God Will Never Turn His Back On You

Jonah 2:1-10

Most of us are familiar with the Biblical account of Jonah.  Today, our passage focuses on the prayer that Jonah prayed from where his sin and disobedience had landed him.  Let’s see what we can learn about God and his love and mercy from what Jonah learned.

Chapter 1 of the Book of Jonah tells how God had called him to preach to the Ninevites, but Jonah, wanting nothing to do with that task, fled on a ship, bound for another country.  God sent a storm to halt Jonah’s running from Him, and he ends up in the belly of a great fish.  Chapter 2 contains the prayer that Jonah makes to God from inside that fish.  This is not a prayer for deliverance, as we might be expecting, but instead it is a prayer of thanksgiving to God.

Jonah knew exactly why he was inside the fish, and what he had done to bring him to that spot.  He knew that it wasn’t a series of unfortunate circumstances that landed him in the ocean to get swallowed by the fish.  Jonah knew that this was God’s judgment on his disobedience to Him (vs. 3).  Yet God did not turn away from the repentant Jonah (vs. 2).  He will never turn away from a truly repentant heart.  God uses afflictions of all sorts to bring a person to Him, and we need never fear that He will turn His back on us when we call out to Him in repentance.

Sadly for Jonah, he had to hit the bottom and end up inside a fish before he repented (vs. 7).   God had told him that He had a job for him to do.  Jonah refused.  I’m sure God called him more than once, each time getting the same response, until He had to send the fish.  When we have fallen into any sort of sin we should never wait until we are in a position like Jonah to repent.  Jonah did not attempt to bargain with God (vs. 9).   He promised to make good on his vows to obey what God had initially requested him to do.  After that, the fish vomited Jonah out onto the shore (vs. 10).  As it’s Creator, God spoke to the fish, and it obeyed.

Verse 8 is a warning that those who worship false gods cannot expect hope or mercy from the only true God, Yahweh.  They have forfeited any claim on His mercy or grace unless and until they come to Him for salvation.  Nothing is to take the rightful place of God in our lives.

There are a number of lessons that we can learn from this passage.  One is that we can pray anywhere.  It doesn’t only have to be in a church, or at the dinner table, or beside your bed.  We can pray anywhere - even inside a fish!  God will hear us.

Another is that there is no sin too great or a problem too difficult for God.  Jonah had intentionally disobeyed God and tried to run from him.  When he repented, though, God forgave him.  There are others throughout Scripture who had turned from God in sin, such as David, and then when they repented, God forgave.  He will do the same for us, too, if we are penitent.  And there is no mess so difficult that we can get into because of our sins, that He cannot resolve, even delivering from the belly of a fish.

Do we only turn to God when we are in trouble?  When things are going fine, do we ignore God?  We should never have an inconsistent relationship with God.  A good solid relationship has God in our daily life, through both the good and the bad.

There is also the lesson we can learn from this passage that we cannot run from God.  Jonah tried that, but he learned that God’s dominion is everywhere in the universe.  He was not just the local god of Israel, who had no power or authority elsewhere.  Jonah learned he could not run away from Him.  God knows all and sees all.   No matter where we might try to run to, God still loves us and wants to bring us back.