A Cry From The Deep

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"From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God" Jonah 2:1

There is a book by Ramsey Flynn called “Cry from the Deep” about the gripping account of the disastrous Russian submarine explosion that killed the entire crew on August 12, 2000, that devastated the Russian people. 118 sailors died. Russia under Putin was not at all equipped with any recovery strategy. They did not engage or ask for other advanced country’s help. They watched their young sailors drown at their own watch. I remember the news reports – there were immediate offers of assistance from the USA, Britain, and Norway, some of whom had submarines and vessels in the area as part of a naval exercise. The Kursk was situated close to the coast, in about 110 meters of water – shallow enough for human divers to access her, and almost certainly shallow enough for one of the various available submarine rescue techniques to be used.

The Russian government, however, seemed determined not to appear weak or lose face before the Western nations – an after-effect of the Cold War, stemming from an acute awareness that, to put it kindly, their naval dockyards and fleet of submarines and ships was a pile of steaming garbage. (One of the Russian crew on a visit to a NATO rescue vessel, when faced with the capabilities of the British and Norwegians, observed that “we are twenty years behind.”) The Russians therefore refused assistance until it was too late. There appeared to be no compassion and regard for human life, particularly the lives of the unfortunate where politics took over and humanity failed. https://www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/2012/01/31/bookshelf-cry-from-the-deep/

Jonah is a small book in the Bible, with just 4 chapters, You can read the whole book in less than 10 minutes. Many people do not believe this story, because they believe a man cannot survive in the belly of a large fish for three days.

A teacher was telling her students not to believe the story of Jonah literally because nobody can survive in the belly of a fish for three days. A boy raised his hands and said, my Sunday school teacher said it is a real story and when we go to heaven we can ask Jonah how it happened. The teacher asked, "What if Jonah went to hell?" The little boy replied, "Then you ask him"

Not a nice story for a pastor to share, but it gives us some perception about the story of Jonah on how people perceive the stories in the Bible. I believe anything is possible for God, because He is almighty. We Christians believe that God can heal us from the most deadly diseases, and God can even raise the dead. So this story is believable for people of faith. Also, I have another reason to believe because Jesus quoted the story of Jonah, in his ministry. In Matthew 12: 38 "Then some of the scribes and Pharisees told Jesus, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” 39 But he replied to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves a sign. Yet no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah

It was a sign of the death of Jesus to come. Matthew 12:40 “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

In the first chapter, we discussed a hiding prophet and a seeking God. The Hide and Seek game of human beings started at the very beginning in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and went into hiding. God came seeking for them and they were found full of shame and guilt and shamefully naked. They tried to cover themselves with fig leaves, which dried off in the heat of the sun. Our efforts in covering our shame and guilt are like a leaf that dries off in a day. But God clothed them with animal skin which indicates that there was a sacrifice of an animal that happened in the Garden.

God sent his son to be the ultimate sacrifice for humanity so that whoever believes and accepts the salvation Jesus Christ offers through His death and resurrection, will be justified and saved.

Moving into the second chapter we see a glimpse of Jonah in a place so miserable and so bad, in the belly of a fish under the sea. The original version does not say fish, it reads a sea creature. It may be a huge water animal. Jonah calls it hell. We see a repentant Jonah who has found what the wage of his sin caused, but he knows where to turn. Jonah turned toward God's holy temple and God heard Jonah's cry. What a beautiful picture of an omnipresent God who hears the cry of anyone anywhere about anything.

The Deep is a strange place

We have been reading stories about the experiences of the hostages in the Middle East. One the blink of an eye, one day when everything normal was going on, many people found themselves kidnapped and taken to very strange places. The Israeli hostages released by Hamas have shared their life stories about how life inside a dark tunnel for several weeks has changed their outlook on life.

Jonah was in a strange place. He began to cry out, which is the whole of chapter 2. He says “The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.”

Though I don't have much hair on my head, I sometimes feel like there is seaweed wrapped around my head. Everyone gets wrapped with seaweed on the head once in a while. Seaweed on the head is those things that make you lose your sanity. I don't know what your seaweed is. It could be the pressures of job, family, health issues, finances, or anxiety about the future. Whatever it may be, it will make us feel out of place and insane.

Jonah probably knew something would happen. But not to this extent to be found In the belly of a sea monster!. He asked the people in the ship to throw him into the sea because they cast lots to find out whose fault was this storm coming about. The lot fell on Jonah. He thought that would be the end of his life, maybe he was asking for it. He would rather die than obey God and go to Nineveh. But God had another plan, Jonah would never in his wildest imagination would think to be in the belly of a sea creature.

We all have to go through such experiences of strange places in our lives. God, why is this happening? Is this really your plan for us? Those questions and more swirl in our minds as we wrestle with a serious health diagnosis. We knew there was something wrong with the body, but not until it became life-changing. Life was great until some lab reports came and it turned life upside down.

