Jon 2:3 | KingComments | STEP | He does not attribute the situation in which he finds himself to what the sailors have done with him ( ). Nor does he talk about an accident. No, in what happened to him, he acknowledges God’s actions as a result of his disobedience. God had cast him into the deep. The sailors were only the executors of God’s discipline. In the same sense Paul never calls himself a prisoner of Nero or of Rome, but of Jesus Christ. It is important to look beyond the circumstances and see that God is behind them. Jonah humbles himself under the mighty hand of God ( ). Salvation for a soul in need can only come if the hand of God is recognized in it. What Jonah experiences corresponds to what is written in Psalm 42 ( ). There a God-fearing Israelite is speaking who remembers how he used to go to God’s house with the multitude of God’s people. But that is over. He has been driven out of the land. He experiences the chastening of God which had to come over His unfaithful people as the breakers and billows that pass over him. So it was with Christ when He was nailed on the cross. Only, He was in distress and misery and among the “breakers and billows” of God’s judgment for the benefit of others because He made Himself one with the sins of others. Because of this He not only did feel Himself alone, but He really was alone in the three hours of darkness. Then, and only then, He was forsaken by God. Never will this apply to any man except those in hell. Neither did it apply to Jonah in the stomach of the fish.

‏ Jonah 2:3

The LORD Has Done It

He does not attribute the situation in which he finds himself to what the sailors have done with him (Jona 1:15). Nor does he talk about an accident. No, in what happened to him, he acknowledges God’s actions as a result of his disobedience. God had cast him into the deep. The sailors were only the executors of God’s discipline. In the same sense Paul never calls himself a prisoner of Nero or of Rome, but of Jesus Christ.

It is important to look beyond the circumstances and see that God is behind them. Jonah humbles himself under the mighty hand of God (1Pet 5:6-7). Salvation for a soul in need can only come if the hand of God is recognized in it.

What Jonah experiences corresponds to what is written in Psalm 42 (Psa 42:7). There a God-fearing Israelite is speaking who remembers how he used to go to God’s house with the multitude of God’s people. But that is over. He has been driven out of the land. He experiences the chastening of God which had to come over His unfaithful people as the breakers and billows that pass over him.

So it was with Christ when He was nailed on the cross. Only, He was in distress and misery and among the “breakers and billows” of God’s judgment for the benefit of others because He made Himself one with the sins of others. Because of this He not only did feel Himself alone, but He really was alone in the three hours of darkness. Then, and only then, He was forsaken by God. Never will this apply to any man except those in hell. Neither did it apply to Jonah in the stomach of the fish.