Jonah 02: Emergency Prayer Meeting

A storm rages, a prophet sinks, and a prayer rises from the dark. Jonah 2 isn’t a children’s tale about a big fish; it’s a field guide for the moments when our plans collapse and the only honest move left is to cry out. We open the text with fresh eyes—reading Jonah’s words as a trauma-marked memory that names consequences, clings to hope, and discovers that salvation doesn’t always arrive in tidy packaging.

We talk through the gritty realism of the story—no staged heroics, no undersea lounge—just seaweed, pressure, and a heart finally turned toward God’s presence. Along the way, we explore why acknowledging God’s sovereignty in our mess isn’t fatalism, but freedom. “Salvation belongs to the Lord” becomes more than a verse; it’s a reframe for everyday crises when competence and control can’t carry us. We also challenge the idols we quietly trust—image, money, strategies—and show how their collapse can become a doorway to mercy.

This conversation presses into practical steps: stop digging, pray with urgency, accept the rescue you didn’t script, fulfill the vows you made when your soul was honest. Whether your “fish” looks like a hard apology, counseling, or a difficult phone call, the path forward is rarely pretty—and that’s okay. Rescue can be messy and still be beautiful. If you’ve wondered whether you can come back from running, Jonah’s shoreline says yes. Listen, reflect, and then tell us: what vow are you ready to keep today?

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown
Podcast.
In this podcast, we will bebreaking down the Bible one
chapter a day.
Whether you are a new believeror have been following Christ
for a while, we believe that youwill learn something new and
fresh every single day.
So thank you for joining us.
Let's get into breaking down theBible together.

SPEAKER_01 (00:23):
Well, hello everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
Today, Jonah chapter two.
Today's title is EmergencyPrayer Meeting.
Emergency Prayer Meeting.
I don't know if you've ever beenin a situation where you're just
like, look, I don't care whatyou guys are doing.
I don't even care what youbelieve.
We're going to pray.
And we're going to pray rightnow.

(00:44):
And we're going to talk aboutthat in just a moment.
Because I'm going to tell yousomething.
Jonah's not running anymore.
He's swimming.
And it's not a good day.
So we'll get into all that.
Make sure you get your Biblesout, get your coffee out, get
your popcorn out, all the goodthings while you're getting all
that out.
Make sure you take just a momentto like, share, and subscribe to
the YouTube channel and thepodcast.
Make sure you leave us afive-star review on the podcast.
It really does help.

(01:05):
And make sure you're going tothe Bible breakdown discussion
on Facebook.
It's an amazing group of peopledoing a wonderful job.
And you can find all of thatinformation at the
BibleBreakdown.com.
Well, if you've been with us, westarted yesterday a brand new
book of the Bible called Jonah.
And most of us, if you have anycursory idea about God or

(01:26):
anything like that, you haveheard of Jonah.
Jonah's a guy who got swallowedby a fish, you know.
And we talked about yesterdaythat we're not even entirely
sure what kind of fish it was.
The Bible is not clear on that.
And I think that that actuallyadds to the validity of it.

(01:46):
They just knew, you know, Jonahwriting later is like, look, all
I know is I got swallowed.
You know, I got swallowed up bysomething.
And it eventually spit me backout again.
So it was a fish of some kind.
And that's good enough for me,right?
And we talked about yesterdaythat, I mean, the greatest
miracle in the Bible was Genesis1.1.
In the beginning, God createdthe heavens and the earth.

(02:08):
And if God can create theheavens and the earth, anything
else is at least possible.
And that's why I love the bookof Jonah, it stretches us a
little bit.
So we're going to get a littlefurther into that and kind of
talk about a couple oftheological things that maybe
you've never heard.
We're just going to celebratethe goodness and the mysteries
of God in his word.
So yesterday we learned abouthow he got thrown overboard, and

(02:30):
then he got swallowed by a fish.
And now let's pick up Jonahchapter two.
So here we go.
Jonah two, verse one says this.

(02:52):
You threw me into the oceandepths, and I sank down to the
heart of the sea.
The mighty waters engulfed me,and I was buried beneath your
wild and stormy waves.
Then I said, O Lord, you havedriven me far from your
presence, yet I will look oncemore toward your holy temple.

(03:12):
I sank beneath the waves, andthe waters closed over me.
Seaweed wrapped itself around myhead, and I sank down to the
very roots of the mountains.
I was imprisoned in the earth,whose gates lock shut forever.
But you, O Lord my God, snatchedme from the jaws of death.
As my life was slipping away, Iremembered the Lord, and my

(03:35):
earnest prayer went out to youin your holy temple.
Those who worship false godsturn their backs on all God's
mercies.
But I will offer sacrifices toyou with songs of praise, and I
will fulfill all my vows, forthe salvation, for my salvation
comes from the Lord alone.

(03:55):
Then the Lord ordered the fishto spit Jonah out onto the
beach.
That's so gross.
Think about that for just amoment.
So what happened was is he isnow quoting a prayer that he
prayed.
Because so imagine Jonah later,much, much later, he is thinking
back.
And can you imagine the traumaof this moment?

