Rebellion to Repentance
Have you ever been in over your head? Sometimes it’s from our own doing, but sometimes we’re just thrust into the depths. It’s often without warning, too. Jonah was running from the presence of God, and you know what he got? What he asked for. He was tossed overboard and was sinking to his death. What do you do when you are in over your head? Jonah is inside the belly of a great fish, a moment of utter helplessness. And he prays. He prays to the God he was running from. His prayer reveals his movement from rebellion to repentance. And it shows us our need to draw near to God no matter what we’re facing. The greatest miracle wasn’t Jonah being swallowed by the fish. It wasn’t Jonah being inside the fish. The greatest miracle was what happened inside Jonah. A rebellious prophet was led to repentance and restoration. Today, God is calling each one of us to draw closer to Him.
God always hears the cry of the repentant. (1-2)
Jonah’s decision to pray while in the belly of the fish marks a crucial spiritual turning point in the trajectory of his life. It demonstrates his transition from rebellion to repentance. Verse 1 states, “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish.” The phrase "the Lord his God" is important because it emphasizes a personal relationship with God that endured despite Jonah's disobedience. Jonah still recognized God as his own, even after running from Him.
There’s something special that can come about in the moments after you punish your child. You are the one that disciplines them for their disobedience, yet you are also the one that comforts them from their affliction. The parent punishes yet is also the one the child runs to for comfort.
Up until this moment, Jonah hadn’t prayed, even when the pagan sailors urged him to do so during the storm (1:6). Now, in the depths of his distress, what does he do? He prays. He turns to God. His heart is shifting. The depths tend to facilitate that for us. When we face difficult times, especially times we have absolutely zero control of, it calls us to lean on God.
God is accessible even in the depths of our despair.
Jonah cries, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice” (2:2). You all know those people who never answer their phone! God always does.
God is always ready to hear the cry of the repentant, no matter how far they have strayed. The term “Sheol” represents a place of death or separation, suggesting Jonah felt he was at the brink of death. Yet, this depth of despair is exactly where he finds that God is listening. Jonah saying he’s in "the belly of Sheol" shows us his complete and utter sense of hopelessness. Yet that is precisely where God heard him. No situation is too dire for God to work amidst.
Jonah’s experience mirrors the psalmist's in Psalm 130:1-2: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice!” Despite Jonah’s earlier refusal to seek God, when Jonah finally does, God listens. This shows us that God's ears are always open to those who genuinely turn to Him in repentance. Rebellion drives us away, but repentance draws us back.
This shows us that God’s mercy extends even to those who have run far from Him. Jonah is a prodigal prophet, and the Father is eager to welcome him back. No one is beyond the reach of God’s grace. Here’s what this prayer shows us—God’s grace is accessible. It’s available to all who turn to Him. Only we must reach out to access it.
This calls us to examine our own lives: Are there areas where you are running from God? Are there sins you need to confess? Are you in a situation that you can’t get out of on your own? Do you find yourself in a place of utter hopelessness? Jonah’s prayer encourages us to turn to God and trust that He is merciful and ready to bring us near. Even in the belly of despair, God’s ear is always open to those who call on Him.
God’s sovereignty is evident in both judgment and mercy. (3)
In verse 3, Jonah acknowledges the sovereignty of God over his circumstances: “For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me.” Here, Jonah doesn’t attribute his horrible situation to the actions of the sailors who threw him into the sea. Instead, he sees the hand of God at work. He knew it was ultimately God who cast him into the deep.
Jonah’s acknowledgment that “all your waves and your billows passed over me” shows us again that the natural elements are under God’s sovereign command. As Martin Luther once noted,
“Jonah does not say the waves and the billows of the sea went over me; but thy waves and thy billows because he felt in his conscience that the sea with its waves and billows was the servant of God and of His wrath to punish sin.”
God’s sovereignty extends to every aspect of creation, which He uses to accomplish His purposes. It’s as Psalm 89:9 states, “You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.” Jonah understands that his circumstance is a result of God’s righteous judgment, yet he also recognizes the possibility of God’s mercy. That’s why he cries out. God controls the storm as well as the stillness—His plan prevails in both. So you can trust Him as much in the storm as you do in the stillness.
I love how one pastor and theologian put it,
“There is a sense in which the acknowledgement of God’s presence, even in judgment, is a comfort. For it is better to fall into the hands of God, even in judgment, than to be apart from him.”[1]
Remember last week we saw that God disciplines His children out of love, not wrath. Hebrews 12:6 says, “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” Jonah’s experience is to bring him to repentance and submission to God’s will. Think of a good doctor. A doctor sometimes needs to perform painful surgery to heal a patient. The incision might hurt, but it’s necessary to remove the problem. We want the doctor to hurt us if it is going to ultimately heal us. God’s discipline works similarly, bringing healing and restoration through moments that feel like judgment.
