RUNAWAY – Part 2 – The Prayer at the Bottom of the World

Passage:

2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,

“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
    and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
    and you heard my voice.
3 For you cast me into the deep,
    into the heart of the seas,
    and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
    passed over me.
4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away
    from your sight;
yet I shall again look
    upon your holy temple.’
5 The waters closed in over me to take my life;
    the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
6     at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
    whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the pit,
    O Lord my God.
7 When my life was fainting away,
    I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
    into your holy temple.
8 Those who pay regard to vain idols
    forsake their hope of steadfast love.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving
    will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
    Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Jonah getting thrown into the heart of the sea – is not the end of Jonah’s story – it is just the beginning –

Passage:
And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. (1:17)
  • But what this passage shows is that the Lord had another plan. He appointed a fish to swallow Jonah and hold him for three days not so that he could kill Jonah – but so that he could reform Jonah –
And what we see in this text – is that as the fish is taking Jonah under the waves in a physical sense – it mirrors what’s happening to Jonah in the spiritual sense – Jonah hits rock bottom and he has nowhere else to go – that begins to pray –
  • In fact, our chapter opens up with –
“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, (Jonah 2:1)
  • When Jonah hits absolute rock bottom – he prays – We aren’t told how long it took for Jonah to start praying – but I doubt there was much else to do. There’s no pickleball courts in the belly of a fish at the bottom of the ocean
    • One of the commentators I was reading this week said that “the belly of the fish is a horrible place to live but a great place to reflect.
  • And Reflect he does – it is here at rock bottom Jonah begins to pray – and we see him turn his heart back to God – we see him at least at this part in the story – repent before God –
There’s really three main things that I want to focus on this morning about Jonah’s prayer.. Jonah’s prayer reveals three things for us to pray about when we reach these rock bottom moments
  • Recognize where you are. (v.2-6)
  • Recognize where your idols are (v.7-8)
  • Recognize Your savior. (9-10)
Recognize Where You Are:
‘I called out to the Lord, out of my distress and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; the weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever;  (Jonah 2:2-6a)
Jonah is at a point where he has lost any agency to turn to anything else besides God.
There are sometimes in life where rock bottom is the exact place we need to be see where we are at so that we can deal with the stuff that we need to deal with in our heart
He writes “when we reject and disobey God, as Jonah did, it takes ‘radical treatment, if it is to be remedied.’ He points out that the text has been depicting Jonah as descending. Going DOWN to Joppa, DOWN into a ship, DOWN into the depths of the ship. And now, finally, he goes even further DOWN into the very depths of the ocean. But not until he was all the way down, finally stripped of his own buoyant self-sufficiency, was deliverance possible.
sometimes we need to admit and recognize where are.
  • but thats not the only thing we need to recognize at rock bottom –
Recognize Where Our Idols Are:
“yet you brought me up from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.” (Jonah 2:6b-8).
  • After we recognize that we have been running from God – and that we are at rock bottom – the next question that we have to ask ourselves – is why did I run away from God in the first place?
Jonah’s problem wasn’t the boat – Jonah’s problem wasn’t his feet walking toward Joppa rather than Nineveh – Jonah’s largest problem problem was God wasn’t sitting on the throne in his heart – Jonah placed something else there – Jonah was ultimately worshipping something else
Something I have learned in these rockbottom moments is that we have to take time to identify our idols – We have to take time to take stock of we prioritize – There’s several ways of doing that – one way that I like to do it is to ask myself some questions to do some inventory.
  • What do you make time and financial sacrifices for?
  • what do you worry about the most?
  • What do you dream of the most?
  • Where do you run for comfort?
  • Whose applause do you long for?
  • What unanswered prayer would shake your faith in Jesus?
I find that when I go through questions like these – I am able to begin to answer what my idols are – and when I name them – I am able to confess them – Which leads us right into our final point of things to do when we reach rock bottom.
  • We are called not only to recognize where we are – to admit that we have been doing isn’t work
  • we are called not only to recognize and confess our idols that we have prioritized over Christ –
  • but we are also called to –
Recognize the Savior:
“‘But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!’ And the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. (Jonah 2:9-10).
After we recognize our idols – and are able to name them and confess them – we must place Jesus back in his rightful place on the throne of our heart – to do and go wherever he calls us –

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