In which I don’t make a single fish pun.
Jonah’s prayer to Jehovah in the belly of the great fish who swallowed him gave me pause.
Jonah 2:1–9
Then Jonah prayed to Jehovah his God from the stomach of the fish, and he said,
I called out because of my distress
To Jehovah, and He answered me;
From the belly of Sheol I cried out for help;
You heard my voice.
You flung me into the depths, into the heart of the sea,
And the flood surrounded me;
All Your breakers and Your billows
Passed over me.
Therefore I said, I have been driven out
From before Your eyes;
Yet I will look again
Toward Your holy temple.
Water encompassed me, even to my soul;
The deep surrounded me;
Seaweed was wrapped about my head.
To the bottom of the sea mountains I went down;
The earth with its bars was around me forever.
Then You have brought up my life from the pit,
O Jehovah my God.
When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered Jehovah,
And my prayer came to You
In Your holy temple.
Those who regard empty vanities
Forsake the lovingkindness to them;
But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving;
That which I have vowed I will fully pay.
Salvation is of Jehovah.
Unless Jonah is using hysteron proteron, which it’s clear from the context of the rest of his prayer that he is not, the sequence of events is that first Jonah cried out to Jehovah, and then he was cast into the ocean. Therefore, when he says “from the belly of Sheol I cried out,” he is not referring to the belly of the fish. He is referring to where he was trapped in his desperate flight from God, whether that was Tarshish, Joppa, or on the merchant ship in the storm. The belly of Sheol was a place without God. So being in the belly of a great fish with the presence of God is infinitely preferable. When we are running from God’s call, isn’t that hell itself?
Then a second enigmatic phrase, “but I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; That which I have vowed I will fully pay.” It’s evocative of Hebrews 13:15: “Through Him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, the fruit of lips confessing His name.”
Jonah regarded his thanksgiving to Jehovah as a sacrifice and also what he had vowed to pay. He had much to thank God for, but he also was in a harrowing situation in its own right. Thanking God anyway from the belly of a fish would still be a sacrifice.
And the third: “Salvation is of Jehovah.” It is clear from verse 6 that Jonah considered his life brought up from the pit. It’s ironic, considering he probably prayed this prayer from maybe a hundred meters below sea level. Jonah had no way of knowing out of which end of this fish he would ultimately exit. Yet he considered himself already saved, for salvation is of Jehovah.
From the view of the world, Jonah’s flight from his call to Nineveh was to preserve his life.
Jonah discovered that the flight itself was Sheol, hell.
The sailors made vows and sacrifices to God for saving them from the tempest.
Jonah praised and thanked God for pitching him into the abyss and swallowing him up.
We would have considered ourselves saved when the fish vomited us out on dry land.
Jonah declared, “Salvation is of Jehovah,” without knowing whether he would live or die in that fish. His salvation was right there in the belly, in the deep.
People of faith are a mystery to the world. The things the people of the world seek after (empty vanities, says verse 8) mean nothing to us. Situations that seem excruciating, impossible, are sources of refuge and consolation. We have springs in the desert, a garden enclosed, that no one can see or know. But they can tell there’s a hidden oasis somewhere — else, how are we still full of sap and green?
