Jonah 2

CHAPTER 2THEME: When did Jonah pray? Jonah’s prayer; Jonah arrives on the dry landOur timetable for chapter 2 tells us that Jonah is going to leave the fish, his destination is still Nineveh, and he will arrive on the dry land. First, however, we want to examine the experience of this man inside the fish.

Jonah 2:1

WHY DID JONAH PRAY?Immediately someone is going to say to me, “You believe that Jonah was dead inside the fish and that God raised him from the dead, but it says here that Jonah prayed unto the Lord God out of the fish’s bellythat means he was alive inside the fish.” That is true, but my question is: When did Jonah pray this prayer? Did he pray this prayer when he first got into the fish? Or, when Jonah found himself inside the fish, did he say to himself, “My, I am really here in a precarious position, and things sure don’t look good for me. I want to prepare a prayer to send to God that He’ll hear and answer”? Did he decide to write out his prayer, work on it for a couple of days, memorize it, and then on the third day say the prayer to God? If Jonah did that, then my interpretation of this is all wrongI’m all wet, if you please.

But if I know human nature at all, Jonah didn’t wait very long to pray this prayer. When he found himself in this condition, you can be sure of one thing: he immediately went to prayer before God. In fact, I think he prayed on the way down, and by the time he got into the fish’s tummy, it was time to say amen. Men don’t pray a prepared prayer in time of crisis. They get down to business immediately when the crisis comes. I am reminded of a friend of mine in the ministry who lost the index finger on his right hand below the first jointthere was nothing left but a stub. When anyone would ask him how he was called to the ministry, he would hold up that little stub of a finger and wiggle it, and then he would tell his story. When he was a boy, an evangelist came to their church to hold meetings. The first night of the meetings, his dad, who was an officer in the church, made him sit on the front row, and the preacher really made that seat hot for him. He knew the preacher was talking right to him, although the preacher himself didn’t realize it. His dad made him go to the meeting the second night, and he knew that if he went yet another time, he not only would accept Christ as his Savior but would also give his life to enter the ministry. He had a feeling even at that time that that would be his call. So that night after everybody went to bed, he got an extra shirt and his pajamas and ran off to Mississippi.

There he got a job in a sawmill. I don’t know if you are acquainted with the old-time sawmill. A man would take a great hook and would roll the logs over onto the carriage which would take the log on down to the big saw. The saw would then rip that log right down through the middle. My friend’s job was to roll the logs onto the carriage. One afternoon after he had worked there for about two weeks, he ran out of logs. So the foreman got some old logs which had not been run through the saw for one reason or another. There was one log among them that had already been ripped about halfway. For some reason they hadn’t finished it but had pulled it back out. When my friend rolled that particular log over onto the carriage which carried it into the band saw, the place where the log had previously been ripped opened up, and the index finger on his right hand got caught in it. He felt himself being pulled along the carriage toward that big band saw.

He began to yell at the top of his voice, but by that time, the other end of the log had hit the saw and was already going through. If you have ever been around a sawmill, you know that that makes a terrible racketnobody could hear him. He was yelling at the top of his voice, very frightened as he found himself being pulled against his will right into that saw. It would take only about forty-five seconds for him to get to the saw. His finger was way out in front of him, and the place where the log had been sawed was clamped down tight on it. His finger hit the saw and was cut off. But that released him, and he rolled to the side and was safe. In that forty-five seconds, he had prayed to the Lord. He accepted Christ as his Savior, promised the Lord he would go into the ministry and do His will, and told Him a lot of other things also! My preacher friend used to say that he told the Lord more in that forty-five seconds than he has ever told Him in an hour’s prayer since then. May I say to you, he prayed that prayer immediately when the crisis came. That’s when I pray; that’s when you pray. You don’t wait to pray in a time of emergency. I recall one time on a plane when we got into unusually rough weatherI don’t like flying even in good weather, and this rough weather was terrific. The minute the plane began to dropit seemed to me like it was never going to quit dropping!I began to pray. I didn’t say, “I’m going to wait until we are off the plane, I’m going to wait until we get out of this storm before I pray.” I began to pray right there and then. I’m sure that’s what you do, and I’m almost sure that’s what Jonah did, also. So Jonah prayed this prayer as he went down from the mouth of the fish and through the esophagus. By the time, he went “kerplunk” into the fish’s tummy, this man Jonah had already completed his prayer and had said amen. I think he prayed a great deal more than is recorded hereI think we have “the abridged edition” of it. Some folk put a great deal of emphasis upon the time word then"Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly." They assume that this means that after he had been in the fish three days and three nights, then he prayed. This is not what it means at all. It is characteristic of the Hebrew language to give the full account of something and then to go back and emphasize that which is important. This same technique is used in Genesis concerning the creation. We are given the six days of creation, and then God goes back and gives a detailed account of the creation of man, adding a great deal. To attempt to build an assumption on the little word then is very fallacious. It simply means that now Jonah is going to tell us the story in detail; he is going to tell us what really happened inside the fish.

