The lutheransermons's Podcast

Sermon for Midweek Lenten II - March 9, 2022

Sermon for Midweek Lenten Service II, based on Luke 22:1-6, 24-34

"Man's Gospel vs. God's Gospel"

 

Sermon originally delivered February 20, 2013

Preparing for Worship - March 13, 2022

The Old Testament Lesson for the Second Sunday in Lent is Jeremiah 26:8-15. With courage, Jeremiah brings God’s message that Jerusalem and the Temple will be destroyed if the people do not repent and turn from their evil ways. This message only angers the priests and other “prophets” and many of the people, who want to kill Jeremiah for bringing such a message. Jeremiah affirms that he is speaking the truth and that killing him would only be shedding innocent blood. (This predicts the Old Testament destruction of Jerusalem and prefigures Jesus’ own coming and message to His people.

The Psalm is Psalm 4. David speaks of the Lord rescuing him from difficult situations. He warns of those who are still speaking vain words and lies about him and calls them to realize the danger for them in what they are doing, and to trust instead in the Lord and His ways. David also says that the Lord will give true “joy” and “peace” and “safety” to the “godly” who do trust in Him.

In the Epistle Lesson, Philippians 3:17-4:1, Paul warns of “enemies of the cross of Christ,” who focus on their own desires and glory in “shameful earthly things.” In contrast, Paul calls upon believers to “imitate” him, in “standing firm in the Lord” and waiting in faith for the return of Christ, who will transform our “lowly bodies” and take us to our place of true “citizenship,” in heaven.

In the Gospel Lesson, Luke 13:31-35, Jesus is warned that Herod, the tetrarch, wants to kill Him. Jesus is not concerned about that “fox,” but knows that he must keep going toward Jerusalem, where His suffering and death would happen at the hands of His own people. He laments that He could not gather His people together under His wings of protection and care. They were refusing Him, and their “house,” their temple and city would eventually be “forsaken.” If they could only recognize that He was their Lord and Savior!

Sermon for the 1st Sunday in Lent - March 6, 2022

Sermon for the 1st Sunday in Lent, based on:

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Romans 10:8b-13

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon originally delivered February 17, 2013

Bible Study - Book of Jonah Part 6 - Jonah 4:1-11

Last week, we heard how Jonah finally went to Nineveh and preached the message that God gave him, warning that Nineveh would be “overthrown” in 40 days. The Word of God worked and the people of the city repented of their “evil ways” and “violence” and cried out for God’s mercy. God gave His mercy to them and did not bring the disaster He had predicted through Jonah.

As Chapter 4 of Jonah begins, one would expect that Jonah would be very happy that the people listened to his message and that the city was spared. Instead, what happened “displeased Jonah exceedingly.” Literally, what God had done “became evil to Jonah as a great evil,” and “he was angry with God” (Jonah 4:1). Jonah admitted that this was what he had expected all along and why he had tried to run away from God and His will and ended up in the belly of the great fish, until God rescued him and gave him another chance to do His work.

Jonah also admitted that he knew that God “was a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” (Jonah 4:2). It is the great Good News of the Bible, that God has mercy and forgives us sinful, struggling people in this world, ultimately through the saving work of Jesus our Savior. It is good news for us all. See these Scriptures as a small example of this expression of God’s mercy: Exodus 34:6, Psalm 86:15, Psalm 103:8-13, Psalm 145:8-9, Micah 7:18-19, Lamentations 3:31-33, Joel 2:13, etc. Even in the Old Testament, God showed that mercy to His own chosen people, but also to people like the Ninevites, through Jonah.

Jonah selfishly wanted that mercy from God for himself, to be rescued from the great fish. He wanted that mercy for his people of Israel, but he did not want that mercy to be given to non-Jews and especially not to the people of Nineveh. The Assyrians were an enemy of and a great threat to God’s people, Jonah thought. They did not deserve and should not have God’s mercy. That is why Jonah was so angry with God. God was doing the wrong thing, in his view.

In fact, Jonah wanted to die, rather than see God spare the city of Nineveh (Jonah 4:3). There were other examples of leaders of God’s people who wanted to die in times of great difficulty and when they felt they were failing in their ministry to God’s people. See Moses in Numbers 11:10-15, Elijah in 1 Kings 19:1-18, and Jeremiah in Jeremiah 15:10, 20:14-18. In contrast, as the commentator Roehrs says, “Jonah wanted to die because his mission had been successful, against his own expectations and desires.”

