Jonah 2:8
Those who pay regard to vain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love.
Truth: When we put an idol in place of God we hinder His steadfast love into our lives.
Jonah was on the run and has already caused much affliction in the lives of those around him. The sailors in the ship have lost their cargo and almost their lives (although, in HIS rebellion, GOD provided THEM salvation). Now Jonah is in the belly of the great fish and he is, like all of us, crying out in repentance. This is a "fox-hole-conversion-prayer." Jonah is desperate. The circumstances of life have caused him to repent and have given him much clarity about the situation he has put himself in. God has brought Jonah to his knees in the belly of a fish. You can't get much lower than that. The reality God wants Jonah to know is confessed in the above passage. When we chase "worthless" idols, we cut off God's continuous love. There is no doubt that this aspect of the prayer is pointing to Nineveh, to Israel, the men on the ship AND to Jonah. Israel had left God and followed worthless idols. Note the following:
Jeremiah 2:13
for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
Nineveh, in their pursuit of their own autonomy and selfish gains, had forsaken the God of all creation and grace. The men on the ship, when caught in a storm, first turned to their "own" gods for deliverance and that meant they didn't have God's grace. Once they tossed Jonah over board, God's grace and steadfast love swept into their lives. Jonah, had paid attention to a "vain idol" (himself and his selfish thoughts about the Ninevites) and God had brought this punishment on him for that. He was actually in the place of God's love. Had God not loved him, God would not have prepared for him a fish to rescue him. The fish was not a bad thing, it was a life ring. Yet, Jonah had to come to realize that when we worship idols in our lives (anything that tries to take place on the throne reserved only for God), we must realize we hinder God's steadfast love. God is the God of love. He wants to extend that love to us. Yet, we often put something else on the throne of our lives (our own sinful needs) and we cut off God's love from being active in our lives. People who worship the idols on the thrones of their lives have no room for God and His great love.
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