Dwell in the Word: Jonah 2:1-10

Consider these questions as you dwell in Jonah 2:1-10:

1. How does Jonah's prayer reveal a profound understanding of desperation, faith, and the recognition of where true salvation lies? What elements in his prayer reflect this depth of understanding?

2. In what ways does Jonah's acknowledgment, "Salvation belongs to the Lord," resonate beyond his immediate circumstance and carry significant implications for our understanding of salvation and our role in sharing the Gospel?

3. Despite Jonah's acknowledgment of God's sovereignty in salvation, his subsequent actions reveal hesitation and rebellion. How does this tension between acknowledgment and action reflect common struggles in our faith journeys, and what lessons can we draw from it?

Transcript:

The book of Jonah is a book that I always like to go back to. I think maybe you probably feel some of the same things. It's one of those Bible stories that you know it really well, from having a working knowledge of it to having it be a Sunday school classic, and you come to it and you learn something because you realize that, Oh, there's this detail that I missed because I was so busy glossing over certain things because I thought I knew it all already. One thing that I always love to come back to Jonah and see is this prayer of Jonah, this idea of this continual descent that is happening within God brings up Jonah. That's the idea that we see here. Perfect example, verse 3, For you cast me into the deep, into the hard as sea, and the flood surrounding me. There's a sense that things are coming over Jonah. All the waves, all the billows passed over me. But then in the midst of this, we see in verse 4, I'm driven away from your sight, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. There's a sense of faith here in the midst of this despair for Jonah.

But that's not where things happen for Joan, right? The waters, again, are reminded that they closed in over him to take his life. The deep surrounded him, weeds were wrapped around his head. There's this idea, again, of a continual descent. He is being taken down, and to the point where he gets to the roots of the mountains, the depth of depth he gets to, it goes down into the land, the bar close upon him forever. This idea that he is being entrapped, that he is being imprisoned, that he is continually going down, down. And then we see in verse 6, the last half here, Yet you brought up my life from the pit. Again, Jonah's imagery, he's gone all the way down, but God is bringing him up. This is from Jonas. He understands who the one who can save him is. In the midst of this form, in the midst of where he is at, and in the midst of even the large fish consuming him, he knows where his salvation comes from. Seven, When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you into your holy temple.

He understands who he needs to go to. It's easy for us. Times of desperation, it's much easier to call upon the Lord than when things are going well. Jonah was at a major place of desperation here, wasn't he? Then verse 8 seems out of place to us. He says, I remembered you. My prayer comes to you. Then right here, verse 8, Those who pay regard to Van Waddell forsake their whole steadfast love. That seems out of place, but let's stop and think about what that's saying. Those who are worshiping idols, when they get to the point where they're going down, down, down, head, if they call it the idols, there is no hope of staying high of love. They're not crying out to the one that Jonah is crying out to. They're not putting their faith in the one who can actually rescue them. Then Jonah contracts this group of people who would call out to idols, call out to those gods who do not have a voice, these gods who do not have ears. He says, die with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you. I am going to hold on to you, O God.

You are going to be my hope. What I have avowed, I will play. Then here we have this amazing statement, Salvation belongs to the Lord. It doesn't belong to the main islands. It doesn't belong to anyone else. Nobody can save Jonah from death, from the depths of despair, from the weeds that wrapped around his head, from this fish. No one can save him. God, salvation belongs to the Lord. Period. Jonah understands it. We're going to see that, yes, he is saved from this circumstance, but yet he isn't necessarily going to be doing exactly what God wants him to do. He's going to be grudgingly go to Nineveh. He is still going to be acting in some ways in rebellion against God. He's going to do what he was told, but he doesn't really trust in what he's being told to do. He doesn't like the idea that these Gentiles are those ones who regard vain idols that God is sending his message to them. But still, we see here in this prayer that Jonah does get it. He does understand where his salvation comes from. Then we see in verse 10, it's a cool thing to look at when you think about it.

It's gross. But Jonas says, Salvation belongs to the Lord. I acknowledge that salvation comes from you, O God. And then we see that that's the case. And then the Lord spoke to the fish, God caused the face to consume him. God now causes it to vomit him up on dry land. Again, disgusting. But it is the Lord who does, he's not because of Jonas doing it. Joan understands salvation is from God, and God provided salvation for Jesus. We think about this, that the important thing for us to always remember is, as we look at this prayer, we need to remember that ultimately, apart from Christ, we are going down. We're going down. We have no hope. The weeds are wrapped around our head. We go to the pit. The bars closed in over us. But when we understand that when we are in Christ, when he brings us the gift of faith through the Spirit, we know that salvation belongs to Lord. It's not because of anything that you and I do. We are not going to rescue ourselves, whether that's from sin, death and hell, or from a fish. We do not rescue ourselves.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. That is an important thing that we need to remember every day that not only gives us hope, because we know we can't save ourselves. We're never going to be good enough to merit salvation for holy God on our own. So, we need salvation from the Lord. But it also reminds us that we need to be proclaiming God's word. We need to be proclaiming the Gospel that others might hear, because salvation belongs to the Lord. They will not save themselves. They need to hear the Gospel that God might work in them through His Spirit and bring them faith. So may we be faithful to this message that salvation belongs to the Lord.

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Dwell in the Word: Jonah 3:1-10

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Dwell in the Word: Jonah 1:1-17