Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Jonah
Book: Jonah
Chapter: 2
Overview:
The
Prayer of
Jonah.
(1-9) He is delivered from the
Fish.
(10)
1-9 Observe when
Jonah prayed. When he was in trouble, under
the tokens of
God's displeasure against him for
Sin: when we are
in affliction we must pray. Being kept alive
By Miracle, he
prayed. A sense of
God's good-will to us, notwithstanding our
offences, opens the lips in
Prayer, which were closed with the
dread of wrath. Also, where he prayed; in the
Belly of the
Fish.
No place is amiss for
Prayer. Men may shut us from
Communion
with one another, but not from
Communion with
God. To whom he
prayed; to the
Lord his
God. This encourages even backsliders to
return. What his
Prayer was. This seems to relate his experience
and reflections, then and afterwards, rather than to be the form
or substance of his
Prayer.
Jonah reflects
On the earnestness of
his
Prayer, and
God's readiness to hear and answer. If we would
get good
By our troubles, we must notice the
Hand of
God in
them. He had wickedly fled from the presence of the
Lord, who
might justly take his Holy
Spirit from him, never to visit him
more. Those only are miserable, whom
God will
No longer own and
favour. But though he was perplexed, yet not in despair.
Jonah
reflects
On the favour of
God to him, when he sought to
God, and
trusted in him in his distress. He warns others, and tells them
to keep close to
God. Those who forsake their own duty, forsake
their own
Mercy; those who run away from the work of their place
and
Day, run away from the comfort of it. As far as a believer
copies those who observe lying vanities, he forsakes his own
Mercy, and lives below his privileges. But
Jonah's experience
encourages others, in all ages, to trust in
God, as the
God of
Salvation.
10 Jonah's deliverance may be considered as an instance of
God's power over all the creatures. As an instance of
God's
Mercy to a
Poor penitent, who in distress prays to him: and as a
Type and figure of
Christ's resurrection. Amidst all our varying
experiences, and the changing scenes of
Life, we should look
By
Faith, fixedly, upon our once suffering and dying, but now risen
and ascended
Redeemer. Let us confess our sins, consider
Christ's resurrection as an
Earnest of our own, and thankfully
receive every temporal and spiritual deliverance, as the
Pledge
of our eternal
Redemption.