“When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.” ~ Jonah 2:7  

After his terrible ordeal at sea, followed by three days and nights in the belly of a whale, all self-inflicted trials, Jonah found himself at his wit’s end. (It’s amazing how long we are willing to suffer in our stubbornness before we finally wise up, isn’t it?) At that awful moment of realization, his beleaguered mind remembered the LORD. It is not that he did not know God was there or what God had spoken. He certainly did. That was why he ran in the first place. It is just that he chose to ignore God and His Word. 

What Jonah had forgotten, was that God is always good, that God’s way is perfect, and that God’s Word is always true! He had substituted his own ideas for God’s and his own plans for God’s plans! And as it always does, that line of thinking led to certain disaster. 

But when he finally remembered the LORD, he was humbled in his mind and spirit, and began to seek after the LORD he’d been so intent on ignoring. To his amazement he found out that God’s mercy really does endure forever and even there, in the belly of the whale, Jonah found the sure mercies of God and hope was reborn in his anxious heart! 

While the story of Jonah reminds us all of God’s mercy to foolish people, there is an even bigger lesson to learn. Remember the LORD before you choose your path and you can avoid the belly of the whale altogether! 

Pastor Bish