Grace in the depth – when God pursues His runaway servant
Updated: Aug 17
Date: 16 August 2026, 9.30 am
Speaker: Ps Daniel Tan Sermon Text: Jonah 1:17– 2:10
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TRANSCRIPT
Introduction
Blessed Sunday to all. We thank God for the freedom we have to worship Him openly here in Singapore.
We also thank God for the technology that enables those of us who are homebound to participate with us through our live streaming.
May I begin today’s sermon with a question – ‘Can a believer who is running away from God’s will still be used by God?”
I’m sure for many of us, we assume that the greatest danger facing the church is persecution, secularism or materialism.
Yet the book of Jonah suggests something even more subtle and dangerous – God’s own people becoming indifferent to God’s mission.
May I say that this is actually quite relevant for us here in 21st century Singapore.
For many Christians, it is a given to faithfully attend worship services, serve in ministry and know Scriptures well.
Yet our hearts can quietly drift from God’s purposes.
See we became comfortable, career-driven, inward-looking and reluctant to love those whom God sends us to reach.
That, we see is Jonah’s problem.
So we will come to realize in Jonah, that the fish was not really God’s punishment, it was more God’s mercy.
Though our sermon begins with the fish, the primary focus is actually about a God who refuses to give up on His servant.
Jonah teaches us that even when God's people wander, God does not abandon them. In His covenant love He pursues, disciplines and restores His children.
That is the heartbeat of this passage.
Can a believer who is running away from God’s will still be used by God?
Yes, Jonah shows that God used him to reach out to the mariners.
And Jonah was eventually redeemed to be used by God, because God relentlessly pursued his wayward prophet.
Hosea reminded us, "Return to the Lord." James urged us to demonstrate living faith. Now Jonah assures us that when God's children wander, our gracious Father lovingly comes after them.
Now, if you look carefully at your ESV bibles, notice the superscript indicators. Do observe that throughout Jonah’s prayer, which is from v2 to v9, many of his words, echoes Scripture from the Psalms, from Lamentations and 1 & 2 Kings.
Jonah’s prayer is filled with deep knowledge of the bible. It is as one commentator says, “not merely an emotional prayer of survival, but a theological confession showing that Jonah has begun to understand God’s covenant mercy”.
God’s discipline is His gracious pursuit (1:17-2:4)
Jon 1:17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. 2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. 3 For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your breakers and your waves passed over me. 4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’
When someone pursues, we often times envisage that it comes with sweet, encouraging and comforting words and actions.
Jonah shows us otherwise. God’s discipline is His gracious pursuit.
V17 describes Jonah’s prayer being said in the belly of the fish during his stay there for 3 days and 3 nights.
Eld Peter reminded us last week that this was quoted by Jesus and we find it in Matthew 12 and Luke 11.
To Jesus, this is quoted as an historical event not a myth or a well-know tale. No, to Jesus, it actually happened.
And this sign of Jonah, literally for Jonah is about the miraculous rescue that Jonah received from the fish.
And in the Gospels, this sign of Jonah, is offered by the miraculous rescue from sin that Jesus gives by his death and resurrection.
As the belly of the fish emptied Jonah, so that the Gospel is brough to the Ninevites, so too is the significance of the empty tomb, which is the Good News of eternal life in Christ Jesus.
The response then for anyone confronted with the sign of Jonah is, will you then repent and believe in God like that of the Ninevites?
Now the belly of the fish is like the lowest point Jonah was able to reach.
As was highlighted last Sunday, throughout chapter one Jonah keeps descending—down to Joppa, down into the ship, down into the sea, and finally into the belly of the fish.
Physically and spiritually he is moving away from God. Yet every step downward is matched by God's pursuing grace.
Chapter 1 says, it was the Lord who hurled a great wind upon the sea. It was God who also allowed the lot fall upon Jonah, so that he can reveal the reason for the storm.
Now we see that it is the Lord who appoints a great fish to swallow up Jonah.
