Jonah 1:17-2:10
Pastor Trey continues his series on the story of Jonah. We pick up with Jonah praying from inside the belly of the fish. When Jonah prays this prayer he prays it from the position of someone experiencing the pits. He’s not just conceptualizing this. It’s not a philosophical entreaty for Jonah. He is in the deepest pit imaginable to a human.
Likely one of the reasons that fear-based religious narratives lose steam is because it’s hard to warn somebody about an eternal hell when they’re in the middle of experiencing it on earth. How are we supposed to connect with the divine when we’re not sure that the divine is interested in connecting with us at all, at least in any positive way? How do we talk to God when we feel distant from God? The mere prospect of the presence of God inspires Jonah to keep on praying. As we sit with Jonah’s prayer from the belly of this fish, we learn that trusting in God is the only way out of the pit.
When Jesus compared his approaching time in the belly of the earth to the time that Jonah spent in the belly of the fish, was he preparing himself and his followers for how to survive what would feel like an eternity in a dark place? Perhaps trusting in the God who delivered Jonah and Jesus is the way out of the dark and heavy places that our journeys lead us through sometimes.
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