Sermon Tone Analysis

*The God of Second Chances (Jonah 2-3)*

-        We have heard many times that God is the God of second chances, but we know that He is the God of multiple chances!

-        This is made clear to us in the New Testament in the story of the prodigal son

-        The story of Jonah is the story of the prodigal son in the OT, reassures us of this wonderful truth of God

-        He has been disobedient: directly disobeying a direct command from God, the Word of the Lord, the message was clear there was no misinterpreting it

-        He was on a downward path trying to flee the presence of the Lord

-        God sent a Great storm and a great fish to change his attitude

-        When we pick up this morning, Jonah is in the belly of a great fish in the depths of the sea, what a predicament!

I.

Jonah’s Deliverance (2:1 – 3:2)

 

A.

His Prayer from the belly of the whale (2:1-9)

 

·        Jonah’s cry for deliverance (2:1-2)

Ø  God had finally gotten the attention of this disobedient prophet

Ø  Jonah through this horrifying set of events finally cries out to God

Ø  “Because of my affliction” -  trouble, tossed out into the middle of an angry see, into the darkness of the storm

Ø  Jonah had cried out to the Lord from a watery grave, from a place of certain death by drowning

Ø  The Lord answered Him, the Lord heard his voice: The Lord sent a great fish to swallow Jonah

Ø  Now just imagine with me, going through this experience, one commentator painted the image vividly, better than I can

| In his last conscious moments, he cried to the Lord for deliverance.

Suddenly, everything went black.

Perhaps the dark form of the approaching fish was noticed by the prophet.

Then, there was a sense of motion, of being carried along.

There may also have been the near birth-like experience of passing from the fish’s mouth into its stomach, probably through a very small opening.

This could have served to extract any water from his lungs, something akin to artificial respiration.

As Jonah regained consciousness, imagine the horror of his first sensations: the feel of the stomach lining of the fish pressing about him; irritation of the acidic stomach juices of the fish beginning to bleach his skin; the foul smell of the place; the passing-through of the normal diet of the fish; the darkness of this place.

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Ø  “Belly of Sheol”: the world of the dead, the grave, the pit, Jonah had reached the very edge of death, the belly of the fish likened to death enveloping him

 

·        Jonah’s description of the experience (2:3-7)

Ø  “Cast into the deep”: a very deep place, an abyss, sinking endlessly into a deep abyss of water

Ø  “Heart of the seas”: this wasn’t a new shore experience, he was beyond land, thrown into the middle of the sea

Ø  “Floods surrounded him”: everywhere he turned was angry water, it encompassed him and besieged him

Ø  Billows and waves passing over him: huge breaker waves dropping on him, passing over him, completely in the hands of an angry sea

Ø  Waters surrounded him even to the soul:  he was soaked through even to his inner spirit with water

Ø  Seaweed wrapped around him: nothing more horrible than drowning without having the opportunity to keep yourself afloat, seaweed wrapped around his head

Ø  “Down to the foundations of the mountains”  bottom of mountains in the depths of the sea

Ø  The earth with it bars closed behind him: became imprisoned within the depths of the earth

Ø  Notice that he attributes this whole experience to the sovereignty of God: verse 3 “You cast me into the deep” not the sailors on the ship

Ø  Verse 3: “Your billows and Your waves”, the sea was in the control of the Lord

Ø  But now in the belly of the fish, Jonah realizes that he has been delivered because he is now safe within the belly of the fish

Ø  Verse 4: thought he was cast out, but no knows that he will look upon the temple

Ø  Verse 6: Testified that the Lord had brought up his life from the pit of the watery grave.

Ø  Verse 7: God had heard his cry, and had saved him from drowning

Ø  Amazing what God sometimes does in order to get the attention of our stubborn hearts!

