The Soul Dump: Prayer in Times of Crisis

Jonah 2 is a prayer from the belly of the ‘big fish’ (to use the Hebrew). It was prayed in the fish but obviously recorded after the fact. There being an “after the fact”, survival from being swallowed whole, gives us this unique perspective on prayer.

From verse 3 onward, we have Jonah’s reconstruction of the prayer. He is able to reconstruct his thought processes, is able to bring a certain poetic sensibility to it according to the ways of Hebrew literature, he is able to walk us through what he was praying.

But it’s verses one and two that really interest me today, “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called out to the Lord in my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.” It is the two verbs of what Jonah did that are of my greatest focus. He “called” and he “cried”, these are his activities of prayer. He called out in his distress. He cried out in the belly of “Sheol”.

One thing we need to understand in the Bible is the progress of revelation. In this case, the understanding of the afterlife. In the time of Jesus, we understand that heaven and hell are the “up and down” elevators after death. That understanding emerges from the salvation that Jesus has gained for us on the cross. We see this understanding emerging in the Old Testament, as we see so much emerging to be fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus.

In the Old Testament, the realm of death is referred to as “Sheol”. It is not so clearly defined beyond that. Defining it is not so important as understanding where Jonah found himself. In the belly of the fish, in the belly of “Sheol”, in the belly of death.

I do not imagine that his cries and calls were as articulate as the rest of Jonah 2 might have us believe. Which I believe is how it should be.

Sometimes prayer is a mass of inarticulate, panic-filled content that transcends description as word or even thought. I can imagine being so overwhelmed that, in my reaction, God is not even on my radar, and there is nothing but the inarticulate, panic-filled content. I am not even sure Jonah had God on his radar inside this creature. It may not have been until after that he was able to put his mental faculties back together enough to realize that God saved him.

That is the takeaway. In the title, I called it a “soul dump”. Call it an extreme emotional reaction to extreme, even overwhelming circumstances. We may not be able to see it, but God is there. We may not be able to express it, but God knows, hears, responds, and loves us. In the aftermath of the crisis, it might feel like we are ‘retconning’ our reactions, rewriting our memories to include God in the mix. Or feeling guilty that we did not have ‘enough faith’ to remember God ‘when it counted’.

But God is there. An extreme “soul dump” is not the end of prayer, but the beginning. When we cannot pray, the Spirit prays on our behalf. God knows our needs before we ask. But in the asking, we please God, we come into God’s power, we align ourselves with God’s strength, we open ourselves to receive God’s love. We find relief.

Peace,

Pastor Peter