What Now? Praying from the Belly of Sheol (Jonah 2:1-10)- Pastor Kenneth Collins Maple

We do turn to God's Word now, and we continue

in our sermon series through the book of Jonah.

And so would you turn to chapter two of this

book. Again, this is found within the minor prophets.

If you start running into Micah, you've gone

a little bit too far. It's in the middle of the

minor prophets, so there we go. Can you hear

me now? But before we read I'm gonna turn that

off before Can you hear me Okay, before we read

I wanted to just make some brief remarks about

what we have already seen because we were not

in Jonah last Sunday and so just a recap what

we saw was Jonah running from the very presence

of God running from what God asked him told him

to do to go to Nineveh and preach repentance

he doesn't want to do that and so he goes to

Joppa and he's trying to flee to Tarshish and

he gets on this boat right and he sleeps the

crew is terrified because a horrific storm comes

about and they wake him and say pray Jonah but

the thing about Jonah that we've seen so far

in chapter 1 is that Jonah doesn't pray does

he we also remark that this in chapter 2 this

this belly of the fish saga this is the thing

that we all know from Sunday school right but

sometimes we get so fixated upon the fish we

want to know what kind of fish was it was it

a whale how big was it could it really swallow

a human being we asked all of these questions

I want to give you a quote from another pastor,

Thomas John Carlyle said, I was so obsessed with

what was going on inside the whale that I missed

seeing the drama inside Jonah. Today we're going

to see the drama inside of Jonah. And we're going

to see the thing that he should have been doing

all along. Let's read Jonah chapter 2 Then Jonah

Jonah 2 · chapter mention

prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of

the fish saying I called out to the Lord out

of my distress and he answered me out of the

belly of Sheol I cried and you heard my voice

for you cast me into the deep into the heart

of the seas, and the floods surrounded me. All

your waves and your billows passed over me. And

then I said, I am driven away from your sight,

yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.

And the waters closed in over me to take my life.

The deep surrounded me. Weeds were wrapped around

my head at the root of the mountains. I went

down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever.

Yet you brought me up up my life from the pit

Oh Lord my God when my life was fainting away

I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you

into your holy temple those who pay regard to

vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love

But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice

to you what I have vowed I will pay salvation

belongs to the Lord And the Lord spoke to the

fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

This is God's word. Let's pray. Father, we do

thank you for this word. And we thank you for

all of your words. We thank you that all of scripture

is breathed out by your Holy Spirit. But Lord,

as we come to this, we have questions. We don't

always understand, and so we ask that you would

grant us understanding now and a right application

of the text. This we ask in Christ's name. Amen.

Have you ever had a season in your life of fervent,

desperate, zealous prayer? Can you remember a

time when you knew there was nothing else you

could do but pray. Have you had a situation like

that? A time when you were constantly approaching

the throne of grace in prayer? Jesus shows us

time and time again that Christians are to be

praying people. Christians are to pray at all

times. But what we see from Jonah and what we

see from Jesus is desperate prayer. Do you remember

in Luke 22, it's in the other gospels as well,

but specifically in Luke 22, Jesus took his disciples

to pray before his arrest. And he tells them

to pray that they would not fall into temptation.

What do they do? They fall asleep. But Jesus

does not fall asleep instead Jesus does what

he told them to do Jesus in the garden before

his arrest he prays He prays he says father if

you're willing remove this cup from me Nevertheless,

not my will but yours be done Jesus prays To

the extent there in the garden that he begins

to sweat And not just normal perspiration, but

Luke 22 says that Jesus sweats drops of blood.

