Jonah 2
(This contains spoilers for future episodes in the series.)
“Our timetable for the second chapter of Jonah,” Fronk began, “tells us that the prophet is going to leave the fish, his destination is still Nineveh, and he will arrive on the dry land. But first, we need to examine the experience of this man inside the fish.” He turned to look at Fuller. “Skipper, because you have such a professorial look about you and you have this deep narrative voice, which often lulls people to sleep unless you’re expounding to us from the Word of God, and --”
Fuller let out a sigh. Long ago, he had come to the realization that he was never going to get Fronk from calling him Skipper. “Get on with it, William.”
“I just want you to read the next passage.”
“Which is?”
“Jonah 2:1 - 9.”
Fuller nodded. “I’d be glad to. Thanks for the introduction.” He read Jonah 2:1 - 9. “‘Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly, And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God. When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.’ ”
Fronk clapped his hands together. “Okay…So here’s the question I pose to you all now…When did Jonah pray?”
Barrington looked up from taking notes. “Oh, that’s should be easy. I’d say he was praying as the great fish was swallowing him up.”
Lenox snorted. “I’d have been praying right then and there on the boat before I was in the water.”
“Well, look at human nature,” King replied. “We have a real tendency to pray when things go wrong rather than when things go right. I believe Jonah didn’t wait very long to pray this prayer. When he found himself in this condition, I would say he immediately went to prayer before God.”
“Nobody prays a prepared prayer in a time of crisis anyway,” Erin pointed out. “Only when the crisis comes does real prayer rise up to God. Jonah had to pray something deep from the heart I think. I’m sure he was doing a lot of soul searching.”
Shiva nodded. “I certainly would.”
Fronk said, “You’re right. Listen, Jonah prayed this prayer as he went down from the mouth of the great fish and then through its esophagus!”
Staci made a face. “Eww.”
“By the time he went kerplunkie into the tummy, this prophet had already completed his prayer and had said amen! And then some because I think he prayed a whole lot more than is recorded in this passage. This is just the abridged version.”
“Well, abridged version or not, at least God heard Jonah’s prayer.”
King nodded. “I think it is interesting that the Bible says Jonah cried out from the belly of hell.”
Staci frowned. “That doesn’t mean he was literally in Hell, does it?”
“I don’t think that’s the case here,” Lenox replied, shaking his head. “A lot of people claim to be living in their own Hell. For Christians like us, living through the Tribulation period, that is Hell for us. In other words, this is as bad as it gets for us. But the cold hard truth is…no matter what we experience in life, there is only one Hell. It is a never-ending Lake of Fire where all who deny Christ will spend eternity, separated from God. Now with Jonah, I’m sure he felt as if God were far from him, so he was crying out in despair, believing he was in Hell.”
“That’s right, brother,” King agreed. “The important thing to note here is that Jonah cried unto the Lord out of the fish’s belly. Jonah felt like he was there to die and that he was in his grave. You must remember that he did not write this account while he was inside the fish but afterward.”
“So Jonah was alive in the belly of a whale for three days?” Erin inquired.
Fronk slapped the table. “Yes, I believe this is true. I want to read something to you from a Bible teacher named Grace W. Kellogg. She wrote a book called, The Bible Today. Let me just give you a quotation from her book, which shows that it is possible for a man to be swallowed by a fish and live. There are many examples of it, and I’m going to read to you a few of those which she gave.” He pulled out some printed pages from his notes, placed them before him and began to read. “‘There are at least two known monsters of the deep who could easily have swallowed Jonah. They are the Balaenoptera Musculus or sulphur-bottom whale, and the Rhinodon Typicus or whale shark.’ ” He looked up from the pages. “Now, really…I have no idea what kind of fish went up to Jonah and went ’harumph’ to him like he was a piece of sushi. Could it have been what I just read to you? I dunno. But check this out.” He referred back to the pages. “‘Neither of these monsters of the deep have any teeth. They feed in an interesting way by opening their enormous mouths, submerging their lower jaw, and rushing through the water at terrific speed. After straining out the water, they swallow whatever is left. A sulphur-bottom whale, one hundred feet long, was captured off Cape Cod in 1933. His mouth was ten or twelve feet wide—so big he could easily have swallowed a horse. These whales have four to six compartments in their stomachs, in any one of which a colony of men could find free lodging. They might even have a choice of rooms, for in the head of this whale is a wonderful air storage chamber, an enlargement of the nasal sinus, often measuring seven feet high, seven feet wide, by fourteen feet long. If he has an unwelcome guest on board who gives him a headache, the whale swims to the nearest land and gets rid of the offender as he did Jonah.’ ”
Shiva chuckled. “The fish had indigestion and its name was Jonah.”