Jonah 2:2

JONAH’S PRAYER"I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me." Notice first that God heard Jonah’s prayer. “Out of the belly of hell cried I.” The New Scofield Reference Bible translates this as “out of the belly of sheol,” and that certainly is accurate for that is the original Hebrew word. Sheol is sometimes translated in Scripture by the word “grave” and in other places as “the unseen world,” meaning where the dead go. This is a word that, any way you look at it, has to do with death. It is a word that always goes to the cemetery, and you cannot take it anywhere else. Therefore, my interpretation of what Jonah is saying is that the belly of the fish was his grave, and a grave is a place for the deadyou do not put a live man in a grave. Jonah recognized that he was going to die inside the fish and that God would hear him and raise him from the dead. Many years ago when I was still a young seminary student, I was asked to preach for a brief period of time at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia. I made the Sunday evening service an evangelistic service. One night several young people came forward when I gave the invitation. After the service I talked to them, and then I went to the rear of the church. A young fellow was standing there, and he told me, “I’m a student at Georgia Tech, and I would like to accept Christ, but I have a hurdle, a problem that I can’t overcome.” I asked him what his problem was, and he replied, “I just can’t believe that a man could live three days and three nights inside a fish.” I said, “Who told you that?” “Well,” he said, “I thought the Bible said so, and I know I’ve heard preachers say so. And I’ve got a professor at school who spends his time ridiculing that.” “My Bible doesn’t say that Jonah was alive inside the fish,” I told him. Then I opened my Bible to the second chapter of Jonah and said, “To begin with, this man Jonah makes it very clear that the belly of the fish was his grave. A grave is a place for the dead.” “Do you mean that he died? Then that means that God raised him from the dead!” the young man said. I told him he was exactly rightthat is exactly what happened. He said, “That’s a greater miracle than Jonah’s being kept alive in the fish for three days.” I agreed with him that it was a greater miracle because, as we shall see, we have records of other men who have lived through such experiences. The important thing to note here is the Jonah cried unto the Lord out of the fish’s belly, out of the belly of hell, out of the belly of sheol, out of the belly of the graveand that is the place for the dead. Jonah felt like he was there to die and that he was in his grave. You must remember that he did not write this account while he was inside the fish but afterward. I realize there are those who will not accept my viewpoint concerning this. When I wrote my first booklet on it, I felt very much alone. However, when the late Dr. M. R. DeHaan also took this viewpoint, many folk accepted it because of their confidence in him. If you hold the other viewpoint that Jonah was alive, that’s all right. God certainly could have kept Jonah alive. But, my friend, don’t hold that viewpoint to the extent that you prevent a lot of young people from defending the Bible. This young man from Georgia Tech went back to college, and when his professor again brought up the subject of Jonah, he said to the professor, “Who told you that Jonah was alive inside the fish?” The professor said, “The Bible says so.” This young fellow said to him, “Not my Bible.” When they got out a Bible (which they had trouble finding) and looked at the Scripture, they found that it does not say that Jonah was alive inside the fish. I want to share with you a letter that came to me from Austin, Texas, and which reveals the popular interpretation of the Book of Jonah: Thank you for responding to my letter concerning Jonah. It is a mark of your dedication that you take time to answer such letters, since I am sure you get many. I believe you are doing a fine work for the Lord, and in listening to you over the years, I think you are not getting older but getting better. (May I say to you, I’m getting older, but no one’s kidding me, I’m not getting better!) The letter continues: Your story about your fear of flying and how you conquered it brings meaning to a living faith, but as far as Jonah goes, you are, I believe, putting in a private interpretation. You’re straining the Word to make it say something it doesn’t say. May I go on to say that the fact that Jonah lived three