Salvation Comes From the Lord

Deep Need, Deep Grace

Jonah 1:17-2:10

By L Going WACC 2/20/2000

Jonah’s testimony would have been “Salvation is of the Lord.” Yet like many of us who indeed testify to God’s saving us, we still need to learn what the implications of that grace mean for our attitudes and stance toward others. We also need to learn that responding to God’s relentless grace to us in Christ means that our hearts should become excited about God’s purposes. The Lord’s desire for you is that you not merely conform to his will by going through the motions of obedience but that you find real pleasure in what God values. He values showing grace and compassion to those in need.

God’s Sovereign Grace is seen again in his sending this giant fish to swallow Jonah. I do not question the historicity of this supernatural event. The Bible teaches that God’s sovereignty extends over all his creation. This was a supernatural work of God’s providence. How did Jonah stay alive within the stomach of this fish? Again, by the preserving power of God. This is no less a display of God’s sovereign power than the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Indeed, Jesus affirms the historicity of this event by seeing it as pointing to his death and resurrection.

Matthew 12:40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The fish was also evidence of God’s grace to Jonah for it was the agent of his salvation. Jonah most certainly thought he was a dead man. He accepted this fate. Yet no matter his courage, the truth is that Jonah was not eager to drown and the fact that God used this unusual means to save Jonah was to him a great surprise.

Here we have Jonah’s prayer, which is a Psalm. Many of the words and phrases used in Jonah’s prayer are found in other Psalms. Verse one is a summary description of Jonah’s overall plight and Yahweh’s response, as he was looking into the face of the grave. “In my distress I called to Yahweh, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave (Sheol) I called for help and you listened to my cry.” His distress was almost fatal. He was in great need.

This is the bottom line: God looks for those who see their need regardless of their sin or wickedness. The Lord responded to Jonah’s cry for help due to his great distress and it was His desire to respond in the same way toward Jonah’s enemies. One of the ways the Lord desires to teach us compassion for others is to give us opportunity to experience compassion from Him. This is what the Lord was doing to Jonah.

In fact Jonah also acknowledges that his distress was the Lord’s doing. “You hurled me into the deep (in the same way that he hurled the storm and the ship), into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.”

It is often the case that we interpret life’s storms as evidence that the Lord is either not caring for us or no longer involved with us. This was Jonah’s immediate interpretation of his plight: “I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight.” For a time Jonah interpreted what was happening to him as proof that the Lord was no longer looking after him. After all Jonah had attempted to run away from the face of the Lord. He did not want the Lord to pursue him or be involved with him and he certainly did not want to be involved in what the Lord wanted to do. Maybe he thought, “Well Jonah Ol’ boy, you are getting what you wanted! You wanted to flee from the Lord’s face, now you have it. The Lord is not looking after you at all. You are banished from his eyes!”

It could have been the case that there was Jonah, sinking under the water, his thoughts racing and all of a sudden “wosh” he is swallowed by the fish. “Oh great, rather than death by drowning, I am going to die as this guy’s lunch!” For a while at least Jonah interpreted these fast pace, horrific events as proof that he had received what he wanted. He wanted to flee from the face of the Lord, and now the Lord was granting him his desire, by sending him to the grave, to Sheol. But like David, Jonah learned that even there he could not really escape from the Lord’s presence or His power.

Psalm 139:7-8 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend to heaven, thou art there! If I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there!

After a while Jonah may have realized that he was not going to perish. Here he was inside the belly of this great fish, being preserved. Many believers have testified (maybe some of you could this morning) how amazed they were to discover that even when in the midst of extreme circumstances, somehow there were resources available that enabled them to cope, to survive with a sense of peace and hope. That was no doubt the case with Jonah. There was a watershed for Jonah at some point during this three-day adventure with marine and aquatic life. Things had not changed, he was still in the depths (literally) but he began to have hope. “Yet I will look again toward your holy temple.”

God’s grace was working on Jonah’s behalf not only on the upward side of events but on the downward side, as well. It also seems that even while Jonah saw the threats from his circumstances, that he was seeking the Lord. Jonah’s problems caused him to pray. “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to you holy temple.” He sought the Lord to deliver him from his troubles.

Let me pause with you for a moment and make a point. I have at times spoken with people who were in trouble. Yet they could not bring themselves to pray. In most of the cases there reasoning went something like this. “I did not seek the Lord when things were going well, now that they are not, I can not seek him.” It sounds so noble. Yet it is foolish. It is also evidence of a spirit of self-righteousness. It is to miss completely the lesson of grace. What these “well-intended” folks miss is that their good times were as much the result of God’s providential grace as there bad times are the result of his providential grace. Here is the opportunity to be humble and to seek the Lord. It is not wrong to seek the Lord in times of trouble. Certainly, the lesson that God wanted Jonah to learn from this was to seek the Lord in the right spirit and frame of heart after the deliverance as well. Yet the bottom line for the Lord is that we see our need.

Needs vary. Jonah’s need for a broken and contrite heart actually preceded his need for deliverance from the sea. In times of trouble we need to seek the Lord for deliverance from our troubles but we also should seek him from deliverance from all unbelief and pride. The tragedy here is that Jonah was delivered from the former but not from the latter!

The last two verses of Jonah’s prayer are interesting in light of what happens at the end of the book.

“Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

But I with a song of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you.

What I have vowed I will make good.

Salvation comes from the Lord.”

