Chapter 2: Man's Surrender

Bible Reading:

Jonah Chapter 2 (whole chapter)

Hebrews 3:1 says, “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling...” This expresses that all Christians are holy brothers and sisters who have received a heavenly calling. Everyone who has received salvation belongs to this group of people who have been called from heaven. Speaking of the church, the church is a people called out from the world. In other words, it is a group whom the Lord Jesus has called out from within the world. Each one of us bears the identity of the “called ones,” yet many people do not live a life that reflects this calling.

Earlier we saw that when God’s calling came to Jonah, he actually ran away. He stubbornly went down to Joppa and boarded a ship to flee toward Tarshish. But do we not often do the same? When the Lord calls, we fail to set aside time to visit others; when there is an evangelistic meeting, we do not bring classmates or friends to believe in Jesus. Truly, our spiritual living does not match the grace of the calling we have received.

I. The painful cry of one who destroy his own spiritual future -- in the belly of the fish

When Jonah fled from God’s calling and boarded a ship to Tarshish, who could have expected that once the ship reached the open sea, the Lord sent a violent storm, the waves surged, and the vessel was nearly torn apart? Yet Jonah, instead of awakening to his condition, remained stubborn and even sank into despair. He told the sailors, “Lift me up and throw me into the sea,” as if determined to destroy his own spiritual future and end his life altogether. But thanks be to the Lord for His manifold lovingkindness. His mercy did not cease. His hidden hand of preserving love had already been stretched out, preparing a great fish to swallow Jonah.

Now, by tracing Jonah’s torment inside the belly of the fish, we want to speak about the consequences faced by those who destroy their own spiritual future.

1. Jonah determined to be thrown into the sea

   From Jonah’s words to the sailors—“Lift me up and throw me into the sea”—we can easily sense the tone behind them. Jonah knew he had disobeyed God and assumed that God would surely abandon him. His will had collapsed; his heart was utterly hopeless that he wished only to end his life. He never imagined that in the very moment of his despair, the Lord had already arranged for a great fish to swallow him.

   Today many Christians encounter blows they cannot withstand, some within the church, some in their ministry, some within their families. In discouragement, they give up on themselves: they stop attending gatherings, and they cease pursuing the Lord and serve Him. They feel as though Jesus no longer watches over them, and in their disappointment they decide simply to let things take their course, turning toward the world to finish out their lives. Little do they realize that such self‑abandoning thoughts are one of the devil’s methods of sifting believers. Truly, God’s love never changes, and His gifts and His calling are irrevocable (Romans 11:29). Yet we must understand that Jonah, in the belly of the fish, suffered bitterly beyond measure.

   
   

2. He could have received forgiveness if he repented on the ship

   We can well imagine Jonah inside the belly of the fish—surrounded by darkness, unable to move his hands or feet. Trapped within the blood‑soaked, pulsing organs of the fish, the stench was nauseating. Every passing second must have felt unbearably painful, indescribable. In truth, if Jonah had not given up on himself but had instead repented on the ship when the storm first arose—calling upon the Lord for forgiveness—then the Lord would have immediately forgiven him and shown grace. He would have been spared the bitter suffering inside the belly of the fish.

   
   

3. Suffering after he tried to destroy his future

   But Jonah did not do so; therefore he had to suffer the pain of being cast into the sea and entering the belly of the fish. Now we will go on to point out the five painful experiences Jonah encountered as a result of destroying his own spiritual future.

   May the Lord remind us through these five points, those who refuse the Lord’s calling and give up on themselves to turn back in time, so that they may avoid the suffering of entering the fish’s belly.

   
   

• Physical suffering

  Consider Jonah when he lay in the belly of the fish—unable to move, groaning in pain, with no way to survive. In Jonah 2:1–2 it is written: "Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. And he said, 'I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, And He answered me.'" Notice Jonah’s first words: he did not say, “I cried out to the Lord from the fish’s belly,” but rather, “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction.” From this we see that anyone who destroys his own spiritual future will sooner or later encounter the first form of God’s discipline, which is called “affliction”—that is, physical suffering.

