The whole sermon, to read
The Prayer in the Belly of the Fish
A Poem of Margins: The Prayer in the Fish's Belly
He has poured out and given to us in this precious blood the power to experience heavenly glory, heavenly wisdom, heavenly supply, and his very presence. As we approach this precious blood and drink from this cup, I bless you in the name of Jesus that you and I may move forward with full assurance that there is no longer any dividing wall between us and God, that we can taste the glory and grace of heaven, that we can taste his love, and that the presence of heaven is right here in this time and space.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, you who are still alive as our High Priest, calling us righteous from the heavenly throne, we respond to your call and come before this cup in faith. Thank you for covering our sins, forgiving our faults, making us whole, and granting boldness and a clean conscience in our hearts so that we may live righteously. Bless us, Lord, so that having been washed by this blood, we may stand boldly before you. Lord, help us to gain strength through this blood, to live anew, and to live tasting the glory of heaven. Grant us the courage to approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may enjoy the presence of God. Open the doors of prayer so that we may seek your grace to help us in our time of need. With thanksgiving and praise, we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Hallelujah. Amen. The Lord is risen. Amen. The Lord has forgiven our sins. Amen. The Lord has called us. Amen. Amen.
Let us come before the Lord together as we respond with our responsive reading. It is Responsive Reading number forty-five, Psalm one hundred three.
Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits; who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. Amen.
Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. May this be a time when we experience the grace of God who remembers us. Once again, I welcome you in the name of Jesus.
Let us look at the Word together. Today our reading finally moves into Jonah chapter two. We spent four whole weeks on Jonah chapter one, did we not? I think we will probably spend three or four weeks on Jonah chapter two as well. That is because it is a literary work. It is the Word of God, and at the same time, it is a piece of literature, which makes it extraordinarily deep. Today, we will read from Jonah chapter one, verse seventeen. From verse seventeen to chapter two, verse ten, I will read one verse and you will read the next, alternating back and forth.
We need to begin reading from chapter one, verse seventeen. In the Hebrew Bible, this is actually chapter two, verse one. Yes, I will read first.
Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.
From inside the belly of the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.
He said, In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of Sheol I cried out for help, and you listened to my cry.
You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about 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 waters engulfed me to my very soul, the deep abyss surrounded me, and seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in for a long time. But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit.
When my soul was growing faint, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer rose to you, into your holy temple.
Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from the grace that could be theirs.
But I, with shouts of grateful praise, 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. Amen.
Here is a piece of writing composed of just five short lines:
Sure, I understand. Yes, I will. Me too. Yeah. Okay.
Do you know the title of this poem? It is a poem called The Moon, written by the poet Kim Yong-taek. Can you believe this is actually a poem? Yes, just five lines of simple agreement. When you imagine what lies behind these words, you realize why the title is The Moon. Under a night sky lit brightly by the moon, when you are with someone you love, just saying yes communicates everything: longing, love, and deep connection. You can feel it, cannot you? Once you understand the setting, the lines come alive: Sure, I understand. Yes, I will. Me too. Yeah. Okay. It hits you right away. But if you only look at the words in isolation, it seems meaningless, does it not? It just sounds like someone repeating the same thing over and over.
This is what we call the aesthetics of white space in poetry. When we look at arts like poetry, calligraphy, photography, or painting, it is often the blank space, the margin, that evokes powerful imagery and deep emotion. What is left unwritten speaks far more to us than what is written.
There are many genres in the Old Testament, and among them, especially in the Psalms or in the prayers offered up in poetic form within the prophetic books, the unspoken white space often moves us far more deeply than the words actually spoken.
The prayer we just read in Jonah chapter two, which Jonah offered while spending three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, is a poem. It is truly a poem. It is part of a prophetic book, and at the same time, it is poetry. What does this mean for us? That is the assignment we need to unpack today. Or rather than an assignment, even five-year-old kindergarten and Sunday school children know the story of the prophet Jonah, so why did God include such a long poetic prayer right here? What is God trying to tell us? Why did God have this prayer, which Jonah prayed from the belly of the fish, written down here? As we see and hear this prayer he made in the midst of suffering, what was Israel supposed to learn from it? I invite you to imagine yourself as Jonah inside the belly of the fish, and from that place, let us look at this poem, this prayer, once again.
