New Life Church | Daily Devo - Sam Hansen
Jonah 2:1-2
Chapter 1 ends with Jonah being in the belly of the fish 3 days & nights, then Chapter 2 opens with Jonah praying in “distress,” “crying” from the “depth of the dead.” Did it take him 3 days to get to this point??? And in the very beginning of this chapter, Jonah has already declared that God has answered him. Some versions describe this place Jonah was in felt like hell, and it very well could! Warm water…warm healthy fish = Jonah’s already soaking in brine, and whatever air there is to breathe would be satured with inescapable humidity. He was wrapped in seaweed, some of it maybe strangling around his neck. If he’s in the belly, then he’d have stomach acid to deal with, as well as other things that may already be partially digested floating around with him—partially digested body parts from other creatures the animal had eaten. bleh.
It’s certainly not an adventure experience I would sign up for.
Sometimes we have to get to the bottom of ourselves, of our ocean, our hell, to get desperate enough that we really WANT to hear from God, we DESIRE to connect with Him.