Jonah 2:6

To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, LORD my God, brought my life up from the pit ~ Jonah 2:6

 

These words are contained in a prayer Jonah uttered while in the belly of the great fish. We cannot really understand the term, “roots of the mountains” if we do not live by a sea. Jonah here is talking about the hidden rocks pushed out by the mountain into the seabed. It was here he was trapped and barred in as the great fish swam along the base of these mountain “roots”. They were the walls to his dungeon, and the “seaweeds” were his chains as he was trapped inside the fish. For those who do not know the story of Jonah, he was a man sent to Ninevah to warn the people by God. It was a warning he was to take so help them see they must change their ways of life, or destruction would come upon them. Jonah instead decided he would run away and not do the bidding of God, so he hopped aboard a ship to leave. A big storm soon came upon the sea, and as a result, he was made known as the cause and thrown overboard. God will discipline His children, but God also wants to redeem His children, so, a great fish was sent to swallow Jonah so he would not drown. God’s grace is ever available. In God’s Mighty Power, He chose to deliver Jonah, though he had disobeyed. God had Jonah spit out upon the shore from within the great belly, and Jonah was redeemed, for from there he went to deliver the message of God. The Ninevites were saved as they heard and repented. We can be as stubborn as Jonah. We can run away from God too, yet, we find no great fish ready to swallow us. But, God is holy, so how long will He withhold what is due the sinful world in which we live? We are a nation which has run away from God! We have left His message in all the churches of our nation which have closed over the years because people stopped believing in God. Now, God is not in the church, we know that in these times of covid! God is alive in her people, and just as the news flashed Easter could not be stopped because of closed churches for health reasons, so Easter went on in the hearts of believers. This is the great difference between our culture of stopping attending church due to disbelief and our worshipers continuing to worship without a building! If you are one of the runners because you no longer believe in Jesus Christ, run no more in the opposite direction, but run into the arms of Jesus! He is the only one that can save you from the pit of corruption and sin. He is the only one which brings salvation to your soul!