[00:00:00] Speaker A: I now can sing Since I've been redeemed I'm on the everlasting, everlasting rock I faith in Christ, my Redeemer King I'm on the everlasting, everlasting rock As I went down in the river to pray Studying about that good old way and who shall wear the starry crown Good Lord, show me the way O sisters, let's go down let's go down come on down O sisters, let's go down down in the river to pray As I went down in the river to pray Studying about that good old way and who shall wear the robe and crown Good Lord, show me the way oh brothers, let's go down let's go down Come on down Come on, brothers, let's go down down in the river to pray As I went down in the river to pray Studying about that good old way and who shall wear the starry crown Good Lord, show me the way O fathers, let's go down let's go down Come on down O fathers, let's go down down in the river to pray As I went down in the river to pray Studying about that good old way and who shall wear the robe and crown Good Lord, show me the way O mothers, let's go down Come on down don't you want to go down? Come on, mothers, let's go down down in the river to pray As I went down in the river to pray Studying about that good old way and who shall wear the starry crown Good Lord, show me the way O sinners, let's go down, let's go down come on down O sinners, let's go down down in the river to pray.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Welcome to the Voice of Hope. Recently, I was with a friend and we were talking about the struggle that many men face with purity issues.
And he asked this question, don't we fear God?
When we dabble in sin, is there no fear that God will judge?
Don't we care?
Does God's pronouncement against sin mean nothing to us? It's a question that makes you pause because often our actions show what we really believe.
And when we say we fear God, we say we believe.
But do our actions really line up with our word?
Think about this as our Bible teacher Arlen Horst leads us in our continuing study in the Old Testament Book of Jonah. But before we get into today's program, I want to tell you about several events we're holding throughout our listening area during the last week of October 2025.
If you would like to hear more About Heralds of Hope. I encourage you to go to our website
[email protected] and click on the Events link at the top.
These events have limited space, so please register today and reserve your spot for today. Here is Arlan with today's teaching from the Book of Jonah.
[00:03:57] Speaker C: I have a question for you, A question that many of us can relate to.
Are you in a pit? It's something that we all experience, isn't it? That feeling of being trapped, surrounded at rock bottom.
Pits come in many shapes and sizes, and they arrive for different reasons. Perhaps it's a pit of your own making, born from your mistakes, or your own stubbornness. Or maybe it's a pit caused by other people. Their actions or their decisions have got you in a hard spot. Think of Joseph or Jeremiah. They were in prison or in a pit because of others.
And then there are those pits that come from God. Circumstances beyond human control.
Think of what Job went through, or the time Paul was shipwrecked. These are hard times. But it wasn't a personal mistake or from another person.
God was the one who brought it or allowed it.
Regardless of how you got there, being in a pit is challenging.
These are difficult seasons that test our faith. In these moments, we wrestle with big questions. Questions about who God really is.
Questions about ourselves.
Questions about our purpose on earth. These are also times of great potential.
Potential for really good things to happen deep inside, or the potential for the opposite. We can become bitter, cynical and cold.
And I'm sure you know people who have ended up on either side.
Sometimes our trials make us better. And sometimes we become bitter.
Our story today picks up with Jonah at his absolute lowest point, physically and spiritually. Remember, he's running from God's command to go to Nineveh. He knows God created everything and is everywhere.
Yet he still ran like he could actually get away.
And when you're running from God, the only direction to go is down.
Jonah went down to Joppa, down to the ship and down into the hold.
He was thrown overboard and went down into the depths of the sea.
He deliberately chose a path away from God that leads one direction down.
The good news, though, is God's heart is for all people. He wasn't out to destroy Jonah. He's actively trying to get him back.
That's amazing.
And it's in his pit, that dark, watery grave, where God gets Jonah's attention from his pit. Jonah provides us with a good response for what we can do when we are in a pit.
If you are also at rock bottom, what should your response be?
What are we supposed to do when life is at its worst? In Jonah, chapter two, we see Jonah doing three significant things in his pit.
He prays, he believes and he praises. There's a lesson here for how we should respond. As I read the passage, see if you can identify these three responses from Jonah.
I'll be reading Jonah, chapter 1:17 1.
Now, the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the fish belly. 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.
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. Then I said, I have been cast out of your sight. Yet I will again look towards your holy temple. The waters surrounded me even to my soul. The deep closed around me, weeds were wrapping around my head. 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.