The fish was not accidental, it was commissioned, in Jonah’s words by the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.
The fish was no coincidence. God appointed it at precisely the right moment. Every detail was under His sovereign control.
What looked like judgment was, in fact, the beginning of God's mercy.
Now the storm, the revelation of Jonah’s sin to the mariners and the drowning would be part of God’s discipline, but the fish then becomes a sign of God’s mercy.
God’s discipline of His prophet was not to kill him, but in God’s mercy to preserve and to restore Jonah.
Jonah as Chapter 1 tells us, he is in blatant disregard to God’s explicit will, yet, God in His merciful discipline, rescues Jonah.
Now in the belly of the fish, God provided for Jonah a sanctuary.
He is now in his most restrictive confinement, but Jonah now realizes, being in the confines of God, is actually the safest place to be in.
This is the place where he able now to have the deepest communion with God.
Here Jonah, realizes that God is the one who is lovingly and mercifully disciplining him.
Jonah says in v3, for you cast me into the deep.
He realizes significantly, that the storm, the casting of the lot, the mariners throwing him overboard, all this has the hand of God in them.
Even the drowning was meant to teach him a lesson, that Jonah is not in control of his destiny. Only God is.
The text shows us that Jonah is displaying repentance.
A repentance that accepts God’s discipline and acknowledging that God is indeed sovereign and in control of everything.
Though the Lord in discipline, has driven Jonah away (v4), because of his new perspective of God’s loving correction, Jonah is able to add, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.
In faith, Jonah says, he can still turn to God and cling on to God’s promises in spite or despite of his present suffering and challenges.
Church, may we see that God's discipline is restorative rather than merely corrective.
Siblings-in-Christ, perhaps some of you are walking through a difficult season today. You may wonder why God has allowed this storm.
Jonah reminds us that our heavenly Father does not discipline His children because He has stopped loving them.
He disciplines us because He loves us too much to let us keep running from Him.
Even painful providences can become places where we discover His deepest fellowship.
Some of the sweetest seasons of fellowship with Christ are born in the hardest chapters of life.
If that has been your experience, thank God for His faithful grace and may you encourage someone else with your testimony.
Genuine repentance experiences God’s saving grace (2:5-7)
Jon 2:5 The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head. 6 To the roots of the mountains I went down, to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. 7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.
God often does His deepest work, not after the storm has passed, but while His children are still in it.
Jonah has not yet been delivered from the fish, yet already God is changing his heart. Repentance often begins long before our circumstances change.
Jonah describes for us, his journey to the bottom of the sea. Let’s look together at v5 to 7.
To Jonah, where he was descending to was Sheol. And that was considered to place for the dead, and Sheol was located at the depth of the earth, the deepest place of all.
A place of gloom and decay where there is no escape.
Significantly the place where only God can rescue His people from its grip.
Jonah describes himself descending to Sheol - the realm of death. Humanly speaking, there was no escape. He had reached the end of his own strength.
Only God could rescue him.
Often it is only when we realise we cannot save ourselves that we finally look to the One who can.
V6b then becomes the turning point. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.
Now that he is helpless and powerless, Jonah recognizes and acknowledges that God and God alone who can and has rescued him.
All along the direction has been down, down, down. Now from the bottom, God is the one who changes the direction. God brought Jonah up.
Jonah then shares, that when he was drifting off in consciousness, he remembered the Lord and cast his prayer towards God who is in His holy temple.
From the roots of the mountains, Jonah remembered the Lord and He didn’t want to die, but instead he wanted to live and so sought the Lord in the temple on Mt Zion.
In his repentance, Jonah turned towards God not merely in guilt but in an about turn towards God and His will.
To remember the Lord, is an act of covenant faith.
Remembering means, Jonah finally turns his attention away from himself and back to the God whose steadfast love has never changed.
Remembering is less about trying harder and more about seeing God more clearly.
And Jonah gives us this wonderful assurance that God hears our desperate pleads for mercy.
