| “Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly” (Jonah 2:1). |
| “And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land” (Jonah 2:10). |
| Can you imagine being in the water, and then being swallowed by a whale? It would be an awful experience, and we know from the Bible that Jonah was there, inside the whale’s belly, three days and three nights. However, Jonah recognized that the whole experience could only be arranged by the Lord, for how else could they throw Jonah out of the ship in middle of a storm, and yet somehow a whale was waiting there, just at the right moment, to swallow him and prevent him from being drowned? |
| When all this happened, Jonah did several things that were right, and they are good for us to remember. First of all, he admitted his wrong, and he even told the sailors on the ship that he was running away from the Lord. But most important of all, he admitted his sin to the Lord. Secondly, he recognized that the Lord could hear him in prayer, even from inside the belly of the fish. He recognized that only the Lord could save him, if He wished to do so. Thirdly, he realized that he deserved to die for disobeying the word of the Lord. If you read the whole 2nd chapter of Jonah, you will see that Jonah said all of these three things in his prayer. When it was the Lord’s time, He told the whale to vomit Jonah out onto the dry land, and of course the fish obeyed the Lord. It is interesting to notice in the Bible that when the Lord tells animals to do something, they never disobey. Yet man sometimes dares to disobey the Lord! |
| Even as Christians, we may dislike what the Lord wants us to do, and try to run the other way, as Jonah did. I hope neither you nor I would do such a thing, but we are capable of it, just as Jonah was capable of it. Then the Lord may allow very difficult problems in our life, to make us realize that He is in control. Even if we have sinned like Jonah, if we truly repent and cry to the Lord, He will hear us. |
