Now the word of [a]Yahweh came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before Me.” 3 Yet Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, and [b]paid its fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.
4 But Yahweh hurled a great wind on the sea, and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship gave thought to [c]breaking apart. 5 Then the sailors became fearful, and every man cried to his god, and they hurled the [d]cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it [e]for them. But Jonah had gone down below into the innermost part of the vessel, lain down, and fallen deep asleep. 6 So the captain came near to him and said to him, “How is it that you are deeply sleeping? Arise, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”
7 Then each man said to the other, “Come, let us [f]have the lots fall so we may know on whose account this calamitous evil has struck us.” So they [g]had the lots fall, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamitous evil struck us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” 9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yahweh, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10 Then the men became greatly fearful, and they said to him, “What is this you have done?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of Yahweh because he had told them. 11 So they said to him, “What should we do to you that the sea may become quiet [h]for us?”—for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. 12 So he said to them, “Lift me up and hurl me into the sea. Then the sea will become quiet [i]for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you.” 13 However, the men [j]rowed desperately to return to dry land, but they could not, for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy against them. 14 Then they called on Yahweh and said, “Ah! O Yahweh, we earnestly pray, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life, and do not put innocent blood on us; for You, O Yahweh, as You have pleased You have done.”
15 So they lifted Jonah up and hurled him into the sea, and the sea stood still from its raging. 16 Then the men greatly feared Yahweh, and they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh and made vows.
17 [k]And Yahweh appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.
We have come to the final point in a series of sermons about prayer. More specifically, the series is about getting “yes” answers to your prayers. We’ve considered Biblical instruction and Biblical examples of answered prayers. And the conclusion we draw is that God answers affirmatively, and certain kinds that He answers negatively. No, this series was never intended to be taken as some sort of recipe for getting what you want from God. I never intended to say that if you put these 5 ingredients together, that you will always get a “yes” answer. There are at least two things that prevent that; number one, we are sinful people with flawed spiritual understanding. We may think we have all the ingredients right, but we can be sorely mistaken.
In addition to that, God is still God. He decides, not you.
But, in general, prayers that receive “yes” answers have these five ingredients; They have a humble and repentant pray-er. The request that the pray-er makes is in line with, in agreement with Scripture, God’s revealed will. The pray-er is righteous; that is, he or she has placed their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to cover their sin, and they are in a right relationship with Jesus as Lord; they are obedient. Also, the pray-er prays fervently. They pray from the depths of their heart. They persevere in asking. And finally, the pray-er is praying first for God to be glorified, and seeking God’s glory over any selfish prayer they may bring before the throne. That last point is what we are finishing up today.
Prayer, along with everything in this world, and in the life of the believer is ultimately designed to bring honor and glory to God. It is not just some means to get the stuff that I want from God. Sadly, many professing Christians still haven’t surrendered to that truth.
For example John R. Rice was an influential fundamentalist pastor back in the 40’s. He wrote a best-selling book in 1942 titled Prayer—Asking and Receiving. And how a pastor could write this is beyond me. He wrote, “Prayer is not praise, adoration, meditation, humiliation nor confession, but asking. . . . Praise is not prayer, and prayer is not praise. Prayer is asking. . . . Adoration is not prayer, and prayer is not adoration. Prayer is always asking. It is not anything else but asking.”[i]
Now that flies in the face of Scripture. All the Scriptures we have been studying, all the prayers that we’ve considered. Even if we just go back to last weeks sermon on the Disciple’s prayer. Jesus’ model prayer is more than merely “asking.” It has asking; give us this day our daily bread, and lead us not into temptation.
But the model prayer Jesus gave His disciples has exactly those things that John Rice said were not prayer; praise-hallowed be thy name, adoration-our Father in heaven, humiliation-thy kingdom come, thy will be done and confession-forgive us our debts.
So, tell you what, I’ll take Jesus’ definition of prayer over Rice’s everyday, and twice on Sunday.
So, back to our point. Prayer isn’t just asking, it, like all of life is intended to glorify God. Everything is to glorify God.
First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 31. The apostle Paul says, “Whether, therefore, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
In 1 Corinthians 6:19, Paul says, “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and you’re not your own? You are bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body.”
Isaiah 43 that, “The beasts of the field shall give Me honor or glory.” Everything that God ever made was for His glory.
