Jonah 2:7 “When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.”
The account of Jonah reveals that there are severe consequences to those who rebel against “the LORD” and seek to satisfy their own will over that of “the LORD”! The “LORD” had given Jonah a Commandment and he determined that his will and ideas were better than the LORD’s, so he rebelled and fled. Like Jonah, we all have human tendencies and want to satisfy our own carnal will. Yet, “the LORD”, our merciful God, has issued Commandments to his Elect, Born Again Children. These Commandments are clearly recorded in the Word of God for our learning and obedience. When we fail to learn and obey the Word of God, we should expect eventually to find ourselves in a most dreadful condition and state of mind. Our soul faints within us when we turn away from God to seek our own will and way. Then one day the dreadfully dark cloud of shame, misery, pain, despair, loneliness, and confusion settles upon us and we lose all hope in ourselves. From that awfully low state, Jonah “remembered the LORD”; that is, he began to reflect upon how kind and merciful and gentle and loving and forgiving our Lord truly is when His Children come humbly before him with a sincere spirit of repentance. In his dreadfully low state, Jonah began to pray with an altogether different view of himself; he prayed, “I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD” (Jonah 2:9)! When Jonah humbly prayed, “the LORD” mightily delivered him from his low state and his fainting soul. Then, Jonah anxiously obeyed and served His “LORD”. Jonah’s account was “written for our learning” (Romans 15:4)!