Jonah 2:6-7

[clark thompson]

Jonah 2:6-7 King James Version (KJV)
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

Jonah 2:6-7 International Children’s Bible (ICB)

6 I went down to where the mountains of the sea start to rise.
I thought I was locked in this prison forever.
But you saved me from death,
Lord my God.
7 “When my life had almost gone,
I remembered the Lord.
Lord, I prayed to you.
And you heard my prayers in your Holy Temple.

International Children’s Bible (ICB) The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a division of Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.


These are my thoughts, please share yours.

6 Jonah could have easily died in the sea and was on his way to death until God sent the fish to sallow him up. This verse mentions mountains in the ocean. Jonah is starting to be humbled. To fully serve the Lord the way we should we need to be humble.

7 Jonah was losing strength, truth is anytime we run from God we lose strength. Jonah didn’t realize his strength started to go as he got on the boat instead of when he fell into the ocean. Jonah only remembered God because he had no other choice at this point. We shouldn’t let it come to near death experiences to be right with the Lord. Just Jonah’s prayer was heard, God hears our prayers today.

 

[Crazylady]

But, we do often let it come to the point of desperation before inquiring of the Lord, don't we? Of course, we shouldn't wait, but shouldn't is a big word. We shouldn't do a lot of things, but we're helplessly bent toward self to the exclusion of God's desires for us. Jonah wanted things his way, just like we do. Look at the way we choose to live...houses filled with the latest assortment of heavily marketed styles and fads, closets full of stuff, attics full of more stuff. God is not interested in all that stuff. All that stuff steals our attention and focus away from Him. It comes down to us versus God, what we want versus what He wants. How often do we sincerely inquire of Him, listen and heed? Probably not often.

 

[Fish Catcher Jim]

How often do we sincerely inquire of Him, listen and heed? Probably not often.

Greetings and Welcome to cfs Crazylady

I agree and as one of my Pastors says, We don't need a Reason to Not do something but We Need A Leading To Do It.

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Again Welcome to cfs
Blessings
FCJ

 

[HeIsOnFirst]

I just posted a comment on Jonah recently. To me Jonah is the ultimate example to present when people question God allowing us free will. If we didn't have free will this book would be three verses.
1. God says to Jonah; go to Nineveh and call out against their evil.
2. Jonah travels to Nineveh and calls out against them as the Lord required.
3. The people of Nineveh repent of their evil ways and praise the Lord.

Ok, that is very simplistic but a large part of what happens in Jonah is a battle of wills. Jonah's free will vs God's will. Man's will always loses to God's will.

Now while I am stating here that God can most definitely impose his will on us; that does not in anyway change the fact that we are fully capable of rebelling against that will.

God, being the loving God he is, puts obstacles in Jonah's way until he realizes his mistake and accepts God's command. This is not God changing Jonah's will, this is Jonah accepting God's will as his own. This may not sound like a loving God to you but think about raising children. When they are very young we impose our will on them all the time on things like don't go in the deep end of the pool when you can't swim. If they are stubborn like Jonah, or my children, they will assert their will and try to jump in the deep water anyway; possibly just to prove they can. Eventually with enough obstacles, punishment, near drowning, etc (each to his or her own parenting style) the child will accept your will. Hopefully they eventually understand the danger and that we impose our will because we love them and don't want them hurt.

I went a little off the rails here maybe but as this is the Bible Study forum and I am not exactly certain why you are currently focused on those two verses I expanded in the way I do when I study a verse or two.

For some prespective, Jonah 2:6 & 7 are part of Jonah's prayer to God from the belly of the whale (some translations call it different things, I think of it as a whale). This would be after he has been saved from the depths but before he has been set free. He has been in the belly for 3 days and 3 nights, probably waiting to die still. It is only at this point that Jonah humbles himself and prays a prayer of contrition to the Lord. I can't take these 2 verses alone, they are part in parcel with verses 1-10.

As I read it, Jonah does the following in this prayer.
- Admits he was certainly dead.
- Admits the Lord is the only reason he is alive.
- Admits he thought he lost favor with God.
- Admits that he was in the depths of God's creation.
- Describes immensity and how hopeless the situation was for him.
- Admits that he prayed out to God at the moment he thought he was dying.
- Describes how God saved him when nothing else could.
- Admits that God is the one and only God.
- Gives thanks to God and promises to keep worshipping him.

Then and only then does God free him from the whale onto dry land to continue the mission God has set before him.

Now that I have basically covered Jonah chapters 1, 2 & 3... I would say that I agree with you but I think you have to look at more than just those two verses to really understand where Jonah was coming from.

HeIsOnFirst

 

[Cturtle]

But, we do often let it come to the point of desperation before inquiring of the Lord, don't we? Of course, we shouldn't wait, but shouldn't is a big word. We shouldn't do a lot of things, but we're helplessly bent toward self to the exclusion of God's desires for us. Jonah wanted things his way, just like we do. Look at the way we choose to live...houses filled with the latest assortment of heavily marketed styles and fads, closets full of stuff, attics full of more stuff. God is not interested in all that stuff. All that stuff steals our attention and focus away from Him. It comes down to us versus God, what we want versus what He wants. How often do we sincerely inquire of Him, listen and heed? Probably not often.

