KESWICK AT PORTSTEWART
BIBLE READING - WEDNESDAY 9 JULY 2025 - MR SAM ALLBERRY
JONAH 2
Jonah 2 finishes with the crescendo "salvation belongs to the Lord." It is a passage about the Lord and his salvation. At last we come to the big fish. We are not told it is a whale, we have made that assumption but it begs the question - do we believe this? Or do we put it into the box that Jack and the Beanstalk belongs in? We find this part of the story hard to swallow. There are people who try to get around it by saying it is a parable and not a history story. There is one school of thought that thinks maybe he was rescued by a boat called the great fish. Others have trawled the history books and found the story of James Bartley who in 1891 was swallowed by a sperm whale he was trying to capture. When the whale was opened up James was alive but unconscious. People then say "it can happen". This story is written as a piece of historical fact rather than a fantasy. These are real historical people and real historical places. Jesus draws the comparison to Jonah's story and his 3 days in the grave. If we struggle with this story then we will struggle with his story. This has been recorded for us to teach us about salvation. In chapter 1 we see Jonah thrown into the sea because of a historical storm. Jonah should have died. Why? Because the wages of sin is death and Jonah's sins were all piling up in chapter 1. Jonah should have drowned. But when we read to the end of chapter 2 Jonah is safely on dry land.
Chapter 2 is a story of rescue. Jonah's cry goes to the Lord who appoints a great fish to rescue Jonah and it is the same God who in verse 10 speaks to the fish to deposit Jonah on dry land. As we think of this salvation we want to consider 4 points:
The need for salvation
The act of salvation
The response to that salvation
The means of that salvation
The need for salvation. Jonah is praying throughout chapter 2. He recounts the predicament from which he was saved. There is 2 dimensions to it - firstly physical. Verse 2 " And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice." This is not mere inconvenience, this was dramatic. On the boat he had been asleep in the middle of the storm. The captain questioned why he was sleeping. Here now he is conscious and troubled. He is in the realm of the dead. As far as he was concerned he is a dead man. This is it. It is all over. There is no way out of it. In the next verse he describes the experience of the trial - "For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me." As we said yesterday we see this idea of going down further and further. Now we see him going down to the very roots of the ground. In verse 6 we see Jonah is at literal rock bottom. There is no where further for him to go. And there is no reason for him to come back up. He is entangled by seaweed. In verse 6 we see the idea of bars locking him in. It is like the walls closing in around him. There is no apparent way out. He is overwhelmed, trapped, it is hopeless. It may well that that is how some of us may feel today. Maybe we find ourselves in seasons unable to think of a way through it. Maybe the worst thing has happened and it is even worse than we imagined. Jonah does not talk about it in terms of physical experience but he speaks of physical realities. He is aware the hand of God is behind it. The sailors had cast him down but Jonah acknowledges it was actually God who cast him down - "thy waves passed over me." It was an awful physical experience. He knows the Lord is behind this. Verse 4 "Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple." Jonah believes himself that God turned his face away from him. We may think 'Jonah isn't that what you wanted." In chapter 1 Jonah had been desperate to get away from God. 3 times we are told he is fleeing from God's presence. He is longing to be off his radar. Now he cannot believe he is getting what he wanted. Sometimes we think if we could airbrush God out of our reality life would be so much better. In Jonah chapter 2 Jonah is discovered God is love, God is light, God is life. When we take God out of the equation we find ourselves alone, in darkness, in death. That is precisely where Jonah is. He is getting a taste of judgment in life. Jonah gets a pretty severe taste of it. Here he is stating his greatest predicament is not the water but God. Our biggest problem is not sin but what it leads to - God turning from us. It is a destiny of all of us apart from Christ. We all need salvation, all of us are careening headlong into destiny without God which seems preferable but it is unbearable.
