Jonah felt isolated from God but vowed to look to Him again: Jonah’s prayer part 2 of 6

Jonah 2:3-4

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’” Jonah 2:3-4

While Jonah was in the heart of the sea, in the belly of the fish, he felt the pain of being cut off from the presence of God, but Jonah vowed to look in the direction of God again. Our Lord Jesus Christ also felt the excruciating pain of being cut off from God, which is when He became sin for us and hanged on the Cross to be crucified, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

In the Old Testament, the priests would lay their hands on the animal sacrifice as a show of passing the sins of the people onto the animal, then when the animal was sacrificed the sins of the people were put to death as well [over and over again through the years]. “And he brought the bull for the sin offering. Then Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the bull for the sin offering…”  Leviticus 8:14 Jesus Christ was that sacrifice as the “Lamb of God” and our sin was passed on to Him to be crucified on the Cross [once and for all].

Jesus even said, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Mark 15:34 Even before He said this on the Cross, He showed His faithfulness to the will of God, “He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” Matthew 26:39

We live in a world where today’s culture is global, they are very deep in their mass numbers as they are the seas of the population in every city around the world. They surround us on every side. It’s easy to feel abandoned by God as Christianity is being brought to extinction and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is criticized, as described in Revelation 12, and emphasized in Revelation 13:8, “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb…” As our Lord Jesus Christ says to us, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven…” Matthew 5:11-12

Today’s culture is governed by the atheistic entity that gives people what to think, feel, say, and do and are empowered with uncanny knowledge, heightened intuition, extraordinary talents and skills, uncanny physical abilities, etc. All of this is used to cast out those they do not approve of, and Christians are despised by them. The atheistic entity enlivens the image of the beast to live and speak through people as they are groomed to the mark of the beast by what they are given to say and do.

In those times that we slip and fall and are made to believe that we lost faith in Jesus Christ, we declare, Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.

“O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
[Church Song]

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:1