Welcome to cfs... glad to have you with us.
Blessings of grace and peace to ya

 

[Fish Catcher Jim]

Let's look at why Jonah ran.
It was all about himself. He didn't want to look like a fool because he knew that if he spoke what God said that God being merciful might not actually do it in the end.

That's another area of free will. We are free to get in the flesh and look at us instead of God.

People do this all the time and never see what God had planned on doing.
Blessings
FCJ

 

[Peter Luke]

About the thread.
Jonah had an ego (Easing God Out) like we all do. To allow God back in is to ease the ego out to be humble.
It is through daily prayer and meditation (seeking God's will for us) that we get a better chance of remaining humble.

 

[Crazylady]

Enjoyed your post immensely.

 

[Crazylady]

About the thread.
Jonah had an ego (Easing God Out) like we all do. To allow God back in is to ease the ego out to be humble.
It is through daily prayer and meditation (seeking God's will for us) that we get a better chance of remaining humble.

Wow, what a great acronym. The humbling can be so painful, but so vital.

 

[bobinfaith]

I just posted a comment on Jonah recently. To me Jonah is the ultimate example to present when people question God allowing us free will. If we didn't have free will this book would be three verses.
1. God says to Jonah; go to Nineveh and call out against their evil.
2. Jonah travels to Nineveh and calls out against them as the Lord required.
3. The people of Nineveh repent of their evil ways and praise the Lord.

Ok, that is very simplistic but a large part of what happens in Jonah is a battle of wills. Jonah's free will vs God's will. Man's will always loses to God's will.

Now while I am stating here that God can most definitely impose his will on us; that does not in anyway change the fact that we are fully capable of rebelling against that will.

God, being the loving God he is, puts obstacles in Jonah's way until he realizes his mistake and accepts God's command. This is not God changing Jonah's will, this is Jonah accepting God's will as his own. This may not sound like a loving God to you but think about raising children. When they are very young we impose our will on them all the time on things like don't go in the deep end of the pool when you can't swim. If they are stubborn like Jonah, or my children, they will assert their will and try to jump in the deep water anyway; possibly just to prove they can. Eventually with enough obstacles, punishment, near drowning, etc (each to his or her own parenting style) the child will accept your will. Hopefully they eventually understand the danger and that we impose our will because we love them and don't want them hurt.

I went a little off the rails here maybe but as this is the Bible Study forum and I am not exactly certain why you are currently focused on those two verses I expanded in the way I do when I study a verse or two.

For some prespective, Jonah 2:6 & 7 are part of Jonah's prayer to God from the belly of the whale (some translations call it different things, I think of it as a whale). This would be after he has been saved from the depths but before he has been set free. He has been in the belly for 3 days and 3 nights, probably waiting to die still. It is only at this point that Jonah humbles himself and prays a prayer of contrition to the Lord. I can't take these 2 verses alone, they are part in parcel with verses 1-10.

As I read it, Jonah does the following in this prayer.
- Admits he was certainly dead.
- Admits the Lord is the only reason he is alive.
- Admits he thought he lost favor with God.
- Admits that he was in the depths of God's creation.
- Describes immensity and how hopeless the situation was for him.
- Admits that he prayed out to God at the moment he thought he was dying.
- Describes how God saved him when nothing else could.
- Admits that God is the one and only God.
- Gives thanks to God and promises to keep worshipping him.

Then and only then does God free him from the whale onto dry land to continue the mission God has set before him.

Now that I have basically covered Jonah chapters 1, 2 & 3... I would say that I agree with you but I think you have to look at more than just those two verses to really understand where Jonah was coming from.

HeIsOnFirst

Hello HeIsOnFirst;

Thank you for sharing your post and knowledge in this study and blessing everyone in this topic.

Bible study is taught in many variable ways. The teacher receives God's instructions and leading of the Holy Spirit. An example of this is when a passage is taught, it is good to include the previous and forwarding scripture to help the disciples understand the full context which you have described correctly here, HeIsOnFirst.

On the other hand, Bible study is also taught when only a scripture or two may be the verb of the study and there could be many reasons, circumstances or the personality of that core Bible study group. This is because, though each church family is one body of Christ, each church family (congregation) is also a specific group residing in that tribe, town or city.

One town may be infested with drug use, another town may be plagued with marriage and family dysfunction, while another city may be weak in their obedience to God, and so on. So God gives the teacher the specific Word to help that specific Bible study group learn, train and grow, and it could be a full scope scripture or a couple of passages.

In the two passages of Jonah 2:6-7, I discern Clark was led by God, and by the receiving response of other's posts. I also want to encourage Clark to keep the discussion going after we share our thoughts so we can continue learning.

Learning why you were led to teach this passage and how brothers and sisters in Christ relate their faith walk to the scriptures is HUGE and beneficial to all of us.

God bless everyone here and thank you Clark Thompson, for your thread.