Ø  Perhaps these poetic phrases, many borrowed from the Psalms, could describe the situation you are in

Ø  Touching the edge of death, spiraling into an abyss of mental or spiritual darkness…..Cry out to the Lord, especially when your soul faints within you

Ø  Don’t wait for the storm if you are disobeying the Lord, repent now, cooperate with the Lord now

 

·        Jonah’s Thankfulness (2:8-9)

Ø  Jonah affirms that His God is the one true God who can deliver

Ø  Those with worthless idols find out how worthless they are in the day of trouble….they

find no mercy or loving-kindness or grace

Ø  Jonah will sacrifice and pay his vows out of great thanksgiving

Ø  “Salvation is of the Lord”: salvation of his physical life from drowning

Ø  There is much talk among the commentators as to if and when Jonah ever repented of his disobedience

Ø  Some say this happened when he admitted who he was to the sailors and asked them to throw him overboard

Ø  Some say that his repentance is evident by this prayer, but is this prayer really an indication of repentance?

Ø  He confesses nothing in this prayer

Ø  The Lord will have to ask him a second time to go to Ninevah

Ø  He will still wrestle with the command that God has given him concerning his mission in Ninevah …. (skip ahead to 4:2)

Ø  This is the prayer and praise of a prophet who is glad to be alive, albeit, in the belly of the fish, but he is till struggling with the command

Ø  Comical scene: bleached white from stomach acid, a bandanna of seaweed, water logged to the core, pitch blackness, stench of dead fish still being digested, praying a pious prayer with much language borrowed from the Psalms but still not really getting it!

Ø  Repentance is a full 180 Degree turn!  Turning from your sin and turning to obedience unto the Lord

 

 

|     A small boy dialed "O" and asked the operator to call a number for him.

He didn't speak clearly, so she couldn't understand him.

After repeating it four times, he blurted out, "You operators are dumb," and slammed down the receiver.

Hearing this, his mother was shocked.

She called the operator and made the boy apologize.

Later, when his mother left the house, the lad got on the phone again.

"Is this the same operator I talked to a little while ago?"  "Yes," came the reply.

"Well," said the boy, "I still think you're dumb!"

That boy's apology reminds me of a missing element in the lives of many Christians -- genuine repentance.

Facing up to sin is often forced on them by getting caught or by embarrassing circumstances.

But there's no change of mind, no new action, no new motivation.

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B.     God Delivers Jonah (2:10 – 3:2)

 

·        Physical  (2:10)

Ø  The Lord commanded the fish to “throw up” Jonah

Ø  Not a pleasant experience I’m sure, to be a part of fish throw up

Ø  He is out of the belly of the whale, now on dry land

Ø  Most likely on the shore of Palestine

Ø  I wonder what the sun bathers on the beach thought about this: A bleached white prophet with seaweed wrapped around him, vomited up on the shore

Ø  Jonah has been delivered from a death of drowning and now from the belly of the fish

 

·        Jonah’s recommission (3:1-2)

Ø  The word of the Lord came to Jonah a Second time

Ø  Try Number 2!  Hopefully Jonah will respond appropriately

Ø  I’m so glad the Lord is so merciful and compassionate

Ø  Look how He longs to use His people to accomplish His work

Ø  God has a plan for you, no matter how miserably you have failed Him in the past.

Be used of the Lord.

Ø  Don’t wait for the storm or the fish: be used now, repent now

 

|   David Brainerd, the great missionary to the American Indians, was on one occasion witnessing to a chief, who was very close to deciding for Christ.

But he held back; there was some pause or hesitation.

Brainerd got up, took a stick, drew a circle in the soft earth about the chief, and said, "Decide before you cross that line."

Why this passion and urgency?

Because Brainerd recognized that at that moment, that chief was close to God.

If he missed that moment, he might never be so close again.

Bruce Thielemann, "Tide Riding," Preaching Today, Tape No. 30.

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II.

Jonah’s obedience (3:3-10)

 

A.

Jonah obeys the command (3:3-4)

 

·        Journey (3)