God Answers Prayers for Deliverance

Jonah 2:1-10 

1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish's belly.
2 And he said:

"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.

3 For You cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the floods surrounded me;
All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.

4 Then I said, 'I have been cast out of Your sight;
Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.'

5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul;
The deep closed around me;
Weeds were wrapped around my head.

6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains;
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
Yet You have brought up my life from the pit,
O LORD, my God.

7 "When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the LORD;
And my prayer went up to You,
Into Your holy temple.

8 "Those who regard worthless idols
Forsake their own Mercy.

9 But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the LORD."

10 So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

God answers sincere prayers for deliverance when He opens our eyes through dire circumstances and His word.  When we truly see who He is and His divine character in His presence revealed before us, we see His answer to save us.  Jonah cried out in despair in the dark confines of the stomach of the great fish and knew that God heard and answered him.  He had been running from the LORD until he found himself cast into the depths of the sea as despair and from there looked up again as the sea billows rolled.  He confessed his sin of leaving Him and vowed to look toward Him once again.  The temple was not a mere building Jonah had in his sight, but rather the God who dwelt there to hear his prayer (1 Kings 8:38-39, Psalm 5:7) as promised according to His word.  He recalled the deep all around, dark and cold, with weeds choking him and without ant foreseeable hope until He remembered his God and prayed to Him with expectation.  This LORD God lifted him up out of his pit of despair and the memory of worshiping Him as before when he was heard praying gave hope to the hopeless.  He acknowledged that the idols such as of those of the crew of the ship he was tossed overboard from, these idols were worthless and lifeless, unable to assist or answer any empty prayers.  They could promise nothing, especially no deliverance.  What then did Jonah do?  He offered his wholehearted thanks to the living God as his sacrifices and promised to follow God’s word according to His revealed will.  He most of all confessed that God alone can offer salvation.  Then God heard his heart cries and told the fish to vomit the reluctant messenger on dry land after three days.  How many will read the account of Jonah and be moved to believe that God hears and answers prayers for salvation?  Jesus said in Matthew 16:4 that few would hear Him for salvation (Luke 11:29-30, 32) even when a similar sign would be given them where He would be three days in the deep of the grave as Jonah was in the fish.  When we hear the gospel of Jesus Christ it is only as God speaks to open our ears to hear that we can truly listen, believe, and receive Him for our deliverance from the penalty of sin and death.  The sign of Jonah is recorded to point us to the one who was not disobedient to the Father (as the prophet was) and who willingly threw Himself for three days into the depths of death (unlike Jonah’s mere imprisonment in the great fish for three days) in order to bring a resurrection hope out of His actual death for us all (1 Corinthians 15:20-22) as He hears and answers our sincere prayers (Romans 10:9-10, 13) for eternal deliverance from sin and death and the deserved punishment of Hell holding us accountable.  This is the gospel shadowed in Jonah.  God answers prayers for deliverance!