Hey! It's Dark in Here! Jonah, Chapter 2:1-6 Continued

We are pondering how God used a large fish to swallow Jonah, and how we could see that as punishment for his disobedience.  

It's not so farfetched to think that. 

He has been disobedient by not following God's call to go out and preach repentance to the Ninevites. He booked a ship going in the opposite direction and thought taking a snooze below decks would be the end of it. 

Then he gets hurled over the side of the ship (he deserved that too!) and went into a raging sea.  In the ancient world, the sea represented chaos. The once and future prophet is in the sea and it then calms down.  Did Jonah catch the idea that he will bring the One who calms the sea--Who brings order and hope--to those tossed about by sin's sea?

I don't think so. 

The key verse here is: "Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights" (1:17). 

The fish was a provision from God. An agent of rescue.

Has God sent you an agent of rescue?  Perhaps it was or is a pastor; a friend; a family member; a doctor or a counselor.  Maybe many people.  Maybe just one. 

But God is in the business of providing those who will stand alongside us, offer us comfort, guidance or just a good listening ear. 

How often we forfeit hope when we isolate away from the very ones that God is sending to assist us to get up and out: 

Walk with the wise and become wise,
     for a companion of fools suffers harm. (Prov. 13:20)

We lose His blessings when He has heard our pleas and sends out agents to minister to us.  Do we slam the door in their faces?

Many years ago, my mother started sliding into deep dementia, due to twenty-six years of alcoholism.  The doctor took a scan of the frontal lobe of her brain, and instead of brain tissue, there was just fluid, fluid from the dead brain cells.  The doctor told me her symptoms would mimic Alzheimer’s, and within a year after being reduced to an infantile state, she would be gone. 

Sure enough, she soon started having trouble swallowing her food, and speaking.  She had trouble remembering things, and grew more and more confused as the days wore on.  She started salivating on herself, and her shirt would grow wet from the drool. 

As she grew worse, I grew more and more isolated.  I was embarrassed to take her to church, and when I did, I was startled at how little people seem to care.

Then I stopped going to church. 

One day, I heard a knock on my door.  My very sweet pastor was on the doorstep, and I asked him in.  He seemed a little guarded and then asked me what was wrong.  I finally blurted out that I didn’t think that his church cared about what I was going through!  Wasn’t it obvious that my mom was going downhill?

He quietly looked at me and said, “Rhonda, the church is many things, but one thing we can’t do is read minds.  You haven’t shared with us exactly what is wrong with your mother, and you haven’t shared your pain as her caregiver.  Please tell me what is happening.” 

At that moment, what was so obvious to me wasn’t clear to others.  I had not told anyone, including my pastor, the long sad story of her illness. 

So, I shared my story with this saintly man.  Sure enough, that Sunday, I noticed gentle looks from many people and received some desperately needed hugs.  My perspective changed.  I felt I was now with people who would help me get through this. 

My mother’s situation and mine had not changed.  My perspective had.  I now had hope, because I had opened up and sought counsel with something other than my own sad and angry thoughts.

Jonah declares, 

When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple. (2:7)

Oh Lord, help us, even in the depths of our darkness, to remember You!

Jesus is described in the Gospel of John as being the very dwelling place of God:

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (1:14) 

Do you see it now?  God remembered us, and dwelt among us in the fullest and most complete way possible: He wrapped Himself in flesh, and walked among us. 

The word in the Greek that John uses for “made His dwelling” is associated with the “Tent of Meeting” where the children of Israel and Moses met to commune with God in the desert.  This tent was filled with God’s glory.[1] 

Christ, “dwelling” in the flesh, had the glory of God dwelling in Him:

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Col. 1:19-20)

We are not alone.  Jesus knows all too well the pain we go through.  The writer of Hebrews, proclaiming Christ to be the ultimate high priest, says,

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way as we are — yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (4:14-16)

As we draw near to God, seeking a new perspective, we gain the ultimate hope:  God is right there in the belly of the whale with us. Jesus is the ultimate Agent of Rescue.  But we have to listen and follow  what He says.  If He sends us a "fish"-- someone to stand with us--then we need to thank Him for this provision.

We may still be in the dark, to be sure. Sometimes we sit there for our "three days and nights." But, look up and in the darkness you will see the face of Jesus.  He also went into the darkness—the darkness of a tomb—and now He constantly encourages us that Easter morning is coming! 

 

---

[1] NIV Study Bible, note on John 1:14. 

