Jonah's Prayer

Jonah's prayer in chapter 2 always confuses me. Jonah makes these comments about God's mercy and about his own depravity, but doesn't really get it. God offers His mercy to everyone and not just Jonah himself. But even if it's confusing, we can learn from it.

I often picture the great fish like Jaws or the crocodile in Peter Pan--just there waiting, ready to snatch Jonah up soon as he hits the water. However, that's not very accurate. Jonah talks about being wrapped in seaweed, sinking to the heart of the sea, and even seeing the roots of the mountains (Jonah 2:3,5-6). He hit the water and although the storm was calmed (Jonah 1:15), the water was still wild and Jonah sunk down deep. That's just one of those details I never noticed before.

 Besides the bit of detail it adds to the story, we also see that Jonah doesn't realize it's his own fault he's in the belly of this great fish. He acts like this is all God's fault: "You threw me into the ocean... You have driven me from your presence" (Jonah 2:3-4). Sure God is not just sitting by uninvolved in this whole situation, but it's not God's fault that Jonah disobeyed. When we are not obeying His commands, God sometimes takes drastic measures to bring us back around.

Jonah's perspective is clearly skewed. Jonah ran; God didn't drive him away. Jonah told the sailors toss him overboard; God didn't throw him in. We can be just like Jonah--when we are sad or lonely or mad, we started getting a skewed perspective too. We start thinking about how terrible we are, or how people don't like us, or how God must not love us. When you start feeling this way, here are some verses to help you remember that God is with you even in rough times: Jer. 29:11-13, Ps. 139:7-12, Deut. 31:6, Ps. 16:8 and Lk 15:11-31 (but particularly verse 20).

Jonah also talks about how he has "lost all hope" (Jonah 2:7). He hits rock bottom. He feels death all around him and can't see a way out. God doesn't want to make our lives terrible--but sometimes we need to hit rock bottom before we're willing to trust Him. It's not until we're at rock bottom that we realize we can't do this on our own and need Him to do it. 

What can we do to prevent ourselves from hitting rock bottom? We need to trust God and give Him control of our lives, but that can be very challenging to do. We need to be doing basic things (like praying and reading our Bible) daily. We need to have other Christians in our lives to connect with that we can be held accountable by and also be encouraged by. We need to constantly have our thoughts be towards God so we can live for Him and not have to hit rock bottom to recognize our need for Him.

The last thing that stands out to me about Jonah's prayer is his pompous attitude. He is still putting down the pagans and lifting himself up. He really doesn't get that he's made some dumb choices that have got him in a terrible situation. God looks at Jonah the same way he looks at the pagan sailors and the same way He looks at you and me. We have all done things that deserve death and yet because of His grace and mercy, He has spared us.

Not only does Jonah's prayer teach us about some more of the details and give us some insights, I think it's also a good thermometer of Jonah's spiritual life. We see his opinion of himself and his opinion of God through his prayer. What do your prayers say about you? Do you just bring God a To-do list? Do you pour out your heart and tell Him all about your life? Do you quickly pray before meals and bed, but not much else?