Jonah called out to the Lord in his distress. Jonah was distressed before. He was distressed when God asked him to go warn Nineveh of their sin. He was distressed enough at the prospect that he ran away. Why didn’t he call on the Lord then?

His heart wasn’t to obey. He didn’t want to obey. He tried to get away from God’s presence so that he could sin.

It didn’t distress him that he wanted to sin. It was what he wanted.

The thought of sin distressed Jesus enough that blood came out through his sweat pores. It wasn’t the agony of the cross that had him so upset. He was fighting a battle against sin. It was a battle of wills. He wanted something other than the Father’s will. He wanted the cup of suffering taken from Him, yet He deliberately chose the Father’s will again and again and again until it was settled.

What distresses you? If sin distressed us more than doing what God chose for us, we’d be in good shape. We’d need less affliction in our lives to drive us to call out to God to save us.

Jonah calls out to God when he was dying. He had been thrown into the sea and was drowning. He remembered that he had a God that saved and called on Him and he was saved. God was his God.

Then he again calls on the Lord from the midst of his affliction in the belly of the fish. He has a voice of thanksgiving, recognizing how God had already saved him.

Jonah recognizes his hope in God’s steadfast love as well.

God loves and keeps on loving. He didn’t give up on Jonah when he ran away. He kept loving him. He didn’t leave Jonah for dead. He didn’t decide he was of no use to Him when he didn’t obey. God kept loving Jonah.

God pursues Jonah, but Jonah faces affliction to cause him to repent. God brought Jonah to repentance so he’d turn back to his God, and the loving God was ready to scoop him back up into His arms.