If you would, turn to Jonah chapter two. Jonah chapter two. This evening, Jonah is in a place where he very much wants to find higher ground as he is inside the belly of the whale under the water. Not a comfortable place to be, but a necessary step in the life and the ministry of Jonah. Sometimes, we put ourselves in a place where God has to go to certain measures to get our attention, to bring us back to the place where he needs us to be so that he can use us, so that he can bless us.

And no matter how difficult the trial, we need to be grateful that we have a God who doesn't give up on us. We have a God who doesn't quit on us and a God who loves us and cares enough to do what is needed to help us back on the right path. We see that here in the life of Jonah. He was definitely on the wrong path and God had to do some rather drastic things to get him back on the right path. But in the end, for Jonah, for Nineveh, and for Israel, which I believe this book was recorded in the first place as a message to the whole nation of Israel who was acting very much like their prophet Jonah.

So Jonah chapter two, actually, we're going to start in verse 17 of chapter one. So you know let's see here. Where'd my here we go. So here's our map. Right here on this map where I'm pointing with the light, right about somewhere in here is the city of Gath-hepher, in Israel.

That's where Jonah was from in Galilee. Over on this side, somewhere on the northern part of the Tigris River up here is where the city of Nineveh was. It is not across water. It is across what? Land.

Quite a bit of land. It wasn't a brief journey. This was a journey that would have taken weeks on foot or on camel or however else you might be traveling to get from one place to the other. It's just maybe a little bit shorter than the trip that Abraham took from the Ur Of Chaldees, which is down here more in the southern part to get to Israel. So almost the same distance.

So this is a this is quite the journey that God had asked Jonah to take to go to this heathen city to preach this message to a people that that were by all accounts the enemy of Israel and had no concept of the true God at all. So we know what happened. Jonas, instead of going this direction, Jonah went this direction across the Mediterranean because he didn't want to do what God asked him to do. And before we get all upset at Jonah, this actually happens all too often in the life of Christians. We feel God tugging for us to do something in our life and in our heart and we say, no.

No. I don't wanna do that. I wanna do this. I've been there, done that. For three years I ran from God and from the ministry.

I can't do it, don't wanna do it. And there were some of the three most miserable years of my life. However, I learned a lot in those three miserable years of my life. Thankfully, they weren't in the belly of a whale where Jonah is this evening. So verse 17, Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

So let's start there. What is the fish? What does this fish or this whale represent? Well, it represents among other things the grace of God. God brought this terrible storm in the sea of the in the Mediterranean to stop Jonah from the direction he was headed in.

And he stopped him alright. And he got thrown overboard. Now, what could God have done? God was had every right to let Jonah just what? Sink to the bottom, drown.

But he didn't do that. He didn't do that. We see the grace of God here in the life of Jonah. He didn't let Jonah die. He could have started over with somebody else.

Did God have to have Jonah? Couldn't God have used any other number of people? Yeah. He could have, but he didn't. He wanted to use Jonah.

So rather than just throwing in the towel and giving up on Jonah and starting over again with someone else, he prepared a fish, a whale to swallow Jonah and to take him back to land. So here we go, swallows Jonah somewhere out here, turns around, the fish does what the boat didn't want to, turns around transports Jonah back to the land. But I don't think it was a pleasant trip. Matter of fact, as we read chapter two, we find it was an extremely unpleasant trip, which I could imagine it was. Many people have disputed that somebody could survive three days in the belly of a whale.

And no doubt they're right. Under normal conditions, nobody would survive three days in the belly of a whale. It might survive three hours, but not three days. That's what we call a what? A miracle.

Now, if you believe God created the world in six days, if you believe that God was the behind the storm that came upon this ship and that God caused the storm to cease the moment that Jonah hit the water, it really shouldn't be all that hard to believe that God could somehow sustain Jonah's life three days in the belly of a whale. And he did. And God stuck with Jonah. He preserved Jonah and he brought Jonah back. Reminded me of a story in in Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 18. So if you hold your place in Jonah and go to the book of Jeremiah. You'll have to go back towards the front a little bit. Jeremiah chapter 18. Jeremiah 18.