The Special Environment God Prepared
This text belongs to a prophetic book. Because it is prophecy, it has something to say to us; God is speaking to us through it. At the same time, it is a prayer. Because it is a prayer, it contains contents that must be lifted up to God. Let us keep both of these aspects in mind as we look at it. You need to remember that this poem, this prayer, is framed within a narrative structure that begins at chapter one, verse seventeen, and closes at chapter two, verse ten. That is why chapter one, verse seventeen is so important. In what kind of situation and environment do we pray, and why did God grant us this thing called prayer? What was the reason, and what was the content, when Jonah prayed in that situation as the representative of Israel? That is what we want to examine.
Shall we read chapter one, verse seventeen together? Let us read.
Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.
Notice here that he provided a huge fish. We mentioned that one of the core words in chapter one is this word great or huge. God said Nineveh was a great city, and God is greater than that city of Nineveh filled with its great evil. When Jonah ran away, what did God send? He sent a great wind, and a great storm arose on the sea. Then he caused those Gentile sailors to feel a great fear. And finally, he sends a huge fish. This single word reveals that God is the Creator and the Sovereign Ruler who governs all of nature and human history.
Yet what is truly important is that God prepared, or provided, this fish. He prepared it. This is our key word for today. Even if you forget everything else, you must remember this. For Jonah, who was thrown into the sea in the middle of a storm, knowing in advance that Jonah would be cast into those waters, God prepared a fish beforehand. Keep this word prepared in your heart. Later on, when you look at chapter four, what does God prepare? In chapter four, Jonah prays again. But his prayer in chapter two and his prayer in chapter four are total opposites. We will look at that prayer later. But as Jonah prays, what does God prepare? He prepares a plant, and he prepares a worm, a scorching east wind, and blazing sunlight.
At the very same time, within those who pray, within those who are in pain, within those who know God, God prepares something to bring them to an awakening. In what kind of environment, then, should our prayers be offered? The first point is that they must be offered in the environment that God has prepared.
So he prepared a fish and had it swallow Jonah. When Jonah entered the belly of the fish, he spent three days and three nights there. What was that environment? It was a fish. When we read the original language, the huge fish mentioned earlier is grammatically masculine. But later, when it says Jonah was in the belly of the fish, that second fish is feminine.
Yes, there is male and female. Why does it suddenly become feminine? Years ago, when I was studying Hebrew with my students, I asked them about this, and one student gave an incredible answer: "Could it be that because it swallowed Jonah, it suddenly changed from masculine to feminine?" That is what the student suggested. I thought about it, went and looked through the commentaries, and found that such an interpretation really exists. Scholars note that this is intentional. In the book of Jonah, the masculine fish receives Jonah and becomes a feminine fish because the word for belly here is actually the same word used for a womb. Do you see what that means? The belly of the fish served as an essential environment, like a womb that gives birth to a new life. Do you understand?
Therefore, the belly of this fish is nothing less than a special time and place where God meets his people in the middle of the storm. If you look earlier, in the middle of the storm, Jonah went down into the lowest deck of the ship, did he not? That ship was the same way. In the midst of the storm, a ship tossed endlessly on the waves, not completely shipwrecked and dying, yet not truly living either. What were they supposed to do there? The sailors got up and cried out. The captain came down and said, "Get up and call out to your God. Cry aloud." When Jonah refused to do so, what happened? He said, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea," and God caused him to enter the belly of the fish.
Church family, this is the love of God. What does this mean? In our lives, we encounter storms in our surroundings, along with various trials and hardships. Yet every time we face them, there is something God prepares. What is it? He prepares a ship, and he prepares the belly of a fish. Hallelujah. God is the one who prepares an environment where we can meet him, a special time and space where we can come before him. Amen. That is why when people face troubles in life, they talk about going to a prayer mountain, or they go to special prayer services or early morning prayer at church. That is entirely right. There is a place and a time that God specially prepares.
Three Days and Three Nights: The Death of the Self and Being Born Anew
What were they supposed to do there? He had him spend three days and three nights. Later in the Gospels, Jesus says, "The only sign that will be given to this unbelieving generation, which refuses to believe God's testimony, is the sign of Jonah." Three days and three nights surely pointed to the death and resurrection of Jesus. But this detail of three days and three nights is very important. When you look closely at the Scriptures, these three days and three nights are a time of meeting God, and they are, in a sense, a time when the self dies. It is a time when the old must be stripped away and the new must come forth. As Jonah stays in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, it is the moment when Jonah's former self must be peeled off and he must put on a new self. That is precisely the time and place of prayer. That is the very time and place that God has prepared.