Fronk looked at him. “Haha, funny man. You think that‘s funny, get a load of this” Then, he continued to read, “‘The Cleveland Plain Dealer recently quoted an article by Dr. Ransome Harvey who said that a dog was lost overboard from a ship. It was found in the head of a whale six days later, alive and barking. Frank Bullen, F.R.G.S., who wrote, The Cruise of the Cathalot, tells of a shark fifteen feet in length which was found in the stomach of a whale. He says that when dying the whale ejects the contents of its stomach. These facts show that Jonah could have been swallowed by either a whale or a shark. But has any other man besides Jonah been swallowed and lived to tell the tale? We know of two such instances. The famous French scientist, M. de Parville, writes of James Bartley, who in the region of the Falkland Islands near South America, was supposed to have been drowned at sea. Two days after his disappearance, the sailors made a catch of a whale. When it was cut up, much to their surprise they found their missing friend alive but unconscious inside the whale. He revived and has been enjoying the best of health ever since his adventure.’ "
“Wow,” Staci replied, shaking her head.
Fronk held up a hand. “Wait! There’s more. ‘Dr. Harry Rimmer, President of the Research Science Bureau of Los Angeles, writes of another case. In the Literary Digest we noticed an account of an English sailor who was swallowed by a gigantic Rhinodon in the English Channel. Briefly, the account stated that in the attempt to harpoon one of these monstrous sharks, this sailor fell overboard, and before he could be picked up again, the shark turned and engulfed him. Forty-eight hours after the accident occurred, the fish was sighted and slain. When the shark was opened by the sailors, they were amazed to find the man unconscious but alive! He was rushed to the hospital where he was found to be suffering from shock alone, and a few hours later was discharged as being physically fit. The account concluded by saying that the man was on exhibit in a London Museum at a shilling admittance fee; being advertised as The Jonah of the Twentieth Century. In 1926 Dr. Rimmer met this man, and writes that his physical appearance was odd; his body was devoid of hair and patches of yellowish-brown color covered his entire skin.’ ” He paused as he looked up from his notes. “See that? If Michael Jackson really wants to change the color of his skin, he can go out and find a whale to sleep in.”
Fuller shook his head and rolled his eyes. “You need help, William.”
“Anyway, here’s the point of Miss Kellog’s thread…” He continued to read. “‘If two men could exist for two days and nights inside of marine monsters, could not a prophet of God, under His direct care and protection, stand the experience a day and a night longer—so why should we doubt God’s Word?’ ”
“Amen!” Barrington agreed.
“You know, this doesn’t mean Jonah spent three days inside of a royal hotel. The passage we had read to us by Skipper also talks about how Jonah was surrounded by water and he had weeds wrapped all around his head!”
“I wonder if it felt like a furnace in there.”
“I imagine that it probably did,” Fuller replied. “In fact, I wonder if it is why Jonah said that God had brought him up from corruption. I’m talking about the corruption that is death. What happens to a body over time as it lays in the grave. The apostle Peter used this word on the Day of Pentecost when he said that the Lord Jesus did not see corruption. ‘For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. 1’ The miracle about the Lord Jesus is that when He died He did not see corruption. His body did not corrupt. That’s the difference between Jonah’s experience and our Lord’s experience. Jonah did see corruption. His body apparently began to decay in those three days and three nights while he was in the belly of the fish.”
“But William said Jonah was alive,” Staci said.
“He may have died and been resurrected. At any rate, Jonah said himself that he had seen corruption and was brought up from it. This teaches resurrection. The Resurrection is one of the two pillars of our salvation upon which the ark of the church rest…The death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. They are both taught in the Old Testament, and this book illustrates His resurrection.”
“I believe Jonah was alive,” Fronk told him, narrowing his eyes.
“And I’m saying it’s possible that Jonah had died in the belly of the fish, only to be resurrected later by God when he was spit out onto dry land.”
“Whether he was alive or dead,” King began, “we can all agree that God had a plan and carried it out in spite of Jonah’s earlier rebellion. I don’t suppose you and I can possibly conceive of the thanksgiving that was in this man’s heart and life when the fish vomited him out onto the dry land. He was a mess at that time, but he lifted his voice in thanksgiving to God for having delivered him.”
“And that brings us to the vow Jonah made,” Fronk pointed out. “Do you know what that vow was, my peeps? Well, first he puffed up his chest at God and said, ‘I ain’t going to Nineveh! Nyey!’ Now he reverently says, ‘I’ll go to Nineveh.’ God changed his mind for him.”
“The Lord has to deal with many of us like that.”
Lenox shook his head. “I’ve never been swallowed by a fish.”
Staci looked at him. “Oh, how easily you forget. Yes, you have, and you dragged me into one, too!”
He looked sheepish. “Well, I was kind of hoping you’d forget that incident.”
“Yeah, right! Like how can you possibly forget something like that?!”
Laughter spread throughout the study group.
Fronk returned the focus back onto the study. “I’d like to bring our attention now onto one of the most awesome statements found anywhere in the Bible. I know this statement is in other books of the Bible, and here we have it in Jonah 2:9. It is simply this…‘Salvation is of the LORD.’ ”
“Amen, brother!” Shiva exclaimed. “You know I can’t let that one by without commenting on how heavy that is.”