God needed to wake up Jonah to his wrong thinking, though, and asked him very bluntly, “Do you do well to be angry” (Jonah 4:4)? Jonah remained angry, though, and went out of Nineveh and built a makeshift booth for himself, to see what would happen, likely hoping that God would change His mind and still destroy the city. It was hot, though, and God in His mercy, as he had “appointed” the great fish, now “appointed a plant” to grow up quickly and provide shade and a little comfort for Jonah. This is the only time in the whole Book of Jonah where Jonah was happy and “rejoiced with great joy” (Jonah 4:5-6).

Jonah’s attitude was still so wrong that the next morning, God “appointed a worm” to attack and wither the plant, and He “appointed a scorching east wind” and hot sun to make Jonah feel faint, so that again he wanted to die. This time, Roehrs says, Jonah was angry because God was “not gracious enough to him. In overwhelming self-pity,” he felt that God had been unfair in taking away his “sunshade” (Jonah 4:7-8). “Sirocco” hot east winds were also used at other times by the Lord as discipline and to wake people up to their wrongdoing. See Isaiah 27:8, Jeremiah 4:11, Ezekiel 17:10, and Hosea 13:15 as examples.

Again, God needed to ask Jonah very bluntly, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And again, Jonah thought he was “doing well” to be so angry, angry enough to die. God reminded him that he cared so much for and “pitied” the plant, though he did not labor for it or make it grow and it only lasted one day. Why then, God said, should I not have pity on the 120,000 human beings and their animals and cattle in Nineveh and help them to repent and and be spared and know of My love and care (Jonah 4:9-11)?

Jonah could be hard-hearted, in his sins and weakness, though he should not have been, but the Lord God could not, especially as He thought of these misguided people of Nineveh, “who did not know their right hand from their left.” God’s plan had always been to work through Abraham and the Jewish nation to bring in the Lord Jesus, who would be a Savior for all nations - even those who were so far from God that they did not know their right hand from their left. Israel had the Word of God and knew to go that way only and not to wander off to the left or right. (See these passages, continually calling God’s people to go the way of the Lord: Deuteronomy 5:32-33, Deuteronomy 17:20, Joshua 1:7, Joshua 23:6, and Proverbs 4:27, etc.)

God’s heart loved His people and He did keep showing them mercy, even when they strayed. God is God and not a man like Jonah. See Hosea 11:8-9. But God’s love is also for the whole world (John 3:16). He could not push the Ninevites aside, though Jonah was willing to do so. (We hope, of course, that eventually, Jonah also repented and returned to God’s love and willingness to share that love with all around him.

Lest we be too hard on Jonah, though, remember the message of Jesus in Luke 15 for us, too. Jesus was being strongly criticized for associating with “tax collectors and sinners” who were despised by most people. Jesus then taught about His mission to reach out to the lost and straying, with stories about lost sheep and lost coins.

He also told the story of two sons. One was a prodigal who left home and wasted his money and his life and finally came home in sorrow and repentance and received a joyous welcome from his father. The other son had stayed home and faithfully worked with his father. When the prodigal son came home and was treated so well, the other son was very angry, just like Jonah. He felt that the prodigal son did not deserve such honor, and selfishly felt that he had been disrespected by what the father did. Only he was really worthy, he thought, and certainly not the bad brother. The father, who is a symbol of our Heavenly Father, still loved both sons, even with their weaknesses, and helped them both to know His great love and forgiveness, which could rescue and restore them both. Don’t we too often act like one or the other of these sons and need God’s forgiving love, too?

One last thought.  When we see the terrible things being done in Ukraine by the Russians (and historically, the people of the Assyrian empire were very similar in their ruthless conquests of other nations, at times) it is easy and proper to condemn what is happening. But how quickly and easily could we forgive the Russians and forget - even if they backed off and were truly repentant? It would be very hard, wouldn’t it, as it was for Jonah? Remember also the words of Romans 5:6-11, when we hear how bad things were for us when Christ died for us and for the world. God is truly gracious and merciful to us all, in Jesus.

Next week we will have some final thought on the Book of Jonah and look especially at what Jesus said about this Scripture.