When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord. And my prayer went up to you into your holy temple.
Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.
So the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.
Here at the beginning of chapter two, we see Jonah starts praying.
Our lesson begins with the Lord preparing a great fish to swallow Jonah.
Imagine that scene for a moment. Jonah has just been thrown overboard and I'm guessing he expects his life to soon be over.
Instead, God provides a big fish swallowed whole in the dark, slimy, disgusting belly of a massive creature. What a place to be.
What was he thinking?
I'm still alive. Wait. What is this place?
My we don't know. But we know this very unusual event was God's provision.
And soon he becomes aware enough to pray. And he remembers enough of his prayer to tell others about it after he emerges.
It's from this desperate, impossible situation that Jonah finally turns to prayer. This stubborn, hard hearted Jonah, who had been silent through the storm, who wouldn't pray even when the sailors were begging him, now cries out to God. It is encouraging to know that now he is praying yes, we know he should have prayed earlier for sure, but he waited until he was swallowed by a fish, probably expecting to suffocate when it happened. But here he is, still alive and breathing.
I had to wonder, when do we use prayer? Is prayer our last option? Is this what we do when nothing else works? Hopefully not. Let's use the option of prayer often and use it first.
It also brings up a good question.
Where do we turn in our deepest crisis when we're utterly helpless?
This moment reveals much about who we are, and we're glad to see Jonah praying. It's late, but it's not too late. And now he's praying.
Notice a few things about his prayer.
First, notice the content of Jonah's prayer. He is praying Scripture in his desperate moment. When he's in his pit, Scripture comes to his mind.
Many lines of his prayer in the fish echo Passages From Psalms verse 2 sounds a lot like Psalm 18:6. In my distress I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God. He heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him even into his ears.
Verse 3 lines up with Psalm 42. Seven deep calls unto deep. At the noise of your waterfalls, all your waves and billows have gone over me.
There are others and I encourage you to check it out when you have a chance. As you go through Jonah, Chapter two, you can see Jonah knew the Bible and it became his language in this moment.
This is a good lesson for us when we find ourselves in despair, when we are in a pit and don't have the words or language to pray. Open the Bible and pray Scripture.
The Psalms are a great place to start. They are full of emotion, expressing the range of human feeling. And praying God's word back to him is incredibly powerful.
About 20 years ago, when my dad died unexpectedly from a heart attack, our family was together. We were in shock and dazed.
We were seeking comfort from the Bible. I remember reading 1 Corinthians 15, verse 25 and 26 stood out in that moment. And I've prayed it many times since.
It says, for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
Death shall be destroyed.
That is my hope. I often pray that prayer, looking forward to the day when death itself will die.
That is just one example of when the Bible was living in our crisis. In my crisis, if there are moments of despair and loneliness, the Bible is a comfort.
We also experience high moments of praise and joy. The Bible has language for that as well.
Praying the Bible is a powerful tool. And from the stomach of a fish. This is what comes to Jonah's mind. A second aspect of Jonah's prayer is his recognition of God's sovereignty. In verse 3, he declares, for you cast me into the deep.
Wait a minute. Didn't the sailors just throw him overboard?
Yes, I'm sure he knew they did. He remembered it well. But I think Jonah is now seeing big picture. He's reflecting, remembering the storm, remembering the lot.
Then the sailor's attempt to save him.
Then the storm got worse.
And he's realizing that ultimately this is God at work. He's recognizing God's hand in where he is. I see this as a positive shift, indicating that his heart is beginning to turn the right direction. He's starting to see things and as they really are.
But some say, did Jonah mean what he was saying? Was Jonah being real with his prayer? And as usual, there are many perspectives on this. Some say his prayer here is hypocritical, just words. This is his desperate plea because it's his only option.
They point to the amount of times the word I is used in his prayer. Saying it shows how self centered he still is.
Also look at his actions in Jonah 1 and then later in Jonah 4. This shows the prayer here in the middle couldn't have been very genuine.
I understand those perspectives and I hear what is being said. However, I lean toward thinking that his prayer is sincere and his words are a true expression of what's going on inside of him.
However, I recognize that people get religious when life gets hard.
God rescue me, God help and God does. Then when things are good, they forget and go back to their old patterns. What do you think? Was Jonah sincere in this prayer here in Jonah chapter two?
Let's move on to our second point.
