20241212

prayer from the fish

Jonah 1:17-2:10

Jonah 1:17 Yahveh supplied a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Jonah 2:1 Jonah prayed to Yahveh his God from the stomach of the fish:
Jonah 2:2 I called Yahveh in distress, and he answered me. I cried out for help from the belly of Sheol; you heard my voice.
Jonah 2:3 You threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas, and the current overcame me. All your breakers and your billows swept over me.
Jonah 2:4 But I said, “I have been banished from your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple.
Jonah 2:5 The water engulfed me up to the neck; the watery depths overcame me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.
Jonah 2:6 I sank to the foundations of the mountains, the land’s gates shut behind me forever! Then you raised my life from the Pit, Yahveh my God!
Jonah 2:7 As my life was fading away on me, I remembered Yahveh, and my prayer came to you, to your holy temple.
Jonah 2:8 Those who cherish worthless idols abandon their faithful love,
Jonah 2:9 but as for me, I will sacrifice to you with a voice of thanksgiving. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation belongs to Yahveh.”
Jonah 2:10 Then Yahveh spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

prayer from the fish

Jonah was in the belly of Sheol when he was drowning in the water — before he was in the stomach of the fish. In verse 7, Jonah says that when his life was ebbing away, he called out to the LORD, and his prayer came to God’s holy temple. Jonah’s prayer from the fish was not a prayer for help, is was a prayer of gratitude (8-10). The fish was not Sheol. The fish was God’s gift to Jonah. It was his means of rescue from the grave. Jonah’s prayer from the fish was not a prayer for help, it was a prayer of gratitude because God spared his life.

You may be in an uncomfortable situation today, and you will be tempted to be bitter at God for it. But this situation you now face might turn out to be God’s means of getting you back to where you should be. Be grateful for the fish and fulfill your vows.

(see also: this sermon and this article).

Get any of Jeff’s books here!