Sermon for Ash Wednesday - March 2, 2022

Sermon for Ash Wednesday, based on:

Psalm 51:1-17 

Mark 8:27-34

Sermon originally delivered February 13, 2013

Preparing for Worship - March 6, 2022

The Lenten season begins on March 2, Ash Wednesday. The focus in this season is on what it took for Jesus to win His victory over sin and Satan and death for our sake and our eternal salvation.

The Old Testament lesson is from Deuteronomy 26:1-11 and is a reminder to God’s people, as they enter the promised land and enjoy its blessings, to take a basket of the first of the fruit they receive and offer it to the Lord. They are to remember all the good that the Lord has given them, as His gift, and to worship Him with thanksgiving.

The Psalm is Psalm 91:1-13. The Psalmist reminds God’s people that as they live in shelter of the Lord Most High and trust in Him, He will care for them and deliver them from many troubles and His angels will guard them, too.

The Epistle lesson is from Romans 10:8b-13. Paul speaks of the Word of God, the Word of faith that centers in Jesus and needs to be in our mouths and hearts. One scholar calls it the Word that calls us to faith, but also creates that faith in us, as we hear the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus. That Gospel is the power of God for salvation for all who believe. See Romans 1:16-17.

The Gospel lesson is from Luke 4:1-13 and describes the battle between Jesus and the devil, as the devil tempts Him to go against the will of God. Jesus continually uses and follows the Word of God, as the devil tries to get Him to do wrong. The devil finally retreats and waits for more opportunities to tempt and test Jesus, as the battle continued throughout the ministry of Jesus.

Bible Study - Book of Jonah Part 5 - Jonah 3:1-10

Last week, we heard of Jonah’s thoughts and meditation, especially upon some of the psalms, and his prayers while in the belly of the great fish. He called out to the Lord in his distress and knew that salvation would come only from the Lord and hoped to be in the temple again one day. The Lord answered his prayer and called the great fish to vomit him up onto dry land.

As Chapter 3 begins, God gave Jonah another chance to do what he had been called to do as His prophet, though he did not deserve it since he had still not fully repented of his attitude toward God and God’s will.  In Jonah 3:1-2, God commanded him again to go to Nineveh with almost the same words He used in Jonah 1:1-2. This time, Jonah went and followed “the Word of the Lord.”

God is a God of second (and even many more) chances for people, in His patient, forgiving mercy. Remember how Peter had failed Jesus and denied three times that he ever knew Him. Jesus forgave him and called him again to be His apostle and “feed His sheep.” (See John 21:15-18. Jesus also taught Peter to forgive not just 7 times but 70 times 7 times, over and over again. See Matthew 18:21-22. Peter learned to speak of God as “the God of all grace.” See 1 Peter 5:10 and 2 Peter 3:18.)

Think also of Saul, who was strongly anti-Christian and even involved in arresting and helping put Christians to death. The risen Lord Jesus turned his life around and made him a strong believer and missionary, with a new name, Paul. Paul often spoke of how undeserving he was and yet what a great example of what God’s mercy and forgiveness could do. (Read Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 1:12-17. Think about you and me, too. How many times have we failed our Lord and He has still loved and forgiven us, also? Every day? See Mark 2:15-17.)

Nineveh was a very great city, capital of the Assyrian Empire, the strongest power of the Middle Eastern world of that time. It was also a very wicked city, far from the one true God and His will. Jonah was sent to proclaim one very simple but strong warning to the people and leaders. He began to go into the city and called out, “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 2:3-4). He said just what God wanted this time, and he used the same word that was used in Genesis 19:24-25, when God “overthrew” the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and utterly destroyed them, “even what grew on the ground.” God had given them opportunity to repent, too, but they refused and wanted to do more and more evil.

Amazingly, we hear in Jonah 3:5 that “the people of Nineveh believed God” and “called for a fast and put on sackcloth” as a sign of repentance for their wrongdoing. This word from Jonah reached the king of Nineveh (who was also the king of the whole Assyrian Empire) and he too showed repentance by removing his royal robe (see an example of such a robe, in Joshua 7:21, where the same word is used) and “covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes” (Jonah 3:6).