In the book of Exodus, what does Moses say when they are about to leave Egypt? Moses goes to Pharaoh and says, "Let us take a three days' journey into the wilderness, and there we will worship God." And after crossing the Red Sea, what happens? They journey for three days and three nights and arrive at Mount Sinai, do they not? That is when they meet God. Crossing the Red Sea and traveling for three days and three nights, what did that mean? It was the time for the people of Israel, who had lived as slaves in Egypt, to cast off their identity as slaves and put on the citizenship and identity of the new people of the kingdom of God. So walking through that dry, parched land for three days and three nights, casting away everything from their past, they stand before God at Mount Sinai, and what words do they hear? When they arrive in chapter nineteen, what do they hear? "You shall be my segullah, my treasured possession." Hallelujah. They had to go through those three days to become a treasured people rather than slaves. To help them hear God's complete revelation, to listen to his Word, and to truly realize who they were, God made them walk and wander in the wilderness for three days and three nights. This is a unique phrase, three days and three nights. In the same way, he keeps Jonah in the belly of the fish in hardship for three days and three nights. He brings him to a place of prayer, does he not? He leads him to come before God.
There is another instance of three days and three nights. What is it? When Abraham offers Isaac. He was given Isaac, and then when the boy is grown, in Genesis chapter twenty-two, God tells Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt offering. Without saying a word to Sarah, he packs up provisions in the morning, takes his servants and his son, and walks along the road. How long do they walk? They journey for three days and three nights, and where do they arrive? They arrive at the mountain of God, Mount Moriah, which is also identified with Mount Zion. As Mount Zion comes into view in the distance, he sends the servants back. And what does he say? "We will worship on that mountain and come back to you." What does that mean? It means stripping away the old Abraham he once was, because he has to put Isaac to death, does he not? "Take your son, your only son, whom you love, and offer him." It was the death of the self, having to obey that command. And then he returns. Hallelujah.
Jonah praying in that belly for three days and three nights meant that he had to abandon his former self and receive a new identity, a new life. In our times of hardship, there is always a time and space like the fish's belly that God prepares. Going before God and, through this symbolic period of three days and three nights, shedding our former life and putting on the new, that is what prayer is. Hallelujah. That is the very privilege and glory of prayer. Amen.
So for Jonah, caught in the midst of the storm, God prepared a fish to swallow him, brought him into its belly, and made him spend three days and three nights there, which speaks of a spiritual death. Jonah did not literally die. Later, we will compare this with the prayer of Jesus, but Jonah truly needed to die spiritually. Although as we examine the text, we will see that he does not quite reach that point, still, in this special place prepared by God, the things we cling to, our past ugliness, our sins, and our old inclinations must be stripped away as though passing through death. Then, just as chapter two, verse ten says the fish vomited him out, we can cast off the old and be born anew into a fresh way of living. Amen.
I believe this is not something gained only in unique moments or in extraordinary trials in life. I believe that anyone who prays, anyone who truly comes to God in faith through Jesus Christ, can enjoy this privilege of putting on the garments of righteousness. Believing that such a way has been opened for us, I hope that you and I will rely on Jesus every time we pray, casting away the old, taking off the old self, and putting on the new person.
A Cry Grounded in Relationship and the Assurance of an Answer
Now, what we must learn from next is Jonah's prayer. Jonah begins to pray inside the belly of the fish. As he makes his petition, if you read closely, you will see that his language comes almost entirely from the Psalms. It is a model answer. It represents the prayer of an exemplary Israelite, or how a model Israelite should pray, since he was a prophet. He knew the Scriptures thoroughly, he knew the Word well, and this was his prayer as a worshiper capable of offering wholehearted worship to God. The reason Jonah's prayer is recorded here in chapter two is that Jonah is laying hold of the privilege of prayer that God granted to Israel. He thinks, God has permitted this much, and he has opened the way for Israel to pray like this. So Jonah walks that path with boldness. He makes his appeal. Why? Because the relationship between God and Jonah is the very relationship between God and Israel. He is saying, pray on the basis of that relationship. That is why Jonah's prayer operates on an entirely different level from the prayers of the Gentiles. Let us examine that first. Let us look at the pattern of Israel's prayer. God has granted us the foundational relationship that allows us to pray at least like this. We can pray far beyond this, but he has granted us this baseline privilege of prayer. That is what Jonah's prayer displays.