We're gonna start in verse one. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, arise, go down to the potter's house and there I will cause thee to hear my words. So God told Jeremiah, he said, I want you to go to the potter. Now, potters were probably a potter in every town in Judah in that day because you needed pots to hold things. So he said, I want you to go to the potter where the potter works.

So he went down to the potter's house and behold, he wrought a work on the wheel. So he watched the potter making this pot or vase, whatever it is on the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. So as he was making it, it it messed up. It just didn't go right and it just flopped.

Okay? So what do you do? Do you take the clay that flopped and didn't work and just pitch it and get a new batch of clay and start and start over? No. That's not what the potter did.

The clay was precious to the potter. He didn't just wanna throw it out and get other clay. He had already spent time on it. And so he made it again, it says in verse four. Another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it.

So the potter didn't throw out the clay. The potter just made something else out of the clay that was beautiful and useful, profitable. He didn't give up on it. He didn't cast it aside. He just started over.

Now it may not have been exactly what he was trying to prepare the first time. It says he made another vessel. So maybe it was a little bit different, but God didn't give up. You know, some people think, well, missed God's will. I messed up.

I went the wrong way, so I might as well give up. No. That that's not the way God's will works. He's a gracious God. He's a merciful God.

He doesn't have a a plan and, oh, you took a wrong step. Well, now you've blown it and you're done for. No. God takes what he has and he does what? He makes something beautiful with it even with the problems and failures that we throw in there.

The verse five, then the word of the Lord came to me, came to Jeremiah saying, oh, house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Sayeth the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, oh, house of Israel. And what at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, concerning a kingdom, pluck it up and pull it down and destroy it? If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.

Jeremiah had already pronounced God's judgment on Judah. Judah had already gone into such idolatry and so far from God, God had sent them prophet after prophet and they had ignored and God Jeremiah had already pronounced God's judgment. But in judgment, God is still a God of mercy. And God is saying to Israel, yes, God's judgment is coming, but it doesn't have to be the what? It doesn't have to be the end.

If you'll repent, yes, the clay's been marred in the hand of the potter, but yet if you'll repent, God can still do what? God can still make something beautiful and good and useful out of you. And God does that in the lives of his children. Sometimes we mess up a little. Sometimes we mess up a lot.

But God being the God of grace, rather than just tossing us aside and saying, well, I'll just start over. He keeps working with us as he did here with Jonah, as he did with all of humanity in the days of Noah. He didn't give up on humanity altogether. No. He started what?

He he started over, but he started with some of the original clay being Noah and his what? And his family. He did this with Israel again and again and again. And he sent Jesus Christ to the cross to die for the sins of the world because he's willing to do that also with who? With us.

Isn't the determination of God a wonderful thing? And the patience of God and the grace of God towards us as we see here illustrated in the life of Jonah. Now verse back to Jonah and verse one of chapter two. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly. And he said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me out of the out of the belly of hell, cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

For thou had cast me into the deep in the midst of the seas and the floods compassed about me and all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. So what was Jonah's response? Jonah did what? He prayed. So we see the grace of God.

Why? I got loud all of a sudden. We see the grace of God exhibited in Jonah's life by the whale, but we also see the chastening hand of God exhibited in the life of Jonah by the whale also. And that it brought humility to Jonah. It humbled him.

One of the greatest enemies of the Christian is pride. One of the greatest enemies of mankind in general is pride. Jonah was a proud Hebrew. He did not think that God should show mercy to his what? To his enemies.

And his pride got in his way. And God needed to humble him. And so we see the humbling of Jonah along with the misery of Jonah. Paul had also learned in his ministry that a humble and grateful servant who puts their confidence in a benevolent and gracious savior is the best kind of servant. Let me read that again.

Paul had learned that a humble and grateful servant who puts their confidence in the benevolent and gracious savior is the best kind of servant. Second Corinthians twelve ten. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessities, in persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am, what? Weak, then am I strong.

It was when Paul was forced to recognize his weakness, whether it be physical, whether it be emotional, even spiritual, when Paul was forced to face his weakness, it caused him to turn to who? It caused him to turn to Christ. It caused him to put his confidence not in himself, but to place his confidence in his savior. Paul himself had to be knocked down both figuratively figuratively and literally on several occasions to make of him the servant that understood where his ministry and his strength came from. And they didn't come from the flesh.