These are the typical things done by people in the ancient world as a sign of sorrow and repentance for their sins, not just Jews. (See Ezekiel 26:15-16, and the people of non-Jewish Tyre.) See also these examples from the Scriptures:

• Fasting (not eating food, and sometimes, drink, for a period of time) - Joel 1:14 and 2:12, 15 and Nehemiah 9:1
• Sackcloth (very rough clothing, maybe like wearing a burlap bag) - Joel 1:13, Genesis 37:34 (Jacob, when he thought his son, Joseph, was dead), Job 16:15, and even wicked King Ahab in 1 Kings 21:27, when he repented and was allowed to live longer
• Ashes - Job 42:6, Daniel 9:3, and Matthew 11:21

The King of Nineveh also decreed that both man and beast not eat and put on sackcloth and “call mightily to God” and “turn from evil” and “the violence that is in his hands” (Jonah 3:7-8). (The people of Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire were known for being very violent people and for using violence to get whatever they wanted for themselves, as they conquered and plundered other peoples.)

There are many skeptical people who would say that the simple preaching of Jonah could not possibly have accomplished all this. Jonah could not; but it was not simply his word, but the Word of God and from God that he proclaimed - the same Word of God that created the universe and our amazing world (see Genesis 1-2) and turned around the life of Paul and has turned our lives to faith and trust in our Lord and what Jesus has done for us. God’s Word is God’s power.

Commentators and historians have also pointed out that Middle Eastern people and cultures of that time were very emotional and had high esteem for prophets and oracles and may well have heard stories of earlier prophets of Israel, and could be influenced by them. The Roman writer Cicero speaks of these characteristics; and the fact that cattle and other animals were even involved in the mourning process of these peoples is attested by the Greek historian, Herodotus, and later, Plutarch. Look at Joel 1:18,20 and how “even the beasts of the field” are described as “panting” for God’s help in a time of trouble and judgment. Think also of how during “Holy Week” in the New Testament, many Jewish people, also emotional, were stirred up and praising Jesus on Palm Sunday, and yet by Good Friday were calling for His crucifixion.

The Lutheran Bible Companion also points out two periods in Assyrian history, during the time that Jonah lived and could have preached at Nineveh , that could reflect his influence. There was a time of “great religious stirrings” where some called for putting trust in only one God and no other, which parallels the Old Testament teaching of monotheism, that there is only one true God, which Jonah did follow. There was also a time where there were two severe plagues and an earthquake, which severely troubled the people and could have helped make them more open to the warning of judgment and the call to repentance by Jonah.

Most important, we have the words of our Lord Jesus, recorded in Matthew 12:41 and Luke 11:32, that the “men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah.” (We’ll talk more about this passage and what else Jesus affirms regarding Jonah, probably next week.)

As we return now to Jonah 3:9, the King of Nineveh, after commanding the people to call out to God and repent and turn from their evil ways, then says, “Who knows what God will do? Hopefully, He will turn away from His anger and relent, so that we may not perish.” This sounds much like what is said in Joel 2:14: “Who knows whether God will not turn and relent” from the disaster threatened for His own chosen people if they did not return to Him in faith. Joel, of course, also reaffirmed the mercy of God. Read Joel 2:13, and then all of Joel 2:12-17 and God’s response in Joel 2:18. See also Exodus 32:11-14, after the people of Israel had built and worshiped a golden calf as a pagan god. Moses pleaded with God to turn away from His “burning anger,” and God did so.

That is exactly what God did also for the pagan people of Nineveh, in Jonah 3:10. He saw “how they turned from their evil way,” and He did not bring disaster and “overthrow” the city and its people. Jeremiah spoke of the same outcome, in an example in Jeremiah 18:7. He also gave the same warning, even to his own people of Israel, if they kept going away from the Lord and His will.

Sadly, the repentance of the people of Nineveh did not last for a long time. They did not continue in faith and response to the one true God and went back to their very evil ways. See the prophecy of Nahum about their coming destruction. This time they did not listen and Nineveh fell to the Babylonians and was destroyed in 612 BC. This is a danger. Think about the reaction in the United States after so many people were killed in the terrorist attacks on 9/11. There was religious fervor for a time, and more people went back to church, but it did not last either.

Next week, we will talk about Jonah’s surprising reaction to God’s mercy upon Nineveh in Jonah, Chapter 4.

Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday - February 27, 2022

Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday, based on:

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Hebrews 3:1-6 

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon originally delivered February 10, 2013

Preparing for Worship - February 27, 2022

This coming Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday and the last Sunday of the Epiphany season. Christ’s light as Lord and Savior clearly shines forth in the Gospel lesson, and all the other readings give insight into that, as well.

