Principle: God’s Use of Suffering in the Lives of His People

Context: So far in the Jonah’s history, he has been called by God, run from God, finally come to admit publicly what he believes, been cast overboard by pagan sailors who, through it all, had become believers (1:16). “Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows” (Jonah 1:16, ESV). God used the diobedience of Jonah (a fearful believer) in the conversion of pagan sailors to become children of God.

After the men threw Jonah overboard (God is sovereign over all men’s actions, remember) Jonah “prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish” (Jonah 2:1, ESV).

And in Jonah’s prayer we see the principle we are examining today. Just listen to the words of Scripture:

I called out to the LORD, out of my idstress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; and your wwaves and your billows passed over me (Jonah 2:1b-3, ESV).

Did you catch it? Who does Jonah understand had cast him into the deep? It wasn’t ultimately the sailors, you see. It was God. God was using suffering in the life of Jonah to teach him about what it’s like to serve the Lord. Suffering is inextricable from the Christian life because it, unlike anything else, teaches lessons not otherwise learned.

Jonah is beginning to learn (albeit via a great deal of kicking against the goads of God’s grace), the purposes for which God uses suffering in the conforming of his people unto the likeness of the Christ.