“Lessons from Jonah: Confess & Repent”

Scripture: Jonah 2

Last week, we left Jonah wallowing in the sea, after which he was swallowed up by a large fish. Life as he knew it seemed to have come to an abrupt end. But our passage for today finds our brother safe, but still locked up tight in the belly of that fish.
He offers a prayer to his mighty God, which is reminiscent of Psalm 88. It reminds us that no matter where we may go, no matter what our trial, no matter how lost we may be, the Lord is always with us. (Read Psalm 88:1-5) A pretty dark place, to say the least!
Jonah’s situation is also reflective of a poem that was written in the late 18th century by Francis Thompson called the Hound of Heaven. Here are just a few of the opening lines:
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat--and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet--
"All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."

The translation!
- “No matter how fast we run,
- no matter how far we run,
- no matter how convoluted a path we may take,
- no matter where we may try to hide,
- the LORD will
- patiently and
- quietly and
- constantly and
- purposefully
continue to pursue us throughout our lives, and we will never be able to shake Him.
And if we deny his call on our lives, if we deny the love that he has for each one of us, we are, in essence, denying the love that God has placed within each of us.”

Read Jonah 2:1-6

I doubt that many of us could imagine what it is like to spend 3 days in the belly of a fish! And I won’t even try to describe my impression of such a fate, but I do think we could picture what it might be like to spend 3 days in pitch blackness, with no sounds, no voice, no light, no hope – only the despondent beating of our own heart.
That’s where Jonah was as he prayed this prayer to the very same God he had been denying. He now understands that even as he had tried to escape from the gaze of his great Yahweh, even as he had tried to run to parts unknown to him, no thing and no-where is unknown to God. He had done everything that he could to avoid the Lord’s call on his life, but now he says that God was with him all along the way. Verse 2 – “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help and you listened to my cry.” It wasn’t all that long ago that he didn’t want to hear anything from his Lord, but now he knows that the Lord was always with him and listening to him.

Have you even had those times in your life that were so terrible, you not only wondered where God was, but you yelled at him and blamed him for all the trial and the pain you were struggling with? “God – where are you! Don’t you care? I can’t deal with this on my own! Don’t you care?”

Remember the plight of the disciples when the storm overtook them on the lake, and Jesus was sound asleep in the boat? (Mark 4:35-41) They came to the Lord with the exact same words – “Don’t you care if we all drown?” And Jesus, after calming the stormy waters, replied “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” Note that Jesus doesn’t tell them that the storm will go away if they have faith in him, but rather that their fears will subside by faith in him.

When John Wesley was traveling across the Atlantic to begin a ministry in the colony of Georgia, a violent storm struck the ship, and nearly everyone was terrified – except for the entire Moravian contingent, who just continued to pray and sing and celebrate the Lord throughout the entire ordeal! Later Wesley would ask them if they had been afraid. They replied that none of them were – not the men, or the women, or even the children. Their faith in Jesus Christ had allayed all of their fears.

Where was God for the disciples that day on the Sea of Galilee? Where was God for John Wesley that day in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean? Where was God for Jonah that day in the belly of the fish? Where is God for us on those days when the burdens of life threaten to bury us? Right where he always is - patiently and lovingly waiting for us to turn our pain and fears and trials over to him! There is little that God can do for us while we have such a tight grip on our struggle, but when we let them go, there is nothing that the Lord can’t and won’t do for us!!

Read Jonah 2:7-10

Jonah is confessing Yahweh as his one and only God who must be followed. Verses 8 and 9 seem to have become Jonah’s evangelistic call – not to the people of Nineveh, but to himself. This reluctant prophet had come to the realization that his refusal to do as the Lord had asked him was his attempt to “cling to a worthless idol”. And that “idol” was his hatred for the people of Nineveh. It was his false belief, it was his rejection of God’s truth, it was a
Jonahesque image that had no place in God’s heart. But now he was turning back to his glorious Lord, with a song of thanksgiving, and with a renewed hope in grace, and a promise to do as his heart was urging him to do – to follow his Lord once again.

And at this promise, the fish regurgitates the prophet. Another interesting image, isn’t it? Here we have the man had been languishing in hell, so to speak, and now he is brought back into the light of a new day. Was he being “born again”? It’s about as close to that concept as anything I can think of! He was certainly being given a second chance to serve God in heaven’s way and not in man’s way.

What does your pit, your storm, your fish, your hell look like? And how did you ever wind up in that place to begin with? Upon reflection of his experience with the Moravians and their attitude regarding that violent storm, John Wesley would write in his journal – “I can conceive no difference comparable between a smooth and a rough sea, except that which is between a mind calmed by the love of God and one torn up by the storms of earthly passions.” (A. Skevington Wood, The Burning Heart, Emeth Press, 2007, pg. 60) Is that the difference between living in the belly of your fish, or emerging into the light of a new day in Christ? Between letting your fear of the storms of life nearly destroy you, or letting your faith in Christ Jesus calm the violent waters of your soul?

Jonah found the answer for his being freed from the terror of going to Nineveh. He confessed that his life had been focused on “worthless idols”, and that as long as he looked to his own way, his own understanding, God’s grace could never work within him. He had to let go of the burdens and doubts and fears that were pulling him away from God, and let his Lord begin working his wonderful ways within him once again. He confessed his misguided attitudes, he turned his life back toward the Lord, and salvation was his once again. And that is our answer, too.

To paraphrase Jesus’ words from Mark 4 – “Why are you so afraid? Let your faith grow and sustain you in God this very day.”