Jonah 2:4-7 (NKJV)

“Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight;
Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
The waters surrounded me, even to my soul;
The deep closed around me;
Weeds were wrapped around my head.
I went down to the moorings of the mountains;
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
Yet You have brought up my life from the pit,
O LORD, my God.

“When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the LORD;
And my prayer went up to You,
Into Your holy temple.”

Jonah begins by describing how he was sinking—like a descent into hell. The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;

Then he remembered the LORD. What does that mean? On the boat, he taught the sailors a lesson on who the LORD (Yahweh) is. What is it he’s remembering now?

He’s remembering that Yahweh’s been there the whole time. It’s like suddenly noticing someone who’s been standing right next to you. He’s unforgetting who (and where) Yahweh is.

This is another place where translating Yahweh as “the LORD” loses something. Jonah is remembering that the LORD is the Lord.

And he begins to pray.

This sounds unbelievably stupid, but we all do it. We forget God “in the heat of the moment.”

This spawns one of the most frightening ideas in Christendom — being too busy to pray.

That’s why the book of Jonah is so important. We need to see ourselves in Jonah and see our mistakes in his mistakes.

Jonah’s case is the ultimate example of being too busy to pray. The situation is obviously God’s doing. He even preached—effectively—to the ship’s crew that it’s God’s doing. And yet, amidst all the action, he disconnects from God.

Then, while he’s sinking and facing death, he picks up the phone.

Must have been a local call.

All the weekly study guides, which include all five devotionals plus related questions for discussion or meditation, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies

The Job book is on Amazon and is eligible for Amazon Prime. The Kindle edition will be out soon.

https://www.amazon.com/Higher-Purposes-Lesson-God-Job/dp/1684719534