When all the hope of the world is cut off (Jonah 2:1-2)

 When all the hope of the world is cut off

 

 

“Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish, and he said, "I called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice.” (Jonah 2:1-2).

 

                Our people live with hope.  We cannot live without hope.  Because we have hope, we are eating, drinking, working and living day by day.  The hope that some of us have is hoping to 'get better' and strive to overcome the current adversity and painful environment.  Others are not giving up their lives but endure and persevere in the midst of difficulties with the expectation that "I will be able to succeed someday".  There is hope for something in us, so we are enduring day by day.  If this hope in us dies, we are alive but actually we are good as dead.  That’s why we are struggling to keep hope in us.  But what would we do if we lose even the hope that we struggle to keep alive?

 

                In Jonah 2: 1-2, Jonah, who had been disobedient to God's command and was on a ship and fleeing to Tarshish in the opposite direction of Nineveh (1:2-3), was eventually thrown into the sea by the sailors (v. 15) and prayed to the Lord in the stomach of the great fish (2:1).  In other words, he prayed to God when all the hopes of the world had been cut off.  Jonah looked at God and prayed to him in an impossible situation where there was no hope of living any more in human’s perspective.  Jonah looked at God and asked God for help in the life and death situation where he could not save himself and no one could help him.  What is surprising is that even in such circumstances Jonah offered a thanksgiving prayer to God.  How can we know this?  The Bible says, "Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish" in Jonah 2:1.  Here the word "prayed" was used as a prayer of thanksgiving (1 Sam. 2:1; 2 Sam. 7:27).  How could Jonah be able to give thanks to God even when all the hope of the world was cut off?  There were two reasons:

 

First, Jonah was able to give thanks to God even when all the hope of the world was cut off because he repented of his sins through God's given suffering.

 

When Jonah disobeyed God’s command and was running away from the presence of God, God threw the great wind on the sea.  As a result, all the Gentile captain and the sailors were in danger because of Jonah.  When they were suffering because of the great storm, God made Jonah to confess his sins to the sailors.  Moreover, God made Jonah to show the action of his repentance by making him to be thrown into the sea by the sailors.  And when he was thrown into the sea God provided a great fish to swallow Jonah (1:17).  As a result, Jonah was able to give thanks to God in his prayer inside the stomach of the great fish even though he was in a situation where all the hopes of this world had been cut off.  Although he was cut off from all the hopes of the world, he was able to give thanks to God because he enjoyed freedom from sin by repenting his sins of disobedience.

 

We can offer a thanksgiving prayer to God, even when we have lost all hope in the world.  Though our circumstances seem to be hopeless, if we can confess our sins and repent, we can give thanks to God.  Even if our hope of the world is cut off, we can give thanks to God if the problem of our sin can be resolved in Jesus Christ.  If we are cut off from everything we believe in because of our sins, we must believe in Jesus who is our true hope.  And we must confess our sins to God by relying on the merits of the cross of Jesus.  We must show the actions of repentance.  We must make a decision.  If the problem of our sins can be resolved in Jesus Christ, we must thank God, even though all the things we believe in and all our hopes are cut off.  We must give thanks to God for our true hope Jesus Christ who crucified on the cross and shed his precious blood for forgiveness of our sins and our salvation, even all the hope of the world is cut off.

                Second, Jonah was able to give thanks to God even when all the hope of the world was cut off because he looked again toward God of salvation in his suffering.

 

                Jonah didn’t look toward God when he was disobeying God's command.  Rather, he fled to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord (1:3).  He also didn’t look toward God, even though the ship was nearly broken due to the great wind and the great storm that God threw on the sea.  But God didn’t give up Jonah, and eventually made him to look toward God inside the stomach of the great fish. What kind of God did Jonah look toward?  He is the God of salvation (2:9).  He looked toward the God of salvation, who could save him from his sins.  At last, Jonah looked toward God of salvation from the stomach of the fish that was deep in the sea.  Jonah sought the God of salvation in the situation that all the hope of the world was cut off.  And he prayed to the God of salvation.  He gave a prayer of thanks to God.  And he confessed, "Salvation is from the Lord" (v. 9).  Although Jonah wasn’t saved yet and was still inside the stomach of the great fish, he gave God a prayer of confession that salvation is from the Lord.  When he did, God saved Jonah not only from his sin, but also from the stomach of the great fish what was in the deep sea where all the hope of the world was cut off.  Unlike Jonah, who disobeyed God, the great fish obeyed God's command and vomited Jonah upon the dry land (v. 10).

 

We must look toward the God of salvation, even when all the hope of the world is cut off.  When there is no hope of salvation in this world, we must look to Him who is the hope of true salvation.  There is no salvation of the world.  When no one in the world is able to save us, we must look to the Lord, the true savior.  And we must pray for the salvation of God by faith.  In doing so, God will not only save us from our sins, but He will also deliver us from the situation in which all our hopes of the world are cut off.  Victory!