Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “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. 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. Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ 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. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!” And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. (Jonah 2)
Last week, we saw that God had used corporate worship in Jonah's life to draw him back to himself, even in the most dire circumstances. After Jonah has repented, he is able to see God's heart for the nations with new perspective. This too would have been formed in him through corporate worship. Every Sabbath, Jonah would have heard at least some reference to the “nations” in his worship service.
Last week, we saw that God had used corporate worship in Jonah's life to draw him back to himself, even in the most dire circumstances. After Jonah has repented, he is able to see God's heart for the nations with new perspective. This too would have been formed in him through corporate worship. Every Sabbath, Jonah would have heard at least some reference to the “nations” in his worship service.
Whether he was listening to Abraham’s original call to be a blessing to the nations (Gen. 12:1-3) or the reminder that Israel was to be a light to the nations (Deut. 2:25; 4:6) he would have heard God’s plan to save the nations. Even in the psalm Jonah is quoting, David says, “All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name” (86:9).
The other psalm he quotes, Psalm 116, is clearly set in the context of worship. The psalmist describes a worship service in the “presence of all his people” when he paid “vows,” lifted up the “cup of salvation,” and offered a “sacrifice of thanksgiving” (vv. 14-19). When we put all of this together, this is the picture we get. Jonah grew up as a faithful Jewish boy going to worship every Sabbath and making annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
In corporate worship he learned to sing hymns and read Scripture that readied him for this critical juncture of his life as a prophet. Though he waivered for a while and even tried to run to the far country, at the critical moment of his near death experience, he knew what to pray. The songs he learned as a child came back to his memory perhaps when nothing else would. And despite the fact that his memory was selective for the moment, only remembering the parts that brought comfort to him, he eventually remembered the surrounding contexts. He eventually remembered that God had a plan to show loving kindness to the Gentiles too.
Jonah eventually understood that the God who lifted up and carried away the iniquity, transgression and sin of the Ninevites had to do the same for the wayward prophet. And he wrote this little book to alert the Old Testament saint to look for the coming Christ who would “suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46-47).
I would dare say that the book of Jonah could never have been written had he not gone to church regularly. That regular discipline of going through a worship service that reminded one of the sovereign holiness of God, confession of sin, assurance of pardon, singing prayers and praises, confessing creeds and listening to expositions of God’s Word had worn deep grooves in Jonah’s mind and soul. Swirling around in the sea, his soul found its equilibrium by locking on to the memory of worship in the temple. No matter how far away he was and how confusing his circumstances, the temple was still there in Jerusalem and it represented a God whose grace was unmovable.
So when the hour of testing came, the patterns and prayers established in a place of worship emerged and he was saved from despair. And as exercised muscles continue to burn calories during rest, that word kept burning in him until he was finally set completely free from his selfish bigotry and back on his mission to proclaim the good news to the nations, starting with Nineveh.
When we engage in corporate worship, we are set free from the bondage of self-preoccupation and used by God to reach the nations with the gospel.