Colossians 1:16, it says, “All things were made by Him and for Him.” And in Isaiah chapter 48 and verse 11, God says, “My glory I will not give to another.”
So, if you want a real change in the effectiveness of your prayers, use them for their intended purpose, to glorify God.
Last week we finished our study of the Disciples prayer and used that prayer to specify how we exalt God. We exalt Him by putting Him in His proper exalted position in our understanding; He is our Father in Heaven, by putting Him in His proper exalted position in our hearts, making His name Holy, and by desiring and seeking Him to be in His proper exalted place in the world; Your kingdom come, your will be done.
Now, like I have tried to do with every point, I want to give you a Biblical example of God-exalting prayer. We’ve already read the background passage about Jonah. Now, believe it or not, after Jonah was swallowed by the big fish, while he was rolling around in the stomach acid of this great fish, he did some praying. Can I get an amen on that? I don’t know of many other circumstances that would elicit prayer than being swallowed by a giant fish and rolling around in its belly for 3 days while being digested. Well, in a second, we’re going to read the prayer that he prayed. And it is a God-exalting prayer.
Prayer
I. Background story
Let me just take a moment and make sure we all remember Jonah’s story. This is how it begins.
Now the word of [a]Yahweh came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before Me.”
We are introduced to a Jewish prophet named Jonah. Now he is mentioned in one other place in Scripture.
2 Kings 14: 23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel became king in Samaria and reigned forty-one years. 24 And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin. 25 He restored the border of Israel from [d]Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of Yahweh, the God of Israel, which He spoke [e]through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher.
So, that places him as a prophet during the reign of Jeroboam II. He would have been a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel. But we find in this book that God was not sending Jonah to one of the cities of Israel, He was sending him to Nineveh. What was the city of Nineveh? It was the capital city of the Assyrian empire. Assyria was one of Israel’s enemies. 30 years after Jonah’s prophetic time Assyria invaded Israel and carried its people away as captives.
The Assyrians were the inhabitants of a country that became a mighty empire dominating the biblical Middle East from the ninth to the seventh century BC. They conquered an area that comprises what is now Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. In the seventh century BC, Assyria occupied and controlled the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of Assyria was Nineveh, one of the greatest cities of ancient times. Excavations in Mesopotamia have confirmed the Bible’s description that it took three days' journey to go around this city (Jonah 3:3). The Assyrians were a fierce and cruel nation who showed little mercy to those they conquered (2 Kings 19:17).
I read this article online about Assyrian tactics of war.
https://staff.mq.edu.au/teach/teaching-macquarie/ancient-history-for-schools/resources-for-teachers/resources/year-11-preliminary-ancient-history/weapons-and-warfare-in-ancient-assyria#:~:text=Psychological%20Warfare%3A%20The%20Assyrians%20used,flayed%20by%20the%20Assyrian%20army.
“The best documented example of Assyrian Warfare can be found in the Lachish Reliefs in the palace of Sennacherib in Nineveh. They provide a great amount of detailed information on the military tactics of the Assyrians during their campaigns into Judea.
In 701 BCE, Sennacherib lay siege to the walls of Lachish, a Judean town in the southern Levant, as he travelled towards Jerusalem. Lachish is situated upon an important strategic pass leading to Jerusalem and therefore was an important stronghold and a fortified town. In order to conquer the formidable fortifications of the city, the Assyrians utilised their innovative tools and tactics of warfare. The Assyrian army surrounded the town and constructed a large ramp of earth leading upward unto the walls, allowing the army to climb over the fortress and into the city.”
Assyria was one of the first empires to fully utilise iron in the craft of weaponry and military materials. This granted the Assyrian army a great advantage over their surrounding cultural superpowers, who still relied upon bronze and wooden technology. Assyrian armour was often crafted from iron, protecting their armies and making their ranks difficult to penetrate.
Siege towers were large wooden machines which were used to batter down walls or fortifications. The towers suspended large wooden beams that were tipped with a metal point.
Psychological Warfare: The Assyrians used psychological warfare to arouse fear in their enemies. This included brutal methods of torturing their captives and exhibiting their bodies on poles and pikes. Parts of the Lachish reliefs even show Judean captives being publicly flayed by the Assyrian army. Depicting these warfare tactics in the Assyrian palace is itself a form of propaganda. Due to the reputation spread by Assyrian propaganda, many cities surrendered to the Assyrians during their campaigns without a battle.”
