Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
Jonah Ch.2 / 4 Ch.s
JON:2
* The prayer of Jonah. (1-9) He is delivered from the fish. (10)
#1-9 Observe when Jonah prayed. When he was in trouble, under
the tokens of God's displeasure against him for sin: when we are
in affliction we must pray. Being kept alive by miracle, he
prayed. A sense of God's good-will to us, notwithstanding our
offences, opens the lips in prayer, which were closed with the
dread of wrath. Also, where he prayed; in the belly of the fish.
No place is amiss for prayer. Men may shut us from communion
with one another, but not from communion with God. To whom he
prayed; to the Lord his God. This encourages even backsliders to
return. What his prayer was. This seems to relate his experience
and reflections, then and afterwards, rather than to be the form
or substance of his prayer. Jonah reflects on the earnestness of
his prayer, and God's readiness to hear and answer. If we would
get good by our troubles, we must notice the hand of God in
them. He had wickedly fled from the presence of the Lord, who
might justly take his Holy Spirit from him, never to visit him
more. Those only are miserable, whom God will no longer own and
favour. But though he was perplexed, yet not in despair. Jonah
reflects on the favour of God to him, when he sought to God, and
trusted in him in his distress. He warns others, and tells them
to keep close to God. Those who forsake their own duty, forsake
their own mercy; those who run away from the work of their place
and day, run away from the comfort of it. As far as a believer
copies those who observe lying vanities, he forsakes his own
mercy, and lives below his privileges. But Jonah's experience
encourages others, in all ages, to trust in God, as the God of
salvation.
#10 Jonah's deliverance may be considered as an instance of
God's power over all the creatures. As an instance of God's
mercy to a poor penitent, who in distress prays to him: and as a
type and figure of Christ's resurrection. Amidst all our varying
experiences, and the changing scenes of life; we should look by
faith, fixedly, upon our once suffering and dying, but now risen
and ascended Redeemer. Let us confess our sins, consider
Christ's resurrection as an earnest of our own, and thankfully
receive every temporal and spiritual deliverance, as the pledge
of our eternal redemption.