Prayer Meeting in a Fish.
What is the strangest place you have ever held a prayer meeting? Brian explains why Jonah held a prayer meeting in a fish and what we can learn.
Jonah Holds a Prayer Meeting in a Fish
I would like to read Jonah, chapter 2, describing Jonah’s unusual prayer meeting in the stomach of a whale.
“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. 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. For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your billows and Your waves passed over me. Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple. Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.’ So, the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”
Jonah 2:1-10
Jonah’s Prayer Meeting
Jonah basically “prayed the Bible”: Psalms 3:8, 42:7, 31:22, 69:1, 77:3. Look at what happened leading up to verse 10: Jonah remembered the Lord – verse 7a … and he was still in the fish. Jonah prayed unto the Lord – verse 7b … and he was still in the fish. Jonah scorned idol worshippers – verse 8 … and he was still in the fish. Jonah vowed to the Lord – verse 9a … and he was still in the fish. Jonah made promises to the Lord – verse 9b …and he was still in the fish. But the moment, the very moment, he said: “Salvation is of the Lord,” he was on dry land.
Prayed and Promised
Is that you? You have prayed and promised. You have made deals with God. You have considered Jesus as an option. You have toyed with the idea of becoming a Christian. But that misses the main message of the Bible: I am a person who needs saving, we all are, and the saving only comes through Jesus Christ. You need to say what Jonah said: “Salvation is of the Lord.”
Jonah said, “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me.” Do you think Jonah was desperate? You can’t be much more desperate than being stuck in the belly of a whale, can you? Yes, you could be sitting in a church pew without Christ. You could be in church and yet outside of Christ.
He Answered Me
But I don’t want to miss the 2nd half of Jonah’s statement: “He answered me.” Jonah cried out for God to save him. God saved him. If you cry out to God for salvation … God will save you.
It would have been ridiculous for Jonah to say, “I think I’ll wait awhile before I cry out to God … a few more weeks, stewing in this fish, before I finally admit it: I am in a bad place without God. How long have you been waiting. The Bible says today is the day of salvation.
God Pursues
God has been pursuing you as hard as he pursued Jonah. He has brought blessings into your life – and His love did not win your heart’s repentance. He has taken away blessings from your life – and that just gave you an excuse to resent Him. His love didn’t win you and His wrath didn’t warn you.
But that can be all in the past: Be won to Christ by his love in dying for your sins on the cross. Be warned to come to Christ, because the same suffering Saviour has been
“ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead.”
Acts 10:42
Jesus compared the way people responded to him with the way that Nineveh responded to Jonah.
“The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.”
Matthew 12:41
The Ninevites reacted better to the badly imperfect Jonah than the people of Jesus’ day reacted to God’s perfect prophet, Jesus. If you pray, “Salvation is of the Lord” and “cry out to the Lord … he will answer you.”
Do you remember a time when you cried out to God and He answered? Contact us at HopeStreamRadio, or comment below.
Brian Stapley
Brian Stapley is the husband of Margaret and “Christian-proud” father of Tabitha, Ben, Jeremy and Joel. He has been director of the Boys JIM Club of America since 1981 and a “JIM Clubber” since 1958, the year he became a Christian. The mission statement of the JIM Club is, “Discipling boys to love Jesus deeply and express him vividly.”
He has been an educator since 1970, primarily as a high school English Teacher. (Don’t dangle your participles.) He has been in fellowship at Scottlea Gospel Chapel, St. Catharines, since 1976 and travels to preach about three dozen times a year, in Ontario and New York State. He is a ventriloquist, in company with Casey, Theodore, Dodo, Grumpa, and a menagerie of others. Also, a bit of a magician.
More Podcasts Below:
More Blogs
The Parable of the Wicked Tenants
Why Did Jesus Say “I am the Bread of Life.”
Images Courtesy of:
Diving Whale – adriankirby
Leave a Reply