(04:19):
He has been in a storm, and thestorm is violent, it is
horrible, and he is hiding out,and he ends up, he is just so
much of I don't know, shock orwhatever, he falls asleep,
passes out.
They wake him up and they'relike, hey, we're about to drown.
So if you're a prophet and youdon't mind praying to your God,
we'll give it a shot.
Well, obviously, Jonah servesthe real, one true God, and so

(04:41):
they find out the only way forthem to live is they got to
throw Jonah overboard.
And then they do.
That's bad enough.
Jonah tells how I was sinking tothe bottom, seaweed was wrapped
around me, I was getting towardthe bottom, and then something
happened.
And you imagine later how he'strying to recount this and how

(05:01):
this is the prayer that wasgoing through his mind, God,
they didn't do that.
This is because of you, becauseI ran from you.
This is just, this is right, Iam so sorry, all the things.
And he repents and he's like,God, basically, you know, he's
saying in chapter in verse 9, hesays, I will offer sacrifices to
you with songs of praise.
I will fulfill all my vows.

(05:22):
In other words, if you give meanother shot, God, I'm not gonna
waste it because my salvationcomes from you alone.
And then it says the Lordordered the fish to spit Jonah
out, vomit Jonah up.
That's gross.
I mean, and and honestly, youthink about it, he has been in
the belly of this fish for threedays, three nights.

(05:43):
That means at this point, thegastric juices of this fish are
starting to work, which meanshe's probably lost some of the
pigment on his skin.
All of his hair has probablybeen the acid and stuff has
rotted it off.
He's probably lost some of hishair on top of his head, his
clothes are probably ragged, allthis stuff.
He gets thrown up onto thisbeach, he probably looks half

(06:06):
dead at this point, which is aninteresting point because some
scholars believe he might haveactually died.
Because he would have beenthere, and unless God created an
air pocket in there, you know,he would have been, can you
imagine too, just squished.
Just squished.
He'd been swallowed by a fish.
I mean, he isn't he's notsitting there walking around
pacing, you know what I'msaying?
It's not like Pinocchio.

(06:26):
Yeah, he is he has absolutelybeen just, and and there's
probably other you know, fishand things that's been eaten in
there.
It probably stinks.
I mean, just it is the worstthing imaginable.
It would have been a mercy forhim to have actually died for a
couple of days.
And then maybe right before hedid, he's praying this prayer.
And then you know what's amazingabout it?
Is when he uh he comes up again,guess where he's not?

(06:49):
He's not in Tarshish.
He's actually close enough wherehe can get to Nineveh.
So God has a way of getting himright back to where he needs to
be after this is over with.
But notice how he says, God, youare my salvation.
If you give me another chance,I'm gonna do it.
And it didn't end up, it wasn'ta perfect story, but he got

(07:11):
right back on track.
Can I tell you that I heardsomeone say this one time, when
you have dug yourself a hole,the best thing you can do is
just stop digging.
Just stop trying to work yourway out of a bad situation and
just admit what it is and cryout for help.
And I don't know about you, butsometimes we think we're doing

(07:32):
the right thing only to realizethat it was the wrong thing and
it's put us in a bad spot.
And then we think, okay, well, Ican do better, I can fix this, I
can fix this, I can fix this,only to realize we're not fixing
this, it's getting worse.
And sometimes the very bestthing we can do is just have an
emergency prayer meeting.
I remember one time when wewere, I was I was much younger,

(07:52):
I was a kid, and there was ahurricane coming, and I was
living in South Alabama, and wewere trying to get all these
different things, you know,figured out because at the time,
the way the storm was going togo is it was gonna go in a
particular direction, and wewere gonna get some rain, but we
weren't gonna get like most ofthe wind and stuff.
And but we're still gettingready because it'll be a lot of
rain.

(08:12):
And then all of a sudden thestorm shifted.
And when the storm shifted, andwe're watching the news, and we
start to notice it looks likeit's going to shift.
It is amazing how no one had tosay, okay, everyone, if you
could take five minutes, weshould probably pray.
No, no.
Everybody immediately was like,zoom, right to the middle.
Let's have us emergency prayermeeting.
We we got to figure this thingout right now.

(08:33):
We got to pray.
And I don't know about you, butin that moment, it's amazing.
It's amazing what comes to thesurface.
It's amazing how quickly yourealize I can't fix this, only
God can fix this.
Sometimes the very best thingyou can do when you're in a
crisis is to realize who has thepower.

(08:54):
And it's the Lord.
And so we turn to Him and wejust say, God, I need your help.
I don't care what it looks like,I don't care how it comes, I
just need your help.
And then mean it.
Because it might not come in ayou know, a blank check in the
mail that says, Oh, justwhatever you need.
It might come in something uglyand disgusting, and something
you'd rather not do, but it'llbe salvation.

(09:16):
And so it's how desperate areyou for God to do a miracle?
Are you willing to fast andpray?
Are you willing to repent ofsomething?
Are you willing to turn awayfrom something evil?
Are you willing to turn towardssomething holy?
Are you willing to initiate theconversation that's going to end
up in repentance andrestoration?
What is it worth to you?
For some of us, when we getthrough with this this podcast

(09:38):
today, we need to have anemergency prayer meeting and
say, God, I need your help andwatch what he will do.
It may not be pretty, but itwill be beautiful because that's
what salvation is.
Let's pray together right now.
God, thank you so much fortoday.
Thank you, God, that you see usand that you know us.
I'm thankful, Lord, that as manypeople are listening to this or
the many different storms we'reprobably all going through.

(10:02):
But I'm thankful, Lord, thatnone of us go through them
alone.
But Jonah found himself even inthe belly of a fish at the
bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.
You were still there.
And I'm thankful, Lord, that atthe bottom of our storm, you are
still there.
We celebrate that today.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Amen.
Well, God's Word says in Jonahchapter two, verse nine,
salvation belongs to the Lord.

(10:25):
And what a beautiful salvationit is.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for Jonahchapter three.