April 2: Jonah’s Prayer
♫ Music:
Day 48 - Monday, April 2
Bright Monday
Title: Jonah’s Prayer
Scripture: Jonah 2:1-9
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish, and he said,
“I called out of my distress to the Lord,
And He answered me.
I cried for help from the depth of Sheol;
You heard my voice.
“For You had cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the current engulfed me.
All Your breakers and billows passed over me.
“So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight.
Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
“Water encompassed me to the point of death.
The great deep engulfed me,
Weeds were wrapped around my head.
“I descended to the roots of the mountains.
The earth with its bars was around me forever,
But You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.
“While I was fainting away,
I remembered the Lord,
And my prayer came to You,
Into Your holy temple.
“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.”
Poetry: Naming the Living God
By Kathleen Norris
"The Special Theory came to me,"
Einstein said,
"as shifting forms of light."
Riemann once remarked, "I did not
invent those pairs of differential equations, I found them
in the world,
where God had hidden them. "
Natural numbers stand firm,
granite laced
with ice.
Negative numbers roam, lions
about to pounce.
All things change
when you measure them. You might as well
sing, the sound of your voice
joining the others, like waters overflowing
the name of the living God.
JONAH’S PRAYER, JESUS’S PRAYER, OUR PRAYER
The Scripture selection today recounts the prayer of Jonah from the belly of the fish. As he was tossed into the depths of the sea, he knew his only hope of salvation would be from the one and only living God, and so to God he prayed. And God answered Jonah’s prayer.
Prior to the cross, Jesus compared His impending death and time in the tomb to Jonah’s experience in the fish (see Matt. 12:38–41, where Jesus remarks, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”). On the day after Easter—“Bright Monday,” as some traditions call it—we see that Jesus’s resurrection makes the Jonah picture complete: as Jonah had come forth alive from the fish, Jesus has come forth alive from the belly of the earth.
Jonah’s prayer when facing certain doom is also reminiscent of Jesus’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane prior to his death on the cross (see Matt. 26:36–46). Faced with the condemnation of God for all the sin of the world, Jesus was overwhelmed with sorrow. This led him to prayer, and he invited his closest friends to join him. The lyrics in today’s music selection are a similar invitation to prayer, saying repeatedly, “Keep watch with me, and pray with me, and do not be afraid.” The flowing melody changes far more than the words of the song. This may be picturesque for us as we recognize the changing circumstances and threats upon our lives are far more manifold and complex than our own simple prayers for preservation. The song finally ends on a resolving chord, a sound that makes us suspect for ourselves the possibility of closing our prayer time with the same confident resolve that Jesus had at the close of his prayer time in Gethsemane. Bolstered by his time of prayer, Jesus had the resolve to face the hardship ahead of him with confidence in the God who hears prayer. And three days later, he arose triumphant.
Whatever you face today, you can do so more confidently—more brightly—as today we celebrate the God who answers prayer.
Prayer:
Dear Living God,
I come to You today believing that You answer prayer. This has been demonstrated in the life of Jonah and in the life of Jesus. Even if not comparable to the circumstances of Jonah and Jesus, my circumstances today are overwhelming to me, and I fear being swallowed up by them. But I trust that You hear my prayer and can save me through these circumstances. So today I celebrate You, for salvation is from the Lord.
Amen.
Douglas S. Huffman
Professor of Biblical & Theological Studies
Associate Dean, Division of Biblical & Theological Studies
Biola University
About the Artwork:
Jonah and the Whale (An Angel Brings Jonah Clothes)
Folio from a Jami al-tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles)
Unknown Artist
c. 1425
Ink, opaque watercolor, gold, and silver on paper
33.7 x 49.5 cm
The Khalili Collection
The story of Jonah and the whale is frequently illustrated in the manuscripts of world history. This painting never actually formed part of a manuscript, but is thought to have been used during oral recitation or storytelling. Scholars have also suggested that with its strong palette, monumental figures, and spare composition, this work may reflect a now-lost wall painting tradition. Here, we see Jonah after his release from the belly of the fish. Above him, a gourd vine grows—sent by God to protect him from the elements—and across the top of the painting, an angel offers Jonah a garment. Jonah is portrayed as a newborn or in essence as being reborn.
About the Artisans:
This image is from the Jami al-tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles), a work of literature and history, produced in Persia. Written by Rashid-al-Din Hamadani (1247–1318) at the start of the 14th century, the breadth of coverage of the work has caused it to be called "the first world history". It was in three volumes. The surviving portions total approximately 400 pages, with versions in Persian and Arabic. The work describes cultures and major events in world history from China to Europe; in addition, it covers Mongol history, as a way of establishing their cultural legacy. The lavish illustrations and calligraphy required the efforts of hundreds of scribes and artists, with the intent that two new copies (one in Persian, and one in Arabic) would be created each year and distributed to schools and cities around Middle East, Central Asia, Anatolia, and the Indian subcontinent. The oldest known copy is an Arabic version, of which half has been lost, but one set of pages is currently in the Khalili Collection, comprising 59 folios from the second volume of the work. Another set of pages, with 151 folios from the same volume, is owned by the Edinburgh University Library.
About the Music:
“Kurdilihicazkar Longa” from the album Litha
About the Composer:
Kemani Sebuh Efendi (1828-1894) was an Armenian-born Turkish composer and violinist. Efendi, who was blind in one eye and famously known as “Blind Sebuh,” composed in a vibrant style and merged traditional dance music of both Greece and Turkey. Less than twenty pieces by Efendi are known to exist today, six of them instrumental. But despite the composer’s limited output, the Arabic dance “Kürdilihicazkar Longa” has become one of the most famous pieces of Turkish music ever written.
About the Performers:
Skarazula was created in Montreal in 1999 by composer, string player, singer and luthier François Rainville with percussionist and backup singer Steve Grenier. Flutist Francois Perron joined the group in 2001 after a change of personnel; he also provides backup vocals. The group's approach is inspired by the exciting rediscovery and performance of medieval European, Turkish, and Arabic music. The musicians of Skarazula do not try to achieve a historical reconstruction; they rather let themselves be inspired by what has been discovered about the history of music. Combining this with an obvious freedom concerning arrangements, what the listener gets is a style somewhat modern yet true to its medieval essence.
About the Poet:
Kathleen Norris (b. 1947) is a best-selling poet and essayist. After graduating from Bennington College in Vermont in 1969, Norris became arts administrator of the Academy of American Poets, and published her first book of poetry two years later. She is the author of The New York Times bestsellers The Cloister Walk, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, and The Virgin of Bennington. Exploring spiritual life, her work is at once intimate and historical, rich in poetry and meditations, brimming with exasperation and reverence, deeply grounded in both nature and spirit, sometimes funny, and often provocative.
About the Devotional Writer:
Douglas Huffman wants to be a person like Ezra, who "devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel" (Ezra 7:10). Huffman's specialties include the story of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of Luke, the story of the early church as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, and Christian Thought, i.e. the application of Christian teaching to culture. He hopes to be as faithful in the 21st century as Ezra was in the 6th century BC. Before coming to Biola, Huffman taught in biblical and theological studies and served in several administrative roles at Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He and his wife Deb are deeply involved in the local church.