Assyria was also idolatrous. Their very origins go back to Nimrod and the tower of Babel.
So, when God tells Jonah “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before Me.” Jonah doesn’t want to go. And there are likely a number of reasons. He may have been fearful. He likely felt like God belonged exclusively to the Jewish people. But the biggest reason is one that Jonah tells us himself. After Jonah finally went to Nineveh and called on them to repent, they did, from the king in his palace down to the beggar on the street. So what was God’s response?
Jonah 3: 10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, so God [j]relented concerning the evil which He had spoken He would [k]bring upon them. And He did not [l]bring it upon them.
And what was Jonah’s response to God relenting from their destruction?
Jonah 4: But this was a great evil to Jonah, and he became angry. 2 And he prayed to Yahweh and said, “Ah! O Yahweh, was not this my word to myself while I was still in my own land? Therefore I went ahead to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning evil. 3 So now, O Yahweh, please take my [a]life from me, for death is better to me than life.”
Jonah didn’t want to preach to Nineveh because he hated the Assyrians, and he wanted God to destroy them. And he knew that if he gave them a message from God, calling on them to repent, they might actually repent. And he knew that God was “a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning evil.” And he wanted all of them to die because of the evil they had done to Israel.
Now before we start chastising Jonah, we need to ask ourselves, how do we feel toward our enemies?
So, the story continues.
Jonah didn’t want to go preach so he decides to go in the complete opposite direction from where God intended to send him. He goes to Joppa, which is a city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and hops a ship heading west. It’s been proposed that the city the ship was bound for was Tarshish, in modern day Spain. He was probably thinking that if he could get far, far away, he would be unable to get back to Nineveh before God’s wrath would be poured out on the Assyrians.
But, you can’t run from God.
4 But Yahweh hurled a great wind on the sea, and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship gave thought to [c]breaking apart. 5 Then the sailors became fearful, and every man cried to his god, and they hurled the [d]cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it [e]for them. But Jonah had gone down below into the innermost part of the vessel, lain down, and fallen deep asleep. 6 So the captain came near to him and said to him, “How is it that you are deeply sleeping? Arise, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”
7 Then each man said to the other, “Come, let us [f]have the lots fall so we may know on whose account this calamitous evil has struck us.” So they [g]had the lots fall, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamitous evil struck us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” 9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yahweh, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10 Then the men became greatly fearful, and they said to him, “What is this you have done?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of Yahweh because he had told them. 11 So they said to him, “What should we do to you that the sea may become quiet [h]for us?”—for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. 12 So he said to them, “Lift me up and hurl me into the sea. Then the sea will become quiet [i]for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you.” 13 However, the men [j]rowed desperately to return to dry land, but they could not, for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy against them. 14 Then they called on Yahweh and said, “Ah! O Yahweh, we earnestly pray, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life, and do not put innocent blood on us; for You, O Yahweh, as You have pleased You have done.”
15 So they lifted Jonah up and hurled him into the sea, and the sea stood still from its raging. 16 Then the men greatly feared Yahweh, and they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh and made vows.
17 [k]And Yahweh appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.
Now it’s not our purpose here to look at every aspect of this story. We need to get to Jonah’s prayer. But Jonah has always been a controversial book because those who want to doubt Scripture have said, “This is impossible.” To which I reply, “No, it’s a miracle.” They say, “It’s impossible that a man stay alive in a fishes belly for three days.” To which I say, “Who made the man out of dust? Who breathed breathe into his lungs? Who raised Jesus from the dead after being dead three days? If God can raise the dead, then he can keep the living alive.”
And for years, I would read commentary from doubters saying that a whale’s throat isn’t large enough to swallow a man. I don’t know if it is or not, but notice that the text doesn’t say it was a whale. It says a great fish. The whale just so happened to be the only fish that commentators thought was big enough to swallow a man for a good part of history. We have since learned about other creatures that lived in the deep. Look at these.
You might say to me, those are not all technically fish. If it swam in the water, I’ll bet they called it a fish. My personal favorite choice is the Megalodon. It’s a extinct shark. It could get up to 69 feet in length compared to the great white sharks we know today that can get up to 21 feet. 3 times as large as a great white shark. Jonah could have played shuffleboard in his belly.
