Maybe you have the idea that you need to clean up your life before God can save you. That’s like saying, “If you swim to shore, God will send you a lifeboat!” Jonah shows us a better way.

God saves guilty sinners
“You cast me into the deep… your waves passed over me” (2:3). Inside the fish, Jonah thinks, “God did this. God sent the storm.” Behind the human events, Jonah sees the hand of God.

Some people see their lives as strung together by chance. They feel that they are lucky or unlucky. Others see their lives as controlled by other people. They feel that they are victims. Other people see their lives as controlled by themselves. They feel that they are heroes. But Jonah knew God was at work, exposing his guilt and rebellion.

Owning our sinfulness means getting beyond the idea that we deserve something better from God. God saves guilty sinners. Believing the gospel begins when you own your guilt before God.

God saves believing sinners
“I am driven away from your sight” (2:4). It isn’t easy to ask God for help when you know you have sinned. Jonah felt God was no longer interested in him. He felt he was beyond forgiving.

What he says next is amazing: “Yet I shall again look upon your holy temple” (2:4). That is a marvellous statement of faith. God was for Jonah even when He was against him! And God is for you even when He is against you.

God saves guilty sinners. God saves believing sinners. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

*Do you feel like you need to “swim to shore” before God will save you? Or can you accept that He loves you even while you are a sinner?*

If you want to emphasise something important, you could put it at the beginning, like in a headline; in the middle, like in a climax; or at the end, like in a conclusion.

If you want to sum up the book of Jonah in one sentence, it would be when Jonah says, “Salvation belongs to the LORD!” (Jon. 2:9). God brought Jonah to the place where he wanted people to know what God had done in his life. And when he did, he put a song of praise right at the centre. For that reason, we’re coming to this great chapter at the end of our study of Jonah.

We’re going to look at Jonah’s remarkable testimony to God’s grace. Jonah disobeyed God, but God sent a storm, and Jonah told the ship’s crew to throw him in the sea (1:12, 15).

Then we have this remarkable statement: “The LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” (1:17).

Some suggest that this is just a parable to teach us lessons about God, but Jesus said, “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Mat. 12:40). The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ were historical events, and Jesus speaks about what happened to Jonah in the same way. What happened to Jonah belongs among the miracles.

What does this have to do with us? Jonah writes this song of praise to tell us how God saves sinners. The message of Jonah 2 is simply this: God saves guilty, believing, desperate, repentant sinners.

Are you inclined to view the story of Jonah as a parable or as a miracle of grace? Why?

Imagine that you are responsible for parking at the Super Bowl. Your job is to clear the parking lot as quickly and as safely as possible.

When the game ends, you motion the front row forward. Nothing happens. You walk over to the first car, and the driver says, “I got in the car, and everything went dark. I can’t drive. I’m blind.”

You go to the next car, and the driver says, “I got in the car, and some guy slapped these handcuffs on me. I can’t drive. I’m bound.”

You move to the third car, and the driver is slumped over. He is dead.

People are blaring their horns, but you have compassion. Why? Because you understand the problem.

There is a kind of Christianity that is angry with the sinful world. A kind of preaching that rails against the evils of our times and seems to find pleasure in doing so. It is angry because it does not understand the human condition.

By nature, we are blind, bound, and dead. We cannot see the glory of Christ. We do not have the power to stop sinning. And we will not come to Christ and follow Him.

That’s true of every person. Reflecting on the human condition will help you to grow in compassion. It will make you less like Jonah and more like the Lord, who has compassion on people who cannot tell their right hand from their left.

On a scale of 1 (angry) to 5 (indifferent) to 10 (compassionate), reflect on your attitude toward the sinful world, and especially toward those in your life who currently reject God.