  When I visit young believers in the hospital, the first thing I ask is: “Brother (or Sister), do you know the reason you are lying here in this hospital bed?” Some immediately nod and say, “I know… the Lord is disciplining me.” Then they ask me to pray for them. I always have them pray first. When they begin to pray aloud, the very first thing they do is to repent with sorrow—asking the Lord to forgive how they had hardened their hearts, refused His deep love, and lived for themselves rather than for Him…After they confess, I then lay hands on them and pray. Praise the Lord! He is full of mercy and grace, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. He does not always chide, nor does He keep His anger forever. And indeed, these brothers and sisters recovered quickly.

  I remember a young brother who stopped attending meetings and wandered about everywhere. One day he accidentally slipped from an upper floor and fell, breaking a leg bone. When I heard about it, I immediately went to visit him. I asked whether he wanted me to pray for him, and he was very glad. I said, “Good—pray first.” As soon as he opened his mouth, he confessed his sins: “Lord, forgive me for walking my own way. Thank You for having mercy on me and using this incident to bring me back before You.” From this we can see that anyone who destroys his own spiritual future and willingly sinks into spiritual decline will fall into the hand of God’s discipline and suffer physical pain.

  
  

• Suffering in the soul and spirit

  Next Jonah prayed, saying: “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice.” Here Jonah does not say, “I cried out to the Lord from the belly of the fish,” but rather, “from the belly of Sheol I cried” “Sheol” refers to the place where people go after death. Death brings deep pain to the human soul; therefore, in spiritual meaning, "Sheol" represents the suffering of the inner being. In other words, the pain of the soul is described by the word "Sheol".

  Dear brothers and sisters, when a Christian tries to ruin his own spiritual future, there will come a day when the Lord’s disciplining hand rests upon him. Not only will he suffer physical pain, but he will also experience pain within the soul. The pain of the soul is a state in which one cannot find rest; the mind cannot settle. During the day the heart is troubled and confused, unable to find direction. At night one tosses and turns, unable to sleep peacefully. The whole day is filled with agitation and fear, leaving both body and mind exhausted.

  Praise the Lord! On the day we were saved, we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior. We immediately experienced this: the heavy burdens that once pressed upon both body and soul were lifted, and peace filled us inside and out. The Lord forgave all our sins; He bore all our difficulties; He rescued us from our wandering and set us on the right path. Yet whenever we turn away from Him and walk our own way, the peace in our hearts disappears. Our spirit feels pressed, dry, and without release. Oh, the pain of the soul is far harder to bear than the pain of the body. If such inner suffering continues for a long time, the consequences will be unimaginable.

  
  

• The pain of losing God's presence

  Look again at verse 4, where Jonah says: “I have been cast out of Your sight.” This plainly states that Jonah was no longer before the Lord’s face. In other words, Jonah at that moment was not in the presence of the Lord. He said, “I have been cast out of Your sight.” “Cast out” means to be expelled, to be sent out. For example, in the Philippines, when a foreigner is caught trafficking drugs, the government arrests him and then punishes him by deporting him—sending him out of the country. That is “casting out.” Now Jonah, though physically inside the belly of the fish, felt that he had been driven out by God. The spiritual meaning is this: he had lost the presence of God. For a Christian, the most precious treasure is the presence of God. As the hymn goes:

  I need Thy presence every passing hour:

  What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?

  I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless:

  Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness:

  Where is death’s sting? where, grave, thy victory?

  I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

  (Hymn: Abide with Me by Henry Francis Lyte)

  Hallelujah!

  On the contrary, when a person loses the Lord’s presence, he becomes the most pitiful and tragic person in the entire universe. In Matthew 12, the New Testament records a man from whom an unclean spirit had departed. Yet his inner being was not filled by the Lord. So after the demon left him, it wandered about, searching for a resting place. Finding none, it returned to its former dwelling (that man). Before re‑entering, the demon saw that the man’s inner life was empty—like a house without an owner. It then invited seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they all went in and lived there. Scripture says: “The last state of that man is worse than the first” (v. 45). This shows us how deeply Christians need the Lord’s presence. When the Lord is present, Satan cannot easily attack. When the Lord is with us, nothing can terrify us, and no enemy can make us afraid.