days in the whale’s belly doesn’t do any damage to the reference in Mat_12:39-40. Why don’t you take your Bible and read it again? If we forget the chapter designation, it helps. “And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly.” I guess that Jonah did a lot of soul-searching during those three days. If you interpret this passage like you do, you must believe the writer didn’t have enough sense to put the story down in the sequence it occurred. …You state that it assumed that Jonah was alive. Well, I don’t believe it is, but if you want to say that, I think your assumption [that he was dead] is the greater assumption, and I hope you realize you are only assuming. My question to you is: Why? I appreciate that letter, and I recognize that the general and popular interpretation is that Jonah was alive for three days and three nights inside the fish, that he apparently had a very comfortable weekend inside a “fish-tel” instead of a motel. I don’t think he could have been as comfortable as he would have been in a Holiday Inn, a Ramada Inn, or a Hilton Hotel, but at least it is popularly believed that he spent three days and three nights in there alive. In fact, when I was a boy in Sunday school, I was given a little card on which Jonah was shown inside the fish, sitting at a table! I don’t know where that came from, but that was the way he was pictured and, although I was just a little fellow, it rather disturbed me. If you hold the viewpoint that Jonah was alive, you are with the majority today, even with the majority of the expositors of the Book of Jonah. You can feel comfortable in being with the majority, but of course, if you want to be right, you’ll want to go along with me, I’m sure. I say this facetiously, of course. However, I want to make this point very carefully and very seriously. It is not a question of whether God was able to keep Jonah alive inside the fish or not. God could keep him alive. The question is: Did God keep him alive? Was the miracle one of keeping him alive, or was the miracle in raising him from the dead? Since this book illustrates resurrection, I’m of the opinion that God raised him from the dead. If, after I have had a little talk with Jonah in heaven, I learn that he was alive for three days and three nights inside that fish, then you can come by and say, “I told you so.” Then I will have to confess that I was wrong. I am not, however, as the writer of this letter seems to think, taking an assumption and making a dogmatic statement. I do want to say that I have had the privilege of teaching the Book of Jonah on quite a few college campuses, and I have found that the position I take does give ammunition to young people today. If you want to hold to the opposite viewpoint, don’t get enraged and become irritated with my viewpoint, for you must recognize that it has been very helpful to a great many students. It has been the means, as in the case of the Georgia Tech student years ago, of bringing some to a saving knowledge of Christ. It is also not a question of whether a man can live in a fish. Men have been swallowed by a fish or by a whale and have lived to tell the story. There have been recorded some remarkable stories. So that leads me to say that, if you believe Jonah was alive inside the fish, that is not too great a miracle because other men have had the same experience. Many years ago here in Pasadena, California, there was a very excellent Bible teacher by the name of Miss Grace W. Kellogg. She gave me a copy of her little book, The Bible Today. She held the old viewpoint that Jonah was alive inside the fish, and she wanted me to see that Jonah could have been alive. Of course, I agree that he could have been alive, and if that is what Jonah means to have said, then I have really misunderstood him. Nonetheless, I would like to give you a quotation from Miss Kellogg’s book which shows that it is possible for a man to be swallowed by a fish and live. There are many examples of it, and I am going to give you a few of those that she gave: There are at least two known monsters of the deep who could easily have swallowed Jonah. They are the Balaenoptera Musculus or sulphur-bottom whale, and the Rhinodon Typicus or whale shark. Neither of these monsters of the deep have any teeth. They feed in an interesting way by opening their enormous mouths, submerging their lower jaw, and rushing through the water at terrific speed. After straining out the water, they swallow whatever is left. A sulphur-bottom whale, one hundred feet long, was captured off Cape Cod in 1933.

