How low can you go? Some people seem to have to go all the way to the bottom before they are willing to look up. That sure seems to be the case with Jonah. He ran from God and headed down, down, down. Eventually he found himself at the lowest point possible. At this point he began to cry to the Lord for help. One thing we learn for sure from Jonah is that you are never too low or never in too deep for God to hear you call.
As Jonah was sinking to the bottom, he cried out to the Lord. Scripture records, “From the depth of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry” (Jonah 2:2). Jonah literally felt like he was a dead man. His life was flashing before his eyes, and he felt no hope. The word grave can also be translated as “hell.” He felt like he was in a living hell – separated from God and left for dead. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever been in such a place of hopelessness?
Jonah also said of God, “You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me… I have said, ‘ I have been banished from your sight.’” (Jonah 2:3,4). Jonah not only feels like he is dying in hell, but he feels it is a hell he can never return from. The picture of the waves and currents swirling about him are a picture of Jonah being overwhelmed by his circumstances. He had sunk so low that he felt God could no longer see him or save him.
It was from the depths of the grave that Jonah called for help and God listened to his cry. In other words, he is saying, “at the place where I felt completely cut off from God with nothing to give, and nothing to contribute, I cried out to the Lord and he heard me. At the place where I thought I was beyond help, I cried out to God and he saved me.
This may be an encouraging word for some of you. Some of you may feel like you are in your own personal hell. Perhaps you think God cannot help you or save you. Maybe you feel like your marriage is in the grave, or you are living in the hell of addiction, or the depths of depression, or the pit of financial bondage.
Jonah cried to God from the depths of the grave. And God heard his cry. When he had no place to turn, He called upon God and the Lord answered him from the deepest and darkest place. When Jonah needed God the most, but deserved it the least, God answered him. He was there for Jonah, and He will be there for you.
Finally Jonah brought himself to look to the Lord again: “Yet I will look again toward your holy temple… but you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you Lord and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.”
Jonah had gone as low as he could go. Now as He calls on the Lord, he is headed back up. It is God who brings him up out of the pit. Jonah’s story tells us that no matter how low you go, that God can lift you up when you look up. God can make a way there seems to be no way. Are you tired of being down? Look up. Cry out, and let God lift you up. And that’s the Word.
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