The Old Testament Lesson, from Deuteronomy 34:1-12, tells of God taking Moses to a high mountain and showing him all of the land promised to God’s people of Israel. Moses would not be the one to lead the people into the land, though. Joshua, blessed by the Lord through Moses, would become that leader. Moses then died, and the Lord took care of his burial. Moses was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, whom God knew very directly, but Moses only prefigured the much greater Prophet, our Lord Jesus (Deuteronomy 18:15ff).

The Psalm is Psalm 99, which praises and worships the Holy Lord God, the Lord of the universe and all the earth. He spoke to prophets like Moses and Samuel and others “in the pillar of the cloud,” judging wrongdoing but also showing Himself to be “a forgiving God.”

The Epistle, from Hebrews 3:1-6, says that Moses could only “testify to things that would be spoken later.” Christ Jesus has much greater glory, as the greatest Apostle and High Priest and Builder, Creator of all things, and the true Son of God. (See also Hebrews 1:1-3.) Jesus is our “hope” and “confidence,” and “we are His house,” and He lives and works in us through His Word and the faith and forgiveness He gives us.

That “greater glory” of Jesus is shown in our Gospel lesson, from Luke 9:28-36. Jesus took some of His disciples to a mountain to pray. There, His appearance changed, and He became “dazzling white.” Moses and Elijah also appeared and talked with Him about His “departure,” literally, His “exodus.” Through His coming suffering and death and resurrection, He would accomplish the saving work of rescuing us from sin and Satan and death - a much greater rescue than the rescue of God’s people from slavery in Egypt in the time of Moses. From a cloud that then enveloped those on the mountain, the Heavenly Father declared that Jesus was His Son, His Chosen One (see Isaiah 42:1), and that everyone needs to “listen to Him” and His saving Words and works.

Bible Study - Book of Jonah Part 4 - Jonah 2:1-10

We begin this study at Jonah 2:1, after Jonah was thrown into the Mediterranean Sea in a great storm and, by a miracle of God, did not drown but was swallowed by a great fish. For parts of three days, Jonah was in the belly of the great fish, protected and kept alive by God Himself. While inside the fish, Jonah had plenty of time to think and meditate, and he especially seemed to focus on psalms that he knew from his work as a prophet and from his time in worship, where psalms were the songbook, the hymnal, for God’s people. All this leads Jonah to the prayer that he prayed to God in Jonah, Chapter 2.

Dr. Walter Roehrs suggests that we consider three things about this prayer:

1. The prayer is seen and described and written down “retrospectively” (after the fact) “from the vantage point of his deliverance.” So, “both his past petitions and his present thanksgiving are recorded.”
2. There is nothing about the physical aspect of his being in a great fish and being vomited out. The prayer is only about his inner spiritual thinking and meditation.
3. The prayer is sincere toward God, but never does Jonah clearly confess his own sin of rebellion against God and His will. He thinks about Jerusalem and the temple there, but there is still no clear thought about Nineveh, and the needs of the people there. Jonah still is far from understanding God’s will and plan.

As we get into that prayer, then, we see that Jonah does clearly recognize and pray to the one true God, “the Lord his God.” (If your translation has “the LORD” all in capital letters, that indicates that this is the special Hebrew name for God, often called “Yahweh.” Jonah used that special name four times in this short prayer, and it is used is verse 1 and verse 10, as well. Jonah kept faith with the one true God, even though he was still struggling with God’s specific plan for him, as we will see.

As a prophet, Jonah also knew and used God’s Word and had worshipped Him using the songbook, the hymnal of God’s people, the psalms. David had written many of them nearly 200 years before, and Jonah seems to have had them in mind as he was in the great fish for those three days. Many of the phrases he uses have parallels in the psalms and some might even have been direct quotes from psalms he remembered. (In the podcast I suggested keeping your Bible open to Jonah but also to the psalms, and I read from many of them. In this summary, I will simply list Psalm parallels, and you can look them up on your own, as you choose.)

In Jonah 2:2-3, Jonah knew to call upon the LORD in his distress “in the belly of Sheol.” He trusted that the Lord would hear and answer. (Sheol is a Hebrew word which can mean "the place of the dead.” Jonah must have felt near to death and not sure if he would survive. “Sheol” can also be a word for “hell” in some contexts, but not here, though Jonah may well have felt that he was in a “hellish” situation, in a great fish in the sea. See parallels in Psalm 18:3-6, a psalm of David, and Psalm 130:1.)

