Beloved radio, friends, we greet you in the ever-precious, and the worthy name of the Lord Jesus our Savior. This is your Bible teacher of the air speaking, J.W. Bramhall, giving you a hearty welcome to listen to the word of God as we continue our study in the prophecy of Jonah. We have considered in our preceding messages from the first chapter of the book of Jonah, the disobedient prophet, and we found him in the midst of the tremendous storm at sea. That storm was sent by God upon the ship, and upon his servant Jonah in particular. It was the manifestation of Jehovah's displeasure upon the prophet who was fleeing from his presence, and from the divine commission God had given to him to preach in the Assyrian capital the great city of Nineveh. Our last reference to Jonah, and our view of him, was when the sailors took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, which we read in chapter one, verse fifteen. The reluctant mariners on board the vessel, at Jonah's advice and counsel, and even after their prayer to Jehovah, lifted up the prophet and threw him overboard in the midst of the raging sea. But what was the result? And it was an immediate result. The angry sea suddenly became calm. The storm ceased, and the ship with its occupants were no more in danger and in any trouble. Can you imagine the immediate relief that would be in the hearts of these Salem men? who had been wrestling and striving to save the ship, their own lives, and also the life of Jonah, whom they were reluctant to toss overboard. Perhaps we may wonder why Jonah did not jump overboard, rather than permit the sailors to lift him and cast him over the side of the ship. Jonah seemed to have waited for them to do it, and ultimately With great reluctance, they swing him, unresisting, from the deck of the vessel into the foaming sea. Does not this speak to our hearts of something concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was taken by men, and he was nailed to the cross for our sins? He came willingly from heaven, to die for you and me upon the cross. Yet that death was also at the hands of men. We must remember. The very ones whom he came to save took his sinless, precious body and nailed it to the tree. Through the years of his ministry, the Savior had foretold that he must be crucified and nailed to the cross. He told that wicked men would thus take him and nail into that Roman gibbet of shame. But let us never forget his treatment at the hands of men, as well as his judgment as our sin-bearer, at the hand of God, when Christ went into the raging waves and into the waters of God's wrath and his judgment upon our sins. What a storm of judgment he entered and through which he passed. But back to our story as we consider Jonah. What happened to Jonah when he was cast into the sea? We've considered him the disobedient prophet in chapter one. Now in chapter two we should consider Jonah the chastened prophet and that in the belly of the great fish. Let us read the closing verse of chapter one. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. The Hebrew word prepared means appointed, for God arranged it that the fish should be right there when Jonah and where Jonah was cast into the sea. The kind of fish, whether whale or anything, and its dimensions, they are of secondary importance. More important than the fish is the man, the prophet Jonah. And we must not permit ourselves to be sidetracked by speculating over the fish. For the swallowing of Jonah by the sea monster was not an act of punishment upon God's part as rather an act of preservation, for which no natural explanation can be given. Jonah was preserved alive in the belly of the great fish, and this can only be explained as a divine miracle. The Lord Jesus himself, when he was upon the earth, in Matthew chapter twelve and verse thirty-nine, said that this experience of Jonah was given for a sign and as a sign. The word sign meaning a miracle. The preservation of Jonah in the bowels of the great fish, which was Jonah's chastening from the Lord for his disobedience, is also a picture and a graphic illustration of the nation of Israel. For the nation of Israel, like Jonah the prophet, was chosen by God to be his special people and to be his witnesses in this world. As Jonah, so Israel was commissioned of God amongst men of different nationalities. And so Israel, like Jonah, became as a nation disobedient. And it has been scattered throughout all the earth among the nations of men. Yet while Jonah was among these heathen men, the sailors who were on the ship, it is a wonderful thing to realize these very sailors, as we have already seen, came to a knowledge of God. And while the nation of Israel scattered among the nations of the Gentiles, While they have been so scattered among the Gentiles, many Gentiles have come to know the Lord. Jonah then was miraculously preserved in the sea monster. Now may we also suggest the nation of Israel has been just as miraculously preserved according to the plan of God through the centuries of their exile and their dispersion. We can truly say that in the Book of Jonah we have a type of prophecy concerning the nation of Israel. But let us return again to Jonah in the belly of the great fish. Now what else could Jonah do but pray when in the bowels of the great fish? And this he did. We would like to read chapter two and verse one. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord is God out of the fish's belly. The chastened prophet knew to whom he must and whom he did turn. Instinctively he turned to Jehovah in his trouble. Within sight the fish he cried out to God in prayer. This very first verse in chapter two makes it clear when Jonah prayed, while he was imprisoned, in the belly of the great fish. Jonah later on has recorded this prayer, together with all the events of the prophecy that subsequently followed his release from his imprisonment in the fish, when he fulfilled his ministry to which he had been called for the city of Nineveh. Now let me say just a few words in closing. regarding Jonah in the bowels of the great fish. There are those who believe and think that Jonah actually died within the fish and then was brought back to life, which I believe is very doubtful. There is no need to think this, for Jonah was in a state of consciousness. And though he may not have realized the full extent of his situation, he knew enough to pray. And he prayed in the belly of the great fish. Now if Jonah had died, he would have been in that place of comfort in paradise, where he would never have needed to pray. But within the belly of the great fish he prayed. and that he was preserved in the belly of the great fish was a divine miracle. And yet may I further state, this has never been an impossibility on other occasions. There is an amazing story concerning a sailor by the name of James Bartley, who in the year eighteen ninety one and in the month of February was swallowed by a sperm whale while seeking to capture the great fish. The boat in which he was had been upset by the whale, lashing the water, and he with others was thrown overboard. One man they knew was drowned, but Barclay they could not find. He disappeared. After the capturing of the whale and bringing it upon board the whaling ship, the next day while the crew was busily removing the blubber, they were very startled by signs of life in the stomach of the whale. And when they cut the stomach open, inside they found the missing sailor, and he was doubled up, and unconscious, but alive. They bathed him with seawater, which revived him. And though he remained two weeks in a serious condition, he ultimately recovered from the experience and resumed his duties. However, this is a true story, but let us confess, in humble and sincere faith that we believe God himself was able to sustain the life of his servant Jonah, and Jonah intelligently, while in the great fish, prayed to his God. And his prayer consisted chiefly of thanksgiving, with not one word of petition as we may see. But let us get this clear understanding of Jonah's situation. He is being chastened within the belly of the great fish in the middle of the ocean. A most remarkable situation. And what a place to have a prayer meaning. My beloved, thank God that a believer in the Lord Jesus can pray to God wherever he or she might be. Father, we pray that the Holy Spirit might warm our hearts concerning this truth in the Savior's name for his glory. Amen.