Jesus, before he went to the cross, he was in

anguish, but he shows us what the Christian is

to do when our backs are against the wall, when

we've hit rock bottom. We are to pray. Jesus

shows us this. Jonah finally does too. Chapter

two of Jonah should have been chapter one and

what I mean by that is that Jonah in chapter

two is doing what he should have been doing in

chapter one. He is praying. Think about all the

times in the first chapter that Jonah should

have prayed and he did not. When the Lord told

him to go to Nineveh to preach repentance there,

Jonah doesn't pray about his response. He just

high -tails it the other way. And then when Jonah

is on the ship and he's sleeping and the captain

comes to him and wakes him up and says, call

out to your God, we don't see Jonah doing that,

do we? And when Jonah lets those sailors in on

who he is and more importantly, who he serves,

and they say, well, what? What are we to do about

this terrible storm that's threatening to break

the boat in half? We do not see Jonah pray. Instead,

we see him say, throw me overboard. But in chapter

two, we see what is prescriptive for us, his

response when he couldn't get any lower. And

this is what we need to consider too. What do

we do when we cannot get any lower? What do we

do when the situation couldn't be worse? What

do we do when we're drowning under the weight

of sorrow, when we're overwhelmed by the miseries

of this life? What do you do when you face that

horrific diagnosis? What do you do when nothing

is going right? What do you do? That's... where

Chapter 2 comes in. It's so incredibly helpful

for us. What do you do? You pray. But Jonah's

prayer here, this song in Chapter 2, it also

sounds like some other places in Scripture. I

want to take you to a psalm that this reminds

me of. If you will, turn to Psalm 88. Psalm 88,

as some of you know, is brutally honest. It's

bleak. It's dark. It's probably the darkest Psalm

in the Psalter. It's nearly hopeless, and yet

it's also instructive for us. So as I read the

first seven verses of Psalm 88, I want you to

listen for two things. One, In what ways does

Psalm 88 sound like Jonah 2? And then secondly,

think what does the psalmist do right? Listen

to this from Psalm 88 1 through 7. Oh Lord, God

of my salvation, I cry out day and night before

you. Let my prayer come before you. Incline your

ear to my cry for my soul. is full of troubles,

and my life draws near to Sheol. I am counted

among those who go down to the pit. I am a man

who has no strength, like one set loose among

the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave,

like those whom you remember no more, for they

are cut off from your hand. You have put me in

the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and

deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you

overwhelm me with all of your waves. Christian,

what is it that the psalmist gets right in Psalm

88? He prays. When we are at the bottom, when

we are weak, when we are anxious, when we are

depressed, when we feel like all hope is lost,

we must pray. This is what the psalmist does,

and this is what Jonah finally does. Perhaps

you remember the words of James 5 .13. Is anyone

among you suffering? He should pray. Christian,

do not put off prayer. Don't put it off. Prayer

is the medicine you need. Prayer is the remedy

for a downcast soul. In prayer, you commune with

the only one who can truly help you. And so here

is Jonah. He's in the fish and there's only one

thing he can do. There's actually only one thing

recorded that he does. He prays, finally. In

chapter one, we see Jonah talking about the Lord,

but it's not until chapter two that he actually

talks to the Lord. Look in verse two. I called

out to the Lord. out of my distress and he answered

me. Jonah finally now prays and the Lord answers

him. This is remarkable. Jonah is in the deep,

he's in the water, and then he's in the fish,

but those things cannot prevent his prayer from

getting to the ears of God. Those things cannot

stifle prayer. I like to think of it like a cell

phone signal. Sometimes if you go back into our

woods back here, if you try and talk on the phone

back there, or even sometimes in the Family Life

Center, you'll find that you don't have a very

strong cell phone signal. But Christian, when

you pray in the name of Jesus, the signal is

always strong. Your God loves to hear from you.

and He knows your voice. He does. He knows your

voice when you're in good cheer, and He knows

your voice when you're upset. He knows your voice

in your finest moments, and He knows your voice

in your moments of regret. Think about all those

times that Jonah should have prayed, but when

he does, it's like the Lord hears him immediately.

And so why would we ever neglect prayer? Jonah

could not be lower. He says that he's in the

belly of sheol. And there's a couple of, there's

a few different ways of understanding that word

sheol. It could refer to just death. Sometimes

the word sheol refers to the grave. Sometimes

it refers to the place of torment. And so I like

how Rick Phillips at Second Pres says this, Jonah,

is in a hellish grave. Look at the description

of where he is in verse three. He's in the deep.

He's in the heart of the seas. The flood surrounds

him. And that word for flood is actually the

word for river. It's almost as though Jonah is

in the water, but in a river that's pushing him

down. The flood surrounds him, the waves, the

billows, they pass over him. Things cannot really

get much worse. You see at one point he's got

seaweed wrapped around his head. Verse seven,

he shares that he feels like he's in prison,

that he's behind bars. It is like Jonah is buried

alive. But even as he is, verse four shows hope.

Verse 6 shows hope. Verse 6 might be the turning

point of this prayer, this song, the moment when

Jonah realizes the fish is not his prison, but

the fish is his life preserver. And so he says

that he's brought up from the pit. You can see

Jonah is being brutally honest within his prayer,

and that's how you should be too, Christian.

