{Wind, Whales, and Worms: Part 2}

"Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.  And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.  Then ..."

First, the Lord sent a great wind.  When that didn't work, He had a great fish waiting and ready to go, "prepared."

God is always prepared.

Nothing takes Him by surprise.  Not even our stubbornness and willfulness when it comes to doing our own thing, or our blatant lack thereof when it comes to doing His.  When God's human servants refuse to do His bidding, His natural servants are always at the ready to pick up the slack.  But not necessarily in the ways that we would choose.  It's easier on us when we obey without having to be made willing.

God not only thinks ahead, He sees the future, the big picture of our lives.  He's planned it, planned for everything.  Every possibility is thoroughly covered in detail.  That is such a comfort to me.  In my life when God has seemed most silent, I have later understood that He was just busy working overtime on my behalf through various circumstances and even in the lives of others in ways I could not see.  The stage was silent and still, but there was a scurry of activity behind the scenes just waiting to be unleashed.

I have learned to savor the silence.  

Wouldn't you think being on a sinking ship would be enough to get most people's attention?  Surely being thrown overboard would be.  No?  Well then, how about being swallowed by a fish?

Um, no.

Jonah was in the fish's belly for three whole days and three whole nights before he prayed.  Notice that little word at the beginning of chapter two.  "Then ..."

"Oh, what peace we often forfeit; Oh, what needless pain we bear."  One of my favorite, oft self-quoted verses is found in Jonah chapter 2 verse 8, "They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy."  By the time he penned these words Jonah well knew whereof he spake.

Only after suffering his self-inflicted affliction from "the belly of hell," in "the deep, in the midst of the seas," with "the floods" compassing him about, when all His billows and waves passed over him, only then did he feel his separation from God.  He could no longer see God, and God could no longer see him.  God in His holiness had had to turn away from Jonah's sin, and he knew it.  The loneliness is empty and keen.

Can you empathize like I can?  I know that feeling well.  Panic has overtaken me when I've realized that I have allowed sin to come between me and my Lord for far too long.  I've found myself reaping the consequences of what I had so carelessly sown.  It felt hopeless and dire, and the icy fingers of dread gripped me when I finally fully awoke to having placed myself under the hand of God's judgment instead of His hand of safety and love.  But the ball was in my court as it always is when we choose sin over our Savior.  We can seek His face in repentance like Jonah did.  "Yet I will look again..."

He chose to look again.  

It is never too late to repent.  The real question is, what is it going to take to get us to the point of repentance?  Look at all that Jonah chose to endure before he finally said yes to God.  Let's put ourselves in his shoes again, shall we?  Go with me there, down into the belly of the whale ...  

The waters compassed him about, "even to the soul."  All the water and no doubt the pressure of all that water was enough to make him feel like he was drowning physically and spiritually.  The depths closed round about him, and the weeds were wrapped about his head.

It's dark and wet and cold and slimy.  And smelly enough to make you lose your lunch.  No food, no drinkable water, no toilet facilities.  No creature comforts of any kind.  And I would imagine spending any significant amount of time in the acids of a fishes belly would eventually begin to burn.

He describes going "down to the bottoms of the mountains."  Have you ever experienced coming down  a mountain?  Having lived near mountains for the majority of my life, I have often.  Nearly always my ears pop painfully.  It's not fun.  Whales aren't stationary. He probably experienced this repeatedly during those three never-ending days.

I think all of this is what gave him the impression of being in "the belly of hell."

He couldn't have sunk any lower.

Yet, he cried out to God even from such great depths and He heard his voice.  He brought up his soul from corruption, saving his life once again in spite of himself.  When his soul fainted within him, then he remembered the Lord, and His prayer came in unto Him, into His holy temple.

"Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy word ... It is good for me that I have been afflicted: that I might learn Thy statutes."  Psalm 119:67 & 71

And now we come to the crux of the issue.  He says in verse 9 "But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving:  I will pay that that I have vowed.  Salvation is of the Lord."

He now cherishes what he too easily took for granted; hearing God's voice, and knowing He hears his, and the ability to see and serve Him,  recognizing these mercies for the gifts and privileges they are.  He thanks God for entrusting him with this mission, and surrenders to His will if He chooses to save his life.  Remember, at this point in the story Jonah didn't know how it was going to end.  As far as he knew, these were his last words.  He would honor God in life or in death.

We serve a God of second-chances.

"And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land."

{Stay tuned!  Parts 3 and 4 are already in the works.  Thanks so much for reading, friends.  You bless me.}