His mouth was ten or twelve feet wideso big he could easily have swallowed a horse. These whales have four to six compartments in their stomachs, in any one of which a colony of men could find free lodging. They might even have a choice of rooms, for in the head of this whale is a wonderful air storage chamber, an enlargement of the nasal sinus, often measuring seven feet high, seven feet wide, by fourteen feet long. If he has an unwelcome guest on board who gives him a headache, the whale swims to the nearest land and gets rid of the offender as he did Jonah. The Cleveland Plain Dealer recently quoted an article by Dr. Ransome Harvey who said that a dog was lost overboard from a ship. It was found in the head of a whale six days later, alive and barking. Frank Bullen, F.R.G.S., who wrote, “The Cruise of the Cathalot,” tells of a shark fifteen feet in length which was found in the stomach of a whale. He says that when dying the whale ejects the contents of its stomach. The late Dr. Dixon stated that in a museum in Beirut, Lebanon, there is a head of a whale shark big enough to swallow the largest man that history records! He also tells of a white shark of the Mediterranean which swallowed a whole horse; another swallowed a reindeer minus only its horns. In still another Mediterranean white shark was found a whole sea cow, about the size of an ox. These facts show that Jonah could have been swallowed by either a whale or a shark. But has any other man besides Jonah been swallowed and lived to tell the tale? We know two such instances. The famous French scientist, M. de Parville, writes of James Bartley, who in the region of the Falkland Islands near South America, was supposed to have been drowned at sea. Two days after his disappearance, the sailors made a catch of a whale. When it was cut up, much to their surprise they found their missing friend alive but unconscious inside the whale. He revived and has been enjoying the best of health ever since his adventure. Dr. Harry Rimmer, President of the Research Science Bureau of Los Angeles, writes of another case. “In the Literary Digest we noticed an account of an English sailor who was swallowed by a gigantic Rhinodon in the English Channel. Briefly, the account stated that in the attempt to harpoon one of these monstrous sharks, this sailor fell overboard, and before he could be picked up again, the shark turned and engulfed him. Forty-eight hours after the accident occurred, the fish was sighted and slain. When the shark was opened by the sailors, they were amazed to find the man unconscious but alive! He was rushed to the hospital where he was found to be suffering from shock alone, and a few hours later was discharged as being physically fit. The account concluded by saying that the man was on exhibit in a London Museum at a shilling admittance fee; being advertised as ‘The Jonah of the Twentieth Century.’” In 1926 Dr. Rimmer met this man, and writes that his physical appearance was odd; his body was devoid of hair and patches of yellowish-brown color covered his entire skin. If two men could exist for two days and nights inside of marine monsters, could not a prophet of God, under His direct care and protection, stand the experience a day and night longerso why should we doubt God’s Word? This demonstrates the fact that a man could live in a fish, but it also takes away from the unusual character of Jonah’s experience; that is, if these men lived and Jonah livedand I am told there are even other records of such experiencesthen what you have in the Book of Jonah is a record of something that is not really a great miracle. You simply have a record of an unusual incident that took place. I personally believe that the greater miracle is the fact that God raised him from the dead. Again, I remind you that the question before us is not whether God could make a man live for three days, and three nights inside a fish; the question is: Did God do that? Is that what the record says?

Jonah 2:3

We cannot treat this lightly. If Jonah lived in the fish, he also lived like a fish, because he was swamped by water. He says, “The floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.” In other words, Jonah is saying, “I got wet.” I think it is all wet to try to say that the man lived three days and three nights. I personally feel that the Devil gets us to argue about that, while we miss the great truth of the resurrection.

Jonah 2:4

“Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight"Jonah is speaking of death. “Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.” Jonah believed that he would be raised from the dead. He had been brought up on the Old Testament, and I think that Jonah was one of the many in the northern kingdom who faithfully went down to Jerusalem to worship in the temple. The Israelites knew that Solomon’s temple was the place to worship the living and true God. Jonah says, “I’m going to look again toward thy holy temple. God will raise me up again.” Does this sound to you like a man who is alive?

Jonah 2:5

“The waters compassed me about, even to the soul.” He’s saying, “I got drenched. The depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.” This sea monster had been eating a bunch of seaweeds. Some seaweeds that I have pulled out along the Pacific Coast are twenty-five feet longand this monster had his tummy full of them! Jonah says, “I was down there, and I got these things all wrapped around my head.” Do you think this man is describing a very pleasant weekend inside a fish? I don’t think soI think he is trying to tell us that he went down to the very depths and that he died.