  On that day, the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross by the hands of lawless men to fulfill God's will. As He bore the sins of all humanity upon the cross, “Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?"—that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). We see here that the greatest suffering Jesus endured on the cross was not the crown of thorns on His head, nor the nails piercing His hands and feet, nor the spear thrust into His side, nor His body covered with wounds and flowing with blood. Rather, the deepest agony was this: on the cross, God laid the sins of all people upon Him, and because of God’s righteous anger, He was forsaken. Darkness covered the land as the righteous God executed judgment. Thus, losing the presence of God is an exceedingly painful spiritual experience.

  Dear brothers and sisters, pay close attention to the Lord’s presence. Once His presence is lost, the condition that follows is unimaginably dreadful.

  
  

• The pain of struggling and unable to break free

  In his extreme suffering, Jonah felt as though he had descended to the very depths of Sheol, as if the gates of the earth were about to shut him in forever. Therefore he said: "You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God." (Jonah 2:6). Jonah did not say that God rescued him from the deep sea; rather, he said that God rescued him from “the pit.” The meaning is that the deep sea was like a deep pit. Once a person slips and falls into such a pit, even if he cries out to heaven and earth, heaven does not respond and earth does not move. He only sinks deeper and deeper, unable to free himself. A hunter captures an elephant by digging a deep pit in the forest, covering it with branches and sand, and then driving the elephant toward it. Once the elephant falls in, it cannot climb out no matter how hard it tries. Jonah uses the image of a deep pit to describe the deep sea, expressing his struggling, painful, and helpless condition—a struggle from which he could not free himself. Likewise, when a Christian tries to ruin his own spiritual future, he too will fall into a state of struggling without being able to free himself, experiencing this painful bondage of the soul.

  There was once a young couple who serves in the church and were preparing to build a family. They felt mutual peace and believed clearly that their union was God’s will. The Lord’s servant conducted their wedding. Not long after marriage, their zeal for serving the Lord declined; soon afterward, because they were busy with their careers, they stopped serving altogether. At first, they still attended meetings regularly, and their life seemed pleasant. They thought their path was correct. Later, however, the brother’s business failed. He fell into heavy debt—as though he had fallen into a deep pit from which he could not free himself. After several years, not only were the debts not repaid, but they grew even worse. Oh! Truly he had fallen into a pit, sinking deeper and deeper, just as Jonah was trapped in the belly of the fish. The only path to deliverance was to look up to God’s mercy.

  
  

• Suffering according to God's time (Prolonged)

  “The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” (Jonah 1:17). Our God is the Triune God; therefore in the Bible, the number three often signifies God’s number. “Three days and three nights” represents God’s timing. Jonah’s three days and three nights in the fish’s belly show that when a Christian destroys his own spiritual future and the Lord stretches out His disciplining hand, He does not withdraw it easily. The spiritual meaning of “three days and three nights” does not necessarily mean literally three days. Rather, it means God releases only when He considers the time sufficient. Some may be “shut in” for five years, eight years, or ten years. Some may even remain under discipline for long, extended years, and still God’s hand does not let go. Therefore, the moment of release does not depend on you or me; we must wait for God’s timing.

  May the Lord be merciful to us, and through this remind us once again: when we encounter setbacks or blows, we must never act out of impulse and destroy our own spiritual future. For if we abandon ourselves, the suffering and loss that follow will be impossible to repair.

II. Knowing God through suffering

The most precious experience for a person under God’s discipline is coming to know God, for knowing God is often learned through discipline. Why does God discipline us? Hebrews 12:10–11 says: “For they (earthly fathers) indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” This shows that God’s discipline is not meant for us to suffer in vain, but that we may know Him through suffering. This is the principle of God’s work.

Next, let us consider how Jonah came to know the Lord while in the belly of the fish. Because of limited space, we will present three points only:

1. Knowing God's Lovingkindness

   Just now we read Jonah 2:2: ““I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice.” At this moment Jonah had already experienced that God is full of lovingkindness and that He is a God who hears prayer. Look again at verse 6: “Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God.” The pit is a place without hope. Originally, Jonah should have perished in the sea; yet the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow him, but he didn't let the fish digest him. Truly, Jonah suffered in the belly of the fish, struggling in pain, seemingly unable to survive. But God turned the fish’s belly into a house of prayer, so that in the fish’s belly Jonah came to know that God is a God of lovingkindness who hears prayer, and that He is the Lord who brings his life up from the pit. Hallelujah!

