For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Jonah 2:1-10

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
    towards 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 for ever.
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.

A. Find Out:

1. From where did Jonah utter this prayer? v.1
2. What does he say happened to him? v.3,5,6a
3. What did he do? v.2a, 7
4. What did he say happened? v.2b
5. What does he feel about the future? v.4,9
6. What then happened? v.10

B. Think:

1. How was Jonahs’ situation hopeless?
2. What did he do in it?
3. What was the consequence of that?

C. Comment:

     Death was certain (3,5,6a) but as he went down Jonah cried out and suddenly this very large fish (we aren’t told what sort) came and swallowed him. Suddenly there is air and he’s breathing – as awful and fetid as it would be – but he’s alive.

We must take the Scripture as it is and not try to change it. This means we must accept that when he was drowning Jonah cried out to God (v.2) and then continued praying in this terrible situation inside the big fish. Others tell us that inside such a fish there will be acids for digesting food. There is utter darkness and constant movement which means he has no sense of anything at all except utter awfulness! Yet here, this runaway prophet, forced by the terrible circumstances, comes to his senses and makes amazing declarations of faith which, presumably, he later remembered and shared so it could be written down. As he prays (and it may have taken him the three days (1:17) to come to this point), he comes to a place of assurance. Now that is incredible.

At the point of death he’s swallowed and is barely kept alive in this hell of surroundings – possibly the worst environment on earth you could imagine. Yet in this hell-hole, he is conscious that he’s going to survive (v.4,9) and he vows he will do what God has said, and then suddenly it is all over and he’s vomited up on a beach, alive. A total, awful, bleached mess, but alive!

D. Application:

1. Sometimes we have to face death before we can see the truth.
2. In the face of death, God speaks.