Setting – Jonah returns to God
Content – Due to Jonah’s circumstances (parts of v. 2, 3, 5, 7 ESV) “out of my distress”, “out of the belly of Sheol I cried”, “the flood surrounded me”, “waters closed in over me to take my life” and “When my life was fainting away”, he cried out to God (v. 2a ESV) “I called out to the Lord”. God rescued Jonah (v. 6b ESV) “yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God”.
Jonah realized that he needed to be back to where he was before (v. 4 ESV) “Yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.” and (v. 9 ESV) “But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay”
God then delivered Jonah from the fish (v. 10 ESV) “And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.”
Application – God could have ended Jonah’s life, but wanted him to fulfill His plan. So God disciplined Jonah so that he would turn back to Him. Jonah realized that God saved him from certain death, “The waters closed in over me to take my life” and thanked God for His deliverance “but I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you”
God wants to fulfill His plan through people. In all reality, God can accomplish His goals without people. But God created each individual to discover what amazing individuals we were created to be, “we are fearfully and wonderfully made”. God wants us to uncover what He has put into us, Matt. 17:20 “for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” Matt. 21:21 “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it will happen.”. God wants us to see who He is by trusting in Him and see what we He can accomplish through us.
God wanted to use Jonah to bring redemption to the Ninevites. God can ask us to do things that we don’t want to do, but in trusting in Him, we discover more about who we and God are.
Content – Due to Jonah’s circumstances (parts of v. 2, 3, 5, 7 ESV) “out of my distress”, “out of the belly of Sheol I cried”, “the flood surrounded me”, “waters closed in over me to take my life” and “When my life was fainting away”, he cried out to God (v. 2a ESV) “I called out to the Lord”. God rescued Jonah (v. 6b ESV) “yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God”.
Jonah realized that he needed to be back to where he was before (v. 4 ESV) “Yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.” and (v. 9 ESV) “But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay”
God then delivered Jonah from the fish (v. 10 ESV) “And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.”
Application – God could have ended Jonah’s life, but wanted him to fulfill His plan. So God disciplined Jonah so that he would turn back to Him. Jonah realized that God saved him from certain death, “The waters closed in over me to take my life” and thanked God for His deliverance “but I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you”
God wants to fulfill His plan through people. In all reality, God can accomplish His goals without people. But God created each individual to discover what amazing individuals we were created to be, “we are fearfully and wonderfully made”. God wants us to uncover what He has put into us, Matt. 17:20 “for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” Matt. 21:21 “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it will happen.”. God wants us to see who He is by trusting in Him and see what we He can accomplish through us.
God wanted to use Jonah to bring redemption to the Ninevites. God can ask us to do things that we don’t want to do, but in trusting in Him, we discover more about who we and God are.
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