   Dear brothers and sisters, from this we can see that if we fall into suffering and are able to humble ourselves before the Lord—submitting, repenting, and confessing—we will experience how deeply the Lord loves us. Isn’t this true? Let me ask you: did you feel the Lord was nearer before you became ill, or after you became ill? It was after. Why is that? Logically, it should be when our bodies are healthy, when the Lord is preserving us, when life is smooth and under His care. How is it that after becoming ill we feel the Lord loves us even more? It is simply because through God’s discipline, we come to realize in our sickness how greatly we have failed the Lord and offended Him. Thus we pray, asking the Lord for forgiveness, and we experience that although He already knew our coldness, our changeable heart, and our turning away from Him, He still chooses to love us. When we think of the Lord’s love, we marvel—He truly loves sinners without reason.

   
   

2. Knowing God's Almighty Power

   The Lord is not only a God full of lovingkindness; He is also the almighty God. What is impossible with man is possible with God. Look at Jonah 2:2 and 2:6: “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice… You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.”

   “Sheol” is a place of hopelessness. Once a person steps into Sheol, he cannot return to the land of the living. Yet by His almighty power, God lifted Jonah out of the pit of Sheol.

   In terms of our own experience, we too were once sinking in the bitter sea of sin—forever lost, without hope. But thanks be to the Lord! Just when we were discouraged and in despair, He heard our cry, and He stretched out His mighty hand to save us.

   The Lord saved you;

   the Lord saved me.

   When we were drifting in the world,

   The Lord saved me.

   Hallelujah!

   
   

3. Knowing God's Faithfulness

   “Faithful” means reliable—never failing. The faithfulness of God tells us that God is utterly trustworthy, keeping covenant and mercy. His promises will never fail; what He has spoken with His mouth, He fulfills with His hand (1 Kings 8:24). Now let us see how Jonah, through his own personal experience, came to know the faithfulness of God.

   Look at what verse 4 records: “I said, ‘I have been cast out from Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’” Then verse 7 goes further: “When my fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple.”

   From Jonah’s prayer we see that the holy temple is mentioned twice. In verse 4 he says, I look toward Your holy temple, showing that although Jonah had been unfaithful and disobedient—God called him to go to Nineveh, yet he secretly fled toward Tarshish—now that he had fallen into affliction, he turned his eyes toward God’s temple. His gaze shifted back to the holy place of God.

   We must briefly explain the background of the holy temple. After Solomon succeeded his father David on the throne, he built the temple for the Lord, the God of Israel. When the temple was completed, Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, lifted his hands toward heaven, and prayed. In this long prayer, there is an important portion recorded in 1 Kings 8:30–53.

   The main idea of this portion of Solomon’s prayer is this: O Lord, if Your people one day rebel and turn away from You—even falling into sin and worshiping idols—so that they are defeated by their enemies and carried away captive, scattered among the nations; yet if, in the land of their captivity, they turn their hearts back to You and pray toward the temple that I have built for Your Name, then You will forgive Your people who have sinned against You, pardon all their transgressions, and grant them compassion in the sight of those who have taken them captive. This prayer was accepted by God. Jonah was a prophet who understood God’s ways. He knew the heart of God, so he held firmly to the faithfulness of God. He went further and declared: My prayer has entered Your holy temple; O Lord, You must hear my prayer. I, Jonah, truly have been unfaithful and have forsaken God. Yet now I turn back in my heart and pray toward His holy temple. The faithful God who made covenant with Solomon will surely keep covenant and show steadfast love.

   Dear brothers and sisters, from Jonah’s threefold experience of knowing God in the belly of the fish, we are truly encouraged and strengthened to walk well on the spiritual path. As the hymn says:

   Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,

   Just to take Him at His Word;

   Just to rest upon His promise,

   Just to know, "Thus saith the Lord!"

