CHAPTER 2
 

JONAH'S PRAYER

JONAH'S PRAYER STUDY ON JONAH'S PRAYER EVENT WITH JONAH'S PRAYER MESSAGE
 

           
            Ahoy there and welcome back to Daily Bread!  As you remember, we have a man overboard in our story, but usually that means that someone accidentally fell in the water.  This wasn't the case in this instance.  That man overboard was the prophet Jonah himself and he was purposely thrown into the water.  He was hiding from the Lord so he wouldn't have to go to Nineveh and preach to the people there as God commanded him, who were overcome with evil.  Jonah didn't wanna go to Nineveh because he figured that in the end, God would just forgive the people anyway, so why go through all the trouble.  His presence on the ship brought about a terrible tempest that was about to destroy the ship and all that were on it, so with prayers of mercy, the people on the ship, tossed Jonah into the sea. 

JONAH'S PRAYER LESSON WITH JONAH'S PRAYER EXPLANATION AND JONAH'S PRAYER SUMMARY

            Well, Jonah was swallowed up by a whale, and at first you may think this is a terrible thing, but let's go back and digest this part of Chapter 1 verse 17 a little bit.  Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.  What does it mean, He prepared the fish?  God actually provided protection for Jonah inside the whale, He wasn't making bait out of Jonah.

            Jonah has a little change of spirit during his stay within the Lord's special accommodations for him and he realizes the seriousness of God's command.  He knew that the alternative was drowning in the sea and he praised the Lord from out of the whale's belly:  "I cried to the Lord because of my distress and He heard me, out of the belly of the grave I cried, and you heard my voice.  You had thrown me into the deep, in the middle of the seas and floods surrounded me.  All your winds and waves passed over me.  Then I realized, I am cast out of your sight, but I will still seek you.  The waters compassed me about, even to the soul, the depth closed around me, the seaweeds were wrapped around my head.  I went down to the floor of the ocean, the earth imprisoned me for ever, still, you brought up my life from death, O Lord my God.  When my soul fainted inside me I remembered the Lord and my prayer came in to you, in your holy temple.  Those who are foolish give up their own mercy.  But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving, I'll pay what I've promised.  Salvation is from the Lord."

JONAH'S PRAYER INFORMATION WITH JONAH'S PRAYER MEANING AND JONAH'S PRAYER DISCUSSION

            Haven't we all, as Christian found ourselves in the spiritual darkness and felt out of the presence of the Lord? At times like these we can take a valuable lesson from what Jonah did and pray. The Lord loves humility in a person and Jonah's prayer demonstrated his repentance, so the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out onto dry land. He was given another opportunity to perform the task he had been called to do.