In The Same BoatSample

Salvation Situation

So we’re reading chapter 2 of Jonah today and I wanted to share something that hit me profoundly when writing this. Although I had always thought of the whale in the Jonah story as one that was sent as punishment for our wayward sailor… a dear friend of mine had always thought of this giant as something completely different…. a savior.

Let’s take a look…

Jonah has been thrown overboard, Though the physical storm on the seas immediately stops raging, Jonah’s storm is just now beginning. Though the sailor’s lives are now safe, Jonah’s is now very much in peril. His storm has just started- he’s in a pretty bad place. Out in the middle of nowhere, miles from land, sinking like a rock. 

Death closing in second by second.

Verse 5 (NIV), ”The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head." 

Yes, Jonah is on a fast track to the bottom of the ocean. Certain death- and he certainly knows it.

And then comes along a great beast of the sea who swallows him whole. And suddenly, though his situation may have become significantly more odoriferous and dark (I mean, let’s face it, having personally never been inside a whale before, I cannot speak to the living conditions, but I imagine them as less than ideal) Jonah is alive. He is no longer actively drowning, he somehow has oxygen, he's not dying. What an unusual turn of events!

Jonah is suddenly smack-dab in the middle of a salvation situation.

Verse 7, “When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple… . But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord.”

Jonah’s prayer in the belly of his newfound savior, which makes up the entirety of chapter 2, is nothing if not an obvious and immediate recognition that this fish has saved him. Literally.  

His Savior sent a savior. 

What took me several years to finally see and understand, Jonah did immediately. He went from dying to living because of the whale. It wasn’t a punishment at all, it was his salvation. As he says in verse 6, “… yet you brought up my life from the pit.” I think it’s no stretch to think here that not only was God bringing his life out of the pit spiritually, He was very physically bringing a behemoth from the deep to save Jonah’s life.

Today dear one- Look back on the storms of death and chaos that surround you. Maybe they're in the past or maybe you're being tossed to-and-fro by waves right now. 

Where is the whale? What does your salvation situation look like? 

Do you need to reexamine those dark places in your past with a new outlook? Perhaps God sent a big, smelly, fishy, slimy whale to save you. Have you been looking (as I did) at the creature as a punishment or a savior?

Salvation Situations rarely look or feel like we think they will. More often than not there’s rot, decay, blood, bones, sweat, and tears involved. But if we look more closely, we see the meager beginnings of change, growth, strength, and renewal. 

We see life! 

God often uses unusual saviors for us. I regret that we probably see them in their obvious form instead of the spiritual work they’ve been sent to do. Lord may we see like You do!

REFLECTION:

Today, take a look back and spend some time thanking God for the whales in your life. Thank Him for the big, slimy, wild, smelly, wet creatures that He sent to save you; swimming miles and miles of treacherous ocean, braving wind and sea while you are stowed safely inside, bringing you to a new land. 

“And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.”