Sermon Tone Analysis

*A Song of Salvation.*

Turn to Jonah CH.2 - where did we leave Jonah? (1:17) - in the belly of the big fish.

Here he is inside the fish and he prays to יהוה!

You can pray to God anywhere and He hears!

Hallelujah!

-I am no poet!

I skip over poetry, I am not the one to be preaching this chapter.

Here is Jonah in the fish's stomach and he is writing poetry!

I tend to do the analytical dissection of a passage, point by point – but there is a danger in analysing it you remove the heart (school novels) – but poetry is an expression of the heart.

Try and identify with Jonah, sense his heart in these words - in his situation I reckon I'd be praying but it would be the desperate "Save me Lord!" prayer.

This is an astounding prayer especially when you consider where it was written.

*Read 1:17-2:10 *Is this a cry for salvation?

- it is a prayer of thanksgiving, praise for deliverance - cf. Paul and Silas in prison.

What did Jonah have to be thankful about?

The thing is that Jonah has already been saved.

We often consider the horrors of being swallowed by a fish - but the fish was יהוה's mercy and loving-kindness - He provided it to save Jonah - he was thrown to the depth of a raging sea - death was certain, that is what he expected .... the end.

But instead of death, judgement he found mercy and overflowed with thanksgiving [this experience was critical in him preaching to Nineveh - he himself experienced mercy when he deserved judgement].

This is a song of salvation!

*[OHP]*

*Broken by loving-kindness (v.1, 2)* *v.1* – In the previous chapter we read about the sailors' salvation, not only were they delivered but so was Jonah.

In the belly of the fish he prays a prayer of thanksgiving to יהוה.

You can pray to God anywhere!

Even from the stomach of a fish!

Jonah had tried to run away from God - things had to get pretty extreme before he turned back to Him.

All this display of God’s power and wrath did not cause him to return - it was *יהוה**’s** loving-kindness* that broke him.

He knew he deserved death and didn’t shrink from it - he accepted his fate - but then found that death isn’t what he encountered but the יהוה’s mercy, His saving power.

He deserved death but God personally sent a great fish to keep him from what he deserved.

He deserved death but found mercy - this is the message of Jonah (cf.

*Jonah 3:10** */When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them.

And He did not do it./

*Jonah 4:2**,10,11 */in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, and one who relents concerning calamity./

.... *10* /Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.

Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”

/).

Jonah had run away from God but God had not ceased from showing His loving-kindness, mercy and compassion.

This overwhelming, personal, specific, detailed love - this control of the forces of nature to save one insignificant, rebellious, wayward, human - this love broke Jonah.

Once more he prayed to יהוה - relationship was restored, communication restored, he would once more serve יהוה out of love and gratitude.

Praise pours forth from Jonah! Like the sailors a genuine encounter with the reality of יהוה produces unfeigned /worship/.

But in contrast to the sailors who worshiped out of fear, who only saw יהוה’s mighty deeds; the revelation to Jonah was of יהוה’s character - His nature, His ways - his was a worship out of love, out of relationship.

We all, likewise deserve death but mercy is found in Jesus Christ.

*Descent to the depths (v.2, 3, 5, 6)* But there is only a song of salvation when you are saved, and you are only saved when you are in inescapable strife, when you've gone as low as it is possible to go.

*v.2 *- From the belly of the great fish Jonah prayed - not a prayer of deliverance but a Psalm of praise to a merciful and compassionate LORD.

Jonah did not see the fish as a distress to be delivered from, but the deliverance from distress.

The distress was being in the depths of the sea which he likened to being in the heart of sheol did Jonah enter shell?

- he in type entered Hades, pictures Jesus who in reality - a baptism of death - some say He entered the place of departed spirits (cf.

*1 Peter 3:19** */in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison;/*Acts 2:27**,31 */Because You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.

/*31 */he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay.

/*Ephesians 4:9** */ (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?

/*Romans 10:7** */ or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”/)

I would not be dogmatic on the point but certainly Jesus plumbed the depths of death.