Our second point is Jonah believed.
Think about the word believe. What does it mean?
What kind of belief are we talking about here?
I want to be clear.
This is not just intellectual knowledge. Many people say I believe in Jesus because they know the story, they have the knowledge. To them, knowledge equals believing.
But believing, the way it is used in the Bible is more than head knowledge. Believing refers to life changing belief. A belief that transforms you from the inside out and and changes who you are and how you act.
First Jonah prayed and now here in verse four, Jonah is believing. He says, I have been cast out of your sight.
So he's feeling utterly forsaken, cast out of God's sight. Which makes sense given where he was.
But then comes this incredible phrase. I will look again toward Your holy temple.
How could Jonah say this? Do you think he thought he would make it out alive?
Jonah's circumstances haven't changed. He's still very much in the pit, in the lonely, dark, disgusting belly of a fish.
But he is starting to change, and that changes everything.
This is a crucial lesson for us in our pit. Most of us have been there praying and feeling like our prayers just bounce off the ceiling.
What do we do then? Throw in the towel? Give up?
Hopefully not. Because when we reach the point where God is all we have, we soon realize that he is all we need. We are not the first people to feel this. In Psalm 142, David describes it well. First he says, I have no refuge. No one cares for my life.
He's abandoned. He follows this up with a cry to God, saying, you are my refuge.
First he has no refuge. Then he says, God is his refuge. Peter also puts it nicely when Jesus asks his disciples if they also want to leave.
His reply, lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
Two great examples of where to turn when it seems like we have nothing.
It seems Jonah is beginning to realize this God will get him through, even if it doesn't look like he'll come out alive.
At this point, I don't think Jonah knew whether he would live or not. But either way, he was planning to worship God. This reminds me of the story of the Hebrew boys in Daniel. They said, our God is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace.
But if not, let it be known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods.
They were committed and knew God could save them, but they didn't know if he would.
But they made it very clear that if he didn't, he is still God. And this is how believing in God looks. It is life changing and it's powerful. And this change is coming inside of Jonah.
His belief didn't come easy. Listen to the words he uses to describe the intensity of his experience.
The water surrounded me, even to my soul. The weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountain.
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever.
Water surrounding his soul. What does this mean? Have you ever had water in your soul?
It's the feeling of desperate pressure, like when your sibling held you underwater. There comes that point when you need air and you need it now. It's the intensity of feeling overwhelmed and suffocated and the weeds wrapped around his head. I take this as literal. I'm not sure if he could see what it was. But there was something wrapped around his head in there.
This would make the overwhelming, terrifying sensation and even worse.
Jonah was in a desperate place and he knew it. He thought he was going to die. He believed there, at the bottom of the mountain, would be his prison forever. Yet here he is, alive and still breathing, sensing that God is up to something.
God isn't done with him yet.
And this is God at work.
And right after this admission in the stomach of the fish, Jonah says, yet you have brought up my life from the pit.
He says this while still in this terrible place. How could he say this?
Nothing about the pit changed.
Listen, this isn't a description of his physical freedom. I believe he's talking about an internal transformation. He's coming to a place of understanding.
He is seeing things as they really are. And this internal change is what is bringing him up out of the pit. Even though his external circumstances are exactly the same, he is finding freedom. His heart is changing. And he gives God credit for bringing him out of the spiritual pit he was in.
Believing for Jonah didn't come easy, but it is coming.
In verse seven, we have the temple mentioned a second time.
I think his repeated allusion to the temple is significant because in the Old Testament, the temple was where God dwelt, signifying God's presence. Remember, Jonah was from the Northern Kingdom, which had set up false worship in Bethel and Dan.
But clearly Jonah wasn't fooled by this or into false worship. He was praying toward the temple, praying to the God of Jerusalem.
This was where God's true presence was, in his holy temple. Again, I see a sincere heart truly turning to God.
In verse eight, Jonah says, those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy.
This is a powerful verse. When we pursue lying vanities, when we worship idols, anything that takes God's rightful place in our lives, we forfeit God's grace.
We forfeit the mercy that is ours.
Is there any way I am forfeiting God's grace? This is a big question, and I encourage you to take time and examine yourself here. In the middle section of Jonah's prayer, I see several phrases that point to his trust in God growing. His circumstances are dire. His pit is very real. But there is an internal transformation happening, and Jonah is beginning to believe.