As he points out in Ephesians, don't trust in the flesh. Trust in who? The Lord. Recognize your weakness. Recognize his strength.

Our strength is in following him. Jonah is now suffering because of his what? His weakness. He listened to the flesh. He listened to his heart and he ran from who?

God. He didn't trust God. Proverbs three, five and six, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thine own what? Understanding. What did Jonah do?

He listened to his own understanding. And where did it get him? In the belly of a whale. Not a good place to be. And we may have never been in the belly of a whale.

I very much doubt it. But figuratively, we've been in some places in our life looking back that we didn't have to be, but our pride got in the way And God had to show us that we're weak, but he is what? Strong. But he is strong. And some lessons do have to be learned the Hard way.

Hard way. And God is not unwilling to do that if he needs to. In Jonah's misery, what did he do? He cried out to God. What had he been doing?

Running from God. Now, he's put in a place where he has to cry out to God. It was a helpless and miserable Jonah that needed the Lord and was willing to let go of his pride and foolishness to look in faith to God. And sometimes that's us too. And while the chastening the chastening hand of God was painful, it was far better than the other option.

What was the other option? Sinking to the bottom of the sea. This was better. Really didn't feel much better at the time. Jonah may have wished he were dead, but in the end, he was glad he wasn't when those fish spat him back up on shore.

Sometimes when we're in the throes of a trial or suffering, it seems like it's never gonna end. But trust in the Lord. Look for something you can learn. Because as a Christian, if you're going through a struggle, there is something you can learn because God is allowing that for a reason. In this case, the reason's pretty clear.

Jonah was running from God. Instead, he needed to run to God. And that's when bad things come into our life, you have a choice. You can either run from God or run to God. Now, which one's better?

Running to God. And as a Christian, if you run from God, you're likely to find yourself in a similar situation to Jonah. Because God, is loving and gracious and merciful, isn't gonna let you run off the cliff. He's gonna stop you. But the stopping may be uncomfortable as indeed Jonah was.

It humbled him. And God says, if we will humble ourselves, he will do what? He will exalt us. If we exalt us ourselves, then he will have to do what? Humble us.

And that's what he did here. But thankfully, we do see a humble Jonah who cries out to God. What does he cry out to God? He cries out to God in repentance. He cries out to God for mercy.

Look if you would in verse four. Then I said, I'm cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. What is he doing? He said, I'm gonna look again in faith to you, Lord, not to me. I'm gonna quit running.

Lord, I'm gonna turn back and look to you in faith. Verse five. Then the waters compassed me about even to the soul. The depth closed me round about. The weeds were wrapped about my head.

I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with her bars was about me forever. Yet, hast thou brought up my life from corruption, o Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came in came unto thee in thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving.

I will pay that I have vowed salvation, deliverance is of who? Is of the Lord. Who was delivering Jonah? God was. Who put Jonah in this spot?

Jonah did. Who's delivering him? God is. And he prayed and he looked to the Lord. He had a change of heart.

Repentance. A humble prophet prayed a prayer of repentance, confessing his sin and pleading for God's mercy and trusting in it. In Revelation chapter two, God has a message for one of the churches there, the church at Ephesus, if I remember correctly. They had left their first what? Love.

And what was God's request? Repent. Repent. What does that mean? Have a change of heart.

Recognize you've been going the wrong direction that you're failing in this area, and confess, and repent, and turn back to the Lord. Jonah did that from the belly of the whale. God gave him, praise God, that opportunity. And he confessed that he was wrong. And he trusted in the mercy of his God.

That's all any of us can do. Confess our faults, trust in the mercy of God. Because it is his grace and mercy that's going to deliver us one day to a home in heaven. It is not our good works. It is not our our effort.

It's not that our we are so much better than everybody else. We have a better savior than everybody else. And it is by his grace and mercy that he will deliver us to our eternal home. And it's by his grace and mercy that he doesn't give up on us. And he brings even trials into our life to humble us, to open our eyes, and to get us back on the right path.

Also, there would be no deliverance for Israel if they did not what? If they did not repent. This book of Jonah was first written and probably read in Israel to persuade the Israelites that they too needed to repent. That they too were running from who? Running from God just like their prophet Jonah.

