Jonah’s Prayer (Sovereign to Save): After being thrown overboard, Jonah was at his rock bottom. Lost in the deep, he cried out to God for help. God provided a huge fish to give Jonah a second chance. Salvation still comes from the Lord, and his name is Jesus. Recorded on Apr 19, 2026, on Jonah 1:17-2:10 by Pastor David Parks.
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This sermon is part of our Jonah: Sovereign to Save series. Lost in the deep—disobedient and struggling with anger against God—the prophet Jonah was an utter mess. But God is as great as he is good. And God had as much compassion for Jonah as for his enemies, the people of Nineveh. Jonah is well known as a story of a runaway prophet and a great fish. However, Jonah is really about God’s sovereignty, the offense of grace, the fear of the Lord, what true repentance looks like, and more. Salvation still comes from the Lord, and his name is Jesus.
Sermon Transcript
Last week, we started a new series on the book of Jonah called “Sovereign to Save.” Jonah is a well-known story of a runaway prophet and a great fish (who we’ll meet today). When we left off last week, Jonah was literally and figuratively lost in the deep. God had called Jonah, a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel around 775 BC, to go to Nineveh, the capital of the evil Assyrian Empire — the same empire that would eventually conquer and destroy Israel during the Exile. But when God said to go, Jonah said no, and instead of going to Nineveh, he tried to run from God and sailed for Tarshish, the far side of the known world. But God sent a terrible storm that stopped him in his tracks. When the sailors reluctantly threw Jonah overboard, and the storm calmed, they realized that Jonah’s God was sovereign over all and had spared their lives. That day, those pagan sailors learned the fear of the Lord, the only proper response to the sovereignty of God. But Jonah was still in the deep, with little hope for rescue. Was this it? Was Jonah done? He’d gotten into this mess all by himself. Would God give Jonah a second chance? Let’s find out. If you have your Bible/app, please open to Jonah 1:17.
Jonah 1:17 (NIV), “17 Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” “Now, wait a minute,” someone might be thinking. “Are we really supposed to believe that Jonah survived for three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish?” And that’s a fair question. So before going any further, let’s think about that for a minute. Some scholars believe that miracles like this aren’t possible, so they conclude that Jonah must be something like a prophetic parable. But is Jonah a parable? Jesus taught in parables all the time, so this wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. Parables are made-up stories that teach something true about the kingdom of God. There wasn’t really a good Samaritan or a prodigal son; these were just characters in stories Jesus told. So, are Jonah and the fish made-up characters in a parable? Well, honestly, I don’t think it would change the point of the story that much. But is there any evidence in the text that Jonah is a parable? And the answer is no, Jonah never says that his story is a parable. And all the other places in the Bible that refer to Jonah, including Jesus himself, treat Jonah as a real person who lived in history. So again, “Are we really supposed to believe this happened?” Well, just because something has never happened before (even in all of recorded history) doesn’t mean it’s impossible. I’ve never tried to run for the office of the president of the United States — not once in all of history! But does that mean it’s impossible? Not at all. Is it likely? Not at all. What about the resurrection? Had that ever happened before? Not even once. But it did, and there were hundreds of eyewitnesses. So, maybe the miracle of the huge fish is very rare, but is it impossible? I would say that if God created everything from nothing, then the whole context of creation is a miracle. And if that’s how everything came into existence, can a sovereign God not do something much smaller, like cause/calm a storm? Or direct the casting of lots? Or command one of his creatures to save a wayward prophet? If God created the great fish of the sea, can he not use them (or any creature) for his plans/purposes? What I’m trying to say is that miracles are entirely consistent with the doctrine of creation and the sovereignty of God. Here’s the definition of the sovereignty of God: It is God’s world, and he can do whatever he pleases, whenever he pleases. Even so, the story of a person being swallowed by a whale may not be as rare as you might think. Every couple of years, there’s a story in the news of a person who was swallowed, usually briefly, by a whale and lived to tell the tale. Back in June 2021, Michael Packard, a lobster diver from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, was swallowed by a humpback whale. The Cape Cod Times described it as an event of Biblical proportions (because, of course, they did). Michael was about fifty feet down in scuba gear, checking on lobster traps, when he felt something like a giant shove, and everything went black. Michael said, “I was completely inside; it was completely black…I thought to myself, ‘there’s no way I’m getting out of here. I’m done, I’m dead.’ All I could think of was my boys — they’re 12 and 15 years old.” He said at first he thought it was a great white shark, but when he didn’t feel any bite marks, he knew it was a whale. After about a minute, the whale brought him up to the surface and spat him out. Ok! So it might be rare, and in Jonah’s case, it was surely a miracle for him to survive for so long, but it wasn’t impossible. Ok! So, whether Jonah is a prophetic parable communicating something true about God and his kingdom, or as I believe, it was a rare and miraculous historical event, either way, what would you do as each dark, suffocating minute stretched into another hour? I’m sure he didn’t get much sleep. It had to be hard to stay hopeful. It was his fault. But what could he do?
