Chapter 2 marks the end of the first section of the book of Jonah. One of its purposes is to serve as kind of a reset button for the book. Chapter 2 ends with the prophet in pretty much the same place he was when the book started, on the dry land (10). The prophet is in a better, though not acceptable, frame of mind than he was when the story started (cf. chapter 1).
This reset reminds me of a time when I was endeavoring to teach a group of 6th graders to write good 5 paragraph essays. We were in the evaluating and editing stages of writing. I read a student’s essay, marked it up, handed it back to her, and asked her to fix it. She did the editing and handed it back to me. I again marked it up, handed it back to her, and asked her to fix it. She protested, Mr. Fox, I just fixed everything you told me to fix. I said, I know and good work, but you had to edit your essay the first time to get it in good enough shape to correct it.
A lot of things were wrong in Jonah that God was mercifully working on. God had to take Jonah back to a place similar to where he was when he ran from the calling presence of God for Jonah to be in a position to realize he could no longer run.
Perhaps you have been on the run from God. You may feel that you don’t know the way back. Your plan has failed, and you are unsure if God will receive you. Go back to the place where you first heard the voice of God. Go back to the place where you first left the way and listen again for the word of God. Perhaps, you will hear him calling once again.
Chapter 3 will start with the word of the LORD coming to Jonah a second time saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you (3:1-2; cf. 1:1-2). The difference between the first call and second call is Jonah had been swallowed by a fish, had prayed, and had been vomited out on the dry land (1:17-2:10). The difference is he has had an experience that has convinced him that he has no choice but to do what God commands him to do, but he is far from where he needs to be (cf. ch 4). We will see later that God is not simply content for Jonah to obey, He wants to capture the prophet’s heart.
God not only intends to show he is merciful to those who are far off, the Ninevites, He, also, intends to show his mercy in dealing with Jonah. God is working to change their hearts and Jonah’s heart. How does God do that? Oddly enough, he had appointed a fish to swallow Jonah, putting Jonah in the frame of mind to pray.
1. The surprising nature of God’s mercy (1:17; 2:1,10)
No one was more surprised than Jonah at his rescue. To this point in the story, Jonah was on the run from the Presence of the LORD (cf. 1:3,10), which proved to be a futile exercise. The LORD mercifully pursued Jonah through a storm, through a pagan sea captain exhorting him to pray (cf. 1:6), and through diagnostic questions of pagan sailors (cf. 1:7-8) and their concern to please the LORD (cf. 1:14-15).
At Jonah’s request and deducing it to be the will of the LORD, the sailors picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea (1:15). The storm ceased, and they gave expressions of genuine conversion in sacrifices and vows. Jonah would rather die than preach to Nineveh and watch God be merciful to them (cf. 4:3). Ironically, God used even the disobedience of Jonah as a context to show his mercy to pagans (1:16), which foreshadows his intention for Nineveh.
While all of that is remarkable, even more remarkable is that God had surprising mercy waiting on Jonah. He had appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah (1:17).1 Jonah had hoped to escape his commission, so the last thing he expected was to be rescued.2 God would not be hindered in his gracious purpose toward Nineveh or Jonah. Jonah’s problem was that he underestimated the strength of divine mercy.
Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights (1:17). The OT expression three days and three nights3 or its shorter form on the third day is both a span of time and a theological truth. It points to a reversal where God brings life out of what would have been certain death. Notice the language of certain death in Jonah’s prayer: belly of Sheol (2) and pit (6). The OT references to the third day are indirect prophecies that find their fulfillment in the resurrection of Jesus. Therefore, Jesus compares this merciful reversal in Jonah on the third day to his own resurrection (Mt. 12:38-42; 16:4; Lk. 11:29-32).
The scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus asking for a sign. Every miracle Jesus did was sign that profoundly pointed to his identity as Messiah. Ignoring the signs Jesus freely gave or even assigning them to the power of the devil, they wanted a sign on demand.4 Presumably, they wanted to name the sign and have Jesus do it. Jesus said generations who seek such signs are wicked and adulterous. No sign would be given, except the sign of Jonah. As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Mt 12:39-40).