But God was a merciful God who would spare them as he spared the people of Nineveh as we'll see in the next chapter. This sadly remained a problem for Israel even up into Jesus' day. They were trusted in their own selves, in their own self righteousness, and not in God. In Luke chapter 18, we have the story of the Pharisee and the publican. Jesus tells this parable to drive home a point there.

In verse nine, and he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. Now by all accounts, which one was the better person? Pharisee. Pharisee was religious.

The Pharisee prayed. The Pharisee probably fasted once or twice a week. The Pharisee kept himself clean. He followed the dictates of the law plus several other things they sadly had added to it. He endeavored to live a good life and to follow the law.

The publican, well, was a traitor to his own people. He turned against Israel to gather taxes for the Romans. He, if he was like most publicans, took advantage of the situation and basically fleeced his own people to line his own pockets. He wasn't allowed in the temple to worship the Lord because of his choice of occupation. He was not the righteous man in the eyes of the Jews.

It was the Pharisee. The Pharisee, verse 11, stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other man, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this, what? Publican. I fast twice in a week. I give tithes of all that I possess.

He was patting himself on the back. I I think it's interesting the way it's put, at least the way it's translated here in the King James. He prayed thus with who? Himself. And he wasn't really talking to God.

He was just patting himself on the back. Verse 13, the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, God, merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, that is the publican, rather than the other. For everyone that exalted himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Jonah finally did what?

He humbled himself before the Lord. He confessed that he was weak. He confessed that he needed the Lord. And he confessed his faith in the abundant mercy of God. He didn't say, God, give me what I deserve.

He said, Lord, I trust in your what? In your mercy. And that's where we are. We must too trust in the mercy of God. When we go astray, we need to do what?

Repent. And you know, we have a God who hears. We have a God of compassion, and we have a God of mercy. And if we will repent, he will bring us back up out of the belly of the whale like he did Jonah. That brings us to verse 10.

And the Lord spake under the fish and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time saying, arise, go on to Nineveh that great city and preach into unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So we see the grace of God in sending the whale. We see the hopelessness of Jonah that led to humility. We see his prayer of repentance that led to God's what?

Deliverance. Because indeed he is a God of mercy. Praise God, that's who he is. Where would we be without it? God accepted Jonah's plea for mercy.

God saw Jonah's repentant heart and he spit him back up on dry land. And he said to Jonah, let's try this what? Let's try this again. You have a second chance. Psalm fifty one seventeen says, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

This is David's prayer of confession before the Lord after his sin with Bathsheba. He says, the sacrifices of God are broken spirit, a broken and a contrite repentant heart, oh God, thou will not despise. David was sure that if his plea for God's mercy was sincere, that God would what? That God would hear him. That God would forgive him.

And you know what God God did? He heard him and he forgave him. Sometimes God is more merciful and compassionate than we would be. And praise God he is. In Jonah's case, God heard his plea and God said, okay, let's try this again.

When God gives you a second chance, take it. Learn from it. Don't forget what could have happened. Don't forget, Jonah, what could have been. You could have drowned in the what?

In the sea. But instead, a God of grace, a God of patience, a God of determination, he is all of those things. Said, no Jonah, I'm not done with you yet. We're going back. Took him back.

Praise God, he'll do the same for us if we will humble ourselves in a repentant heart. Let God know, I'm weak but you're strong. Please forgive me and help me because I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. So many times we cry to God from the belly of the whale, trials and sufferings, and then we quickly forget the lessons we were taught. Don't let that be the case.

Hebrews twelve eleven says this. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. What does exercise by entail? Those who learned from the chastening.

In the end, if we will learn, we will be better. We will be in a better place of blessing. We will be better, more prepared vessels in the master's use. It isn't the end. God's mercies are new what?

God's mercies are new every morning. Every morning you wake up, his mercies are new. You have a new day. You have a new opportunity to serve the Lord. Let's pray.

Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for Jonah. Thank you Lord for recording this story for us, for the reminder that you are a God of grace and mercy. You are a God who will chasten us. You're not going to just let us go. Lord, I pray that we would learn not to run.

But Lord, when we do run, forgive us and be a God of mercy as you were for Jonah. Help us through the chastening. Help us to learn that we might put our confidence and our trust in you next time so that we don't make the same mistake again. Thank you for being a God of mercy and the God of the second chance. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen.