

And then the CSB, I think, says trouble.

Most of you say trouble there.

In verse number six, what's Jonah's trouble?

Like?

Well, it was hot out.

This is the same word.

And if you've got a little note in your Bible, you guys see that little note in your Bible there.

Some of you have it, some of you might not.

It's okay if you don't, but there's a little note for all of you in the margin there where it says to rescue him from his trouble.

And it says in the margin or what's the word there?

Disaster or evil.

This is the same word that's used at the beginning of the book when Nineveh's trouble comes up before God.

Now, was Nineveh's trouble that it was just really hot where they lived in their country?

No, nineveh's trouble was the whole constellation of their rebellion.

So I think there's an attentional link of those words where here, when it talks about Jonah's trouble, it doesn't just mean it was hot out and he was kind of needed a fan.

He was not remembering what the message was.

He was angry when he should have had the heart of God for these people.

What's going to get him out of the trouble?

Well, it's the shade that the Lord provides.

It's the shelter that the Lord provides.

So's the shelter that the Lord provides.

So just something to chew on as you go forward, friends, we can't bring ourselves resurrection, hope and we want to dwell with God.

That's a good thing, to long for God's presence in his dwelling.

But if we think we're going to create it or craft it on our own, we're in.

To create it or craft it on our own, we're in big trouble.

It's God who has sent Jesus Christ to tabernacle among us.

It's Christ that brings us the ultimate rescue from our trouble and that refuge.

We sing songs like in the shadow of a mighty cross, I dear refuge of my weary soul.

These are lines that speak of Christ and all that he's done as the true dwelling place of God, as the great hope of all that we need.

And isn't God merciful?

Let's pray.

Lord, your mercy is everlasting.

It goes from one generation to the next.

We thank you for how rich your word is, that we see you preparing the way for the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Even through Old Testament stories, you prepare the way for a display of your mercy that is so astonishing that it will take eternity for us to sing the praises of mercy that has rescued us.

Mercy that has rescued us in our self-righteousness and bitterness, mercy that has settled over us and worked, even apart from our own prejudice and apathy.

We want to be those who cast ourselves entirely on you.

We want to be those who take shade under all that you provide for us in Christ.

We want to worship you through Jesus Christ to be a true dwelling place of God in the power of the spirit, and we want this message of hope, this message of mercy, to go out through all the lands.

So help us to sing this song as we conclude prayerfully tonight, in Jesus' name, amen.