Hey! It's Dark in Here! Jonah, Chapter 2:1-6

Instead of falling into the ocean and remaining there, a great fish swallows Jonah. The chaos within Jonah’s soul is another matter, however.

Sometimes, God will bring us to a place of isolation, not as punishment, but for reflection. We need to sit, think, pray, cry. Our fears and anger can so dominate our thoughts that no other voice is heard. But in a dark and quiet place, we can hear God. He is always speaking, but we’re not always listening.

Suddenly, the question of what lurks beneath the water is revealed to Jonah as a place where God dwells.  Do you believe that there is a corner somewhere, anywhere, where God can’t be there with you? Look at what Psalm 104:24-26 says:

How many are Your works, O Lord!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
There is the sea, vast and spacious,
teeming with creatures beyond number —
living things both large and small.
There the ships go to and fro,
and the leviathan, which You formed to frolic there.

Suddenly the dark waters are not filled with frightening creatures lurking about, but are teeming with creatures placed there by God! Look at the leviathan happily swimming in the ocean. It’s no longer a dreaded and frightening creature, out to destroy. It frolics!

Wait a minute. What’s happening here? What about all those Bible verses about the “monster of the deep” and the “sinister serpent”? It’s a matter of perspective.

From our perspective, the unknown is indeed frightening. When you take the unknown, mix it with your fears, add the trauma you have suffered, pour in the pain you have endured, and add in the avoidance you’ve made part of your life, the dark is indeed frightening.

What’s lurking under there is far too scary to ponder.

Now, let’s step outside our point of view, and climb up to God’s.

Have you ever had someone give you a hand to get up on a rock and once you were there, you were awestruck?

We once went hiking in Utah in a place called Goblin Valley. It’s one of those places where the wind has sculpted the red sedimentary rock into odd and wonderful shapes, some of which look like little squat men — snowmen made of rock!

We decided to climb this one mountain to catch a view of the whole valley. Needless to say, we are not talented climbers. We were constantly saying, “Here, take my hand!” and struggling to scamper up sharp steep rocks. We were sweating profusely, because summers are hot in the Utah desert.

We finally cried, “Wow!” as we stood atop this mountain, and surveyed a valley filled with drifting clouds, shafts of soft yellow light and cool breezes.

We marveled at a rock formation way off in the distance aptly named, “Temple Rock.” It looked like a marble Greek temple in the afternoon sun. What changed? We were still in Goblin Valley, but atop that mountain, up and away from the desert floor, our perspective dramatically changed.

That made all the difference on how we saw this place.

Jonah’s perspective will change after being in the deep dark belly of the whale. His fears and anger caused him to forget this central truth: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15). God takes no delight in watching Jonah suffer and die; He wants Jonah to change his perspective on how he sees himself and how he sees God. In that dark belly, he calls out to God. This time, it’s from a heart filled with faith. He has nothing to hide from God. Jonah is now seeking the greater purpose of his life.

He sees this dark belly as a kind of tomb and suddenly life is precious. The man willing to jump in the sea with a death-wish now sees life as a gift to hold on to. That old Joni Mitchell song, “Big Yellow Taxi,” puts it well: “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone….”

Sometimes a change in perspective comes from a near miss.

Let’s hear what Jonah says. He’s being completely honest here:

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 (verses 1-2).

He is not out of trouble. He senses, however, that God has provided a safe place (relative to the turmoil of the sea and the creatures therein) for him to grieve in and cry out in.

It is “safe,” yes, but it’s also a kind of grave.

Interesting, isn’t it? The place where we might want to run and hide — a place of isolation and darkness — can also be a kind of grave. Maybe that’s how we want it.

But Who is in there with you makes all the difference! We are not alone in the dark place. He is there. Now, more than ever, Jonah’s heart is softening towards Him:

“You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all Your waves and breakers swept over me” (verse 3).

Jonah now sees the Lord’s hand in this whole affair. He tried to run away from God and find a spot where He could not possibly be. The oceans reflected his inner self, where he felt overwhelmed by all of the fear and hurt raging in him. Yet, it’s interesting that he still saw the waves, as scary as they were, as still being in God’s hands. While the storm raged, inside and outside of Jonah, God was showing Jonah that He was not distant or aloof.

Jonah comments, 

I said, "I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple” (verse 4).

Jonah insightfully observes it wasn’t God that banished him from His sight. He confesses he said that. He admits what his attitude is.

He is saying that his interpretation of what the Lord is doing is only his opinion; he is now searching for the truth about himself, God and his situation.