You can be honest within your prayers. For Jonah,

within this prayer, he understands something

about God. That God is sovereign over everything

that happens. He says that it's the Lord is the

one who throws him into the deep. Jonah knows

who threw him into the deep. He knows it was

the sailors, but who is behind every action.

It's the Lord God. And so Jonah acknowledges

this, the sovereignty of God, and yet it's the

Lord also who brings him up to safety. And so

what the Lord does here is he brings Jonah to

his senses. Within the belly of the fish, the

Lord is doing something. It's very similar, I

think, to the prodigal son. You remember that

story, right? You remember how the son takes

his inheritance? And he flees. He goes away to

a faraway land. He leaves his father. And what

does he do with that inheritance? He squanders

it all, right? And pretty soon the prodigal son

is eating pig food. He's at the bottom, rock

bottom. But then in Luke 15 it says that he came

to himself. The prodigal son said, no more of

this. I will go back to my father. I will confess

my sin. I will be a hired hand for him. This

is Jonah. Jonah comes to himself. Verse seven,

he remembers the Lord. Jonah remembers the Lord.

And so what does he do when he remembers the

Lord? We'll go to verse one. Then Jonah prayed

to the Lord his God from the belly. Did you see

how it says the Lord his God? Jonah remembers

God. Jonah still belongs to God. Jonah hasn't

really forgotten God. He just forgot what God

was like, what he is like, that God is merciful.

This whole story is one of Jonah trying to forget

God, but God doesn't forget Jonah. And friends,

this is remarkable. because if you have you ever

sinned to the extent where you thought God doesn't

want to know me anymore God doesn't want to hear

from me anymore God doesn't doesn't love me anymore

have you ever felt like that we might have thought

that Jonah being a prophet who's running away

from God being expelled into the bottom of the

sea might think you know what there's no point

There is no point in praying to God. He doesn't

want to hear from me. But that's not what he

does. That's not what he does. Because the Lord

is still his God. Jonah is a believer. And he

might think that he has lost everything in his

life. He might think, I am losing my life right

now. But he doesn't lose his sonship. The adoption

papers for Jonah are not lost. He still belongs

to God and so he cries out to him. He doesn't

turn to another God, does he? He mentions those

who are worshiping vain idols. He doesn't turn

to them either. He finally stops turning inward

and Jonah looks upward. We remarked two weeks

ago about what God was doing with Jonah in the

belly of the fish. That this was a time of correction.

And sometimes as Christians, we need that time

of correction, don't we? We might be going through

the most painful thing, but the Lord is refining

us. The Lord is sanctifying us, right? In the

belly of the fish, Jonah realizes that God has

saved him. God was really doing something there

in the fish, and he was really doing something

in Jonah. We remember what Jonah did We remember

how Jonah fled and we said two weeks ago that

Jonah got what he wanted He tried to flee from

the presence of God and said so God said okay

You can have it He fled from his mission He neglected

prayer on the boat He was thrown into the sea

and so he gets what he wants, but when he gets

it suddenly he realizes This is not what I want

This is not what I need. This is the worst thing

I could possibly experience. Christian, separation

from the blessed presence of God is the worst

thing you can experience. It's not what you want.

We said that Jonah seems to realize that God

is sovereign over everything, and so it's not

so much that Jonah has been trying to escape

God, who is omnipresent. Trying to get away from

God and his blessed presence his favor, but when

he gets that he realizes nope This is not what

I want He cannot stand it for a second and friends.

This is how sin works Sin can be enticing Sin

can be exciting sin can be scintillating But

you know this sin does not satisfy It doesn't

sin destroys us and so we must be destroying

sin before it destroys us All that sin is is

just simply rebellion Against God where we act

like God doesn't know like God doesn't see us

but friends Your sin will find you out Your sin

will find you out. And so when we are in rebellion

against God, what should we do? Should we keep

running? Should we keep trying to hide? Should

we trying to escape the everywhereness of God?

