Pious or Pretentious?
| From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. 2 He said: "In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. 3 You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. 4 I said, 'I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.' 5 The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. 6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God. 7 "When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. 8 "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. 9 But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD." 10 And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. (Jonah2:1-10) |
Some see it as a beautiful pious prayer - that it is Jonah returning to the Lord and thanking Him for His mercy.
Others see the prayer as fake and pretentious. Jonah is spouting religious language (don't forget that he is a prophet) and using phrases that we find in Psalm 40,42,116 and others. But there is no real repentance in this prayer. In fact, if anything, there is a hint of self-righteousness:
"You listened to my cry"
"In my distress I called to the Lord"
"I called for help."
"I remembered You"
"My prayer rose to you"
No, Jonah, you slept and the sailors prayed.
You ran away, you chose the depths instead of submitting to God's will.
And then there's verse 8 - an obvious jab at the Ninevites - just a cheap attempt at justifying his running away: "They cling to their idols and so they don't deserve your mercy..." and so by implication, Jonah absolves himself of wrong-doing.
I think it is very easy for us to let religious phrases roll off our lips when our hearts are not in it. I think we can very easily do the "religiously correct" thing but have our hearts far away.
Is Jonah's prayer pious or pretentious?
When I look at Jonah's behaviour in the next two chapters, there is no sign of the piety that we see in the prayer. His mouth is saying one thing, his life is saying something else.
So I think the prayer is pretentious
What about you?
I think verse 10 provides adequate commentary:
Having heard the prayer God commands the fish to vomit Jonah onto dry land!!!