How often do we simply blame God, and leave it at that? Today many people will blame God, and then walk away, as if blaming Him absolves them of any responsibility for what happened, or having to seek out the truth of the matter.

It is true that sometimes bad things happen to good people. But there are many times where at some level, we have contributed to our woe by making poor decisions, ignoring warning signs, or having an unwillingness to seek or accept wise counsel.

The consequences are sadly real and pound at our front door. Sometimes that pounding lasts for years.

But Jonah is willing to say:

Look, I banished myself from God, and I hid myself in the dark below the deck of the ship. Here I am again, below deck, so to speak, sitting in the dark, smelling like seaweed. But now I know where to turn…

Hearing this from a man who was running away from God and is now turning towards the Lord’s holy temple is significant. Jonah’s “divine time-out” has captured his attention. He knows he must turn towards home.  This is a picture of repentance, which means to make a 180 degree turn away from sin. We are to then seek the Lord in overcoming sin.

Suddenly, Jonah’s dungeon is his deliverance. His darkness now “lights” his way to seek the arms of the One Who has been waiting alongside him the whole time.  This time Jonah is not asleep. He is fully aware of his condition, his need and his predicament. Most importantly, he knows where to look for salvation: God’s holy temple.

In Psalm 5:7-8, David says,

But I, by Your great mercy,
will come into Your house,
in reverence will I bow down
toward Your holy temple.
Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness,
because of my enemies —
make straight Your way before me.

It’s a matter of perspective. By bowing down in God’s holy house, David could sense God’s majesty, and ask for His direction in his life. David fought a lot of external enemies, but he also faced many internal ones as well. He needed God’s strength and perspective to carry on.

Jonah’s greatest enemies, for now, are on the inside. By bowing down towards God’s house, he is acknowledging God’s majesty and presence in the world and in his life.  Instead of looking to the past for answers or engaging in self-recrimination, he now has a future and a hope by looking to where God dwells. He is no longer looking at where his fear and hurt dwell.

Listen again to David in Psalm 27:4-5:

One thing I ask of the Lord,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to seek Him in His temple.
For in the day of trouble
He will keep me safe in His dwelling;
He will hide me in the shelter of His tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.

This is a “perspective check” for David. He is seeking the Lord in His temple. By doing so, he is able to exult in his mighty and caring Lord.

Later in that psalm he exclaims, 

I am confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (verses 13-14).

David’s son and the next king, Solomon, dedicated the majestic First Temple by proclaiming:

…and when a prayer or plea is made by any of Your people Israel — each one aware of the afflictions of his own heart, and spreading out his hands towards this temple — then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place. Forgive and act… (1 Kings 8:38-9)

Isn’t it interesting that while the Temple is acknowledged as God’s dwelling place, Heaven is as well? One as magnificent as God cannot be contained in a mere physical structure, no matter how awesome and beautiful it may be.  Therefore, no matter where you might be, bowing down like David in a beautiful place, or calling out to Heaven from inside a dark place, He is sure to hear and respond!

Jonah does not deny how dreadful his circumstances are:

The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounding me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountain I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. (verses 5-6)

Talk about feeling trapped. Hedged in. No way out. A terrible spot. He is looking at where he is, but he is pondering where he will be because of the Lord: 

But You brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God (verse 6).

That “but” in the sentence is very important. It signals that although he fully recognizes where he is, he can now see that these forces — the waves, the sea, the sailors, the ship and the big fish — are all agents of God’s plan of rescue. God will take him out of the pit, the grave, and the darkness. He now has the one thing that eluded him earlier: hope!

It is a hope firmly anchored to God. Jonah is no longer anchored to his fear.

We will continue this next week...

The Prince of Whales/Wails: Jonah, Chapter One, Continues

Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God. “O Lord,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”

Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him. Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights. (1:15-17) 

Jonah, upon seeing the increased winds and the fury of the sea, suggests to the sailors that they give him the heave-ho, and the sea will calm down. But the sailors ignore his suggestion, and row like mad instead. But here’s where it gets increasingly interesting! The sailors now cry out to Jonah’s God, and beg Him in verse 14 to not “hold us accountable for killing an innocent man...”

Do we assume an ignorant heart is an unreceptive one, and being as the sailors did not believe in the God of Israel, they must not care about morality? Wasn’t that the idea originally hidden in Jonah’s heart? Why bother with those who do not know our God? And yet, here they are, crying out to Jonah’s God alone! They did not lump Him in with their gods. They are looking only to Him! This is a perfect moment for Jonah to capitalize on and share his message. But he chooses not to.

