Wenstrom Bible Ministries Marion, Iowa Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom wenstrom

1. Wenstrom Bible MinistriesMarion, IowaPastor-Teacher Bill Wenstromwww.wenstrom.org

2. Thursday October 14, 2010Jonah: Jonah 2:2-The Lord Answers Jonah’s Prayer For Deliverance From DeathLesson # 25

3. Please turn in your Bibles to Jonah 2:1.

4. This evening we will note Jonah 2:2 and in this verse Jonah reflects back on his deliverance from drowning and acknowledges that the Lord his God answered his prayer for deliverance from death.

5. Jonah 2:1, “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish,

6. 2 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.

7. 3 For You had cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me.

8. 4 So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’

9. 5 Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, weeds were wrapped around my head.

10. 6 I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, but You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.

11. 7 While I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple.

12. 8 Those who regard vain idols forsake their faithfulness, 9 but I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the Lord.’

13. 10 Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.” (NASU)

14. Let’s look at verse 2.Jonah 2:2, “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.’” (NASU)

15. This verse contains the first line in Jonah’s thanksgiving psalm and is a summary of the prophet’s answered prayer or in other words, it presents the reason for his thanksgiving.

16. It explains the previous clause in verse 1 identifying for the reader specifically the content of Jonah’s thanksgiving prayer to the Lord for delivering him from death.

17. These two statements, “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” parallel each other with both referring to the Lord responding to Jonah’s prayer for help.

18. “I called out of my distress to the Lord” is composed of the first person singular qal active perfect form of the verb qā∙rā(ʾ) (קָרָא) (kaw-raw), “I called out” and the preposition min (מִן) (meen), “of” and the feminine singular form of the noun ṣā∙rā(h) (צָרָה) (tsaw-raw), “distress”

19. and the preposition le (לְ) and the first person singular pronomial suffix ǎnî (אֲנִי), “my” and the preposition ʾěl (אַל) (al), “to” and the masculine singular form of the proper noun Yahweh (יהוה) (yeh-ho-vaw), “the Lord.”

20. The verb qā∙rā(ʾ) is used with Jonah as its subject and Yahweh as its object and again means “to call out” indicating that while drowning Jonah called out to the Lord to deliver him from death.

21. The proper noun Yahweh, “Lord” is the covenant-keeping personal name of God used in connection with man’s salvation emphasizing with the reader that Jonah prayed for the Lord to intervene in his life and save him from drowning since it speaks of the immanency of God.

22. The noun ṣā∙rā(h) refers to the distress in the form of emotional pain and distress that Jonah experienced while drowning in the Mediterranean Sea and is the object of the preposition min, which is a marker of reason indicating the reason why Jonah cried out to the Lord for help.

23. Jonah’s prayer for help while in the stomach of the great fish was an expression of his faith in the Word of God and in particular the Psalms.

24. David wrote in the tenth century B.C. whereas Jonah lived in the eighth century B.C.

25. Jonah’s prayer echoes the Word of God and in particular the Psalms of David.

26. Psalm 18:7, “In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried out to my God. From his heavenly temple he heard my voice; he listened to my cry for help.” (NET Bible)

27. Psalm 30:2, “O Lord my God, I cried out to you and you healed me.” (NET Bible)

28. Psalm 120, “A song of ascents. 1 In my distress I cried out to the Lord and he answered me.” (NET Bible)

29. Jonah cries for help in Jonah 2:2 echoes Exodus 15:5-10, Psalm 88, 107:25-32 and 130:1-2 since they possess similar language.

30. Jonah 2:2, “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.’” (NASU)

31. “And He answered me” presents the result of Jonah crying out to the Lord for help in delivering him from drowning to death.

32. The Lord answered him because the prayer for deliverance was offered up by the prophet in faith and it was the will of God to save Jonah.

33. Answered prayer requires faith and is thus an expression of confidence in God’s ability to meet one’s need (Matt. 8:10; Luke 7:9; Matt. 9:22; Mark 5:34; Luke 8:48; Matt. 9:29; 17:20; Luke 17:5; Mark 9:29; Matt. 21:22; Mark 11:24; 1 John 3:21-22; James 1:5-8; 5:15).

34. The Lord answered his prayer because it was according to His will.

35. 1 John 5:14-15, “This is the confidence, which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests, which we have asked from Him.”

36. “I cried for help from the depth of Sheol” is composed of the first person singular piel active perfect form of the verb šā∙wǎʿ (שָׁוַע) (shaw-vah), “I cried forhelp” and the preposition min (מִן) (meen), “from” and the masculine singular construct form of the noun bě∙ṭěn (בֶּטֶן) (beh-ten), “the depth” and feminine singular form of the geographic noun šeʾôl (שְׁאֹול) (sheh-ole), “of Sheol.”

37. The verb šā∙wǎʿ is used with Jonah as its subject and means “to cry for help,” i.e. “ask or request something, with a focus that the asking is intense or desperate, imploring for aid in a difficult or dangerous situation” (Dictionary of Biblical Languages of Semantic Domains: Hebrew (Old Testament)).

38. The noun bě∙ṭěn means “belly” or “stomach” and is personifying Sheol indicating that Jonah is describing his near death experience in the Mediterranean Sea as being eaten by death.

39. This imagery appears in other places in the Old Testament.

40. Psalm 49:14, “They will travel to Sheol like sheep, with death as their shepherd. The godly will rule over them when the day of vindication dawns; Sheol will consume their bodies and they will no longer live in impressive houses.” (NET Bible)

41. In the Old Testament, the geographic noun šeʾôl “Sheol” often refers to one of four compartments called in Scripture “Paradise,” which prior to the resurrection of Jesus Christ contained the departed souls of believers.

42. However, in Jonah 2:2, the noun šeʾôl, “Sheol” does not refer to any of the four compartments of Hades but rather it refers to the fact that Jonah was near death or in a life threatening situation.

43. This is indicated by the parallel expression מִצָּ֥רָה, “because of my distress” that appears in the previous verse, which refers to the experience of being close to dying.

44. Stuart writes, “The psalm, by employing the phrase ‘belly of Sheol,’ shows its intended use for serious, life-threatening situations.” (Word Biblical Commentary, volume 31: Hosea-Jonah; page 476)

45. “You heard my voice” is composed of the second person masculine singular qal active perfect form of the verb šā∙mǎʿ (שָׁמַע) (shaw-mah), “You heard” and the first person singular pronomial suffix ǎnî (אֲנִי), “my” and the masculine singular construct form of the noun qôl (קֹול) (kole), “voice.”

46. The verb šā∙mǎʿ means “to hear” and is used of the Father responding to Jonah’s prayer for deliverance from death by saving him from drowning.

47. The word parallels the verb ʿā∙nā(h), “He answers” indicating that Jonah is writing rhetorically.

48. The noun qôl means “voice” referring to Jonah prayer to the Lord for deliverance from death and speaks of God the Father graciously responding in a positive sense to the disobedient prophet’s cry for help in prayer to Him.

49. To summarize our findings, the two statements in this verse parallel each other and are thus rhetorical emphasizing the Lord delivering the prophet from certain death.

50. This solves the problem that some commentators have with this statement because the logical sequence is reversed in this verse where we have God answering Jonah’s plea and then hearing the prophet’s voice when we expect the reverse.