Sermon Tone Analysis

*Spirit Lake Baptist Church**  Sunday, February 15, 2009*

*Series: Jonah*

*God’s Reluctant Messenger # 6*

*Prayer from a Fish’s Belly*

*Jonah 2:1-10*

 

Have you ever given much thought to the notable prayers of the Bible?

Here are a few examples:

 

* Abraham’s Prayer – He prayed for Sodom – Gen. 18  

* Jabez Prayer – “Bless me indeed” – I Chron.

4:10

* Zacharis Prayer – Prayer in the temple – Luke 1:13

* Mary’s Prayer – Her prayer song – Luke 1:46ff

* Peter’s prayer – “Lord, save me” – Matt.

14:30

* Christ’s Prayer – His High Priestly prayer - John 17

 

      William Law (1686-1714) once wrote, “He who has learned to pray has learned the greatest secret of a holy and happy life.”

As we come to the second chapter of Jonah we are going to learn about prayer, and there are three facts that I want to bring to your attention regarding prayer.

We are going to learn that prayer is important (v.

1), that prayer is always answered (v. 2), and finally that prayer is open transparency (v.

3-10).

As we study the prayer of Jonah we are going to discover what it was like to be inside the belly of a great fish.

Jonah becomes an open book.

His prayer is his story.

Jonah’s prayer is one of dependency upon the LORD.

*1.

Prayer is important – v. 1*

 

   /“Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish's belly.”/

/ /

   How many of us are guilty of praying when we are “down in the mouth?”

Did you get the pun here?

“Down in the mouth!”

Jonah found himself down in the mouth of a great fish.

You and I may chuckle at this.

A wayward prophet praying to God from the belly of a great fish, but if the truth be known we have all probably all at one time or another prayed in some very obscure places.

This reminds me of the following poem about prayer.

It is entitled:

 

*How To Pray*

 

   “The proper way for a man to pray,”

   Said Deacon Lemuel Keys,

   “This only proper attitude

   Is down upon his knees.”

“No, I should say, the way to pray,”

   Said the Reverend Doctor Wise,

   ‘Is standing straight with outstretched arms

   And rapturous upturned eyes.”

‘It seems to me his hands should be

   Devoutly clasped in front;

   With both thumbs pointing t’ward the dround,”

   Said the Reverend Doctor Blunt.

‘Last year, I fell in Hodkin’s well –

   Head first,” said Cyrus Brown,

   “With both my heels a-sticken’ up,

   My head a-pointin’s down;

 

   “And I made a prayer right then and there,

   Best prayer I ever said,

   The keenest prayer I ever prayed

   Was standin’ on my head.”[1]

Why is it that it often takes trying circumstances to get us to pray?

Someone wrote,

 

*/There is no place like a fish's belly,/*

*/under three or four hundred feet of water,/*

*/that so calls for prayer./*

*   2.

Prayer is always answered – v. 2*

 

   “/And he said: "I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, *And He answered me.*”Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice.”/

Here again we see that prayer is often the results of times of affliction.

As believers we need to be aware that affliction is permitted in our lives from a God that is full of affection for us.

God loves us, and He will not leave us in our waywardness.

The Bible reminds us,

 

/“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

/(Romans 8:37-39)

 

   It is when hard times hit Main Street that we cry out to God in prayer.

This is a fact about human nature.

Where is Jonah?

He is in the belly of a fish.

And in the belly of this fish Jonah prayed.

Paul R. Van Gorder in his booklet, Jonah: Prophet and Pouter wrote, “Out of the belly of sheol cried I” (2:2).

The literal meaning is, “out of the depths” or “out of the innermost part” of sheol.

The Hebrew word sheol always refers the netherworld, the place of departed spirits.

The Greek equivalent of sheol is the word hades.

Neither word has reference to a grave, but instead speaks of the place where souls of the dead go.”

Bible Scholars are not in agreement as to whether Jonah lived for three days and three nights in the belly of this great fish, or whether Jonah died shortly after he was swallowed.

Two of my very favorite Bible teachers disagree.

Warren W. Wiersbe believes that Jonah was preserved alive in the belly of the great fish.

I greatly admire Dr. Wiersbe.

Whereas the late Dr. J. Vernon McGee believes that Jonah actually died.

If we take the information that I shared with you from Paul R. Van Gorder it would naturally lead us to believe that Jonah died.

He prayed to the LORD from the “netherworld, the place of departed spirits.”

As I read this second chapter of Jonah, and as I studied its content I have come to the conclusion that Jonah died, and that in the place of the dead he prayed, and God heard him.

In the New Testament we see the possibility of this in the account of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16).

The rich man died and went to Hades.

Hades is the New Testament word for Old Testament word, Sheol.

Without getting into a whole study on this topic alone allow me to say that there are two compartments – one for the unrighteous dead, and one for the righteous dead.

Jonah is praying from the place of the righteous dead.

The point here is that God answered him.

God answers prayer.

*3.

Prayer is open transparency – v. 3-7*

/ /

/   /As we read the prayer of Jonah we see his open transparency.

Jonah didn’t seek to impress God with his Bible knowledge (although he quotes at length from the Psalms – see notes in additional information), nor with his theological understanding (which he knew well), nor with his eloquence as so many seek to do today.

Jonah provides us the “low down” (get the pun).

As readers we receive a true evaluation of all that he faced.

We must remember that prayer is simply talking with God.

 

*The Simple Prayers Of Betty Erdhal*

* *

   Years ago there were two sisters that attended church here at SLBC.

Both have since graduated into glory.