“Jonah's Prayer”

Sunday, August 08, 2021

We don’t pay enough attention to the book of Jonah.  For one thing, it’s in the middle of the misleadingly labeled “minor prophets,” which are some of the least studied books of the Bible.  These are usually studied in a setting that attempts to cram an entire book into about 40 minutes of class time, only to move on the next week and do the same thing again with another.  There are 66 books in the Bible, and while they’re all very important, there’s no denying that some of them—like the gospels and Acts—are more important than others—like Song of Solomon and 3 John.  But the trouble with Jonah doesn’t end there—it actually stands in a somewhat privileged position in comparison to the other minor prophets.  This is the only one that is commonly taught to kids.  The reason for that is somewhat obvious given the simple structure and length of the story; and it’s great that the children learn it.  But this has an unfortunate side effect: adults tend to think of it as a “kids’ story.”  It’s not.

To begin with, while it’s easy to focus on the thread introduced in the first three verses—Jonah’s foolish attempt to run from God—there’s a lot more to this story, particularly when it comes to Jonah’s motivation for fleeing.  We’ll skip ahead to the point here: the book of Jonah is supposed to teach Israel about racial bigotry, and to highlight their own failures to live up to the standards by which they happily judged the Gentiles.  The details here are a topic for another time, but if you’ve read the book, it should be easy to see those themes.  That’s some pretty heavy material for a cute kids’ story!

However, while there is plenty to learn from Jonah about God’s broad, unchanging moral expectations and his abundance of grace, mercy, and steadfast love (Jo 4.2), this book also looks forward keenly at the New Testament.  Chapter 2 records the prayer Jonah spoke “from the belly of the fish” (2.1):

“I called out to the Lord, out of my 

               distress,

        and he answered me;

out of the belly of Sheol I cried,

        and you heard my voice.

For you cast me into the deep,

        into the heart of the seas,

        and the flood surrounded me;

all your waves and your billows

        passed over me.

Then I said, ‘I am driven away

        from your sight;

yet I shall again look

        upon your holy temple.’

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.

I went down to the land

        whose bars closed upon me forever;

yet you brought up my life from the pit,

        O Lord my God.

When my life was fainting away,

        I remembered the Lord,

and my prayer came to you,

        into your holy temple.

Those who pay regard to vain idols

        forsake their hope of steadfast love.

But I with the voice of thanksgiving

        will sacrifice to you;

what I have vowed I will pay.

        Salvation belongs to the Lord!” (Jonah 2.2-9)

The first thing to note here is that Jonah is describing salvation in progress—not in the future, although he’s still in the belly of the monster when he prays these words.  It’s also not fully accomplished, yet.  He says that God “brought up [his] life from the pit,” but he also voices faith that he “shall again look upon [God’s] holy temple,” an event as yet unrealized, as is the case with the vows he promises he will keep.  In fact, this recorded prayer tells of an earlier, unrecorded and already answered prayer: “I called out to the Lord…and he answered me.”

The surprising conclusion is that Jonah does not view being swallowed by a giant sea creature as a punishment for his disobedience.  On the contrary, he sees this as an instrument of God’s salvation!  From what?  From death by drowning.  The dangers he lists in this prayer are all about the sea—“the flood surrounded me” (v3), “The waters closed in over me” (v5), “weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains” (vv5-6).  We could list more of these, but would quickly run out of space.  He was drowning in the sea, and as he recognized he was dying, as his “life was fainting away” (v7), he “called out to the Lord” from “the belly of Sheol”—from the grave (v2).  Yet even in that state, he trusted that God would bring him back up from the grave.

“An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12.39-40)

Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection follow the same pattern as Jonah’s—both were willingly sent to their deaths by Gentiles, remained three days in “the grave,” and then arose, transformed, through the power of God.  The reasons were different, and parts of these two experiences are connected only symbolically, but that’s the “sign of Jonah” Jesus predicted.

Today, he expects his followers to imitate that same sign, and undergo a death, burial and resurrection that’s connected to Jesus’, but looks a lot like Jonah’s, too!  As Jonah appealed to God for salvation from his watery grave, and at the same time vowed obedience to God, so today baptism is “an appeal to God for a good conscience” (1Pe 3.21), a transforming encounter with death.  Learn from Jonah.  Leave the old rebel in his watery grave, and pay your vows to the Lord.

Jeremy Nettles

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