So first he prayed, then he believed. And that leads us to our third point. Jonah praised.
Jonah declares, I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay what I've vowed. This language of sacrifice and vows is the same language used by the sailors at the end of chapter one, whose worship was undoubtedly real, Jonah commits to praising the Lord with thanksgiving.
This is a powerful principle for us being God's people who will praise him in every circumstance. I know it is easier said than done, but it's incredibly powerful if we as his children can praise him despite what is happening on the outside.
Consider the example from 2 Chronicles 20, where King Jehoshaphat was went into battle by sending the singers first. Logically, it makes no sense. Why announce your presence to the enemy with unarmed singers only to have them slaughtered?
But God set an ambush and it was a great victory.
This is a reminder for us. Praise him in our storm. Praise him in our pit. He is worthy.
And he concludes his prayer with that timeless truth. Salvation is of the Lord.
This is a theme that rings true through the ages. And we can all say a resounding Amen to that. At the end of chapter two, Jonah seems to be on the right track. He's heading a good direction. His circumstances haven't changed much yet. He's still in the fish, but he's a changed man. He didn't make many wise choices initially, but I believe he is sincere now.
So what happens next?
The prayer is over.
So the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah up onto dry land.
The fish thankfully listened the first time. Let's be honest, there's nothing pleasant about vomit. Ever. And imagine this was a great big fish.
This wasn't a small experience.
It was disgusting, gross and nasty, I am sure.
But the fish couldn't stomach Jonah any longer.
He couldn't stomach the praise and thanksgiving that was going on inside. So it vomited him out. And then the incredible grace of God that we see in chapter three, verse one, God gives Jonah a second chance.
God told him to go to Nineveh a second time.
Maybe it was because he was a new man now. We don't know for sure. But I am so incredibly thankful to be serving a God of second chances.
And if we need them, a God of third chances, a fourth, a fifth.
This is comforting. And this is the hope we can have in our God.
Thankfully, thankfully, God didn't give up on Jonah. He was still working on the prophet, just as he is still working on us. He had a goal for Nineveh, but Jonah needed some adjustment. Much like us, so many times we see Jonah in ourselves.
Let's bring it back to that initial question. Are you in a pit? Whether it's one of your own making, or if it's caused by others, or is it a difficult season that God has allowed.
These times are hard times.
But what Jonah does in his pit provides a good example for us. First, we can pray. Don't wait until the last possible moment, but in your distress, cry out to God. Pray his word back to Him. It's powerful. Acknowledge his sovereignty even in difficult circumstances.
Second, we can believe. Not just knowing intellectually, but truly believing with a life changing faith, feeling it in your heart. Believe even when your circumstances haven't changed. Knowing God is all you need and he is able.
This internal shift brings you up out of the pit even if the world around you remains the same.
And third, we can praise the weapon of praise. The idea of praising God despite our circumstances is huge for his people.
Praise him in your storm, praise him in your pit because he's worthy. When we pray, believe and praise, there will be change.
Not necessarily around us, but the person going through it. And that's big.
Jonah's life changing days in the belly of the fish show us the transformative power of turning to God in our darkest moments.
He didn't make many wise choices. But thankfully in that pit he started taking steps in the right direction. And may we learn from Jonah's journey and choose to pray, believe and praise in our hard times.
Jonah trusting the God of second, third and more chances.
[00:26:48] Speaker B: Thanks, Arlan. And thank you for tuning in to today's message on the Voice of Hope.
Jonah certainly gives me a lot to think about. It's as though he's holding up a mirror to show what's inside of my soul.
How about you? What do you see?
And as I mentioned at the beginning of the program, we're holding several special events in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Ohio with a special guest from India.
And these are going to be during the last week of October 2025.
The events will include food, music and fellowship. So go to our
[email protected] and click on the events link at the top to see if there's any that are near you.
Space is limited and so reserve your seat today. You can call us by phone at 866-960-0292. Your prayers and support make this ministry possible. We're thankful for each one of you who walks with us as we share the good news of Jesus around the world.
[00:28:00] Speaker A: Peace of mind like you've never known.
But then things change and you're down in the valley.
Don't lose faith, child.
You are never alone.
For the God on the mountain is still God in the valley.
When things go wrong, he'll make them right and The God of the good times is still God. In the bad times, the God of the day is still God of the night.
