Jonah 2:7-10: “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came in unto thee into thine holy temple. They that observe laying vanities forsake their own mercy, But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed, Salvation is of the Lord. And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.”
There is something about Jonah that many Christians seem to not realize. We all know the story of Jonah. It was probably a favorite for many of us who grew up in Sunday School and saw the flannel graph pictures of Jonah on his knees inside a whale’s stomach with his hands folded in prayer. We listened to our Sunday School teachers tell us: “Now children that is what happens when you run away from God.” Even as a child I figured the odds were pretty slim that a guy raised in Chicago was going to end up in a whale’s belly. I have to admit that I may not be in a literally whale’s or fish’s belly, but I suspect I am in one in a figurative sense.
So how did Jonah end up the fish’s stomach? I often asked this question to my students when I was teaching in the BibleCollege and almost without exception they would say: “Jonah was trying to run away from God.” Well, that is after all what my Sunday School teachers taught, and I would pride myself in being smarter than Jonah because I knew God was everywhere and you can’t run away from Him. But read verses 1:3 and you find that he was not running away from God, but running away from the presence (Heb. pani) of God. Who would run away from the presence of God? I mean is that not the thing we work so hard to get in our worship services. We beat the drum, shout, yell, giving our all to feel the presence of God? Then if we don’t feel the presence of God we get angry and blame the pastor, or the church. Being in the presence of God is not always a warm cuddly feeling. I believe when Jonah was in the presence of God he heard the cry of Nineveh, he heard the results of their sin, their scream of pain, fear, rejection and hopelessness. He heard what God heard, a silent scream and it was too much to bear. Yesterday I stepped into the presence of God and I heard what a of mine friend would call a silent scream, I wept and I ran away, just like old Jonah ran away. I refused to go to Nineveh. After all Nineveh was a dangerous place for a Jew like Jonah, let alone to go and preach repentance, why he would likely get his head lopped off. That was not part of his dove like, nurturing assignments in the past. Like Jonah, caught in a storm with a bunch of innocent fishermen, I became aware of the fact that my rebellion was also affecting other people.
So that is how I come to find myself treading water inside a figurative fish’s belly. It is filled with all the fear and terror as Jonah must have felt. So how do I get to verse 2:10 where this fish will barf me out onto dry land which if I follow the Jonah motif, will put me smack dap on the road to Nineveh.
Verse 7 tells me that when Jonah’s soul fainted within him (that’s where I’m at), he remembered the Lord. I woke up this morning feeling my soul fainting within me and I lay in bed watching the events of the last 30 years parade through my mind. I saw all the times that God guided my life opening and closing doors in perfect timing. This is what Jonah must have done during his three days in darkness. Then Jonah sacrificed unto God a voice of thanksgiving. The word sacrifice is zavach which has a paragogic Hei at the end. This means to slaughter, kill, utterly destroy. The word is spelled Zayin, Beth, Chet which suggest that this sacrifice or destruction is a destruction of struggle, feelings of spiritual superiority, and paralyzing fear. This destruction came about through a voice of thanksgiving. Let’s face it, when you’re swimming in a fish’s stomach acids, your are not feeling too thankful. Yet Jonah expressed thanksgiving. The word used here for thanksgiving is todah which is spelled Taw, Daleth, Hei. My Hebrew students would pick up on that right away. It is a praise that opens the door to the presence of God. Jonah stepped back into God’s presence and let God clean up his act. Then Jonah said he would pay his vow. Actually the word pay in Hebrew is shalom with a paragogic Hei. The word shalom not only means peace but also means to fulfill, with the paragogic it means to completely and utterly fulfill. At that point God told the fish to puke the old boy out.
Think about it, are you running away from the presence of God. Of course you will not run away from that sweet, quiet peace of God. But how about when you enter God’s heart and you hear the cry of the world, that silent scream. You immediately shove it aside, it is not pleasant, that is not what you bargained for when you entered God’s heart, yet to ignore the silent screams that God hears will land you right in the fish’s belly and you may even almost sink a ship with a lot of innocent people aboard. It is not an easy or noble task to seek to enter the heart of God. You will find God nudging you to do things that you really do not want to do, you will have to submit totally to His will, even if it is as dangerous as walking through Nineveh preaching repentance.
Yesterday, I read an e-mail from a friend who told me how some people scream out their pain and heartbreak and they are the ones who are noticed, but there are those who keep their pain bottled up inside and say nothing and they go unnoticed, but God hears their silent scream. A few minutes later I was driving my bus to pick up a wheel chair client on Ashland and Chicago Ave. I found myself leaving the Eisenhower Express at the Ashland exit, some of you know this area. Waiting at the stop light at the exit ramp was your usual, obligatory homeless person with his cup that everyone, including myself ignores. I suddenly felt the presence of God indicating something I was to do, I did not want to do it so I turned away from the presence of God. Yet just in that moment when I was lingering in the presence of God and He was prompting me to do something, I remember hearing in my heart what God heard, the cry of this homeless person, just as Jonah must have heard the cry of Nineveh when he was in the presence of God. It was that silent scream of heartbreak, pain, rejection, and hopelessness. It came to me like a silent scream, so powerful I could not help but weep and yet, like Jonah I ran away from the presence of God. Yes, some of us what are ready to throw rocks at old Jonah are really no better than he was.
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