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Jonah (5)

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Jonah (5)

8 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

“Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9b).

Rev. C. Vogelaar, Covell Avenue, Grand Rapids, MI

Jonah had cried unto the God of heaven as an unworthy, undeserving supplicant. There were no reasons in Jonah that the Lord would show mercy unto him. The belly of the fish had become his prayer room. His petition was humble and submissive. It was also a prayer of faith because he said, “Yet I will look again toward Thy holy temple.“ It is only because of the perfect sacrifice of Christ that there is hope for wretched rebels. In Him a holy and righteous God can look upon those who have sinned everything away. Jonah’s sure hope and confidence in the belly of the fish was the only High Priest who makes intercession for undeserving ones.

Salvation in spite of impossibilities

Jonah was afflicted. He said, “I cried by reason of mine affliction.“ He could say, “All Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me.“ Humanly speaking, there was no hope for him that he would ever be delivered from his living grave. All doors of hope seemed to be closed, and it was the Lord’s hand in this Judgment that had come upon him. The poet said in Psalm 88:10, “Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise Thee?” No, that seemed to be impossible for him.

It was as in Psalm 39:9: “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because Thou didst it.” Jonah’s prayer was sent up from a prison from which no escape seemed to be possible. However, when the angel appeared to Mary in Nazareth and told her that the Messiah would be born of her and that also her cousin Elisabeth had conceived in her old age, he said, “For with God all things are possible.”

The Lord brings His Church in these impossibilities where all hope from human side is cut off so that they will learn to know that He is a wonder-working God. They learn that His work alone will do this and that it is His salvation for which He alone will have the honour. Christ, of whom Jonah was a type when he was in the belly of the fish, fell on His face in Gethsemane and prayed. He said, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” He submitted to the will of His Father who was the Judge, and He went the way of bitter suffering in perfect obedience, a way which He had to go in order to atone for the guilt of rebels like Jonah.

We read of Israel in Egypt that they cried unto the Lord; they sighed by reason of their bondage, and their cry came up unto God. Then there was the wonder of His mercy and of His covenant faithfulness: “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.”

Of Hezekiah we read that, after having received the message of his death, he turned his face toward the wall and cried, “O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me.” Such prayers will be graciously answered. There is salvation, despite all human impossibilities and despite our unworthiness. This would also be experienced by God’s servant in the belly of the fish. God is glorified in His own work, and sinners will adore Him.

Salvation seen by faith

No, Jonah did not deserve this. However, salvation is free; it is a gift of God’s love and mercy. Although Jonah was cast into the deep, in the midst of the sea, the Lord gave unto him an eye of faith, a wonderful hope. He said in verse 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.“ What a wonderful testimony this was. Deliverance was impossible, yet hast Thou brought me; Thou hast done it. “Yet”; that is again that word of faith. Jonah might cling to the covenant faithfulness of the Lord, and by faith he might say, “My God.”

His prayer came unto Him, “into Thine holy temple.“ In that temple God had placed His name. There was the ceremonial preaching; there was His presence as a God of love and propitiating favour. This was not a strange and unknown truth to Jonah. He knew the Lord, from the revelation of Him in the temple, as a God of grace. “And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for Him” (Isaiah 30:18).

With the eye of faith, Jonah could behold Him as a God who is, in Christ, a God of perfect salvation. No, that is no salvation at the expense of God’s justice. It is salvation by complete satisfaction of His justice so that the Lord may receive sinners into His communion again and His attributes are glorified. Micah said, “I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.” It is the language of faith in exercise. It is the eye of faith that may behold the Saviour, Jesus Christ, paying the price to redeem them. That will give deep humiliation before such a merciful and gracious God and sincere gratitude to honour and praise Him for His undeserved gifts.

Salvation received

If something of this salvation may be experienced and the wonder of God’s love to unworthy ones may be tasted, then there will also be a testimony of it. Then we can no longer be silent about this wonder. We will say with Jonah, “Salvation is of the Lord” Then we will exalt free and sovereign grace and say, “It was from Him alone that salvation was given.”

a. Salvation is of the Lord—in the council of peace, in His good pleasure, in His wonderful plan of salvation.

b. Salvation is of the Lord—in the obtaining or the acquiring of salvation. The prophet speaks of Him in Isaiah 63:3, “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with Me.”

c. Salvation is of the Lord—in its application. “Thou hast brought up my life from corruption.“ It is God’s work to quicken the sinner and lead him in the way of salvation.

d. Salvation is of the Lord—in the perseverance of the saints. They are kept by the power of God unto salvation.

e. Salvation is of the Lord—in its perfection, for He will finish perfectly what He for them has undertaken, as the poet said.

Nobody will pluck them out of the hand of the Mediator. He gives unto them eternal life, and they will never perish. They may be under the attack of mighty enemies; their circumstances may be very difficult and dangerous; they may be very weak and foolish creatures, but God will perform His work, and they will inherit the kingdom.

Jonah experienced this salvation. The Lord brought him safely to the shore. What a wonder that must have been for him—a wonder of God’s faithfulness to an unfaithful sinner. Of that wonder all God’s children will learn something, and by moments here already they may sing of it. “Salvation belongeth unto the Lord” (Psalm 3:8). There is nothing that man can contribute to it. “He that is our God is the God of salvation” (Psalm 68:20). It would have been true in the heart of Jonah, there safely on the shore, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?”

In all his afflictions and persecutions David could say in Psalm 27:1, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” He could say, “Thou art my Hiding Place,” and in that Refuge is safety for weary pilgrims; there they may rest under His protection. Outside of that Hiding Place there will be no refuge, and the storm of God’s wrath will come upon them who never learned to flee unto Him. It is still the acceptable time and the day of salvation. Young and old, hasten for your life’s sake. He still calls earnestly, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.”

Blessed are those to whom this Christ has become necessary, precious, and suitable. Yes, blessed are they who may say, by faith, “He is the God of my salvation.” They will all wholeheartedly agree that it was His salvation alone, His work. For that gracious work He alone will be praised.

(to be continued)

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