Jonah says, my prayer came to you in your holy temple. And we know God heard his prayer, for the fish was God’s answer.
As was highlighted last week, Jonah experience literally echoes the truth from Ps 139 -
Ps 139:8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
And so Paul reminds in Romans 8 – nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There is nowhere on earth we can go that is too far for God to hear and to answer our prayers.
Siblings-in Christ, when anxieties overwhelm you - they can be due to studies, to relationships, careers or family-related decisions, may we learn to run to God first.
There is no such place on earth that is too far away from God’s throne of grace.
Let us thus not get our wisdom from social media or self-help sources.
For those of us who have already weathered some storms, let’s be reminded that years of church attendance can never replace daily dependence upon grace.
We need to remember the Lord each and every day.
The Christian life never outgrows the Gospel.
Whether we have followed Christ for five years or fifty years, we continue to live by remembering His mercies afresh each day.
We never graduate from grace. We simply discover more deeply how much we need it.
And the thing is, God's grace never leaves us where it finds us.
Those who truly encounter His mercy begin to see life differently. Hearts that were once centred on self, become increasingly centred on God's glory and the good of others.
Restored worship leads to renewed mission (2:8-10)
Jon 2:8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” 10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
In his repentance, Jonah says, those who pay regards to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.
Since we have gone through the book of Hosea, we know that idolatry was a constant problem for the nation of Israel.
Whether Jonah is speaking about the sailors, Israel, or even himself, the warning is clear.
Whenever we place anything above God, we exchange the joy of His steadfast love for empty idols that can never satisfy.
The warning however is to be heeded – don’t forsake their hope of steadfast love. Meaning, don’t deprive yourselves of the steadfast love of God.
Don’t keep going after idols that are worthless and forsake the pursuing love of God.
And recognise that God’s pursuing love includes His gracious and merciful discipline to draw us back to Himself.
The irony is that, now that Jonah has turned back to God, and if he had the mariners in mind as he prayed v8, he is not ahead of them, no, he is actually joining them in worshipping Yahweh.
We see that at the end of chapter 1.
Jon 1:15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
Jonah, in spite of himself, is actually doing evangelism. God has used Jonah the runaway prophet, to turn the mariners to Himself.
And so following the mariners, Jonah promises God that with a voice of thanksgiving, he will sacrifice to God and will make vows to God.
In Jonah’s repentance, he follows up with obedience. Grace received, now produces commitment.
And so Jonah utters what most say is the theological climax of Jonah – Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Jonah is echoing the Psalmist -
Ps 3:8 Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people!
Salvation, which also means deliverance, comes only from God. Israel cannot save herself, Nineveh cannot save herself, the mariners cannot save themselves and Jonah definitely cannot save himself.
Now here again is the irony in Jonah. Yes, Jonah has been brought to a point where he confesses that Salvation belongs to the Lord, but does Jonah actually believe it applies to everyone?
As we go through Jonah 3 and 4, we will get to see if that confession is universal or restrictive for him.
In the last book of the bible, this phase is mentioned and this is the wonderful picture that John saw:
Rev 7:9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
In the light of Revelations, we realize that Jonah’s confession is not merely a statement about personal salvation for a selected group of people.
No, it declares that God alone is free to extend mercy wherever He chooses.
If salvation belongs to the Lord, then no people, no culture, and no sinner lies beyond His saving grace. God's mercy is always larger than our prejudices.
As God appointed the fish to swallow Jonah, God now speaks to the fish and in absolute obedience, the fish vomits Jonah on to dry land.
The interesting thing is that the original word ‘vomit’ used elsewhere in the Old Testament is actually a very negative one.
Lev 18:25 and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.
God told the Israelites, they are to be holy unlike that of the people in the land of Canaan.
And because of their unholiness, God used the land of Canaan to forcefully reject and drive out the people who lived there.
So instead of hash discipline, the word vomit is used in Jonah’s case as an actual loving act of mercy.
That to me is God’s grace.
