<TITLE>11. Par 42-44</TITLE>L-42 And Jonah... Surely God told him to go to Nineveh, but somehow or another, unknowingly to--to the prophet, he took the wrong ship and went down to Tarsus. I've al... Or towards that way... A sea come up, and the waves begin to roll, and the winds blowed. I always felt sorry for Jonah. You know, they bound his hands and his feet, throwed him out of the ship, and a big fish swallowed him.
And anyone knows that when a fish eats its dinner--or its meal--it goes to the bottom and rests its swimmers on the bottom of the water, down at the bottom of the lake. You feed your gold fish and watch what happens: They'll go right down at the bottom of that little jar and rest. He prowls through the water until he finds his food; after he's eaten, he goes down and rests.

L-43 Now, this big whale... The storm on the sea had come up, and Jonah had been thrown out, and God sent this whale by there to pick up Jonah. And he swallowed Jonah and went down into the bottom of the sea to rest himself. And there was Jonah, tied hands and feet in the bottom of the sea in the belly of a whale. You talk about symptoms: Jonah had them; he--he had a right to have symptoms. Looky there. If he looked this a way, it was the whale's belly; if he looked this a way, it was whale's belly; everywhere he looked, it was whale's belly.
Now, there's nobody in here in that condition, is there, sister? You wouldn't be in that condition, or you there, or any of you. None of you's in that condition. Now, he didn't... No one was ever in that position that Jonah was in. His hands was bound; his feet was bound; he was in the belly of the whale. I'll bet he was twenty fathoms deep in the sea, and on a stormy sea. Talk about symptoms, he really had it. But you know what he said? "They are lying vanities; I'll not look at them no more. But once more will I look to Your holy temple."

L-44 Why? When Solomon dedicated that temple, he prayed up there. And he said, "If any Thy people be in trouble anywhere and look towards this temple, then hear from heaven, Lord." And he had confidence in what the--the prophet's prayer was for; that he would be heard from heaven. And he refused to look at the symptoms of the whale's belly and looked again towards the temple. You can't hide a saint from prayer; I don't care where you go. It's... You can put him any condition: The Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, Daniel in the lions' den, wherever it may be. A real believer holds on to that prayer; I don't care what takes place. He holds on to that prayer.
You know, in... You know what happened. God made that whale sick at his stomach, and he--he vomited him up on the shore. Now, if God would answer Jonah's prayer under those conditions, at looking towards a temple that a man made, the temple where a man prayed, a temple where there was a mercy seat was overshadowed with the--the blood of a sheep, how much more will He today, when we look away from our symptoms, our crippled condition, our cancer, our tumor or whatever we have, or our sin, and look to the throne of God, where Jesus stands at the right-hand of the majesty with His own Blood to make intercession upon our confession.


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