The winds are acting as a kind of messenger. They are, in fact, doing the very job that Jonah has failed to do. They are displaying the mightiness of God, thus causing people to turn to Him. As it says in Psalm 104:4: “He makes winds His messengers, flames of fire His servants.” So, these winds are also prophets of the Lord. The sailors are hearing the message. But is Jonah as well?

Because Jonah is fully occupied with himself, he chooses the harder way. By having the men throw him overboard, is he sacrificing himself because he feels guilty and thinks he deserves death, or is he seeking death as a relief? Either way, he will be out of the picture as far as the prophetic message is concerned. A dead prophet is not useful to God. Jonah is proposing to end it all: his message and his life. But the sailors fear the consequences of taking him up on his offer because they fear the Lord. Jonah’s Lord.

But, in verse 15, they throw him overboard, and the “raging sea grew calm.”

Bingo. Jonah’s God is truly God and now the sailors are probably quite open to this possibility. Or, it is possible that they just embraced Jonah’s God as the strongest One among many gods?[1]

Either way, it’s a start! Verse 16 says, “At this [the calming of the sea] the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and made vows to Him.”

I wonder what the vows were. But sadly, Jonah’s message ended when he hit the water. He couldn’t follow up on their openness to Israel’s God. Talk about a Divine Appointment! These men were eager to understand Jonah and his God and where’s Jonah? Bobbing up and down in a calm sea.

But the sea wasn’t just a sea.

To the ancient world, the sea was a place of chaos. In cultures where people didn’t swim, probe the depths with submarines or scuba gear, the dark waters were a place of fear: the fear of the unknown. How would you know what is really down there? The forces that generated a raging sea could one day rise up and devour the land.

The Great Flood in Genesis was an ancient people’s worst nightmare: dark heaving waters did in fact swell up and utterly covered the land, destroying the people. Drowning was and still is a terrifying thought.

The Sea of Galilee in Jesus’ day was considered an abyss. Even though His disciples were fishermen, when the Sea of Galilee raged, they were terrified. Have you ever wondered why, in Matthew 14:25-33, the disciples thought Jesus was a “ghost” as He walked past them, as they struggled with the mighty waves of a storm? They were fishermen, and they were used to storms. The disciples feared that they were being tossed about over the abyss. Perhaps they feared that they were at the very gates of Hades itself, as many people in Jesus’ day saw the Sea of Galilee. It was seen as an entrance into chaos, uncertainly, fear.  So, what do the disciples see? A “ghost”! One of the occupants of Hades! Right? No. It was Jesus, walking over the abyss. He was walking over death, chaos and fear.[2]

Peter left the boat, and walked with His Lord for a few precious moments. He was then filled with doubt, and began to sink. Jesus “caught him,” and asked Peter why he doubted. “And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down” (Matt. 14:14-32).

Sound familiar? With this proof God’s mightiness exhibited by Jesus Himself, the disciples worship Jesus. They exclaim, “Truly you are the Son of God” in verse 33. The calming of the seas evoked awe and respect in the disciples. Jesus was not only the Master over the elements but also over their darkest fears about chaos and death.

The sailors, as they peered over the edge and saw Jonah in the dark waters, must also have felt awe and respect. But the sailors, like the disciples, were in the safety of the boat. Jonah had been thrown into the abyss. Into chaos. Into darkness.

Jonah is now in a place of uncertainty. He is in real danger.

Have you ever been in a place where it is just dark enough that you can’t quite see what’s out there? You know far more of “what’s out there” in our natural world today than did the ancients, but I am sure that you found that uncertainty very disconcerting.

Jonah is afraid to pop over to Nineveh, where he knows what the dangers are. Now, bobbing up and down in the dark waters, he faces unknown dangers. The sea may be calm, but it is still dark. He is terrified! Just think about the disciples of Jesus, who spent their lives on the water and the fears they had. Here is Jonah, a land-loving prophet out in a much bigger sea, without a hand or a plan! No one was walking up to him or inviting him back into the boat!

Our fears can drive us into even deeper waters, so to speak, and we can end up even more afraid.

I had a dear friend whose husband was sexually abused as a child. Their marriage was rocky for many years. When she would throw down the gauntlet of “Counseling or else!” he would go, staying just long enough to iron out the immediate issues to placate his wife. They’d soon settle back in to old the routine, and sure enough, something else would come along and start a new fire.