Jonah is not speaking of the belly of the fish but the depths of the sea (cf.

v.3, 5,6) - from there he had cried to the LORD to save him and יהוה in His grace and mercy had heard and answered his cry - the fish was the answer to the cry for salvation from his distress.

Therefore Jonah wasn’t in distress and misery in the fish but overflowing with joy, thankfulness and praise for the answer to his desperate cry.

Despite his rebellion and running from God, when he cried for help, יהוה didn’t disregard him but still heard and answered his cry.

Praise Him for His amazing grace and mercy, His compassion and loving-kindness, His slowness to become angry!

He still answers and saves even though we are undeserving.

The LORD answers!

Hallelujah!

He hears my cry for help!

Bless His Name!

He is kind to His willful, sinful, people.

*v.3* - Jonah was drowning!

Down, down, down into the depths of the raging sea with its mountainous waves!

Who could survive that?!

But יהוה is in control!

It is He who cast Jonah into the sea - not the sailors, not Jonah - it was יהוה; for He is in control of all things.

The O.T. prophet attributed all things to יהוה - He was responsible for all things, even calamities.

The hand of יהוה was against Jonah justly, in wrath for his rebellion, but nevertheless He heard and responded to the desperate cry for mercy and salvation.

Praise His Name!

He spared Jonah’s life in the most wonderful way.

*God far away – lama sabachthani?(v.4)*

Jonah pictures Jesus in His descent into the depths of death but also is a picture of God forsaking Jesus when He was on the cross: "/So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight./"

echoes Jesus cry on the cross "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" Jonah tasted death and came out the other side – Jesus tasted death and came out the other side, went as low as is possible and rose victorious.

Only when we have sunk to the depth of helplessness will we find salvation [Watchman Nee – drowning man]

*Faith and hope remain (v.4)* *v.4* - The ultimate crisis proved the genuineness of Jonah’s faith.

In truth he hadn’t given up on God.

Facing death, still his hope was fixed on יהוה - in that at that ultimate moment, his eyes weren’t on himself but looking to יהוה’s holy temple.

That is where his faith, trust and hope were fixed - on יהוה.

At the founding of the temple Solomon had prayed that any who looked to the temple and called upon יהוה in their distress might be heard and delivered (cf.

*1 Kings 8:29** */that Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which You have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ to listen to the prayer which Your servant shall pray toward this place.

Listen to the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place; hear in heaven Your dwelling place; hear and forgive./).

This is precisely what Jonah did.

He may have been from the northern kingdom but his eyes were still set on the temple in Jerusalem and the God who said that He would cause His Name to dwell there.

Even although he had been cast expelled from יהוה’s sight by יהוה Himself, still Jonah trusted יהוה!

Still he would not give up on יהוה.

יהוה had cast him out but he would not cast away יהוה and his faith in Him.

Jonah’s faith was put to the ultimate test, and came through as gold (cf.

*1 Peter 1:6**,7 */In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;/).

יהוה was his fundamental basis - when all was stripped away (even, seemingly, יהוה’s allegiance to him) still the only thing that remained, the thing of ultimate importance, was יהוה.

When all else was gone, Jonah still had his eyes fixed on יהוה’s holy temple.

When all else is stripped away, may we be found with our eyes still fixed on Jesus.

Compare Jesus who on the cross still had faith and hope (cf.

*Psalm 22:19-23** */But You, O Lord, be not far off; O You my help, hasten to my assistance.

Deliver my soul ....

You answer me.

I will tell of Your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You.....

For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from him; but when he cried to Him for help, He heard./)

* *– crisis proves the genuineness of faithfulness, where our trust is truly placed.

At rock bottom, when all else is gone, our faith must remain fixed on Jesus plus nothing.

*God hears from His temple (v.2, 4, 7)* if you have gone away from God there is a way back* *יהוה "heard" "answered" (v.2) *v.7*-

From the very depths of the ocean יהוה saved Jonah - He heard and answered his cry for help.