The act of of salvation. The bible never leaves us without the provision of salvation. Jonah prays - "I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice." In chapter 1 he wouldn't pray when he was told to. When he was thrown into the storm the only thing he could do was flee to God. He prays more than once. Verse 1 in the fish's belly, verse 2 refers to a previous prayer and reflects on how God had answered that earlier prayer. He found God did 2 things which he did not deserve. Firstly God listened. He did not deserve to be heard. In verse 4 he believes he is out of God's sight but not out of his hearing - verses 2 and 7. That prayer made its way to God himself. He was crying out of the belly of hell itself yet God heard him. If there was anywhere out of range of prayer it would be the belly or the grave itself yet even there the prayer rises to heaven itself. God heard his prayer but he also lifted him. God lifts us out of his grace. Jonah is now lifted up. Previously we noted that there were a series of downward movements, now he is lifted up. Verse 6 "I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God." A buoyancy to the grace of God that canters the heaviness of all our sinful nature. When we know the grace of God is available to us there is no mathematical way we can stay down. We are lifted. No sin is too heavy to receive the grace of God. There is no place too far where God cannot hear him. There is no place too deep that God cannot reach. Whenever you feel yourself sinking too low it is not too much for Jesus. He is not intimidated by your sin. Our God is ready to hear and ready to lift. John 1 verse 16 "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." We have all received grace upon grace.
The response to salvation. Jonah has been replaying his need for prayer and his response to it. Verse 8 "Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love." Nothing can replace God. The sailors learned that in chapter 1. Jonah is beginning to realise this more fully himself. If the prophet of God is learning idols will not save us how much more we need to learn it. It may be a god in our lives that becomes gradually the centre of our lives. Something we start to live for. It is good for us to search our own hearts to see what we are trusting in apart from the Lord. It is the morning and we are standing in front of the mirror asking 'what do I need to have in my life to be able to stand here and say I am OK.' It might be a particular relationship, an achievement, popularity, status, children. Whatever it is we need it to be ok in our life. That may be things in and of themselves. Good things but when we make them the centre of our lives they may become empty things. They cannot save us nor bear the full weight of our lives. That realisation leads to resolution in verse 9 "But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord." The sailors already learned that in chapter 1 verse 16. Jonah is now caught up to that place and doing the same thing himself. There will be a Jonah chapter 3. He will go to Nineveh. The word of the Lord will eventually find its way to Nineveh. He responds to that salvation with obedience. We are saved from God and his wrath. We are saved by God and his grace. We are saved for God. We are saved from his judgment. We are not saved by ourselves but for him.
The means of salvation. Jonah 2 raises questions - how is God able to save him? Did his sin matter? How can God say it is OK, I will lift you up and it will be a good outcome. Jonah does not die. The first clue is in verse 1 - "Jonah prayed to the Lord his God." After all the rebellion of chapter 1, of running away from God, of ignoring God the Lord is still his God, the God of heaven. Jonah described God in chapter 1 as God who is able to make himself known but also make himself ours. God is still the Lord our God. How that can be the case is indeed seen in the next clue in verse 4. He mentions the temple in this verse and again in verse 7. The temple of course means by which God could be present with his people. He would dwell among sinful people, receive the prayers and cries of his people. He would meet with his people. Sacrifice and atonement could be made for their sin. That temple now represents Jonah's hope. In John 2 Jesus says the real temple is his body, the physical temple in Jerusalem pointed to the real body of Jesus himself. What Jesus was about to do, that would become the means by which we can become close to God. That we can be redeemed for sin. Jesus is the ultimate temple. In Matthew 12 Jesus refers to the story of Jonah. He is the only prophet Jesus named. Verses 40 and 41 "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here." Jesus is saying 2 things. Like Jonah there are parallels and he is greater than Jonah. He surpasses him. He is like Jonah. Just as Jonah went into the depths so too did Jesus. Jesus was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. He was overwhelmed with God's wrath itself. Jonah felt driven away from God's sight. Jesus really was - "my God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?" Jesus was lifted up from the depths. Jonah was figuratively lifted up from death. "And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power." 1 Corinthians 6 verse 14. Jonah was delivered up from death after 3 days. Jonah was raised up from death figuratively. He was a prophet. His testing was greater than death. Romans 1 verse 4 "And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:" Jesus is like Jonah. He went down into the depths. He was lifted up from depths. He surpassed Jonah. Jesus far eclipses Jonah. Jonah was correct when he said "salvation belongeth to the Lord." He didn't really experience real salvation. it only changed him on the outside. We are going to see that in chapters 3 and 4. The salvation Jesus brings changes us inside. He was saved from the consequences of death, not made new. It didn't change his heart. he went from disobedient to be obedient with a bad heart. He went from being the young son in the parable of the prodigal son's story to be the resentful older son. He went 3 days and Jesus died too. We can say with more conviction that we have hope, profound joy - "salvation belongs to the Lord."