Jonah 2:1-6 (NIV), “1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. 2 He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry. 3 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. 4 I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ 5 The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. 6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever.” So now, finally, Jonah started to do what he should’ve been doing all along: “Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.” Now, I highly doubt any of us will ever be in this exact situation, but have you ever hit rock bottom? Many of us have at one time or another. I’ll tell you, the low point of my life happened in 2020. After leaving the business world (which I loved) to follow God’s calling to plant this church, we were a mobile church for eight years, setting up and tearing down week in and week out, which was a long time (too long!). But eventually, I found a building space, raised the money to remodel the whole thing, and then worked as a full-time contractor and pastor for a year before we moved in, one month before the Covid shutdown. Now, it could’ve been much worse, but I had planned for 2020 to be a time to rest and celebrate after a long and frankly painful stretch of ministry. But you remember that time, everyone was angry and anxious in every direction. We had people who accused me of being too liberal and others who accused me of being too conservative. I started carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders, and for the first time in my life, I was burned out and depressed. Now, during this time, my wife, Holly, was incredibly gracious and helpful to me. And the elders had my back. They graciously allowed me to work less, and they prayed for me and gently encouraged me to come back to the land of the living. I spoke to a professional counselor paid for by our district in the EFCA, who patiently offered wise counsel. In time, I cut back on alcohol and social media and started working out, reading fiction, gardening, and doing other things that made me feel alive again. And the Lord walked with me through all the pain and confusion as I struggled to regain my energy and joy. It took about two years to recover, but by the grace of God, I was able to come out the other side of that valley. To be honest, I was emotional as I wrote this sermon, thinking back on that time. It was truly the low point of my life; I was in the deep. But Jonah was lower; he was in the very depths of the sea. In ancient Hebrew thought, the sea was something like the opposite of God. In the beginning, in Genesis 1, the Spirit of God hovered over the formless and empty darkness of the primordial deep. But when God spoke, he spoke light into darkness, he brought order to the chaos, and life out of death. God formed and filled the world as he pleased. This is always what God’s word does, by the way; bringing light, order, and life. So, to fall into the chaotic, dark depths of the sea here represented an undoing of life, order, and creation itself. This explains Jonah’s language of being “deep in the realm of the dead.” Floating in the open sea during a terrible storm, he was quickly forced under the waves, seaweed tangled around his head, and he only sank deeper still, down to the roots of the mountains. This was his rock bottom. But you know what often happens when people hit rock bottom? They finally give up their false belief that they can handle life on their own — they give up their foolish pride. And they realize they need help; they need a savior. In his classic book, The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis writes, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” (Lewis, C. S.. The Problem of Pain (p. 77). (Function). Kindle Edition.) Pain is God’s megaphone, waking us up to reality. Lewis knew that sometimes people need to hit rock bottom to wake up and finally, humbly listen to what God has to say about life. I know that’s true for some of you. But now, from the depths of the sea, with his life miraculously spared by a God who had been sovereign over every second of his life, Jonah was finally awake. Ironically, in the dark, he could finally see. “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.” Jonah prayed in the dark, with no right to an answer. He prayed to the God he’d tried and failed to outrun. But do you know what? Do you know what?!? God answered him! He had no obligation to answer; he didn’t deserve an answer, but listen to what Jonah says: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.” When you’re at your lowest point, when you hit rock bottom, God will be there with you. This isn’t just a nice sentiment. It’s real. God was with him. He hadn’t abandoned him in the deep. And that made all the difference for Jonah. But would this be enough? How would God answer his prayers?
