Be Still And Know

Jonah 2:1-2 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from inside the fish. He said, “I cried out to the LORD in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and LORD, you heard me!” The thought of spending three days and nights inside a large fish is well beyond my imagination. And the book of Jonah doesn’t do anything to satisfy my curiosity! This is no newspaper account of exactly what it looks and feels like to be swallowed by an enormous fish. Rather, it is the story of a man meeting with God at a time of extreme need. Jonah’s words echo many of the Psalms and reveal his sense of despair and abandonment. Life seemed to have come to a shuddering conclusion but, amid his confusion, he cried to God and God heard him. Jonah had walked the path of disobedience and now, in the belly of the fish, he needed to set off in a new direction. God had not abandoned him, but was ready to hear his cries. Jonah’s situation reminds me of the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32)