Thanksgiving in suffering
“Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish, … But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving That which I have vowed I will pay Salvation is from the LORD” (Jonah 2:1, 9).
Suffering is painful and distressful. And when we are in pain and distress, we usually groan in wounds and tears. We even make a grudge. We blame on others. We have to blame somebody for it. We blame a situation too, not just the people. We blame the people and the situation, but we do not blame ourselves. The reason is that if we are so painful and distressful, we tend to become more selfish. And if we are selfish, we will not only able to think that suffering has come because of ourselves, but we cannot. That’s why we cannot learn through suffering. Not only that we cannot learn about ourselves through suffering, but also we cannot learn the Word of God. As a result, we are not thankful to God in suffering.
But the prophet Jonah decided to give thanks to God in the midst of suffering and to offer sacrifices to God in thanksgiving (Jonah 2:1, 9). How is this possible? How could Jonah be determined to give sacrifice to God in thanksgiving (v. 9), in the situation where he was hurled into the very heart of the seas and the currents swirled about him (v. 3) and he was inside the fish (v. 1)? How could Jonah have been thankful to God in the painful feeling of being expelled from God’s sight (v. 4) and when his life was ebbing away (v. 7)? What was the secret?
First, the secret was because Jonah remembered the grace of God's salvation, which he had already experienced.
Isn’t this something we cannot understand? Wasn’t Jonah in the stomach of the great fish and suffering? Then how can we talk about Jonah's experience of salvation? God saved Jonah by preparing the great fish and commending the fish to swallow Jonah (1:17). Jonah, who experienced this past grace of salvation, was able to give thanks to God (2:1) [The Hebrew word for "prayer" is used as a meaning of thankful prayer (1 Sam. 2:1; 2 Sam. 7:27)]. How could Jonah be grateful for Gods’ salvation of being swallowed by the great fish and was suffering in the stomach of the great fish? Isn’t the salvation that we usually pray for and expect deliverance from suffering like a "big fish stomach"? But Jonah didn’t offer the prayer of thanksgiving when he on the dry land Jonah 2:10) , but when he was still in the stomach of the great fish (vv. 1-9). Although he was saved from one suffering from another (greater) suffering, he was able to give thanks to God in such suffering because he remembered the grace of God's salvation that he had already experienced. Even in the midst of suffering, those who remember the past grace of salvation and celebrate in the present cannot but give thanks to God. Let us give thanks to God even in the greatest sufferings as we remember God’s grace of salvation that we have experienced in the past.
Second, the secret was because Jonah had the assurance and hope of God's salvation for the future.
The reason why we can give thanks to God in the midst of suffering is not only because of the grace of salvation that God has given us in the past, but because we believe that God, who saved us in the past, will also save us from our present sufferings. Because of this conviction and hope of salvation, we are able to praise and pray in thanksgiving to God, even though we are now going through suffering. That’s what Paul and Silas did in Acts chapter 16. Paul and Silas prayed and praised God (Acts 16:25), although they could have been executed the next day in prison. How could this be possible? It was because they had confidence and hope of God’s salvation. Especially because Paul believed that God would lead him to Rome and stand before Caesar, he was sure that God would save him from the prison in Philippi. That was why he was able to pray and praise God. Likewise, Jonah was able to give thanks to God in hope of salvation because he believed that God, who had saved him in the past, would also save him from the stomach of the great fish (Jonah 2:1, 9). In other words, he believed and hoped for God's faithful love of salvation, so he decided to give thanks to God and to offer a sacrifice to God with the voice of thanksgiving in the midst of suffering. We believe that the faithful God who saved us in the past will not only save us in our present sufferings but will also save us from the sufferings we will face in the future, because our God of salvation is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8). When we believe and hope in this faithful God of salvation, we can eagerly desire and hope in God of salvation and give thanks to God even though we are in the midst of such ‘a stomach of a great fish’ that seems despicable.
Third and last, the secret is because Jonah kept the grace of God in his heart.
Look at Jonah 2:8-9: “Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness, But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving That which I have vowed I will pay Salvation is from the LORD.” Here the phrase “vain idols” is described in two Hebrew words: (1) ‘Hebell’: Breath that evaporates quickly; (2) ‘Sseo’: emptiness, void. In other words, vain idols mean something like vanishing as quickly as breathing. Those who serve vain idols that vanish as quickly as breathing abandon God's grace. For example, if we love material more than God, and worship false material, we abandon the grace that God has given us. As a result, we cannot worship God with the voice of thanksgiving. When we live in this world, pursuing the vainly worldly things from Monday to Saturday, we are forsaking the God’s grace that God is giving us on the Lord’s Day. If we fail to keep God’s grace in our hearts from Monday to Saturday, then we cannot have thanksgiving in our hearts when we go to church on the Lord’s Day and worship God. Not only that we cannot come in before God with thanksgiving in our heart but also we cannot praise and worship God with the voice of thanksgiving. But if we keep in our hearts the grace that God has given us, we can thank God in the Lord's presence on Sunday and give thanks and praise to God. Interestingly, idol worshipers abandon the grace of God and worship the things that quickly disappear like breathing, but God worshipers go to God and worship Him with thanksgiving in their hearts by keeping God’s faithful covenant love (Hebrew: "Hesed") in their hearts. It was Jonah who worshiped God. He was able to give thanks to God in his sufferings because he kept the grace of God in his heart. Jonah determined to offer sacrifice to God with the voice of thanksgiving because he realized little bit of God's covenant love of not forsaking Jonah who disobeyed God's command and forsook his mission and tried to flee from God. In the end, those who have experienced the grace of God cannot but offer a prayer of thanksgiving and decide to worship God with thanksgiving in their hearts. We must also give thanks and prayer to God as we experience God's grace in our lives. To do so, we must faithfully keep the grace of God in our hearts.
Though suffering is painful and distressful, we must glorify God through our suffering. To do so, we must look to the God of salvation in suffering. And we must remember the grace of salvation that God has given us in the past and celebrate those graces in our present sufferings. As we faithfully hold on to the past graces God has given us, we must be convinced in the present suffering that our faithful God of salvation will save us now in our present afflictions. When we have this conviction of God’s salvation, then we can hope in God in despair. When we have this hope of salvation, we can endure our suffering with faith. We can look at God's salvation quietly. We must look to the God of salvation in suffering. We must remember the past grace of God’s salvation, the present conviction of salvation, and the hope of future salvation. In doing so, we will be able to pray and worship God with thanksgiving in our hearts.