When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord:
And my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple (Jon 2.7).
“Sometimes it gets so bad, I feel like I’m dying.” Can you relate to that statement? Jonah could, and he would not have been speaking figuratively. On account of his sins, he was literally buried fathoms deep, feeling desperate, and praying for deliverance.
The story of Jonah is so well-known, especially in the church, it hardly seems to need retelling. Jonah was not mythical but an historic figure, a prophet of the Lord, the son of Amittai, born in Gath-hepher of Galilee (2 Kgs 14.25). The Lord commanded him to go preach to Nineveh, the wicked capital of the evil Assyrian Empire, on the verge of destruction by God for their many and grievous sins. Jonah ran the other way, boarded a ship, was thrown overboard as one responsible for the storm, was swallowed by “a great fish” (Jon 1.17), and went down deep into the ocean.
His miserable experience and the grace of God brought Jonah back to his right mind, spiritually speaking, as a man of faith and obedience to the Lord. Commanded again, Jonah went to Nineveh as God’s messenger and preached judgment.
In our text above, Jonah testifies of his prayer in the time of his deepest distress, and it is most instructive for us.
A Suitable Time for Prayer
Jonah tells us when he prayed by describing his personal experience at the time: “When my soul fainted within me.” This translation brings out the psychological angst he suffered. Matthew Poole elaborates upon Jonah’s thoughts then: “My heart was perplexed with variety of fears, sorrows, temptations, and difficulties; whenever I did forecast, and devise what way I might likely escape out of this forlorn condition, I was dispirited, my heart sunk within me” (in loc.).
Because the Hebrew word translated “soul” can also refer to one’s physical life, some render, “When my life was ebbing away” (NIV). It is certainly plausible that Jonah also thought he was about to die.
Either way, Jonah illustrates that distress and the death bed are suitable times for prayer. I’ve heard old-time preachers warn about “fox-hole religion” and “spare-tire praying,” ridiculing procrastination with respect to prayer and seeking the Lord. Some, in their distress, have reasoned that it would be hypocritical to pray after so many years of hard-heartedness. But, as the saying goes, “Better late than never.” Even then, sincerity is golden. God brings proud and spiritually-stubborn people to the end of themselves by desperate measures because He loves them. Remember the prodigal son. No matter what your past has been, do not restrain prayer! Jonah had sinned and was suffering for it. Finally, he prayed and the Lord heard him. So should we and so will He.
A Striking Description of Prayer
Prayer can be described many ways, but Jonah’s characterization is worth considering well. “I remembered the Lord.” Unquestionably this mental action is linked with prayer as the next line testifies, but the poetic form of Hebrew parallelism suggests it is more, even a description of prayer itself. “My prayer (i.e., my remembrance of the Lord) came in unto thee.”
Scripture says of unbelievers, “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance [face], will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts” (Psa 10.4). Commenting, Stephen Charnock wrote, “How little is God in any of our thoughts according to his excellency! No; our shops, our rents, our backs and bellies, usurp God’s room [i.e. replace God]” (Works V.302). But despair and death have a marvelous tendency to concentrate one’s thoughts on God and to drive us to prayer. Still, we are only remembering the Lord who was there all the time! True prayer is the exercise of faith, deliberately remembering the Lord as Savior by calling upon Him. “When the burden of affliction presses us sore, the stoutest hearts are broken and lose all courage; but when we come to ponder seriously what God is, or what he will be to his people, or has at any time been to ourselves, it cheers and revives the heart” (Thomas Manton). “O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee” (Psa 42.6).
A Successful Entrance for Prayer
Jonah uses figurative language in saying, “My prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.” The image is of the omnipresent Lord sitting as King upon His holy throne, in His holy house, and He is there, among other reasons, to receive and consider petitions from His needy subjects. And Jonah’s prayer is a messenger who rushes from his heart and lips into the divine throne room. Will the Lord extend His scepter, grant admission, and fulfill the request? (cf. Esth 4.11). What if the messenger was sent by one like Jonah who has been rebellious and deserves punishment instead? Jonah is testifying that God answered in grace! (cf. Jon 2.10).
A Christian’s prayers in the will of God, offered by faith, are promised a welcome for the sake of Christ (Rom 5.1, 2). Jesus said, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (Jn 14.13). “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Matt 21.22). “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him” (1 Jn 5.14, 15). Even when our sins have brought us into great distress, we can remember the Lord, and He will remember us! Ω