The Recovered Servant

​Jonah 2:7-9 ~ “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. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!”
 
Is there a sense in which you have been relegated to the belly of a great fish? Have your sins caused you to flee from the LORD and God’s discipline has come upon you? Jonah, had fled from the presence of the LORD (see Jonah 1:3). Away from the temple, out of the region of Israel, Jonah imagined that he could hide from God. But it is apparent that there is no place that anyone can go that takes them far enough away from God that He cannot find you. David asked in Psalm 139:7, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” The answer, of course, is nowhere. The heavy hand of God sits upon the life of His children when they try to run in rebellion. Hear David’s cry in Psalm 31:10, “For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.” The condition of sin in the life of a believer is a tale of sorrow and woe, and yet with the LORD there is bountiful mercy and grace.
 
Out of the belly of the great fish that swallowed Jonah and brought him to the depths of the sea, we read his cry of repentance. Dear Christian, your life is not spent nor is it so far gone that the LORD God cannot find you. I would encourage you to read the entirety of Jonah, chapter two. In our text today we read of Jonah’s mind toward God, “When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.” Has your sin caused you to sense your life “fainting away?” Is there such decay because you have departed from the LORD, as if you are being blown apart like sand in a storm and you cannot seem to pull it together? Then, my friends, do as Jonah did and remember the LORD. How quickly we find our lives in disarray, dismal when we depart from the LORD. And yet when we remember the LORD and turn our minds back to Him there is hope. Consider how the prodigal son was said to have remembered his father’s house in Luke 15:17, “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!’” Come back to yourself, wandering Christian, and remember your Father in Heaven and let your prayer come to Him.
 
We continue as we consider Jonah’s words next, “Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay.” There is no hope in any promise given by the world’s idols. To regard them as of value is to forsake the steadfast love offered by the LORD God. Jonah knew this, for he was on a ship filled with sailors who cried out to their false deities, and all to no avail. Jonah 1:5 states, “Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.” Look for worldly solutions to the dilemma of your rebellion and you will discover that there is no hope or promise that will avail. But with the LORD there is steadfast love. Hear the words of Psalm 130:7, “O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.” Do you need mercy and will you not look to the LORD? Beloved, do not turn away from Him who will give you plentiful redemption! And when His promise is yours, with the voice of thanksgiving give Him all the praise! Then, as Jonah did, step away from your rebellion and obey the LORD.
 
All of this Jonah cried out to the LORD even while he was confined in the belly of the fish. His condition was still in the midst of God’s discipline, yet his confidence in the mercy of God was such that he could cry out, “Salvation belongs to the LORD!” Even now, dear ones, you might be in the grip of God’s chastising hand, feeling the effects of His discipline against your rebellion. Oh, my friends, He is a merciful Father! With love does He bring us through the trials that purge our sins, but then His hand is yet gentle and will again comfort and heal. 1 Peter 5:10 declares, “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”
 
No saint of Christ is forsaken. No child of God is abandoned. You may be only one prayer away from the LORD.
 
In His Grace,
Pastor Michael

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