Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah,
and Jonah was in the belly of the fish
three days and three nights.
Jonah 1:17 New International Version (NIV)
The captain went to him and said,
“How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god!
Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
Jonah 1:6 (NIV)
Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.
At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord
and made vows to him.
Jonah 1:15-16 (NIV)
Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah,
and Jonah was in the belly of the fish
three days and three nights.
Jonah 1:17 (NIV)
“You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.
I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’
The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit.”
Jonah 2:3-6 (NIV)
“The Dark Night of the Soul,” by John of the Cross (16th century saint)
The S-O-N makes all the difference!
“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.
Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.
But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”
Jonah 2:7-9 (NIV)
The deep fear lying behind every loss is that we have been abandoned
by the God who should have saved us. The transforming moment in Christian conversion comes when we realize that even God has left us.
We then discover it was not God, but our image of God, that abandoned us.
This frees us to discover more of the mystery of God than we knew.
Only then is change possible. – Craig Barnes, When God Interrupts, p.123.