Useful Bible Studies > Jonah Commentary > chapter 2
When Jonah originally went into the boat, he was acting boldly and on purpose (1:3). Even during the storm, his words to the sailors were strong and bold (1:9; 1:12). Although his relationship with God had become very weak, Jonah’s own soul remained strong. The ‘soul’ means a person’s inner life, especially when we consider it separately from that person’s relationship with God.
Only in the sea, when Jonah expected to die, did his soul become weak. When his soul became desperately weak, he remembered God. Here, to ‘remember’ does not only mean to think about God. In the Bible, the word ‘remember’ often has a much more powerful meaning than we might expect. Through the whole of chapter 1, Jonah had been thinking about God. However, when Jonah ‘remembered’ God, he at last turned back to God. He decided to obey God; he decided to trust God completely.
Jonah had turned, in his mind, towards the temple, that is, God’s house in Jerusalem (2:4). However, his prayer rose up to God’s temple, that is, his true home in heaven (1 Kings 8:48-49). It was in heaven that God heard and answered Jonah’s prayer. When God ‘answers’ a prayer, he acts powerfully to help the person who prayed.
God answered Jonah’s prayer to rescue him from the sea, in a very strange way. God first sent the great fish to swallow him. Jonah was no longer drowning, but he was not yet free. Inside the fish, he continued to pray and to believe God. God, who had rescued him from the sea in such an extraordinary way, would somehow bring him to safety on the land.
Next part: The person who trusts in false gods cannot know God's grace (Jonah 2:8)
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