Salvation and Humor (or, The Book of Jonah) Part Two

"From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said:

'In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
From the depths of the grave I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.
You hurled me into the deep,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled around me;
all your waves and breakers
swept over me.
I said, 'I have been banished
from your sight;
yet I will look again
toward your holy temple.'
The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you brought my life up from the pit,
O Lord my God.
When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.

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.

And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land."
--Jonah 2

This undoubtedly had to be the lowest point in Jonah's life. Several things are going on here:
1) Jonah has run away from the Lord, and action he already knows was wrong, as evidenced by him hiding below deck
2) A huge storm comes up (coincidence, I think not!) Conditions below deck had to be sickening (literally)
3)He was found out and has been tossed over board
4) He gets tossed around in the waves, coughing and drowning
5) He gets swallowed by a giant fish

Seriously, you have to wonder what went through his mind during those initial moments. The passage above had to have come later, upon a little reflection of his situation. Really, what was he thinking as the fish swam towards him? In my wonderful world of sarcasm, my thoughts probably would have been somewhere along the lines of, "Really, now? Drowning wasn't enough? A fish gets to swallow me too?! Awesome!" But that isn't what the passage focuses on (although I'm sure that probably would have been an amusing chapter). We get to hear Jonah work it all out while he is trapped in an inescapable situation. I think I'll break it down from here by each section of the passage.

First of all, he is at the lowest of the low points he will probably ever have in his life, but does he curse God, swear at Him, forsake Him as it seems He has forsaken Jonah? No. Jonah states that in his weakest, most pitiful moment he has called to the Lord, and more importantly, "HE HAS ANSWERED." Even though Jonah has sunk lower than ever before, even though he has essentially attempted to abandon the Lord by running away from Him, Jonah makes it very clear that the Lord has heard his cries.

Jonah mentions being swept into the sea, and according to his nature he must be thinking "I can never go back, I can never be in the presence of God again," but in that darkest moment of his life, he still continues to "look again towards [the] holy temple." Talk about perseverance! In the lowest of the low moments in my life, am I looking to God, for the opportunity to be in fellowship with Him, or am I relying solely on my own strength and intelligence? Think about the panic Jonah must have been feeling as he sank into the ocean, seaweed tangled about his head, drowning him, suffocating him. Imagine how you feel when seaweed wraps around only your legs. That's bad enough, but your head? Pulling you down, seemingly engulfing you? Horrible. In this I see a sort of metaphor for how trapped Jonah must have been feeling, how it must have seemed to him like he was spiritually drowning as well. And also, maybe a connection/metaphor to how he was feeling about himself, knowing full well that he had gotten himself into this mess. I think of the slimy feeling of seaweed, wrapped around my face and I shudder. Think about that metaphorically. It isn't good.

But the next part of the passage is a statement of incredible hope: "But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple." Clearly, God heard Jonah. And, in turn, He provided a way for Jonah to survive, to internalize and process everything that had happened to him. Jonah's perseverance in seeking the Lord forged the way into a reconnection with God.

And the next line strikes me hard:
"Those who cling to worthless idol forfeit the grace that could be theirs."

Woah. Think about that for a second. Think about our consumer driven, materialistic society. Think about the number of people you know who have been buried with something physical that they held of worth in their lives. I remember my friend's grandfather was buried with his entire set of golf clubs. But for what? You can't take it with you? There's no hole in one going on six feet under. It is meaningless. It is an idol. I'm not saying that having something of sentimental value is wrong. That's part of our nature. Valuing something isn't wrong. But it becomes wrong when we value something more than we value God. When we focus on "idols," whether it be a person, a place, or an object, we are forfeiting the grace that is fully and readily available to us. This isn't just about "ignore God and he'll ignore you in retaliation." God isn't passive aggressive. It's about focusing so fully on something else that you completely MISS OUT on the incredible grace that God has for us, the incredible love that He craves to show us. I don't want to forfeit something so amazing, especially when I can't even take it (the idol) with me. Fifty years? Seventy years? Eighty? That's all I have (and that's pushing it) with these tangible objects of the here and now, but we know that the grace of God is something eternal, something intangible that will last far beyond when the things of this earth decay. Everything of this world is transient. I want to focus on something I can count on, something that will not take my heart and soul in vain.

The final part of Jonah's prayer is powerful as well. Not only does he give thanks to the Lord (the testing of our faith develops perseverance--James 1), but he makes a promise to the Lord, one that he is assuring will be completed upon the first available opportunity. And I love the line he throws in at the end: "Salvation comes from the Lord." How simply beautiful. How true. And then, in the next line (and I seriously believe this is more evidence of God's humor), the fish vomits Jonah onto land. I find that hilarious, "Salvation is in the Lord!" Jonah cries and BLEH! right away the fish vomits him up. I'm sure that's probably not what Jonah was thinking when he said that, but the Lord just showed him one more facet of His personality. I could go on about God and humor, and how He created us to laugh (not solely, of course), but that's a topic for later on.

To summarize, what stood out to me in this chapter were a few things.

1) That Jonah persevered in seeking the Lord
2) The the Lord HEARD and ANSWERED his pleas
3) That our joy must be found in the Lord, not in idols which cause us to forfeit His grace
4) Praising the Lord throughout the hardships we face
5) God has a sense of humor

I am going to give thanksgiving to the Lord, I am going to fulfill my promises to Him as He fulfills His to me. I am going to seek Him out and place His of highest value in my life, over all potential idols, so that I may not unwittingly forfeit his amazing grace. I will continue to seek him and persevere even throughout hardships, no matter what stage of my life I am in, I will seek His face, and I will that he will always hear me, no matter where I am. I KNOW that my Salvation is in the Lord. This is my prayer.

Amen.