Scripture: Jonah 1:17—2:10 (NKJV)

1:17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. 2 And he said:

“I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me. “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice.

3 “For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.

4 “Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’

5 “The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head.

6 “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.

7 “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; And my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple.

8 “Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy.

9 “But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.”

10 So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Devotion

“Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple’.”

Jonah is in the belly of a fish! What a frightful state to be in! And it was his own fault. Against Jonah’s defiance, the Lord places some hardship in his life. Jonah responds in repentance. “I have been cast out of your sight” means the Lord has visited “Law” upon his head; “Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple” means Jonah repents. And the Lord is merciful.

We too have hardships in our lives. Sometimes, those hardships are our own fault. The consequences of our own sins catch up with us. Other times, the fallenness of this world hits us: we get sick, or we are stolen from, or we get in a car wreck and it’s “the other guy’s fault.” The devil would use such things to harden you, to turn you from the Lord. The Lord would use these circumstances, not so much to punish, but as gifts, as drastic mercies, urging you to “look again toward Your holy” Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.

Dear ones in Christ, do not say “why me?” Hardship befalls everyone, whether it’s our fault or just a consequence of life in this fallen world. What matters is that we respond faithfully: turn again to Christ, and seek His mercies. Do so with the confidence that He will indeed be merciful to you.

We pray: Lord God, heavenly Father, in the day of trouble and in the hour of our death, let not our hearts be turned from You. Rather, grant us Your Holy Spirit, that we may cling steadfastly to Christ Jesus our Savior, and so receive from You manifold deliverances from evil. Amen.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.