This chapter ends Jonah's spiral downward. He went down to Joppa, down to the hole of the ship, down in the sea, and finally down into the fish. He is truly as far down as he can go. He is in the Hebrew equivalent of hell.
And he finally prays.
Jonah quotes from the Psalter.
He feels he is banished. He is as far away from hope as he could be. And he finally cries out. He doesn't ask for forgiveness. He promises to make good on his vow to declare the salvation of the Lord.
For me, this passage reminds me of a book I have read several times. It has impacted me and how I think of my spiritual journey - The Critical Journey, by Janet Hagberg & Robert Guelich. I won't recount the whole book, but in everyone's journey we will hit a WALL. When we hit the wall, we can't go around it, we can't go over it, and we can't go under it - we must either go through it or bounce off it and go back to an earlier stage.
I think Jonah is at the wall. Jonah is in his dark night of the soul. Jonah has nothing left but God. Will he relinguish control to God or not. We will find out in chapter 4 ultimately what Jonah does.
Personally, I feel like I've been at the wall for a while. I feel like I'm moving through it slowly but surely. There are times when I feel like I'm in the belly of the fish and there are times I feel like I'm really walking with God.
The biggest take-away for me today is to be reminded that no matter where I am, God is there. He hears my prayers no matter where I utter them.
He hears you as well - no matter where you feel like you are.
Under the Mercy,
Jason
And he finally prays.
Jonah quotes from the Psalter.
He feels he is banished. He is as far away from hope as he could be. And he finally cries out. He doesn't ask for forgiveness. He promises to make good on his vow to declare the salvation of the Lord.
For me, this passage reminds me of a book I have read several times. It has impacted me and how I think of my spiritual journey - The Critical Journey, by Janet Hagberg & Robert Guelich. I won't recount the whole book, but in everyone's journey we will hit a WALL. When we hit the wall, we can't go around it, we can't go over it, and we can't go under it - we must either go through it or bounce off it and go back to an earlier stage.
I think Jonah is at the wall. Jonah is in his dark night of the soul. Jonah has nothing left but God. Will he relinguish control to God or not. We will find out in chapter 4 ultimately what Jonah does.
Personally, I feel like I've been at the wall for a while. I feel like I'm moving through it slowly but surely. There are times when I feel like I'm in the belly of the fish and there are times I feel like I'm really walking with God.
The biggest take-away for me today is to be reminded that no matter where I am, God is there. He hears my prayers no matter where I utter them.
He hears you as well - no matter where you feel like you are.
Under the Mercy,
Jason
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