Jesus ties the sign of Jonah to the repentance of Nineveh (cf. Mt.12:41). Jonah himself was a sign to the Ninevites in that he appeared as one delivered from certain death.5 The implication is the Ninevites had heard the prophet had been swallowed by a fish and vomited up (Jonah1:17; 2:10). That reality served to validate his message of coming judgment. Ultimately, Jesus is saying that his resurrection will validate his preaching.
Jesus is greater than Jonah and his deliverance is greater than Jonah’s. Jonah was delivered from certain death, while Jesus was delivered from death itself. Therefore, the men of Nineveh will testify against unbelievers at the judgment. They believed God (3:5) at the preaching of one swallowed by a fish, yet, perhaps, you refuse to believe one raised from the dead.
At this point in the story, the mercy of God deepens for us. Jonah’s rescue from certain death meant not only grace to him but also to the Ninevites. The raising of Jesus from the dead means mercy to the world.
Jonah was surprised at the mercy of God, and we are all surprised as well. The more you meditate on this text the more shocking it becomes. God’s mercy marks a great reversal. When everything is lost, hopeless, and dark, God’s mercy bring life out of certain death.
The surprising, far-reaching, mercy of God works to change hearts.
2. God’s mercy will bring the erring believer to the place of prayer (2:2-9).
To this point in the book Jonah has not prayed. Ironically, the sailors on the ship have turned into praying men, but Jonah has not been on speaking terms with God. Mercifully, Jonah is put in a place where he can pray: the belly of a fish (2:1). What we have in 2:2-9 is the prayer Jonah prayed in the fish. His prayer at one level is really good but at another level it betrays all that is wrong in Jonah. Jonah’s prayer shows the tension at work in him. He is a true believer at odds with God being pursued by mercy.
A. A psalm of thanksgiving
Jonah’s prayer is a textbook psalm of thanksgiving. Presumably, when Jonah realized he did not die but was alive and well in the relative safety of a fish, he became very thankful. Typically, if you were swallowed by a fish, you might not think God was being merciful to you. But Jonah’s case was so unlikely, he reasoned God must be at work to save him.
Psalms of thanksgiving have 4 basic characteristics.6First, there is an introductory summary of answered prayer (2:2). Second and third there is a recounting of personal crisis and of divine rescue told twice in the two middle stanzas (3-4 and 5-7). In verses 3-4, he describes his personal crisis of being surrounded in the deep (3) and then hints at rescue using a contrast: yet I shall again look upon your holy temple (4). In verses 5-7, he again describes his personal crisis of being surrounded in the deep (5), and then he intensifies and extends his description of divine rescue. Again, he uses a contrast (6) just like in verse 4 when: I went down … yet you brought up my life …(6b). Then he ends the stanza (7) just like he did in verse 4, but this time rather than looking to the temple, he prayed toward the temple (7). The fourth characteristic of a thanksgiving psalm is a vow to praise the Lord, which Jonah makes in verse 8-9.
Jonah is truly thankful. The purpose of a thanksgiving psalm is not only the giving of thanks but also the giving of testimony.7 In this psalm, not only can you hear what Jonah prayed in the fish, you can hear him telling the story. He uses past tense and occasionally third person. I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me (2). Then I said (4). The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains (5-6a). I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever (6b). Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope in steadfast love (8). What I have vowed I will pay (9b). Salvation belongs to the LORD (9c).
We not only hear Jonah’s words to the LORD, but we also hear him telling the story of God’s salvation to others. Jonah is thankful.
B. Scripture saturated praying
Jonah knows his Bible. His prayer is saturated with Scripture. For example, verse 2 sounds very similar to Psalm 120:1, In my distress, I called to the LORD, and he answered me.8 Verse 3b, all your waves and your billows passed over me, is a direct quote of Psalm 42:7b, all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. Aside from direct quotes, the language of the psalm echoes Psalms 18, 22, 31, 68, 69, 88, 107, 116, 124, and others. The point is Jonah is in the belly of the fish praying Scripture back to God.