III. Surrender to God

Indeed, Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, tasting every kind of torment and suffering—physical, emotional, and spiritual. At last he was subdued. Yet what is even more precious is that he came to recognize the lovingkindness of God: that God answered him and forgave him; that he personally experienced the Almighty God who saved him and set him free. At the same time, he discovered that God is faithful—even when humans are unfaithful, God remains trustworthy. Quite naturally, his heart yielded in willing submission and surrendered to God. Consider the record in verse 9: “But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving;

I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.”

1. Submitting to God's Discipline

   "But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving;" This sentence shows us that although Jonah’s body was still inside the belly of the fish—within the realm of the dead, in the depths of the pit—he harbored no resentment. Instead, his heart overflowed with gratitude toward God, lifting his voice in thanksgiving. This reveals that he had submitted to God’s discipline. He recognized that God’s discipline came from His love for him. Jonah worshiped God’s will as the best, and God’s ways as the most perfect.

   
   

2. Fulfilling vow

   "I will pay what I have vowed. "Every true prophet must carry a deep longing before God: "Lord, according to Your will, I am willing to obey. In Your loving hand, I will submit in all things.” Jonah was no exception. He had once made a vow to the Lord. Yet when the word of the Lord came to him—not to speak to the people of Israel, but to cry out for the salvation of the inhabitants of Nineveh, an enemy nation—he resisted. He regarded the great city of Nineveh not only as Israel’s enemy, but also as exceedingly wicked, deserving judgment. So he disobeyed God’s command and fled toward Tarshish. He did not act according to the vow he had originally made. But now he is fulfilling his vow again before the Lord: “Lord, it is not for me to decide what I want to do, nor where I want to go. I ask You to choose for me. I am willing to follow Your command and surrender to You unconditionally.”

   Let me ask you: have you not also made vows to the Lord? Some of you made vows in Baguio, dedicating your whole life to the Lord, choosing to live entirely for Him. But what about now? Have you forgotten the vows you once made to the Lord? How I long for you today to awaken—just as Jonah did—to repentance, and to fulfill your vows before the Lord once again. You must understand: God remember the vows you make to Him forever; He never forgets them. Ecclesiastes 5:4–5 tells us: “When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it, for He has no pleasure in fools. Fulfill what you have vowed. Better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it.”

IV. Being delivered from God's discipline

When Jonah was in the belly of the fish, he repented, surrendered to God, cried out to Him, gave thanks, confessed his sin, made his vow, offered his sacrifice, and lifted his praise. Then God commanded the fish, and the fish vomited Jonah out onto dry land (Jonah 2:10).

1. God withdraws His hand of discipline

   Jonah boarded a ship to flee toward Tarshish. "The Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea” (Jonah 1:4). This was a lighter form of God's discipline stop him. Yet Jonah refused to turn back. Instead, he gave himself over to despair, destroying his own spiritual future, and asked the sailors to throw him into the sea, hoping to end his life once and for all. But unexpectedly, “the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17). This was God stretching out His severe hand of discipline. Praise the Lord! When Jonah sincerely surrendered himself to God, “the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.” Spiritually speaking, this signifies that Jonah had been fully released from God’s discipline.

   This shows that whenever we sincerely submit ourselves to God, and He deems that the time has come, He will determine to release us—so that we may once again be usable in His hands.

   
   

2. God’s purpose in discipline is to prepare and perfect His vessel

   Lastly, we must clarify an important spiritual principle. We see Jonah suffering in the belly of the great fish, tormented in pain. I earnestly hope you will understand this and not misunderstand—thinking that when God’s hand of discipline comes upon us, it means He has abandoned us or intends to destroy us. On the contrary, we must affirm this truth: if a person runs away from God’s will, his life will never prosper. Know this: when God stretches out His hand of discipline, it is to perfect us, establish us, and build us up. The prophet Hosea says, “Come, and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has stricken us, but He will bind us up” (Hosea 6:1). This clearly expresses that God’s disciplining hand carries grace, aiming to make us perfect and obedient children of God.

   Thanks be to the Lord! The rebellious Jonah, in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, was ultimately perfected by the lovingkindness of God. Man’s part is to return and surrender to God; God's part is to release and perfect us.

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