“Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.” Jonah 1:17
As we saw in Jonah chapter one, God has asked Jonah to go and do something he clearly does not want to do (preach to the Ninevites their need to clean their rooms and change their ways!). The prophet of God who has been faithful in previous instances, wants to do anything other than obey God's command to go to the Ninevites. And so, Jonah runs away.
But God, our God, is a God who goes after him and does not wait for him to be ready for Him!
Have you ever heard of “hindsight”?
When I was growing up, my mom was always quoting these cliche sayings that drove me absolutely insane. Some of them were silly; “If your right hand itches, you’re going to shake hands with a stranger.”, if you got a cold chill, “someone was walking over your grave.” If she didn’t like the kind of friends I had, she’d say “birds of a feather flock together”. And my least favorite, when I snuck around and called a boy on the phone (a boy I had been dating for a year mind you) she would say, “why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free!” There’s nothing like being called a cow by your own mom, but that's a whole other blog for another day…
She would also say, “hindsight is 20/20”. I never understood that phrase when I was growing up. But now I love the gift of hindsight and I cherish the times when God reveals himself to me.
Webster’s Dictionary defines hindsight as “understanding of a situation or event only after it has happened or developed.”
You see, in the middle of our rebellion or in the middle of our need to control the outcome, we’re unable to see God at work. We are so short sighted that we can only see what we want and what we’re focused on. It’s kind of like not being able to see the forest for the trees. (Wink wink). But God sees the whole picture from the end to the beginning and he orchestrates divine encounters all along the way.
God arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah at just the moment in time when Jonah had been thrown overboard and was sinking into the depths of the sea. I imagine that he was at the point of no longer being able to hold his breath. The pressure of the waters weighing on his body. No longer able to hear anything other than the beating of his own heart. Blinded by the darkness in the deep. Jonah relinquishes control, his body no longer fighting, he surrenders and that’s the moment that it happens. That’s when the fish swallows him. Breath returns to his lungs, filling them at full capacity. He’s surrounded by the safety and warmth of the fish’s belly and in the darkness inside is where Jonah has clear sight. He can see the hand of God guiding him and leading him in the purpose and path God created for him.
“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. He said, I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me! You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves. Then I said, O Lord, you have driven me from your presence. Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.” Jonah 2:1-4
Here inside the fish, Jonah cries out to God. Jonah has reached his point of desperate need and recognizes that only God can rescue him. Jonah is in full submission to God’s will for his life and not his own.
This is true for you and I too. We are all broken on our own, in our rebellion, yet God still rescues us. He still forgives, redeems and loves any one who will turn to Him.
“Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.” Jonah 2:10
In his disobedience to God, Jonah experiences forgiveness when God rescued him from the fish. At that point, Jonah has not proven himself worthy or committed or even changed. All he had done was surrender and recognize his need for a savior.
And God, met him where he was at in the middle of his need and forgave Jonah and redeemed him.
Jonah chapter 2 describes a man who is running from God, and a God that pursues him. This chapter and all of scripture, shows us that God doesn’t despise the runaways, he rescues them.
Will you EXCHANGE your will for his and let him rescue you too?