In Jonah 2:3, Jonah admits that it was really not the sailors but the Lord who had “cast” him “into the deep.” He says, in verse 4, to the Lord, “I am driven away from Your sight.” He had purposely tried to run away from God and now realizes what great agony he had brought upon himself and how much he needed the Lord from whom he had tried to escape. (See parallels in Psalm 31:22, another psalm of David.) How much Jonah wishes he could be in the “holy temple” in Jerusalem, where God would show His presence and he could hear God’s Word (Jonah 2:4 and 2:7). (See parallels again in Psalm 31:22 and Psalm 27:4-5.)

Again, Jonah thinks of how trapped he is in a “land whose bars could close upon him forever,” in death, in “the pit” (Jonah 2:5-6). (See the parallels in Psalm 69:1-3, still another psalm of David.) Yet, in Jonah 2:7, when his “life was fainting away,” Jonah “remembered the Lord,” and seemed to realize that the Lord could still “bring his life up from the pit.” He could still talk with the Lord in prayer, right where he was, and be heard and helped, through the Word of God that he knew, in these psalms. (See Psalm 5:7 and Psalm 77:9-16,19.)

What Jonah was going through is important for all of us when we go through turbulent times in our lives. We can go up and down in our thinking and feelings, from one moment to the next, as Jonah did. We can have times of great discouragement and depression, but remembering the Lord and His Word and His mercy and care can pull us up to hope again. (See Psalm 42, where the psalmist’s soul is “cast down and in turmoil” until he remembers God and His house and His steadfast love and mercy. See especially verses 4-8, where he is lifted up by His Lord and His hope, and yet needs to keep remembering His Lord, for he can slip back into discouragement. He mentions this in Psalm 42:11, again, and in Psalm 43:3-5.) Doesn’t that sound like Jonah’s thoughts, while in the belly of the great fish? Does that sound like you and me, too, at times in our lives?

We all need to keep “remembering the Lord” and what He really wants to give us all - His steadfast love and mercy and forgiveness, as we listen to His Word and trust in Him. (See another psalm of David, Psalm 103:1-13.) That’s why we need to keep studying His Word, as we are doing right now and as we do in worship, as we hear of the mercy and forgiveness of God. Dr. Roehrs, in his comments on Jonah 2, also points us to how often God told His Old Testament people (and us) to keep remembering Him and what He has done for us, in His rescue of His people from slavery in Egypt, (and His rescue of us all now through Jesus our Savior, above all). See Deuteronomy 7:18, 8:2, 8:18, 11:2-3, 24:9,18, and 22, 15:15, and 16:12, for example.

Finally, this message also got through to Jonah. He knew that “those who pay attention to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love” from God. (Jonah 2:8). (See the warning God gave to His own people in Hosea 4:1-3, when they did not know and remember and listen to Him. Does verse 2 sound like our own country, at times?)

In contrast, Jonah was finally trusting that the Lord was going to spare him, and he was already thanking the Lord for His mercy and making plans to sacrifice to the Lord and make promises and vows to Him that he would carry out in the future, when he was rescued (Jonah 2:9). (See parallels in Psalm 50:14-15 and 56:12-13 and 61:8.)

Jonah was also quoting from Psalm 3:8, another psalm of David, when he finally said, “Salvation belongs to the Lord.” And on the third day that Jonah was in the great fish, “The Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land” (Jonah 2:10). He was saved by His Lord, who who still cared about him. And we are saved by our Lord Jesus, as we keep trusting Him, too.

We will see, as we continue the story of Jonah, how well he does with his vows and promises and thanksgiving to His Lord. There is such a thing that is called “jailhouse religion” or “foxhole religion.” When people are in big trouble or danger, they sometimes get serious and call upon the Lord and make promises to Him, if He will only help them out. But as soon as they are out of danger, they forget all about their vows and good intentions and leave the Lord behind again. May the Lord help us to keep trusting in Him, staying faithful to Him. It is always the best for us and is our way of thanking Him for His mercy to us. And as God is merciful to us, we are called to merciful and caring to others, even those who treat us badly. See Luke 6:27-36. That is a message that Jonah still needs to learn, as we shall see.