Jonah prays to God, and look at verse one. Chapter two, verse one says, From inside the belly of the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. This is the very first and most basic requirement of the prayer we offer before God. Jonah knew the one to whom he was praying. The Bible explicitly says, he prayed to his God. When you pray, do you pray believing that God is your God? This requires a personal relationship. As I always say, I know Donald Trump. The problem is that he does not know me, does he? That is the point. When it comes to the relationship between me and God, if I claim to know God but God does not know me, true prayer cannot happen. It remains mere intellectual knowledge. When we read this prayer and examine the faith behind it, looking at this model of prayer, the very first thing is that he calls upon God as the personal object of his prayer. My God. In verse six, what does he say? But you, Lord my God. His God, my God. For Israel to know God as their own God and pray on the foundation of that relationship, to have someone to pray to in the midst of suffering, hallelujah. What an incredible privilege that is.
Do you know the profound emptiness of an atheist? Atheists claim they believe there is no god, no divine being. They believe this world runs entirely on material things and that money is everything. But when they encounter true beauty, deep awe, or discover meaning in creation, a problem arises. What is that problem? They are completely overwhelmed by gratitude, awe, and the breathtaking majesty of a magnificent landscape, yet they have no one to whom they can direct that thanksgiving and awe. There is no one there. That is true emptiness. But what do we see here? In the midst of his suffering, Jonah discovers that he has someone to pray to. He has the privilege of calling upon his God.
That is why you and I must realize what a privilege it is to pray before God. You must recognize that you can call upon God when you are in distress. Prayer is not something complicated. When a child gets hurt or feels hungry, to whom do they run? They run to mom, they run to dad, they run straight to their parents. In the exact same way, Jonah prayed right there to his God. He called upon the name of God: Lord my God. He realized he had no choice but to pray. The emphasis here is that he prayed to his God.
Then in verse two, he said, In my distress I called to the Lord. He called upon the Lord. He confesses that he cried out to the Lord because of his distress. After running away from God's word, and even after witnessing the example of the captain and the sailors, he still refused to pray. But once he was thrown into the water, on the very brink of death, and entered the belly of the fish, he finally realized that he had no choice but to pray. You might wonder, is it right to pray only when trouble comes, and should we not feel ashamed of that? But the reality is that many people do not pray even when suffering strikes. Hardship is the very time to pray. Hallelujah. When you are suffering, you must seek God. He waits for us, reveals the reason for our trials, and uses them to help us mature, make a breakthrough, or see who he is. Or, like Job, he may allow the suffering to continue so that he can bear witness to something through it. Trials are a time God calls us to so that he might reveal his divine purpose. If we try to determine the meaning of our suffering on our own and resolve it by our own strength, attempting to use God just to escape trouble, that becomes mere religion. That is where self-effort leads.
We might easily assume it was natural for Jonah to pray in his distress, but that is not the case. God himself created that time and brought him before his presence so that Jonah would understand what this hardship meant. He prayed because he had full confidence that he could seek God in his pain and that God would surely hear him when he cried out. That is why he says, You answered me. From deep in the realm of Sheol I cried out for help, and you listened to my cry. Amen. God is the one who answers our prayers, hallelujah. When we pray, he does not always answer in the exact way we want, but he answers our prayer. What does that mean? He responds first to who we are, to our very being. In truth, our praying is very much like a baby babbling as they learn to speak. Is that not true? God already knows what we need. When babies babble, mothers know whether the child is hungry, cranky, or needs a diaper change. Yet as babies make those sounds, they cannot communicate their thoughts clearly. They just cry out in frustration, complain, weep, or fall completely silent. We are just like that. From God's perspective, he already knows what we need, but the words of our prayers may not always line up with what is truly necessary for us. Therefore, when we pray, God responds first to who you and I are. He knows us, he sees who we are, and he knows our needs in advance. Amen.
When Jonah prayed and Israel declared with confidence, he heard my prayer, that assurance was rooted in the relationship between God and his people. They prayed knowing that God responds to who they are, and that he knows them far better than the mere sounds of their words. That is the true assurance of prayer. Hallelujah.
Therefore, as Jonah prayed in the depths of suffering, he prayed believing that God is one who responds personally to him. This is the very privilege of Israel's prayer that you and I can learn from Jonah. We learn that God knows us before he even hears the details of our requests. He desires to respond to who we are first. God, who knows us far better than we know ourselves, responds to us. When we simply pray, God responds personally to our very being. Amen.