Jonah’s Prayer

In chapter one, Jonah ran away from the presence of Yahweh; in chapter two, Jonah made a run for the presence of Yahweh. 

Jonah’s prayer is an amazing example of running to Yahweh in times of overwhelming sorrow. Jonah came to realize that he was saved from the sea by the belly of a fish. The fish was the tool of God for Jonah’s salvation. Within this prayer, not one petition was offered by Jonah to Yahweh. Jonah’s prayer is a description of his repentance, a changing of the way he thought, and then a prayer of praise and thanksgiving. The entire prayer anticipates Yahweh’s certain salvation. 

Jonah Prays: “I See What You Did, Yahweh” (1-6)

From the belly of the fish, Jonah began his prayer (1).

Jonah acknowledged the moment he was thrown into the sea. He was filled with stress and fear and began to cry out to Yahweh. From the grave of the sea, Jonah cried out to Yahweh, and Yahweh listened to the prophet who had been running away from Him (2).

Jonah recognized that Yahweh had him, not the sailors, cast into the sea. It was Yahweh who had him thrown into the heart of the sea and let the floods of water immerse him. The waves and billows passed over Jonah, and Jonah came to know that every movement of the sea was of God’s waves of grace, used by God to save Jonah.

When Jonah was thrown into the sea, he thought for certain that he was being thrown even farther from Yahweh. He imagined it was over, and he would never experience the presence of God again (4).

The waters closed in on Jonah like a grave, and he imagined every wave a killer force to take his life. His body became entangled in weeds; he couldn’t move. Jonah went to the bottom, or the “root of the mountains,” which is a metaphor for hitting the point of no return. Bars closed, the door of death locked, and Jonah was completely hopeless.

Yet God had trapped him in the waves, twisting seaweed around him, to disable his ability to struggle so God could use the sea to move him to safety (5-6).

Jonah Prays: “I See Yahweh’s Rescue” (7-8) 

Jonah was about to lose consciousness from lack of oxygen when he remembered Yahweh and began to pray. God captured Jonah’s prayer and brought it into His temple, His personal presence. This is another way of saying God made a temple for Jonah in the belly of a fish. To Jonah, a temple would have meant a place where God met with and spoke to His people (7).

In the sea, Jonah thought about idolaters, those resistant to Yahweh and worshipers of their own desires. To worship idols was to forsake hope and the constant, never-ending love of God. 

At that moment, Jonah was struck by an unsettling truth: his fleeing from Yahweh was equal to idolatry. Jonah had been running away from Yahweh’s presence, and while doing so, he had been forsaking future hope and God’s eternal love, just like any other idolater (8).

Jonah Prays: “Yahweh, I Give You Thanks” (9-10)

When Jonah was buried in the whale, he did not petition for release, but instead he started offering the sacrifice of thanksgiving. He began to thank God for His grace in the sea. He thanked God for forbidding him from struggling against the waves and for saving him from the sea by placing him in a fish. Jonah declared, “Salvation belongs to [Yahweh].” Jonah finally admitted that he was not the lord of salvation; Yahweh was. Yahweh gets to decide who experiences His salvation (9).

Yahweh then spoke to the fish, and the fish vomited Jonah out on dry land (10).