"He said: 'In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.'"

Jonah 2:2

Jonah’s running from God is depicted as a gradual going ‘down’: down to Joppa, down into a Tarshish-bound ship, then down to the lowest part of the ship. Now, going lower still, he ‘sank down’ to the ocean bed (v. 6). When you hit rock bottom, the only way is up! Sensing that ‘life was ebbing away,’ Jonah ‘remembered’ God and sent up a distress signal (v. 7). Jonah’s prayer (vv. 2–9) contains acknowledgement of his hopeless plight and gratitude for God’s salvation. Does it demonstrate real repentance?

Medieval theologians distinguished between attrition (sorrow over sin due to fear of God’s punishment) and contrition (sorrow over sin because it has grieved a loving God). Although Jonah declares that ‘Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit God’s love for them’ ,he fails to confess that he himself had turned away from God’s command. He sees ‘specks’ in other eyes while ignoring the ‘plank’ in his own! Despite vows to offer ‘grateful praise’ and ‘sacrifice’ (v. 9), there is no confession of sin, no expression of contrition, no commitment to change. Jonah affirms that ‘salvation comes from the Lord’ (v. 9), but he still grudges the Ninevites God’s salvation.

CLOSING PRAYER

Heavenly Father, help me to turn to You with my whole heart, confess my sins with a contrite heart, and commit to changing my life and doing Your will.

(Edited from Encounter with God)