Many saints have gone through such strange places. Abraham was called to leave his family and hometown to an unknown place. He found himself on the Mountain of Moriah with his son on the sacrifice table. Moses, the Hebrew boy was floating in the Nile River, rescued by an Egyptian princess was asked to take up a mission that he was too weak to do. Esther, David, Job, and many others likely poured out questions and prayers to God after being thrust into strange places. David was in a similar situation. David found himself alone in the cave hiding for his life when he wrote a prayer Psalm 147. Jacob was alone in his tent; Elijah was alone by the brook; Job was alone, even his wife rejected God. Moses was alone on the backside of that mountain. Mary the mother of Jesus found herself in a strange place. Jesus alone in the agony of Gethsemane and Calvary.

The Deep is a dark place

Darkness outside, and inside. Inside the belly of a big fish is even darker. Darkness is everywhere, and fear grips him. It is a place that you know that is not yours. You don't know what is around you. A lot of junk and fish and food. Discouragement will grip us in a situation like that because there is no hope. On top of that, the loneliness of Jonah is evident. Then he started singing

Famous English writer RL Stevenson shares a story about his childhood. He got locked up in a closet and it was pitch dark inside. He started screaming. His dad came running over and could not open the door. Dad stayed outside telling him that he would be standing there until the locksmith arrived. He started talking to his dad in the darkness. That made him calm. This continued until help arrived. A father's presence, his voice, and his promise can comfort us in our darkness.

Darkness may not go away immediately, but it will eventually. Until then you can continue talking with your father. Just like Jonah in the deep and dark situation, cried out to God, we can cry out to the heavenly Father who will stay close to us. “Deep and dark make good closets for prayer” - Spurgeon.

The deep is a dark place of disappointment, guilt, and self-pity.

We may venture to plead with God to set us free. Maybe it was your own guilt that brought you here like Jona the prophet who disobeyed or something out of your control

I personally knew the story of the wife of a pastor. The death of her husband and a year after the suicide of her son caused Barbara to go into self-pity. She had a pity party and locked herself for over a year. One day, her sister invited her to go to church as she had done several times before. This time, something told her that God was waiting for her to finish some work, some work her husband was doing as a minister. She went to church this time, not expecting anything. But she went to church to give something to others. She became an encouragement and comfort to numerous people.

The deep is a place of darkness of death

The Bible often talks about death as a dark place that we have to go through. Many times death, the passage from this world to eternity has been compared with the crossing of the Jordan and the crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites. It is a place of unknown path and destination. But there is a known companion that journeys with us during that time. David portrays that dark place in Psalm 23, “When I walk through the dark valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil”

Henry Francis Lyte wrote a poem in 1847 and set it to music while he lay dying from tuberculosis; he survived only a further three weeks after its completion. Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;

The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless, O abide with me. It is based on the Lord's appearance after resurrection described in Luke 24:29, "Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent"

William Cowper, an 18th-century songwriter, who wrote the hymn, 'God moves in a mysterious way.’ (1731-1800). (who also wrote “There is a fountain filled with blood”) often suffered from extreme loneliness that often led to almost depression. One night, cold and snowy and blistering wind blowing with fierce force, he found himself depressed and lonely. He decided to commit suicide by jumping into the river Thames. He called a cab and told the driver to take him to the Thames River. However, thick fog came down and prevented them from finding the river (another version of the story has the driver getting lost deliberately). After driving around lost for a while, the cabby gave up and finally stopped somewhere and let Cowper out. To Cowper’s surprise, he found himself on his own doorstep. Cowper realized that even in our blackest moments, God watches over us in mysterious ways. His beautiful hymn goes like this, “ God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head.” I don’t know if William Cowper ever would have written with such faith and insight if he had not struggled with the dark moments of his life and found a deeper friendship with God.

Our situations of deep and dark are private tutors that you don’t have to pay for. They teach us to find a better friendship with God. We can make the lonely place our blessed classroom. The ultimate relationship for us human beings is beyond the situations, it is beyond nature, beyond your pets, beyond your spouse or children, or any human beings. It is the love of Jesus that comprehends all understanding. Someone has said that life without Christ is a hopeless end, but life with Christ is an endless hope

The Deep is a place of No help or hope

It was God who ordered the fish to carry Jonah so that he would not perish in the ocean. (Jonah 1:17).

Jona was in the deep inside of a fish. He wrote a great Psalm in Jona 2: 5, 6,7 “ 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. 7 “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.”

Jonah realized that God is the only source of help in the deep. Like David, he sang, “From where will my help come?” “My strength comes from God who made heaven and earth.”

We may not like it, and we may not understand it, but when you find yourselves in a place where you have no one and nothing but God. When you have nothing else but God, you have everything you need. He is more than sufficient; He is more than enough because He has a better plan for you. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Someone has said that life without Christ is a hopeless end, but life with Christ is an endless hope

In Isaiah 43:1 we read: "The Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."

Blessings