Jonah 2:6-10 (NIV), “But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit. 7 “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. 8 “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. 9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’” 10 And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.” This is God’s word. Now, is there a more hopeful testimony than this? Jonah could say, “You called, Lord, but I didn’t want to obey. In fact, I did what I knew was wrong. Like a fool, I ran as hard as I could from you. But you, Lord my God, were not only with me, but you brought my life up from the pit. You saved me, Lord, not because I deserved it, but because of your great love for me.” Jonah learned that God was and is and ever will be sovereign over the glorious heights and terrifying depths of his creation. God is sovereign over life and death; he is the Lord of heaven and earth. It’s God’s world, and he can do whatever he pleases. But this God works all things to accomplish his will, even bad things, even disobedient prophets like Jonah. Now, we learned last week that “The only proper response to the sovereignty of God is the fear of the Lord.” But the doctrine of the sovereignty of God wouldn’t necessarily be good news by itself — it totally depends on the character of God. If God were sovereign, but he was mean (vindictive, spiteful, petty), then God’s sovereignty would be terrifying, not in a reverent awe kind of way, but simply terrifying. You’d never know what to expect from him, and there’d be nowhere to run, even if you tried, like Jonah. But God is good. He has revealed himself to be “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Ex 34:6). Or consider this: If God were sovereign and good, but he was far off and removed from our lives, then his sovereignty might be fine, but it wouldn’t impact us at all. A hurricane has tremendous power. But for us who live in God’s country here in the Midwest, hurricanes have no real impact because they aren’t near. But according to the Bible, God isn’t far off or uninvolved; he is near. He is Immanuel, God with us. And he is constantly working throughout his creation, right down to the lives of individual people, including you. So even at your lowest point, even when all hope seemed lost, even when death seemed closer than life, Jonah remembered this glorious truth. He remembered who God was. “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.” He remembered that God wasn’t some worthless idol, without any power to do anything, much less to save. Yahweh God was the God of creation, of history, of his people Israel, and he was the God of every aspect of Jonah’s life. And though he couldn’t know for sure how the rest of his life would turn out, if he were given another chance, Jonah vowed to do what God told him to do. If the Lord gave him another chance, he would go to his enemies, and he would tell the people of Nineveh that, “Salvation comes from the Lord.” And there is no other. Well, how did God answer Jonah’s prayers? He “commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.” Gross! Kinda like Michael Packard, right? But praise God! What was dead (in a sense) and was alive again; what was lost (in the depths of the sea) was found again (Lk 15:32). So now, finally, Jonah was headed in the right direction, ready to obey the word of God and heed the calling of God on his life. He thought he was dead, but on the third day, he rose again. Now, does that remind you of anyone else? It should! Everything about Jonah points to Jesus. Last week, we had Jonah sleeping in the boat during the storm. Jesus would later be asleep in the boat with his disciples during a great storm. The only difference is that Jesus calmed the storm with but a word. The sovereign Lord was in the boat. But that’s not all. Once, when Jesus was asked for a sign that he was from God, he answered in Matthew 12:40 (NIV), “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Jesus was saying that Jonah chapter 2 foreshadowed the cross, his own death and burial, and that he remained in the grave for three days before appearing alive once again. Like Jonah, Jesus endured the storm of God’s wrath against sin by giving his life on the cross as a substitute in our place, so that, like the sailors, others might be saved through his sacrifice. Jonah sank to the depths and felt as if he were near the grave, but Jesus Christ, the author of life, actually went to Sheol, the realm of the dead, for us. But on the third day, Jesus was vindicated and was resurrected to life once again. And for forty days, he taught about the kingdom of God until he ascended back into heaven, where he is currently seated at the right hand of God, the Sovereign Lord over all and the King of all Creation. Next week, we’ll see what happened when Jonah finally arrived in Nineveh. Again, expect the unexpected. But today, what do we do with this teaching? Well, if you forget everything else, remember this: Salvation still comes from the Lord, and his name is Jesus. Jonah’s message is still true. But on this side of the cross, we know how God saves: through the person and work of Christ. Now, I don’t know what you’ve been through or what you believe about God. Maybe you’ve been trying to follow Jesus for years. Or maybe you’ve been running from him for years now. Or maybe, like me, it’s been a bit of both. The sooner you give up the patently false belief that you can handle life on your own, the better. Lay down your pride. You need help. You need a savior. Don’t worry about whether or not you deserve it. No one does. Cry out to Jesus, just ask him for help. He will hear and save. Turn to Jesus. Trust Jesus. And learn how to follow Jesus in life; he will make all the difference in the world. Saving sinners has been God’s plan as long as there were sinners to save. Salvation still comes from the Lord, and his name is Jesus. Let’s pray.
