Written by Tyler S. Fulcher | The Pastor's Resource
The Book of Jonah is a fascinating story. You have probably preached from it before. In this series, I wanted to invite you to consider some new ways to approach this old book. Its riches leave much for us to explore, even if it is our hundredth time through the book.
Below you will find two sermon ideas for Jonah 2. I hope you find them helpful.
Tyler S. Fulcher writes about the Bible, Theology, and Church History. He is a biblical scholar based in Springfield, MO. Click here to contact.
Jonah 2 (WEB)*
1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD, his God, out of the fish’s belly. 2 He said,
“I called because of my affliction to the LORD.
He answered me.
Out of the belly of Sheol I cried.
You heard my voice.
3 For you threw me into the depths,
in the heart of the seas.
The flood was all around me.
All your waves and your billows passed over me.
4 I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight;
yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’
5 The waters surrounded me,
even to the soul.
The deep was around me.
The weeds were wrapped around my head.
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains.
The earth barred me in forever;
yet you have brought my life up from the pit, LORD my God.
7 “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD.
My prayer came in to you, into your holy temple.
8 Those who regard vain idols forsake their own mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving.
I will pay that which I have vowed.
Salvation belongs to the LORD.”
10 Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land.
*FWIW: I use the World English Bible because it is the only public domain version of the Bible. Unfortunately, most Bible translations are held under copyright by whichever company pays for the translation. As a result, I cannot legally copy their text and send it out to people. The World English Bible is an updated version of the American Standard Version. You are welcome, encouraged even, to trade it out for your favorite version of the Bible to study.
The first sermon you could preach from Jonah 2 focuses on one glaring omission in Jonah's prayer.
He never repents.
If we read through this passage too quickly, we can mistake his words for repentance. Here are three reasons why I don't think Jonah's prayer constitutes repentance.
It's easy to imagine that Jonah prayed in this poetic manner ad lib, but the reality is that Jonah 2 borrows from the book of Psalms and reads like a finely crafted poem.
There's nothing wrong with using other people's words in prayer. In fact, Jesus recommended it himself. But it is possible to use other people's prayers as a mechanism to avoid authentic conversation with God.
The Old Testament contains several different types of psalms. We have psalms of thanksgiving, lament, praise, and penitence. One would have expected Jonah to select a penitential psalm. He had sinned against God by fleeing to Tarshish, and so, he should have expressed his sorrow over his sinfulness and requested God's mercy.
Instead, Jonah prays a psalm of thanksgiving.
While the beginning of the prayer reads like it is taking place in the moment (vv. 2-6), the second part of the psalm adopts the perspective of some time after God delivered Jonah from the fish (vv. 7-9).
Why doesn't Jonah express sorrow over his sin?
I think it speaks to his character. In Jonah 1, we see that he refuses to "go up" at any point in the chapter. Instead, he tells the sailors to throw him overboard. He won't do it for them. They will need to pick him up and toss him in the sea.
To this point in the story, Jonah remains uninterested in repentance. He does not want to die, but he does not want to admit to his wrongdoing. He hides behind other people's prayers to avoid addressing the real problem he has with God.
Instead of acknowleding his sin, Jonah prays because of his circumstances. He does not acknowledge his wrongdoing. He simply wants God to intervene on his behalf.
Notice that Jonah describes his dangerous situation in great detail. He uses graphic language to create an image of death and despair.
Yet he never acknowledges the reason for his affliction.
In his prayer, Jonah never accepts responsibility for his actions. Instead, he deflects. He contrasts himself with people who worship idols (v. 8). He argues that they are the ones who "forsake their true loyalty" (v. 8).
Curiously, the obvious idol worshippers in the story thus far (i.e., the sailors) all cried out to God for mercy so that they might survive. Jonah does no such thing. He seems to still imagine himself as a supremely righteous person.
Although the passage offers no indication of Jonah's repentance, it does reveal his genuine concern for survival. He does not want to die. Jonah recognizes the gravity of his situation.
He recognizes that his life rests completely in God's hands.
For all of Jonah's rebellion, he has not forgotten where his help comes from. He looks to the temple, God's dwelling place. Unlike the sailors who wondered which God controlled the weather, Jonah never mistook God for an impotent deity. He knew that the Lord was the only one who could save him.
The surprising part of Jonah 2 is God's response. One would expect God to demand Jonah say the magic words in order to rescue him, but God does not do that. God does not demand that Jonah express his willingness to go to Nineveh.
This chapter emphasizes God's compassion. The Lord loves his children even when they rebel. He is slow to anger. His compassion is beyond our comprehension.
When we preach a passage like Jonah 2, it is tempting to fill in the story with insights from systematic theology or other parts of Scripture. While this is a good and necessary part of faithful interpretation, it is important to let a passage stand on its own for a bit.
God's response to Jonah is scandalous. The prophet does not deserve to be rescued. He has not checked the boxes we so often deem necessary for someone to receive God's mercy.
But the cross is scandalous too.
God has never extended mercy to a deserving person in the history of humanity.
Ultimately, the man who refuses to repent points us to the God whose patience and compassion confounds us.
That is a message every sinner, like us, needs to hear.
A second way to preach from Jonah 2 follows closely on the heels of a sermon idea in Jonah 1.
In the first chapter, Jonah descends ever deeper as he runs from God. In Jonah 2, the prophet reaches the very bottom. The poem uses several techniques to emphasize the depths to which Jonah has fallen.
First, the author equates the belly of the fish with death. In verse one, the narrator sets the scene by reminding the reader that Jonah is in the belly of the fish. Jonah, however, describes his location as the "belly of Sheol." The NIV translates this literally as the "realm of the dead."
While some people imagine that Sheol is a reference to hell, this is not accurate. Sheol, in the Old Testament, typically refers to the grave. Everyone goes to Sheol when they die according to the ancient Near Eastern worldview. The primary question concerns the nature of one's existence in Sheol.
So, when Jonah says that he is in the "belly of Sheol," he means that he is as good as dead. Death is the lowest to which Jonah can descend.
In other parts of this poem, Jonah describes this location as "the heart of the seas" and "the bottoms of the mountains." It is as if God took Jonah's willingness to descend into the boat to escape his calling and exploited it. He sent Jonah even deeper than he could have imagined.
Jonah finds himself at the lowest possible point. His life has been taken from him. He inhabits the realm of the dead. From that lowly position, however, he remembers where he should set his gaze. He looks to God.
The Temple represented God's presence in the Old Testament. God promised to reside amongst his people, and the Israelites understood the temple as the locus of that presence. When you prayed in ancient Israel, you prayed with your face pointed towards the Temple. God was delighted to listen to his people even when they were at their greatest distance from him.
The Temple represented God's presence in the Old Testament. God promised to reside amongst his people, and the Israelites understood the temple as the locus of that presence. When you prayed in ancient Israel, you prayed with your face pointed towards the Temple. God was delighted to listen to his people even when they were at their greatest distance from him.
Jonah finds himself at the bottom of the sea. He is dead.
His efforts to flee from God's calling led to his demise. He literally found himself swallowed by a fish in the bottom of the sea.
The chapter ends on a different note, however. God sees Jonah's new orientation. He is no longer running. He has turned his gaze to the Lord in the temple. God responds by commanding the fish to spit him out.
This sermon follows Jonah's trajectory quite closely. As you preach a sermon like this, you can't help but think of the old axiom that "sin will take you further than you want to go and keep you longer than you want to stay."
Jonah experienced this firsthand. He discovered that sin destroys lives.
The amazing news is that God delights to redeem his people. We need only look to him for deliverance.
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