June 17, 2020
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Jonah? Here’s today’s reading:
Jonah 2 (ESV)
Jonah’s Prayer
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 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........Continue Reading
Already registered? Click here to log in.
Not registered? Click here (LHCC members only)
Need help registering or commenting? Watch this video tutorial! 🙂
To comment on this chapter, you must be registered and logged in. Once you are logged in, the comment box will appear at the bottom of this page. LHCC Commenting Policy
Repentance – freeing
Jonah is so real, his flaws make him relatable
Sometimes God allows us to end up in a dark place due to our disobedience. Jonah called on the name of the Lord and was rescued. I’ve felt like fish vomit after disobeying God. Yet God restored me after I repented. What a loving, merciful God we serve.
I like that Cherrilynn – “I’ve felt like fish vomit after disobeying God.”
Makes me think of Psalm 32:
“When I kept silent, my bones grew old
Through my groaning all the day long.
4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.”
Sin can affect us physically.
Those who pay regard to vain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
“Those who regard worthless idols
Forsake their own Mercy.
But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord.”
So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Jonah is at his worst in chapter 1 and at His best in chapter 2. What a good description we have for what happened in the water and what Jonah was internalizing as it happened. This is really the point of discipline….I am in over my head…I have made a mess of things..I can’t manage the place where my choices have brought me…I am scared, sad and hopeless….but as I am at the end of my rope, I reach out to God and He throws me another rope, a lifeline. “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord….” And being restored to Him brings grace, thanksgiving, sacrifice, purpose and salvation!
And once the lesson is learned, Jonah is jettisoned from his holding cell. How glad Jonah must have been to be part of fish vomit…..it’s still dry land and breathing fresh air! Repentance is a wonderful thing!
When we run from God it will lead to disaster and despair. I do like that in verse four, Jonah has confidence that he ‘shall again look upon your [God’s] holy temple.’ Isn’t it strange that Jonah has confidence in God in the depths of the ocean, but he did not have confidence in God to do the right thing with Nineveh?
How about the description of Jonah’s aquatic imprisonment? Weeds wrapped around his head, at the roots of the mountains. There seems to be some tension in Jonah’s belief that God sees him here but hears his prayer in the temple in Jerusalem, or at least that is what I believe he references in verse seven.
yet you brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord my God.
7When my life was fainting away,
I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
8 Those who pay regard to vain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
10And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.