Could there be a more pious expression of faith and devotion to God? Often, I pray Scripture and encourage others to do so as well. Pray the word of God back to God.
C. A prayer that exposes Jonah’s sin
Does Jonah’s Scripture saturated prayer of thanksgiving indicate a repentant prophet ready to heed the call of God? The problem with this is, the prayer does not contain one word of repentance. It is a beautiful prayer, a Scriptural prayer, a thankful prayer, but it avoids the issue at hand—Jonah’s refusal to go preach the word of God to Nineveh.9 God was bringing Jonah around to an imperfect obedience as part of his merciful work in him to bring him to embrace the gracious nature of salvation.
A praying man is not necessarily a man right with God, but he is a man headed in that direction. If we wait to pray until we are right, we will never pray. Praying is for sinners. And often in the context of prayer our hearts and our sin are revealed. Therefore, we ought always to pray and not faint (Lk. 18:1).
1) Jonah wanted mercy for himself but denied it to others no less deserving.
Jonah’s prayer illustrates in high relief the message of the book and the tension in the prophet himself. Jonah’s poetic prayer interrupts the prose account of the book. In fact, the prose is smooth if you leave the psalm out: 1:17-2:1,10. This makes the psalm pop. It is a psalm of thanksgiving for the undeserved, unexpected, far-reaching mercy of God. It shows clearly the contrast between Jonah’s attitude toward his own deliverance and his attitude toward the possibility of Nineveh’s deliverance.10
2) Jonah’s prayer has an exalted view of himself.
Jonah’s prayer betrays a bit of self-centeredness with at least 15 uses of the first-person pronouns I and my. Sometimes this occurs in a self-exalting fashion. For example, in verse 4 Jonah says, I am driven away from your sight. If I remember correctly, he ran from the LORD’s sight. Notice in contrast to this mysterious driving force, Jonah says, Yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.
The two references to the Holy temple (4, 7) are another way of saying the Presence of the LORD. His going down (6) was the final downward step that started when he went down to Joppa and down into the ship (1:3). When he was so far down because of his own running from the Presence of LORD that he could do nothing to save himself, the LORD brought him up (6). Yet, when his life was fainting away, He remembered the LORD and his prayer came into the Presence of the LORD (7), as if his rescue was an answer to his prayer.
One last self-exalting element in his prayer is he contrasts himself with idolaters who forsake their hope of steadfast love (8), namely the sailors on that ship and the Ninevites. It would be difficult for anyone in the NK to refer to someone else as a idolater. Unlike them, he says, I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay (9a). When we left the sailors, they were already sacrificing and vowing.
Keep in mind this veiled reference is about sailors who exhausted all means to save Jonah, even when they knew the whole affair was his fault and prayed earnestly to do only what pleased God and offered sacrifices and made vows before Jonah did. This veiled reference is about Ninevites who believed God in the same sense Abraham did (3:5; cf. Gen. 15:6) and repented at the preaching of Jonah, rejoicing in God’s mercy, while Jonah was exceedingly displeased and angry at the mercy of God to the Ninevites. He complained to God, the reason I fled in the first place is because, I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster (4:2).
Jonah’s prayer is a bit self-centered and self-exalting. Other than that, it’s a really good prayer. You see how our prayer can reveal our sin.
3) Jonah’s prayer wanted to control mercy rather than trust sovereignty.
The highlight of Jonah’s psalm is the last sentence, Salvation belongs to the LORD! (2:9). Truer words have never been spoken. They are true in every sense. From beginning to end and everywhere in between, Salvation is of the LORD. Jonah was happy that the LORD so dramatically saved him, he simply did not want that to be so for anyone else outside of Israel.
This truth that salvation belongs to the LORD does not lead us not to preach and withhold mercy but to preach even more. It’s the foundation for going to Nineveh. The only right response to sovereign mercy is to preach the gospel indiscriminately to all men, in all times.
Jonah’s prayer of thanksgiving helps us see the contradiction that was at work in Jonah and in Israel11 and may be at work in us. Mercy is not a character flaw in God. And we are not nearly as merciful as God.