065. Prayer Of Jonah.
Prayer Of Jonah.
Jonah 2:1-2, etc. At the time Jonah received his commission against Nineveh, she was the metropolis of the Assyrian monarchy.
She had a vast population, and “there was no end to her stores.” Yet, she was a “bloody city,”—“full of lies and robbery.” Her aim was universal empire; to compass which, her monarch employed not only arms, but the arts of diplomacy and priestcraft. Besides, in the strong language of inspiration, she was a “well-favored harlot; the mistress of witchcrafts.” Nahum 3:4.
Justly indignant at her “wickedness,” God commissions Jonah to proceed to Nineveh, and “cry against it.” But, deterred, either through the dangers of the journey, or from fear of personal injury, should he deliver so ungrateful a message to a proud and potent city, he attempts to escape from the presence of the Lord. He flees to Joppa; where he embarks on board a vessel, bound to Tarshish. He did not ask, with the psalmist, “Whither shall I go from thy presence? Whither shall I flee from thy Spirit?” Had he suffered himself to reflect, but for a moment, he would have perceived the folly and infatuation of attempting to escape from the omniscient eye of Jehovah.
Midnight and noon in this agree:
Great God—they’re both alike to Thee. Nor death can hide what God will spy; And hell lies naked to his eye. But the prophet is on board. The vessel weighs anchor, and spreads her sails to the breeze. All things promise a safe and speedy voyage. Jonah retires to rest; while the vessel dances lightly over the waves. But, suddenly, the clouds gather—the winds roar—the waves rise—the loud cry of the mariners is heard on the gale—“the bark is foundering.” But, wherefore this sudden and appalling tempest? The question is, at length, answered; and the prophet stands convicted of a crime, for which God has thrown the elements into wide and wild commotion. To that God, the affrighted manners, heathen as they were, make their appeal. They abjure all intention of contracting the guilt of blood; but, as their only expedient, by which to appease the God of Jonah, and by direction of the prophet himself, they cast him into the noisy waters.
He sinks—they know not but to some “dark, unfathomed cave,” — while they pass on over smoother waters. But Jonah is not alone; nor is he suffered to make his bed in the chambers of the deep. A fish, appointed and prepared by God, swallows him. And there, now, concealed from the eyes of all but of Him who penetrates the depths of ocean and of earth, he pours forth his prayer unto God. From such a closet—such a footstool—what child of God had ever prayed before! Adopting the language of the psalmist, he exclaims, as well he might exclaim: “All thy waves and thy billows have gone over me.” He had “forsaken his own mercy,” Jonah 2:8; that mercy which he might have claimed, and which he could have called for, had he attempted to fulfill—though he had failed to fulfill his duty. One privilege, however, is left him: he can, and will, “worship towards the holy temple,” Jonah 2:4. And one vow he can make; one bond he can bind his soul to perform, if God will spare him; if, from the “belly of hell,” in which he is imprisoned, he may escape, he will “sacrifice unto God the voice of thanksgiving.”—“I will pay that I have vowed.” The sin of Jonah was a grievous one; and most solemn and terrific was the testimony which God bore against it. Yet, when humbled and repentant, he cried, and was heard and forgiven. God brought him to behold, once more, the light of day; and to leave on record, for after generations, to the end of time, that glorious truth: “Salvation is of the Lord,” Jonah 2:9.
Blessed be God, that, in our deepest trouble, in which we are involved, by reason of folly and crime, we may pray. Oh, that those, who are inmates of the prisons and dungeons of the land, did know that they may pray. No matter how deep their guilt; no matter how low their dungeon, or how little they are thought of by men, they may pray; and, from their cells—dark, deep, horrid—their sincere, penitent cries will ascend to God. Oh, that there were more Howards abroad, on errands of love to the prison-houses of all lands, to direct their gloomy inmates to a God who heareth prayer!