All of this is good theology. It is true. Jonah is preaching a good message here. Jonah would not think of clinging to worthless idols. Jonah’s acknowledgment of the Lord and his formal worship of sacrifice and vows were appropriate. He saw the connection between the truth that Salvation comes from the Lord, and how this should lead to exclusive worship of the Lord. We might even say that Jonah caught the letter of grace but not the spirit of grace.

It seems that by sheer default Jonah’s life and reluctant witness to these Gentile seamen was the instrument of God’s saving grace to them. How pure their worship would be is not clear. As they went through this violent storm they eventually discovered Jonah’s part in it. As they listened to Jonah’s theology “I am a Hebrew and I fear the LORD God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land” and, as the storm immediately became calm, once Jonah was tossed into the sea, they also are described as fearing the Lord (1:16).

They offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. How far we are to take these actions isn’t clear. Unless they remained in contact with faithful Jews, probably their “fear of the Lord” would not grow and mature. Yet how pure was Jonah’s “fear of the Lord?” He may have feared the Lord, but the Gentile sailors “feared the Lord greatly.” Jonah may have had all the forms of worship down but he did not fear the Lord enough to in faith obey him. Even now while Jonah once again experiences God’s saving and preserving grace, we have to wonder how deep God’s grace penetrated his heart. Deep need requires deep grace. Jonah’s need was deeper than the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea!

While Jonah did not cling to a worthless idol, he did cling to a worthless attitude. While he confessed that salvation was from the Lord, he failed to grasp that this meant that God was free and sovereign to give his grace to whomever he chose. Jonah basked in God’s compassion and grace to him but frowned when God extended it to his enemies. Salvation is from the Lord. He offers salvation freely to all that want His salvation.

Jonah and Jesus

Jesus described Jonah’s “fish” encounter as analogous to his death and resurrection. He called his death and resurrection by the descriptive title “the sign of Jonah.” We will deal more specifically with this in a future message. For now it is important to draw the following connection between Jonah and Jesus.

Jonah’s time in the belly of the great fish, deep in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea was due to God’s judgment. The three days of the Son of Man in the grip of the grave was also due to God’s judgment. Jonah’s judgment was deserved. The judgment of the Son of Man was due to his being the great substitute for sinners. His was a vicarious judgment. Jonah’s deliverance from the fish was due to the supernatural power of God. The Son of Man’s resurrection from the dead was also due to the supernatural power of God. Jonah’s deliverance from the fish enabled him to continue with the ministry the Lord had ordained that he do. The Son of Man’s deliverance from the dead enabled him likewise to carry out the ministry that His Father ordained for him. Hebrews 7:25 reads “Consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”

Jonah’s deliverance from the fish and the sea did not change his frame of heart toward his enemies. He carried out his mission but reluctantly and did not delight in the gracious heart of God. The Son of Man, the greater Jonah, has always shared in His Father’s gracious heart. He was and ever is full of grace and truth. He carries on his ministry not reluctantly but willingly. Every promise of God to sinners is Yes and Amen in Christ. By His Holy Spirit working through the preaching of the Gospel, this greater Jonah continues to seek and save the lost orphan-enemies of his Father. There is no reluctance with this greater Jonah to minister to the needy enemies of God. Through him we hear the good news of pardon and amnesty to all traitors. It is the risen greater Jonah that saves sinners and the gospel of this risen greater Jonah is not a pronouncement of judgment, leaving you to figure out whether or not there might be mercy with God. No His message to you and stance toward you is one of certain grace, pardon and permanent acceptance with God. For these reason and others we will elaborate in the next few weeks the Lord Jesus is indeed the greater Jonah.

Some Final Applications

How To Seek the Lord In Times of Trouble and Distress

Are you one of those “well intentioned folk” who hesitate to pray to God in times of need because you do not pray to him when things are going well? Certainly, the Lord wants you to seek him in times of circumstantial abundance and harvest and not simply in times of famine. Yet beware of self-righteousness. Your good times are from His hand too. They are not the results merely of your hard work and industry, nor are they necessarily rewards from Him for your upstanding morality and good deeds. Paul asked a probing question of the Corinthian Christians, “What do you have that you have not received?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). The correct answer is “everything you have is ultimately a gift of God’s grace.” Are you facing trouble right now? Are you about to be swallowed by some kind of monster? What better time to pray? What better time to seek the Lord?

Yet as you do, remember that Jonah needed God to do more than deliver him from external adversity, he needed God to deliver him from a twisted heart. Never simply cry out to God for deliverance from external trials alone, whether it is the trial of illness, family problems, loss of a job, difficult fellow workers, or any number of challenges or set- backs. Use these times first to ask the Lord to search your heart, to show you how deeply His grace really has a hold of you. Ask the greater Jonah, the Lord Jesus, how much of his Word really abides in you.

John 15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you

I understand that the phrase, “If you abide in me,” is further fleshed out by the following phrase “and my words abide in you.” In other words, there can be no real abiding in Jesus Christ, unless his words, his teachings, the truth of God’s written word the Bible take up residence in your heart. There is no Lord without a word. And if His words abide in you in this way, your heart will be increasingly transformed by and conformed to His purposes, will and agenda. So your prayers, what you ask from him, will reflect the glory of your abiding union with the risen Lord Jesus. You will do more than simply pray for deliverance from trials, you will pray that He will use the trials to purify your faith, so that you will bring glory to Him and the Gospel.