Salvation comes from the Lord
Jonah 2:9 - Salvation isn’t just for Jonah, it is from the Lord and it is for everyone.
'But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord .’ '
Jonah 2:9 NIV
The Lord has really been taking us on a journey lately, this time with the a visit to the Book of Jonah. Barb did a deep dive (no pun intended) on Jonah starting with this post last year, so this may be a little repetitive to our readers… but I’m going where God sends me.
The story of Jonah should be familiar to just about anyone, Christian or not, since he was swallowed by “a great fish” and spent three harrowing days in the belly of the beast before being “vomited onto dry land”. Whether it was a whale or another large creature we don’t know; what we do know is that it did happen, as Jesus (in Matthew 12:40) talks of the trials of Jonah.
In case you have forgotten your Sunday school studies of Jonah, here’s the story in a nutshell. God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh to rebuke that pagan Assyrian town and call them to repentance. Jonah, being a typical human being who thinks he knows more than God, decides that he doesn’t want to deliver the message and heads to Tarshish (probably a place as far away from Nineveh as possible instead of an actual location) on a boat instead.
Well, God is having none of this and brings up a great wind that threatens to capsize the vessel. Jonah knows that he is the source of the trouble and asks the sailors to toss him overboard… and they reluctantly agree. God still wants Jonah to deliver the message, so He sends the great fish to swallow up Jonah.
After a few days in the fish, Jonah pleads to God for deliverance, and that’s where today’s verse is born. Jonah is repentant and agrees to do what God has told him to do, so God directs the fish to spit him out onto dry land. He delivers God’s message to the people of Nineveh, who surprisingly listen to him and repent from the king on down to the lowliest sinner. God agrees not to bring down destruction on Nineveh — at least for another 150 years, at which time prophet Nahum is called upon to deliver a message from God to once again repent. The message isn’t received as clearly the second time around, and Nineveh is destroyed.
There’s a bit more to Jonah’s story, of course — he isn’t happy about the repentance of the people of Nineveh, and God has to teach him another lesson. But at least at the time of this verse, Jonah has repented of his sin and realizes that he must do what God asks of him.
When Jonah says “Salvation comes from the Lord”, he means it. He has just been saved from a precarious predicament by the Lord and he will be saved again. But he will also come to realize in the coming chapters that salvation isn’t just for him, it is from the Lord and is for everyone who confesses and repents of their sin.
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your salvation and blessings. Help me to honor my promises and walk in Your ways. Salvation truly belongs to You alone. May my life be a living sacrifice, pleasing and acceptable to You. In Jesus’ name I pray, AMEN.