Yes, he was disobedient, but once he repented and proclaimed his confession – Salvation belongs to the Lord, then God commanded the fish to vomit Jonah out on dry land.
For those of us who are younger believers, may I ask, what are our ambitions that compete with God’s kingdom?
I asked AI what are the Singapore idols and it mentioned the following – Success, Money & Wealth, Career, Family, Comfort & Pleasure, Reputation & Approval, Possessions & Status and the Self.
Do all these deplete our time, energy and resources totally? Resources which have been so graciously given by God?
These things are not unimportant, but should they instead not be surrendered to God and for His purposes?
May I give us some time to look at what a surrendered posture might be for each category. It is found in the lower half of the picture. (pause…….)
Church, might we realize that we are in Jonah’s shoes, that we have been bought with a price and so are to honour God with all that we are and all that we have?
For those of you who feel you have eaten more salt than rice of a 40 year old Singaporean.
That means you have experienced God's grace over and over again.
May I encourage you to resist the temptation to become spiritually comfortable.
God's mercy was never meant to terminate with us. Every generation of believers is called to become a channel through which His compassion reaches the next generation and the nations.
May I encourage you, ask not only, "How has God blessed me?" but also, "Who is God calling me to love with the Gospel?"
Conclusion
Jonah entered the fish as a rebellious prophet. He emerged as a restored servant.
The greatest miracle was not that Jonah survived three days inside a great fish. The greater miracle was that God pursued and graciously transformed a reluctant heart.
God's work of restoration is always connected to His mission. God restores His people not merely so they can enjoy His blessings, but so they may become instruments of His blessing to others.
Every fresh experience of God's mercy enlarges our capacity to show mercy to others.
Ultimately, Jonah points us to someone far greater.
Jesus Himself spoke of "the sign of Jonah."
Unlike Jonah, Jesus never ran from His Father's will.
Unlike Jonah, He willingly entered the depths—not because of His own sin, but because of ours.
He bore the judgment we deserved, died for His enemies, and on the third day rose again so that sinners like us might receive forgiveness and life.
Perhaps today some of us recognise more of Jonah in ourselves than we would like to admit.
We know what it is to drift, to resist God's prompting, or simply to become comfortable.
Yet the good news of Jonah 2 is that God's grace reaches deeper than our failures.
No one who turns back to Christ will find His arms closed.
He still welcomes repentant sinners. He still restores weary servants. He still delights to use imperfect people for His glory.
Our heavenly Father is patient with His children because His steadfast love never fails.
The God who rescued Jonah now re-sends Jonah.
The same is true for us. Christ has not saved us merely to sit comfortably within the walls of the church.
He saves us so that we might make Him known—to our families, our colleagues, our classmates, our neighbours, migrant workers, international students, and even to those people we may find difficult to love.
Here at Hermon, God has placed us where we are not by accident.
He has surrounded us with neighbours in Telok Blangah, Henderson and Bukit Merah, and He has entrusted us with ministry partners in Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Philippines.
Like Jonah, we have received God's mercy - not to keep it to ourselves, but to become channels of His grace to others.
May we never become comfortable with God's blessings while remaining indifferent to God's mission.
In a few moments we will sing, Facing a Task Unfinished. That hymn is a fitting response to Jonah's story.
Before God sends His servants, He first restores their hearts.
Church, the God who pursued Jonah has pursued us in Jesus Christ. The God who restored Jonah continues to restore His people today.
And the God who sent Jonah now sends us—to our families, our neighbours, our colleagues, and to the nations.
Let us therefore go with humble confidence, knowing that "Salvation belongs to the LORD."
Reflection Questions
Where might God be using difficult circumstances in your life to draw you back into closer fellowship with Him rather than simply to frustrate your plans?
What “idols’ – e.g. comfort, career, reputation, financial security or personal preferences, might be dulling your passion for God’s mission?
Since ‘salvation belongs to the Lord’, who is one person in your family, workplace, school, or neighbourhood with whom you can intentionally share Christ or begin praying for this week?
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