Let's continue on ...
Verse 6:
at the roots of the mountains, I went down to the land whose bars
closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit O Lord my God.
Jonah’s situation is hopeless at this point, he’s in the belly
of a great fish in the deepest of deep, at the very roots of the mountains that
rose out of the waters, yet the Lord is keeping him alive!
Verse 7: When my life was fainting
away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.
Jonah was dying, there was nothing he could do to help
himself, until he remembered the Lord and starting praying. Remembering God was an important turning
point for Jonah.
Verse 8:
Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast
love.
Jonah’s deep-seated hatred of idolatry surfaces while he,
still not out of danger, continues to pray.
He remembers how the sailors had prayed to their gods and even
in the midst of his current circumstances, holds on to the detestation that all
Jews held toward all non-Jews.
Jonah still hasn’t learned the lesson that his God was for ALL
peoples everywhere, not just the Jews.
He still has some pride and self-righteousness issues to confront and
deal with as well.
The same loving, merciful, and patient God who kept working
with Jonah, does the same for us today.
God is not willing for even one to perish and as evidenced by the
account of Jonah, He more than does His part to draw and keep us unto Him.
Verse 9:
But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I
have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs
to the Lord!
Jonah repents for his disobedience and is ready to do what God
wants him to do … despite the attitude he still harbors in his heart towards
the Ninevites.
Suffering can sometimes lead us to self-examination and a
deeper level of spirituality, this seems to have been the case for Jonah as he
boldly proclaims, “Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
Verse 10:
And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry
land.
The Lord was pleased with Jonah’s change of heart and gives
him a second chance! God spoke to the
fish and it vomited Jonah out onto dry land, secular history tells us,
somewhere in Palestine. Imagine how
Jonah felt as he landed on that dry land!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Whew! What a journey Jonah has had thus far. In the next entry, we'll see if he is now really ready to do what God wants him to do.
Until the next installment,
patsy @ From This Heart Of Mine
(c) 2022 by Patsy Norwood. All Rights Reserved.
We have a family member that we have prayed for for many years and last summer God answered that prayer but the relationship between us became strained around that time and communication was severed. This has caused me so much stress but God reminded me that He answered the prayer that I had prayed for so long and he has this handled as well. We know that this relative has reached what he considered the lowest place he can be and that he said would never go back to employment wise. Jonah's story is so much like this man's story. As much as it hurts to let him continue to fall we must allow it just as God allowed Jonah to fall. God still has work to do and we must trust Him. This passage was a good reminder of that for me today.
ReplyDeleteLana, I do understand your pain, we have a similar situation in our family as well. Releasing them fully and completely to God is hard and is a lesson in faith for the one releasing.
Delete