Jonah 2:6

“I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever.” This is a very interesting translation because it is in Elizabethan English; this is the way that death was spoken of. “The earth with her bars was about me for ever"Jonah is speaking here of the bars of death, and that is the meaning of this translation. “Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.” “Corruption” is death. The apostle Peter so used this word on the Day of Pentecost when he said that the Lord Jesus did not see corruption (see Act_2:25-31). The miracle about the Lord Jesus is that when He died He did not see corruptionHis body did not corrupt. That is the difference between Jonah’s experience and our Lord’s experience. Jonah did see corruption. His body apparently began to decay in those three days and three nights. “Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption.” What we have here, in my judgment, is a definite statement by Jonah that he died. The miracle here is resurrection, and that is a much greater miracle than for a man to live for three days inside a fish. I think it is very important that we have a book in the Old Testament which teaches the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Resurrection is one of the two pillars of our salvation upon which the ark of the church reststhe death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. They are both taught in the Old Testament, and this book illustrates His resurrection.

Jonah 2:7

I think a normal explanation of this would be that when this man was swallowed by the fish, he was frightened. He began immediately to call out to God to deliver him as he found himself going down the esophagus of that fish. “My soul fainted within me.” It must have been at least five minutes before Jonah lapsed into unconsciousness, but before he did, he said, “I remembered the LORD.” This is when he prayed his prayer. Don’t try to tell me that he prayed his prayer on the third day, after he’d spent three days in their under conviction and soul-searching! Jonah has said that his soul got wet, and now he says that his soul fainted with himthat means he lost consciousness inside the fish. “And my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.” Before he lapsed into unconsciousness and before death came to him, this man had already prayed his prayer. Jonah now makes an observation here, and it is one of the many maxims that you find in the Word of God

Jonah 2:8

I have tried to arrive at a satisfactory explanation of this verse, and so far I have been unable to do so. However, I will have to give you the explanation I have: This is another of the great principles in Scripture. Vanity is emptiness. Jonah is speaking here of those who observe that which is empty, that which is vain, that which is just a dream and is not going to come to pass. Jonah calls it a lying emptiness. He says that they forsake the only mercy they can receive.

Jonah says at this time, “I called out to the living and true God. I no longer was playing the pouting prophet, rushing off to Tarshish in the opposite direction because I hated the Ninevites and didn’t want them saved. Now I am dealing with reality. I’m getting right down to the nitty-gritty.” (And, my friend, there was a whole lot of nitty-gritty inside that fish!) This man says, “I’m getting right down to business with God. I appealed to Him, to His mercy, and I found that He was merciful to me.” Jonah cried out to God, and now he shows his gratitude by saying this:

Jonah 2:9

“But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving.” Friend, I don’t suppose you and I can possibly conceive of the thanksgiving that was in this man’s heart and life when the fish vomited him out onto the dry land. He was a mess at that time, but he lifted his voice in thanksgiving to God for having delivered him and raised him from the dead. “I will pay that that I have vowed.” Do you know what Jonah’s vow was? Can’t you imagine what it was? I believe that he now says to the Lord, “I’ll go to Nineveh.” Before he had said, “I won’t go to Nineveh.” But he’s changed his mindGod has changed it for himand now he makes a vow that he will go to Nineveh. The Lord has to deal with many of us like that. He has never put me through a fish, but He did give me cancer. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not blaming Him for thatHe was judging me. He has also chastised me since then, because I thought that I had learned all the lessons an old man ought to learn, but I found out that I hadn’t learned them. I am prepared to say the same thing Jonah said. I am thankful to Him for the trials He has permitted to come to me and for His deliverance from them.

I’ve made vows to God; I’ve promised Him that I would devote the rest of my life to giving out His Wordthat is what He has called me to do. Many people find fault and do not like the way I do itI’m not entirely satisfied myself; I wish I could do it betterbut I’ve made a vow to God, and I understand the vow this man Jonah made. He said, “I’m going to Nineveh, Lord, and I’m going to do what You want me to do.” “Salvation is of the LORD.” In my judgment this is the most important statement that we find in the Book of Jonah. I think it is very, very important. Notice what he says: “I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD"he is speaking of deliverance. There are several things about this that we need to note. Salvation is God’s work for us. Salvation is never man’s work for God. God cannot save us by our works, because the only thing that we can present to Him is imperfection, and God simply does not accept imperfection. However, we are unable to present perfection to Him. If it depended on us or our works, if it depended on our doing something, we could never be saved. To begin with, we are lost sinners, dead in trespasses and sins. If deliverance is to come, it will have to come to us like it did to Jonah, who was dead and hopeless in that fish. If he is to live, if he is to be used of God (and he is going to be used), it will be because “Salvation is of the LORD.” And if you ever get saved, it is because salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is such a wonderful thing that you can put it into three tenses: I have been savedpast tense; I am being savedpresent tense; I shall be savedfuture tense. So salvation is God’s work from beginning to end. Let’s look for a moment at what Scripture has to say about this.

