OUR FATHER WHO RESCUED HIS SERVANTS WHEN THEY CALLED TO HIM

The book of Obadiah Jonah chapter 2 2 verses 1 - 2 says this;

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said:

“In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry..

This passage, catches up with the prophet Jonah when he had been given a mission by God to go to Nineveh to warn them. He attempted to escape God's calling and fled by ship only to have a storm rise up against the ship and when all was but lost, Jonah was tossed over the side of the ship into the water and he was engulfed by a large fish.

While in the belly of the large fish, Jonah prayed to God and God heard him.

Closely looking at the prayer that Jonah uttered, one can see that there is a switch of realms from the natural sea into which Jonah was thrown to the realm of the dead and this prayer now becomes a proxy for the prayer that the Lord Jesus called out after He had died on the cross and was descending into hell. As Jonah's prayer continued in verses 5 - 6;

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.

This reference details the descent into the depths and sinking down to the roots of the mountains which is a permanent prison for all who go there.

But the prayer was answered by the Lord who retrieved Jonah (  and by extension the Lord Jesus )  after three days and three nights from the pit.

This scenario and topography is echoed in Psalm chapter 18 verses 15 - 16  where, speaking of God rescuing the Lord Jesus,  it says;

The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, Lord, at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.

The definitive validation that the prayer in Jonah was a pre-iteration of the prayer that the Lord Jesus Himself prayed is found in Mathew chapter 12 verses 38 - 41 where Jonah's 3 day and 3 night ordeal in the belly of the fish is explicitly linked to the Lord's 3 day and 3 night ordeal in the heart of the earth.

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”

He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 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. 

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. 

Amen.

2