But let’s get back to our story. Jonah is swallowed by a great fish, and of course, he prays. And he exalts God. But he does more than that. Every one of the things that we’ve studied about effective prayer can be found in his prayer. He is humble, he is scriptural, he gets back in right relationship with God, he is fervent, and he exalts God. Let’s read his prayer. Chapter 2.
Then Jonah prayed to Yahweh his God from the stomach of the fish, 2 and he said,
“I called out of my distress to Yahweh,
(fervency, humility)
And He answered me.
I cried for help from the belly of Sheol; (fervency,
humility)
You heard my voice.
3 For You had cast me into the
deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the current surrounded me.
All Your breakers and waves passed over me.
4 So I said, ‘I have been driven
away from [b]Your sight.
Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
(repentance, righteousness)
5 Water encompassed me to my
very soul.
The great deep surrounded me,
Weeds were wrapped around my head.
6 I went down to the [c]base of the mountains.
The earth with its bars closed behind me
forever,
But You have brought up my life from [d]the pit, O Yahweh my God. (praise, exaltation)
7 While my soul was fainting
within me, (fervency)
I remembered Yahweh, (repentance)
And my prayer came to You,
To Your holy temple.
8 Those who regard worthless idols
Forsake their lovingkindness,
9 But as for me, I will sacrifice
to You
With the voice of thanksgiving. (scriptural)
That which I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to Yahweh.” (scriptural)
10 Then Yahweh spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.
And of course we know that God then instructed Jonah again to go and preach to Nineveh, and he did. What I find very interesting is that Jonah’s opinion about Nineveh didn’t really change much. He went and preached to the city, they repented. But even when he saw them repent by wearing sackcloth and ashes, he was still hoping that God would destroy them.
But this was a great evil to Jonah, and he became angry. 2 And he prayed to Yahweh and said, “Ah! O Yahweh, was not this my word to myself while I was still in my own land? Therefore I went ahead to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning evil. 3 So now, O Yahweh, please take my [a]life from me, for death is better to me than life.” 4 And Yahweh said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”
5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of the city. And there he made a booth for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. 6 So Yahweh God appointed a [b]plant, and it came up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his miserable evil. And Jonah was [c]extremely glad about the plant. 7 But God appointed a worm at the [d]breaking of dawn the next day, and it struck the plant, and [e]it dried up. 8 Then it happened that as the sun rose up, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun struck down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and asked with all his soul to die and said, “Death is better to me than life.”
9 Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” 10 Then Yahweh said, “You had pity on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which [f]came to be overnight and perished [g]overnight. 11 So should I not have pity on Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many [h]animals?”
It's kind of a sad commentary on Jonah’s heart. But do you know what is encouraging about the story. God answered Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the fish. He didn’t have to. He could have sent a different prophet and allowed Jonah to suffocate hundreds of feet below the surface of the sea. But God heard and answered his prayer. And do you know who else’s prayer was answered? The Ninevites.
5 And the [b]people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6 Then the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, laid aside his mantle from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the [c]ashes. 7 And he cried out and said,
“In Nineveh by the [d]decree of the king and his nobles[e]: Do not let man, [f]animal, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat, and do not let them drink water.
8 But both man and [g]animal must be covered with sackcloth; and let [h]men call on God with their strength that each may turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in [i]his hands.
9 Who knows, God may turn and relent and turn away from His burning anger so that we will not perish.”
10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, so God [j]relented concerning the evil which He had spoken He would [k]bring upon them. And He did not [l]bring it upon them.
They cried out to God, and He answered. Even though they would stay repentant for long. Nineveh ended up being destroyed by God about 150 years later.
And both Jonah and Nineveh prayed effective God-exalting prayers.
A body is not crippled 'til its heart has ceased to praise. Louis Albert Banks tells of an elderly Christian man, a fine singer, who learned that he had cancer of the tongue and that surgery was required. In the hospital after everything was ready for the operation, the man said to the doctor, "Are you sure I will never sing again?" The surgeon found it difficult to answer his question. He simply shook his head no. The patient then asked if he could sit up for a moment. "I've had many good times singing the praises of God," he said. "And now you tell me I can never sing again. I have one song that will be my last. It will be of gratitude and praise to God." There in the doctor's presence the man sang softly the words of Isaac Watts' hymn, "I'll praise my Maker while I've breath,/ And when my voice is lost in death,/ Praise shall employ my nobler power;/ My days of praise shall ne'er be past,/ While life, and thought, and being last,/ Or immortality endures."
Our Daily Bread.