1. I have been savedpast tense. The Lord Jesus Christ said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life …” (Joh_5:24). The moment you trust Christ you have everlasting life. That is something that took place in the past for those who are Christians today. If sometime in the past you trusted Christ, that was all His workyou trusted what He did. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life …” (Joh_3:36).

You received life when you trusted Christ. You did nothing, nothing whatsoeverHe offered it to you as a gift. “…the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom_6:23). I have been saved. How was I saved? By trusting Christ and His work. It was “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Tit_3:5). 2. I am being savedpresent tense. God is not through with us; He intends to continue to work in our lives. We are told “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Php_2:12-13). You can’t work it out until God has worked it in.

Paul could say, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph_2:8-9). That’s great, but the apostle didn’t stop there; he went on to say, “For we are his workmanship …” (Eph_2:10). His workmanship? Yes. “Created in Christ Jesus"we were given a new life; Paul adds, “Created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” So that now by the power of the Holy Spirit, the child of God is to produce fruit. The Lord Jesus said that He wanted us to bring forth much fruit (see Joh_15:1-5). Paul writes in Galatians, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Gal_5:22-23).

All of these marvelous, wonderful graces are His work, and He wants to work them in you today. You and I ought to be growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. I am being savedI ought to be a better Christian today than I was last year. I get a little discouraged in that connection, because sometimes I feel that I’m like the proverbial cat which climbed up three feet on the pole in the daytime but slipped back five feet at night! I feel like I haven’t gotten very far, but nevertheless, there has been some growth. Don’t be satisfied with me, because He is not through with me yet. “Salvation is of the LORD.” 3. I will be savedfuture tense. There is coming a day when I will be saved. Paul said to that young preacher, Timothy, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2Ti_3:16). As Paul talked to him about the wonderful Word of God, he also said, “…from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation …” (2Ti_3:15). Since Timothy was already saved, what did Paul mean when he said, “which are able to make thee wise unto salvation”? He meant that the Scriptures would enable Timothy to grow and enable him to live for God. But even when we come to the end of life, we are not complete. Dwight L. Moody, the great evangelist, used to tell about the time when he heard Henry Varley, then an unknown preacher. As Moody sat in the balcony, he heard Varley say, “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man who is fully yielded to Him.” Dwight L. Moody, just a young fellow at that time, said to himself, “By the grace of God, I will be that man.” But when he was dying, Moody said, “I wanted to be that man, but it is still true that the world has yet to see what God can do with a man who is fully yielded to Him.” My friend, I am of the opinion that when you and I get to the end of our lives, the same will be true of you and me. It can still be said that the world has yet to see a person completely yielded to God. So don’t be discouraged with me, and I won’t be discouraged with you, because, beloved, “…it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1Jn_3:2). We are going to see Him some day, and then we are going to be like Him. Until then, I’ll probably be very unlike Him. Maybe you will make it; I don’t think I will. But in that day, I will be like Him, and at that time you are going to be delighted with me, and you are really going to love me. That is one thing that will make heaven so wonderful. Not only am I going to love everybody, but everybody is going to love me! When we get to heaven, we are going to be like Him. “Salvation is of the LORD.” This is a wonderful statement, and it is found in the Old Testament in the Book of Jonah. Do you know where this man learned that? He learned that when he was swallowed by a fish and then vomited outthen he was able to make this statement.

Jonah 2:10

JONAH ARRIVES ON THE DRY LANDI cannot resist making this corny statement: It just goes to show that you can’t keep a good man down! Someone else has put it like this, “Even a fish couldn’t digest Jonah, the backsliding prophet.” But Jonah is a different man now. He’s made some vows to God, and one of them is that he is going to Nineveh. His ticket is now to Nineveh.