God Hears Our Cries

"Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish's belly. ² And he said: "I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, and He answered me. "Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice."

Jonah 2:1-2

The way God redeems affliction to lead people to seek God is a common theme lately in my Bible reading and study.  Jonah went from sleeping in the belly of a ship to crying out to God in the belly of a great fish.  The belly of the fish was nothing like the comical pictures in children's Bibles complete with a bed and table but a terrifying mixture of absolute darkness, stench, pressure, and inescapable heat.  Strangled by weeds, sweating in discomfort, and gasping for foul air, Jonah had discovered and was trapped in a living hell.

It was in the belly of the beast we read of Jonah praying to God for the first time as a result of his affliction.  He cried unto the LORD and was heard by the God who is gracious, merciful, compassionate, and delights to save.  In the darkness Jonah sought the LORD and his faith was buoyed.  Though he had been in the fish for days, he was convinced somehow, someway he would be released from the prison of flesh.  He said in Jonah 2:8-9, "Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy. ⁹ But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD."  The idols of the sailors were incapable of salvation, but God who caused the wind to blow and the sea to rage could silence them.  The God who prepared the fish to swallow Jonah could release him at God's command.  God spoke to the fish and Jonah was vomited upon dry land. (Jonah 2:10)

On a side note, I never considered the large fish likely needed to beach itself to vomit Jonah onto dry land.  It may have provided the first decent view Jonah had of the great fish God prepared to swallow him.  I wonder if the fish just laid there and expired on the sand as Jonah watched, or if it slowly inched back into the water and swam off.  Based upon what happened next in the book I don't believe Jonah would have helped the creature but preferred to sit down to watch it die.  But the dying fish is a great picture of how God will someday destroy Sheol and Death and throw them into the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:14).

In the darkness Jonah's eyes turned to God, the light of his salvation.  He was granted divine insight:  "Salvation is of the LORD."  How good it is to remember this in our affliction.  When things are prosperous we can forget about God, and when circumstances are hard we work frantically to change them.  But we are in the midst of affliction and there is no hope, eyes of faith seek the LORD.  We ask God to bless us, and there in the belly of a great fish was such a man:  he had an audience with the living God and realised "Salvation is of the LORD."  For days he choked and struggled within that living furnace and in due time God opened Jonah's eyes to the truth.  Praise the LORD He sees our affliction, hears our prayers, and answers with salvation.