What Did Jonah Know?

What Did Jonah Know?

When my life was ebbing away, I remembered You, O LORD, and my prayer rose to You, in Your holy temple.

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

But I, with a voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you.

What I have vowed I will make good.

Salvation comes from the LORD.  Jonah 2:7-9

                  "With a voice of thanksgiving..."

What did Jonah have to be thankful about?

Here he was in the belly of a great fish, in the midst of a great ocean, facing certain death.

Jonah was not thankful because God had delivered him from his dire circumstances, because God had not yet delivered him.

He didn't even know that God was going to deliver him.

What Jonah was thankful for was that God had turned him from rebellion and had caused him to return to Himself  - to call on His Name once again.

He was thankful for salvation and for the abiding presence of God.

Jonah had recognized his sin, had repented, and turned back to God.


He 'did not forfeit the grace that could be his'....

In the first part of his prayer he had said, "In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and You listened to my cry"  (Jonah 2:2).

Jonah had re-discovered grace in the midst of his terrifying circumstances.

"I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple," he says (verse 4).

It is at this point that great miracles are performed.

Not just when something catastrophic happens and history is altered and redirected. Not just when bodies are brought back to life or when plagues are averted.

The greatest miracles occur when a person comes to the knowledge, and acknowledges, his sin and confesses it to God, and when, God, in response, restores that person to His Creator-creature, covenant relationship.

"Salvation comes from the LORD," Jonah confidently cried, knowing that no matter what the outcome he would see the salvation of the Lord.

The story of Jonah is well-known. It is the story of a man who was sent on a special mission by His God and King, and he disobeyed, received punishment and re-direction, and then became obedient.

Read his entire (short) prayer from the belly of the fish in the Old Testament, the book of Jonah, chapter 2.

It's also my prayer, and perhaps yours, too.

Don't 'forfeit the grace that could be yours'.....