Out of the Deep We Call

Reflection on Jonah chapter 2

Out of the deep I call  Hymn 327 TLH    

To you oh Lord to Thee

Before Thy throne of grace I fall

Be merciful to me

Out of the deep I cry

The woeful deep of sin

Of evil done in days gone by

Of evil now within

Out of the deep of fear

And dread of coming shame

All night till morning watch is near

I plead the precious name

Lord, there is mercy now

As ever was, with thee

Before thy throne of grace I bow

Be merciful to me

Jonah was desperate!  His life was a mess…. To the point that he faced death

He thought he could run…. What did it matter he thought, God can just get someone else.

I can’t go there! They are some wicked people… why do they even deserve God’s warning!  Besides that they aren’t even the chosen people, they are Gentiles, not Jew!

What is God thinking!

So Jonah hopped ship… and ran… he thought if he could just get to Tarshish, at that time the very edge of the knowen world, he be free of this wrenched responsibility of being God’s messenger!

But now Jonah finds himself sinking, and sinking fast…. In the mist of the storm the sailors had no choice…for the sea to be calm, they had to pitch Jonah over broad….

Hurled into the deep, into the very heart of the seas… the currents swirled about…. The engulfing waters threatened Jonah’s life…

It’s dark down there is the sea.  It just a few hundred feet until you reach complete darkness.  Perhaps you’ve seen the Movie finding Nemo… remember the part when the 2 fish find themselves so deep the sun light could no longer penetrate though the water.  If you saw the movie in the theater it got pretty dark didn’t it?

Suddenly the journey of the fish becomes very uncertain.  They are most defiantly lost in darkness.

In sin we are lost in darkness

We face the stormy darkness of sin daily

The darkness of the world of sin surrounds us all… Just watch the evening news. There’s over 40 murders involving guns in the greater Jacksonville area already this year.  Divorce ravages family’s (it’s the norm now days.)  The financial rope gets tighter and tighter, but the gotta have it list get longer and longer.  Every where we turn there’s gossip and slander, selflessness and greed.  It’s a dark place… and we are a part of it.  Sin is a reality for all of us, and the road of our sins is not a bright future.  The road of sin is shame; it’s stormy and dark.  Often times we find ourselves caught up in this darkness.  The storms of our sins are painful, filled with anger, hurt and hatred.  We behave like animals… we run and hide, which usually amounts to more sin, but it just gets stormier.  The waves of sin engulf life, shattering us to pieces.  And we fall desperate!

Jonah was desperate!  He knew what this storm was about.  He knew he could not hide form God.  Jonah sincerely feared that he would die, and face the eternal darkness of being completely separated form God.  Jonah knew this is what he deserves.  To try to run from God what was he thinking!

 Led to repentance though the storm God had sent, Jonah cries out to the Lord

Unlike the gods the sailors, who thew Jonah over board, Jonah’s God, our God… the one true God is full of mercy and grace. And provides it! But through a whale… why not a boat with a rescue squad…. Or a raft. Or at least some floating dabre that could carry him to dry land.  A whale sure isn’t what I’d expect… But sure enough God’s grace is through a whale.  Jonah is grateful, and full of thanksgiving.  God had responded to His cries, “In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered me.”  From the Depths of the Grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry”

In the belly of a whale Jonah experiences Gods Salvation!   

In his prayer Jonah states: “ to the roots of the mountains I sank down: the earth barred me in forever.  But YOU brought my life up form the pit. O LORD my God.”

From the pit, from the grave, from the darkness of sin Jonah was brought up in to new life! 

Some may say that Jonah’s account of all this was mealy fiction, a myth, or allegory.  But fact this miraculous experience of Jonah’s surly is though the hand of God, Jonah’s experience is a kind of foreshadowing of the death of Jesus on a cross, His burial and resurrection.  Jonah was preserved in the Whale’s belly for 3 days, then spit on to dry land. It seems foolish to think that a man could survive such an ordeal.  It seems foolish that Salvation would come thorough death on a cross.  Jesus was not at all what the world expected!  He was humble, and lowly.  He ate with sinners, touched those who were considered to be unclean.  He did not live the life of a great king, he did not sit on a thrown or wear a crown, or lead a great army.  How was a carpenter’s son supposed to rule the world?   But what seems foolish to the world… a world trapped in sin, is God’s compassion, as we take a look closer we see Is God’s great mercy.  A grace so undeserved but so freely given.

As we drown in sin, God gives us life through His Son.  He sets us free, from the captivity of the surrounding darkness, from our sorrows and pain!

Though the darkness Jonah faced was extreme, it is only a tiny sliver of the darkness Christ endured for us can HE confronted and conquered death.  God’s gift of life is far more then an extended earthly life. Jonah’s thankfulness of his salvation is heightened as he realizes God gives an everlasting life, a life that we will spend with him, in His temple, in his arms of love. We have been raised up from the pit of sin!  This is God’s plan, God’s plan set forth before creation, to send his Son to live a perfect life, to take all our sins, the ones committed, the ones we have yet to commit, the ones we know of and the one we do in ignorance. The sins that only give death, Christ takes up, and bears, he suffered and died and rose.  He conquered death so that we may have New Life.  So that we may stand. Forgiven and redeemed, cleansed of our sins though the blood of Christ, not at all because we deserve it, Because we don’t.  This was all done for us in love, a compassionate love of grace and mercy.     

In the things of the world we find only sorrow and death “those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs”

But because of the grace of God we can cling to the cross.  We have been set free from the darkness of sin.  When the storms of life push us down, when we seem to be drowning in sin and shame, when we sink in fear, surrounded with the darkness of sorrow and grief, pain and desperation.  We can cry out to our Lord!

My daughter is very much a daddy’s girl.  They share a truly wonderful relationship.  Though she finds comfort in mommies arms… her daddy can do almost everything and fix just about everything!  Whenever things go wrong her cries are Daddy… Daddy… Help me!   Through Christ we have the privilege to cry out to out our Father in heaven.  Father, Abba… help.  Martin Luther often called out to God “Lord Save Me!”  God heard Jonah’s prayers; he hears our prayers he listens. And he responds with extraordinary mercy.  He can do everything and fix anything!   The climax of Jonah’s prayer is Salvation Comes through the Lord!

This is the climax of our lives, the Salvation freely given to us through God's Son!

With a song of thanksgiving Jonah receives the grace of the Lord, and sacrifices back what he had vowed; to be a servant of the Lord.  To deliver the Good News of God’s compassionate love, and mercy.  Jonah is spit out by the Whale on to dry land, and continued on to Ninavah as God commanded Him.  Through Jonah God takes the news of His mercy and grace to the Gentile’s, it is a clear testimony that God’s Salvation is extended to all people. 

As lay leaders, more importantly as members of the Body of Christ we are, redeemed and Sanctified, and placed on dry land, God’s path.  To be messengers of The Good News.  Everyone we come in contact with, struggles with sin, and has felt its darkness just as we have.  It is the ultimate mission for us as God’s servants to share this comfort of the cross with all people, saved and unsaved.  God will hear our cries, our repentance from sin, He will lift us out of the deep. His love for us is grace and mercy, that we may have life!  Salvation does come Through the Lord!