“Then Jonah Prayed”
Commissioned by the Lord to warn the Assyrians (in Nineveh) of the soon-coming judgment of God, Jonah refused. What if they repented? They were a danger to Israel and would continue to be if God did not destroy them. So Jonah, thinking he knew better than God, took a ship heading in the opposite direction. However the Lord sent along a tempest to get him to reconsider.
Realizing the storm was his fault, and that he was endangering the mariners on board, Jonah asked to be cast into the sea. The sailors finally agreed, and a sea monster God had specially prepared swallowed His reluctant servant. It is at this point we read, “Then Jonah prayed” (Jon. 2:1)
- THEN Jonah prayed. His response to the storm was to volunteer to be thrown into the sea (1:12). His stubborn patriotism led him, in effect, to attempt suicide, rather than helping Israel’s enemy. But God’s severe and gracious discipline not only preserved him but brought him at last to prayer.
- Then JONAH prayed. His shipmates had been praying before this. First, it was an appeal to their own gods (1:5), but then to Jehovah (1:14). Strangely, they showed more readiness than God’s own prophet to bow the knee to Him. Unknown to Jonah, the calming of the sea may even have brought about their genuine conversion (1:16).
- Then Jonah PRAYED. First, he ran from God (1:3). But now he prayed to Him. To be running from the Lord is to be off praying ground. But the chastening of God has recalled him (2:7-9). Never was there a stranger prayer cell! But it was the attitude of Jonah’s soul that mattered. When he said, “Salvation is of the Lord” (2:9), he not only meant his own potential deliverance, but that of the Assyrians as well. He was confessing God to be sovereign in these things.