No. No. For it doesn't work. And even if it did,

you would absolutely hate it. Do not try and

escape from God. God... coming after you he sent

his son for this very purpose to reclaim sinners

and so do not run from God but instead pray to

him as he says as this text says that God is

still his God we might ask this question for

those who don't know Jesus how can Jonah's God

be my God how can he be your God Only through

Jesus Christ. Friends, you don't have to face

the hellish grave. You can have eternal life

with all of God's blessings. This story here

of Jonah shows us that it's not too late, is

it? It's not too late. As Jonah's life was fainting

away, he remembers the Lord and he exclaims,

salvation belongs to the Lord. Friends, the story

of Jonah. It's our story The story of Jonah is

our story for we were in rebellion against God

But because of God's mercy we are saved and that

mercy has a name And his name is Jesus And what

is so Remarkable about Jesus amongst a thousand

things Is that Jonah As Jonas says that he's

driven away from God, Jesus knows what that's

like. Jesus knows what it's like for the Father

to turn his face away. Jesus, who on the cross

exclaimed, my God, my God, why have you forsaken

me? Jesus knows what it's like, for he received

the fullness of the punishment for our sin. Second

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 5 says that he became a sin

Jesus endured the fullness the shame of it all

So that you don't have to face the wrath of God

So that you don't have to face separation from

the benevolence of God know today that Christ

went through it for you He did it for you. I

Really like How Isaiah 43 puts this, just verse

two. The prophet says here as God speaks through

him, when you pass through the waters, I will

be with you. And through the rivers, they shall

not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire,

you shall not be burned and the flame shall not

consume you. Christian. Jesus has gone through

the flood. He's gone through the flame. And anything

you go through right now, if you are united to

Christ in faith, He is always with you by His

Spirit. Jesus did this for us. And so today,

if you are running from God, if you are in rebellion

against God, if you are denying the Gospel, do

not wait another instant before doing the very

thing. that Jonah should have been doing all

along. Pray. Pray and say salvation belongs to

the Lord. Now today you might say, well, I'm

not in rebellion against God. I'm not running

from God. I've been a member of this church for

years, decades, maybe my whole life. What's the

application for me? What's the application for

the Christian who is walking closely with Jesus?

Well remember, Jonah was a believer, too. Jonah

was a prophet of God. And so prayer is not just

to be done from the belly of Sheol. Prayer is

not just a Hail Mary. The Christian life is a

life of prayer. Even Jonah shows this, this,

because yes, there is lamentation within his

song, within his prayer. There's also thanksgiving,

isn't there? There's also Thanksgiving, but I

with the voice of Thanksgiving He says in verse

9 will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will

pay and so the Christian life is a life of thankful

prayer And so cultivate Christian cultivate your

prayer life Praying in adoration Praying in confession

Praying in Thanksgiving and praying in supplication

pray daily and pray throughout the day. But you

might say, well, I don't really know how. How

do I pray like Jonah does here? Do Jonah's words

sound familiar at all? When I read Psalm 88,

did that sound familiar at all to you? It should.

Jonah's prayer sounds like it was lifted straight

from the Psalter. And here's why. because Jonah,

even as a runaway prophet, he knew the word.

He knew some of the word. That's the reason why

this chapter 2 sounds so much like Psalm 9, or

Psalm 42, or Psalm 69, or Psalm 88. It's because

Jonah is praying scripture back to God. And so

when you are in desperation, when you have hit

rock bottom, oh friends, I hope that you have

stored up a whole wealth of God's word within

your heart. I like how one other pastor put it.

That Jonah in the belly of the fish, I bet it

was pretty dark in there. Probably pretty hard

to get his Bible out, right? And so how can we

be ready for the storms of life? We must hide

God's Word in our hearts. That's what I believe

that Jonah did. That's why he's able to pray

this way. And so, when you are in crisis mode,

when something happens, and you don't know what

to do, what scripture would you go to? What psalm

or any part of scripture would you cry out back

to God? Maybe you would just go to Jonah 2 -9

and say, Lord, salvation belongs to you. We must

hide God's Word in our hearts. Because salvation

does belong to the Lord. There is salvation in

no other name. God is in control of your life

and mine. God is sovereign over every square

inch of creation. This is evidenced by verse

10. Look there as I begin to conclude. And the

Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out

upon the dry land. Here we see yet another example

how everything in the book of Jonah responds

to God. Everything in the book of Jonah responds

to God except for the prophet until now. Until

now. And so you see this fish spit Jonah out

onto dry land. Why does the fish do that? Why

does God command the fish to do this? Because

God is merciful. Because God is not finished

with Jonah yet. Because God's not yet through

with the prophet announcing repentance in Nineveh.

Because even though we may be stubborn, even

though we may be rebellious, even though we may

be prodigals, even though we may be runaways,

God is not finished with us yet. And God will

accomplish His purposes. showing mercy. Let's

pray.