“I agree. It’s a heavy statement, and not even you can pick it up!”
King smiled. “This heavy statement, my brothers and sisters, just so happens to speak of deliverance. Salvation is God’s work for us. Salvation is never man’s work for God. God cannot save us by our works, because the only thing that we can present to Him is imperfection, and God simply does not accept imperfection. But we are unable to present perfection to Him. If it depended on us or our works, if it depended on our doing something, we could never be saved. To begin with, we are lost sinners, dead in trespasses and sins. If deliverance is to come, it will have to come to us like it did to Jonah, who was dead and hopeless in that fish. And I am talking about spiritually being dead. If any of us are to live, and be used of God, it will be because salvation is of the Lord. And whenever someone gets saved, it is because salvation is of the Lord.”
“Halleluiah!” Erin exclaimed.
“Salvation is such a wonderful thing that you can put it into three tenses,” Fronk replied. “I have been saved—past tense. I am being saved—present tense. I shall be saved—future tense. So salvation is God’s work from beginning to end. Let’s look for a moment at what Scripture has to say about this. First, past tense. I have been saved. The Lord Jesus Christ said, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life…2’ What does that tell us?”
“It tells us that,” Barrington began, “the moment you trust Christ you have everlasting life. That’s something that took place in the past for those who are Christians today. If sometime in the past you trusted Christ, that was all His work, you trusted what He did.”
Fronk nodded. “Yeah, man! That’s right.”
“‘He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life …3’ " King said. “You received life when you trusted Christ. You did nothing, nothing whatsoever to earn it. He offered it to you as a gift because ‘…the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 4’ I have been saved. How was I saved? By trusting Christ and His work. It was ‘Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. 5’ ”
“And that leads us right into present tense…I am being saved.”
“God is not through with us yet,” Lenox said. “He intends to continue to work in our lives. We are told ‘… work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 6’ You can’t work it out until God has worked it in. In Ephesians 2:8 and 9, Paul could say, ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.’ ”
Fuller nodded his head. “That’s great, Michael, but the apostle didn’t stop there. In the tenth verse, he went on to say, ‘For we are his workmanship …’ ”
Staci looked at him. “His workmanship?”
Fuller nodded again. “Yes. Because we were created in Christ Jesus. We were given a new life.”
“Staci, we were created in Christ Jesus unto good works,” King told her. “So that now by the power of the Holy Spirit, the child of God is to produce fruit. The Lord Jesus said that He wanted us to bring forth much fruit. ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 7’ And Paul writes in Galatians 5:22 and 23, ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.’ All of these marvelous, wonderful graces are His work, and He wants to work them in us today.”
“So we should be growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ,” Shiva replied, nodding his head. “I get it. I have been saved…and I am being saved, so I ought to be a better Christian today than I was last year.”
“I have been saved,” Lenox said. “I am being saved. Which is great when you look at it because that should give us assurance of who is holding the gift of salvation for us. Christ is. He has given it to us. We have received it. And it will never be taken away from us.” He sat forward. “Man, I get a little discouraged sometimes, because I feel like I’m always going two steps forward and five steps back! I feel like I haven’t gotten very far, but I can say there has been some growth. Don’t give up on me, because He isn’t through with me yet. Nor is he through with you.”
Fronk gave him a thumbs up. “Amen, brother. Now…Future tense. I will be saved. There’s coming a day when I will be saved.”
“But aren’t you saved already?” Erin inquired. “I know you’ve professed your faith. You may be off the wall, but you do have a Christian walk that can be seen.”
Fronk nodded. “Thank you. It’s comforting to know I can walk as I ought to be walking. But consider what Paul said to Timothy in II Timothy 3:16. He said, ‘All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.’ As Paul talked to him about the awesome Word of God, he also said in 3:15, ‘… from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation …’ ” He paused. “Since Timothy was already saved, what did Paul mean when he said that?”
King nodded his head. “He meant that the Scriptures would enable Timothy to grow and enable him to live for God. The world has yet to see what God can do with a man who is fully yielded to Him.” He smiled. “‘It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 8’ We are going to see Him some day, and then we are going to be like Him. Until then, I’ll probably be very much unlike Him even though I want to be Christ-like. But in that day when we see Him face to face, I will be like Him. We all will be like Him. That is one thing that will make heaven so wonderful. Not only am I going to love everybody, but everybody is going to love me! When we get to heaven, we are going to be like Him.”
Fronk paused. “Salvation is of the Lord. This is a powerful statement, and it’s found in the Old Testament in the Book of Jonah. Do you know where this man learned that? He learned that when he was swallowed by a fish and then vomited out. Then he was able to make this statement.”
Fronk grinned. “Now we come to the last verse in chapter 2. Jonah 2:10. I really like this verse. It really does speak for itself so I’m just gonna read it…and then we will move on to chapter 3.” He read Jonah 2:10. “‘And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.’ ”
