Kim, who's come to Genesis before, sent me this prayer request this morning:

As we explored the second chapter of Jonah, we ran across three interesting points.

First, Jonah's prayer from the belly of the fish isn't an original work, rather, what we see going on is Jonah praying bits and pieces from the Psalms (see Psalms 18:1-12, 69:1-18, and 88). Given that Jonah historically took place after the Psalms were written and incorporated into Jewish worship through a lectionary of readings that matched the Jewish festival year, we can assume that Jonah's prayer was shaped by his worship in Jerusalem.

The second thing we noticed is what's missing in Jonah's prayer, namely confession of his sin, some inkling of repentance, or accountability for his actions. Instead he blames God for casting him into the sea (v3) and sees himself as being holy while pointing out sins of others that he himself is guilty of (v8). Given this hypocrisy, it's no wonder that the fish wanted to vomit him out.

This reminds us of Christ in Revelation 3:16 when he tells the Laodicea that they were lukewarm. This was a good chance to remind ourselves that this passage isn't about being either totally for or totally against God, rather, it's a reference that compares the water in the town of Laodicea to the works of the Christians there. Nearby towns had hot springs that were healing and cold water that was refreshing, but Laodicea has lukewarm water that was useless. In the same way, the works of the Christians of Laodicea had no value to the Kingdom.

Finally, we found it interesting that, as you read through the prayer of Jonah, his salvation wasn't being spit out upon the land, rather, according to Jonah, salvation was being swallowed by the fish. This fits with something theologians call, the theology of the cross, that is, God isn't found in the beautiful and the glorious things of this life, rather, he's found in the midst of death and suffering.

Discussion Questions:
1) Jonah's life events triggered thoughts of corporate worship and God's Word, what is it that is most often triggered in your mind during everyday events? Do you think this is shaping you in a positive or negative way?

2) In what areas of your life do you find yourself struggling against hypocrisy? What is it that makes you want to be like Jonah and not act according to your beliefs?

3) Where do you see yourself dying right now? How is God using that to transform you and raise you to new life?