Jonah recognized that it wasn’t just the sailors’ actions that led to the depths; it was God’s hand. This should cause us to see God’s sovereignty in our own lives, especially during times of difficulty or discipline. And that should give us hope, a hope that drives us straight to God.
Repentance brings hope out of despair. (4)
In verse 4, Jonah says, “Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’” Here we see hope. Jonah’s feeling of being “driven away” captures the deep sense of separation from God he feels due to his disobedience. After all, he was running from the presence of God. The phrase implies a deep sense of alienation from God, similar to the feeling expressed in Psalm 31:22: “I had said in my alarm, ‘I am cut off from your sight.’ But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help.” Jonah’s recognition of this separation drives him to a place of repentance.
The verb used for “driven away” can also mean “banished.” He felt as if he had been cast out from God’s presence. Even amidst that despair, though, Jonah had hope. He says, “yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.” Despite the situation he is in, Jonah clings to the possibility of restoration. In Israel, the temple represented God’s dwelling place among His people and was a symbol of His presence and mercy. By expressing his hope to see the temple again, Jonah demonstrates his belief that God will hear his plea for mercy and restore him. God’s grace isn’t limited by our failures, and His mercy is always within reach.
Repentance is the doorway through which hope walks in. Repentance is the doorway through which we experience grace. You know why? Because it’s Jesus who stands at the door and knocks (Rev 3:20). We can ignore His invitation, but we forfeit the fellowship that could be ours. God is ready to come in, even when we have been fleeing from His presence.
How does Jonah have hope even when he is running from God and thrown into the depths? Because he knows who God is. Jonah’s hope is rooted in his knowledge of God’s character—His mercy and faithfulness. Lamentations 3:21-23 shows us this sentiment well. Take this to heart: “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Jonah knows that even though he’s been rebellious, God’s mercy is still available to him. His desire to “look again toward your holy temple” symbolizes his yearning for a restored relationship with God. Do you have that same longing? Do you long for a closer, deeper, more intimate relationship with God?
Sometimes we need difficulty to experience God’s grace. In gardening, sometimes the ground and vegetation needs to be burned in order to grow better. For years following, grass can even grow deeper and richer in places that were previously burned. It removes harmful growth and enriches the soil. Hardship is that way in our lives, too. Let God do His work in you amidst what is happening around you. Draw near to Him.
God’s mercy is magnified amidst our hopelessness. (5-6a)
In verses 5-6a, Jonah describes, “The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains.” These verses paint a picture of Jonah's complete helplessness, likening his experience to being entombed in the depths of the sea. This language echoes the imagery used in Psalm 69:1-2: “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.”
The imagery of being surrounded by waters, entangled in seaweed, and sinking to the base of the mountains shows us the complete hopelessness Jonah was in. He feels as if he is being engulfed by death itself, trapped at the bottom of the sea, beyond reach and rescue. His reference to the “roots of the mountains” suggests he felt he had sunk to the very foundations of the earth, where escape was completely impossible. In this darkest moment, Jonah realizes the senselessness of his rebellion against God and the utter hopelessness of his situation without God’s intervention.
Yet, it is precisely in moments of despair that God’s mercy shines brightest. The severity of Jonah’s situation serves to magnify the extent of God’s compassion and grace. Despite Jonah’s disobedience and the seemingly irreversible consequences of his actions, God doesn’t abandon him. The fish, which initially appears as a form of judgment, becomes a vessel of salvation.
It is amidst despair and hopelessness that God’s mercy and grace shines the brightest. I went to the eye doctor a few weeks ago and had my eyes dilated. This dilates your pupils like what they naturally do when you are in darkness. You know what I had to do when I left the doctor? I had to wear silly looking sunglasses over my glasses. Why? Because even the smallest amount of light was exponentially amplified, where even normal light was too much for me to bear. This is what difficult circumstances do to us. They allow us to see God more brightly.
And our circumstances aren’t the darkest thing we face. Our sin is. Jonah’s deliverance foreshadows the salvation offered through Jesus. Just as Jonah was saved from the depths, so Jesus saves us from the depths of sin and death. In Matthew 12:40, Jesus refers to Jonah’s experience as a sign of His own death and resurrection. Hear the way John describes the arrival of Jesus in John 1:4-5:
4 In him [Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
When we reach the end of ourselves, we find that God’s grace is more than sufficient to meet us there. Jonah’s story calls us to trust in God’s mercy, knowing that He can deliver us from even the most hopeless situations. It reminds us that our darkest times can become the backdrop for God’s greatest demonstrations of His grace. This should motivate us to rely on God, to cry out to Him in our distress, and to trust in His power to save. No matter how far we have fallen, God’s mercy can lift us up, giving us life. God’s mercy is magnified not in spite of our hopelessness but because of it, demonstrating that He is a God of mercy and grace who saves and redeems those who turn to Him.
[1] James Montgomery Boice, The Minor Prophets, vol. 1, 2 vols. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1983), 286.
