Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly, and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. (Jonah 2:1-2)
I know a lot of you are thinking that this book can’t be real and this story about Jonah is really just a bad bedtime story to scare religious children into obedience– after all, science teaches us that there is no oxygen in a breathable human form inside a fish; however, regardless of whether or not you believe this story to be real, the story is nonetheless didactic for all of our lives.
Before we get to the didactic in the Book of Jonah, I want to go over the reality in the Book of Jonah. The reality is that Jonah is a real person, whose father was named Amittai. Jonah was a prophet in Israel; but God called him to be a teacher in the city of Nineveh. We also know that Jonah was happy just being a prophet in Israel and he didn’t really have any interest in going to Nineveh to be anything. That’s the reality of Jonah’s story.
Now, we get to the didactic piece– how does God deal with people who no longer want to believe that they have a special purpose in life? Moreover, how should people deal with situations where they seriously feel alienated by God? The answer: pray. Better than just that, pray from the belly, while you’re in the belly of your situation. Look at verses up top. Jonah prays from the fish’s belly and God hears. The fish’s belly is Jonah’s belly of hell. Regardless of whether or not Jonah is in the belly of a fish, he, in reality is facing a living hell (isolation from God). Jonah, because he put himself in that situation, had to belly the courage within himself to pray.The point here is that praying to God requires courage in the situation. That courage is especially necessary when we are in the belly of what we deem as hell.
I know many of us are standing on the outskirts of hell, or inside the belly of hell because of the decisions we made or circumstances we find ourselves in; but I want you to belly the courage to cry to God from the belly of hell and find God listening to your prayers. If he can deliver a guy who absconded from his duty and obligations, then God can deliver you from whatever hell of a fish you’re swallowed up in.
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