God had directed Jonah to go to Nineveh to warn “that great city” about the consequences of its wickedness. But Jonah disobeyed. He found a ship getting ready to sail for Tarshish, paid the fare and went aboard. It might have seemed to Jonah that a ship waiting at Joppa which he could join was a favourable providence, but we are not so to read providence; he was “out of the way of duty”, to use Matthew Henry’s expression, and the commentator goes on to emphasise that “the ready way is not always the right way”. Significantly, Jonah was going away “from the presence of the Lord” (Jnh 1:3), away from the place of public worship, where God was making known how sinners could be reconciled to Him. Adam and Eve had attempted to hide from God’s presence, and they were unsuccessful. Jonah, of course, was equally unsuccessful. It would have been well for them all to have prayed, “Lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us” (Ps 4:6); in other words, to ask for God’s favour. But that was not consistent with the desire to remove themselves from God’s presence.
Jonah’s purposes were thwarted by a series of special providences: a great storm arose, so severe that it seemed as if the ship would be broken up; the crew eventually agreed with Jonah that he should be thrown overboard; a large fish swallowed up Jonah. These were means that God used to preserve Jonah, so that he would yet be in a position to obey the command to go and warn Nineveh.
In the meantime, Jonah was in a desperate situation, one he was not likely to survive. He had tried to flee from God’s presence and now confessed, “I am cast out of Thy sight”. All he could do was cast himself on the mercy of God, who had revealed Himself as “The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Ex 34:6,7).
Jonah said, “I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord”. His affliction was so great that he had nowhere else to turn. But there was every reason in God’s revelation of Himself to encourage Jonah to look to Him. “No place is amiss for prayer”, says Matthew Henry. How thankful Jonah
could be that he was still in the presence of God! He could think back to David’s questions in Psalm 139, including, “Whither shall I flee from Thy presence?” So Jonah “remembered the Lord”, for even in the depths of the sea, inside the fish, God’s mercy could reach him. Even when he felt, “I am cast out of Thy sight”, there was no need for him to despair; he was in the presence of a merciful God. Matthew Henry also states, “Though we bring our afflictions upon ourselves by our sins, yet, if we pray in humility and godly sincerity, we shall be welcome to the throne of grace, as Jonah was”.
He could say, “Yet I will look again toward Thy holy temple”. It was where the symbol of God’s special presence was, the cloud in the Holy of holies, the inner room of the temple. Jonah would remember what was done there. It was the place of sacrifice, where sinners came with their offerings, laid their hands on the head of their offering, to symbolise transferring their sins to the animal, which was to suffer death in their place. It was not that these sacrifices could take away sin, but they taught much about how sin could be removed, in those years before the coming of Christ.
First, they taught that it was possible for sinners to be reconciled to God. Then they showed something about how that could take place – through a substitute being provided: the animal would die instead of the sinner, who deserved eternal death for breaking God’s law. In these and other ways, the sacrifices were pointing forward to the time when the Son of God would become man and suffer and die as the substitute for sinners, so that they might become reconciled to God, through faith in this glorious Saviour.
So Jonah remembered the ceremonies at the temple and, in his desperate situation, he thought of God’s provision for sinners like him. He perhaps thought of the lambs that were being offered, one each morning and another in the evening, for all Israel. He trusted in God for acceptance, looking beyond the sacrifices to “the Seed of the woman” (Gen 3:15), who was to come in the fullness of time. On the basis of that acceptance, he could say before the Lord: “My prayer came in unto Thee, into Thine holy temple”. And the Lord caused the fish to vomit “out Jonah upon the dry land”.
Hugh Martin comments that Jonah’s “prayer of faith, though in unparalleled circumstances, and spiritually noble in a marvellous degree, contains in it nothing but the ordinary principles of all believing prayer; and though we may not equal it in degree, if our prayers are not the same in kind, they are false”.1 How much we too need the Spirit of prayer, so graciously granted to Jonah!
No matter how severe the circumstances in which we may find ourselves, let us remember the example of Jonah and look again to God’s temple in
1Hugh Martin, The Prophet Jonah, Banner of Truth 1966 reprint, p 189.
heaven, where Christ sits on His throne making continual intercession. Let us look to Him, who has promised never to cast out those who come to Him, and seek deliverance in the way that seems best to Him. Especially, if we are experiencing trouble of soul, let us remember that He healed all who came to Him in this world – whatever their diseases of body or mind. And, as His healing of these diseases points to His power to heal spiritual disease, we are to heed His call, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). He can make even the chief of sinners able and willing to obey the call and trust in Him, not only at conversion, but in every spiritual difficulty, no matter how disconcerting.
What reason for those under concern of soul to remember the Lord and what He has done for sinners and to send up their prayers to Him! They should not be satisfied with one, perhaps hurried, prayer; they are to keep watching daily at Christ’s gates and waiting at the posts of His doors (see Prov 8:34). They are to keep on making use of the means of God’s grace – not least reading the Scriptures and hearing them expounded in public worship, through which they may expect Christ to reveal Himself to them – and this is to be done prayerfully.
Jonah was clear that there was only one true religion; he knew that “they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy”. Non-Christian religions are false, as are all deviations from biblical Christianity; secular philosophies fall into the same category. No one can be saved for eternity apart from trusting in Christ and Him crucified. The idols of Jonah’s time could not help him in his trouble; they could not hear him even if he was right beside them. Today’s idols are equally deaf; nor will figurative idols – whatever people give their hearts to, even if it is not in itself sinful – save their souls. Those who follow idols of any kind are throwing away their opportunities of finding mercy in God.
“Salvation is of the Lord.” With these words, Jonah concluded his prayer, acknowledging that it belonged to the Lord to deliver him. This was true in his predicament; he had gone to the Lord to pray for deliverance and he was heard. Let us remember that we may go to Him, no matter how difficult our situation and how unlikely it is that we will be delivered from it. We are particularly encouraged to pray because of the sympathetic nature of Christ, the High Priest within the veil, who sits on the throne of grace, who is the great Intercessor with the Father: “Let us . . . come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16). Especially, we are to come in prayer, with confidence, for the supply of all our spiritual needs. The Saviour’s words still hold true: “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (Jn 6:37).