1 Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish:
2 I called to the Lord in my distress, and He answered me. I cried out for help in the belly of Sheol; You heard my voice.
3 You threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas, and the current overcame me. All Your breakers and Your billows swept over me.
4 But I said: I have been banished from Your sight, yet I will look once more toward Your holy temple.
5 The waters engulfed me up to the neck; the watery depths overcame me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 I sank to the foundations of the mountains; the earth with its prison bars closed behind me forever! But You raised my life from the Pit, Lord my God!
7 As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord. My prayer came to You, to Your holy temple.
8 Those who cling to worthless idols forsake faithful love,
9 but as for me, I will sacrifice to You with a voice of thanksgiving. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation is from the Lord!
10 Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
- Jonah 2 CSB

Holy time out, folks!

I can almost see Jonah sitting in a corner on a little stool inside the belly of the great fish. Knowing his personality from what we read in the book of Jonah, I feel like he was pouting on his little stool too, at least at first.

But then, in the midst of the time out that God appointed for him, Jonah cried out to the Lord. His disobedience had brought him to where he was, banished to the depths of the seas inside the belly of a fish, to so great a depth that Jonah felt banished, felt as though he were in the very belly of Sheol (land of the dead).

Yet, it was in that place that he remembered to look “once more” to God’s holy temple for his rescue and he spoke of God’s faithfulness to raise him from the pit. He offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God BEFORE God had physically rescued him, proclaiming that salvation is from the Lord.

It was then, when he had recognized God’s faithfulness, repented of running, recommitted to his vow, offered thanksgiving, and proclaimed God’s lordship and power to save that God commanded the fish to spit Jonah out onto dry land.

Sweet friend, it’s not always easy to praise God in the midst of His discipline of us. If you’ve ever been in a holy time out, you know what the anguish of feeling separated from God feels like. Like I imagine Jonah doing, like I know I’ve done myself, it can be tempting to sit in the corner on our little time out stool and pout, to be mad at God, mad at our circumstances, mad at ourselves.

But just like He did for Jonah, God hears us when we remember to look up and cry out. In the midst of discipline, we may feel banished, separated, but for those who have put their trust in the Lord, we are never separated from the love of God. God assures us in Romans 8:39 that neither height, nor depth can separate us from His love, and evidence of that promise can be seen in Jonah’s testimony; after all, you can’t get much deeper than the depths of the ocean INSIDE a great fish, and even there, God heard Jonah, received his repentance, and rescued him.

Today, I’m pausing to be thankful for God’s discipline, for His holy time outs, for it is often when I am at my lowest, that I see how absolutely high and holy our great and powerful God truly is, that I remember to run to His loving arms, to fall into His saving grace.