I asked my friend one day if her husband had discussed the abuse with the counselor. She said, “Oh no, it is just too painful for him.” So, year after year, he continued to manipulate her and hurt her because his pain was so great. Finally, many years later, she left him, and I am sure that the pain he experienced was tremendous. His unwillingness to face his own Nineveh (the sexual abuse, his anger at the abuser and the sense of betrayal by his parents) eventually led to an even greater pain. He was thrown into the abyss of a failed marriage, with little or no hope of reconciliation with his wife.

How often, when we avoid our Nineveh, do we end up in a scarier and lonelier place? We think by avoiding the pain that somehow we will be freer. This avoidance leads to more bondage. Instead of being free, we now have even more pain.

The sailors aren’t jumping in to rescue Jonah. They are afraid of the water as well. Once he is in, he is in. Their ship catches the gentle breeze and it sails away. But God is constantly reaching out to bring Jonah back to Himself. God devises a plan. He sends a “great fish.”

Now, picture this: You’re bobbing up and down, eyes at sea level, wondering what’s below you, and then, gulp…down you go! Are you being pulled down to drown? To be eaten? To enter the very gates of hell?

How about a charming combination of all three?

I am sure at this point Jonah is thinking: Great. Wonderful. I am doomed. No more second chances. I am being judged. For good. I wonder who’s having me for dinner?

Let’s look at this fishy candidate gulping down our Jonah. It is known by various names in the Bible. By the way, the word used in both the Old and New Testaments means “great fish.”[3]

Let’s be fair here. When a large whale carcass washes up on the shore, an ancient person isn’t going to know whether it’s a fish or a mammal. It’s just big and dwells under water.

I will use the word “whale,” because it is more familiar. Either way, no one wants to go down the gullet of some marine animal.

Another Old Testament prophet, Amos, called this occupant of the deep a “sinister serpent.” Amos warns his people who are seeking to escape God’s judgment what will befall them: “Though they hide from Me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them.” (9:3) However, even the scary monsters under the water are subject to God’s control.[4] They are not independent of His hand.

Another name of this creature is “Leviathan.” In describing another time of judgment, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah says,

In that day,
the Lord will punish with his sword—
his fierce, great and powerful sword—
Leviathan the gliding serpent,
Leviathan the coiling serpent;
he will slay the monster of the sea. (27:1)

Repetition is used here to get across not only how God mightily defends His own, but how He will vanquish those who come against Him and His people.

Another name for this creature is “monster of the deep.” Job complains in his suffering (which he sees as judgment) “Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that you put me under guard?” (7:12)

God holds the sea monster under His mighty hand, and Job resents being treated as such.[5]

Psalm 74:12-14 celebrates God’s mighty power to deliver His people and to provide salvation:

But God is my King from long ago;
he brings salvation on the earth.
It was you who split open the sea by your power;
you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.

This creature, who is trying to overcome God’s people, is controlled by His hand. It is on a divine leash (if you will) to remind His people that they need not fear. Why? God is mightier than even the mightiest of creatures.

So, Jonah, fearfully watching the blue sky and lighted waters recede from him as he plunges down into the whale, wonders if God is judging him through a monster of the deep. But is He? Consider this: “The Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah…” (1:17)

When I was little, I thought that Jonah was in big trouble and that’s why he got swallowed. Later, I thought that again when I heard that the little ones at our church were learning about Jonah. I would again think, “Wow, you blew it to get swallowed! Next time, Jonah, man up and do what is right!”

Now after studying Jonah, I see his descent into the belly of the whale not as a punishment but as a provision. God is not judging him. God is providing a “safe place” to go. It is scary, yes, but it is not a place without hope.

Jesus uses the story of Jonah when He tells His disciples that the belly of the whale is comparable to the tomb He will occupy after His crucifixion. While His death will be terrifying, it will not be without hope. Although it is dark inside the carved rock tomb where Jesus’ broken body will be placed, Jesus will walk out three days later into the light of that lovely spring morning.

Jesus uses Jonah’s story to instill hope in His disciples as He faces His impending death.

Jonah’s time in the whale’s belly is limited. He is there to learn of God’s mightiness, not His judgment. God is indeed devising a plan to call back His estranged prophet, even though it means sitting in the sloshing juices of a large fish’s stomach for three days!


[1] NIV Study Bible, note on Jonah 1:16.
[2] “Sea of Galilee”
[3] NIV Study Bible, note on Jonah 1:17.
[4] NIV Study Bible, note on Amos 9:3.
[5] NIV Study Bible, note on Job 7:12.