Rachel Reeves is talking about putting the taxes up. The Deputy Prime Minister has encouraged her to do this. But businesses are deeply concerned over this proposal. Already they're paying out £24 billion more because of the last increases in national insurance and tax. They're anticipating that jobs will have to be cut. They will employ or they will organise robots to take the place of humans. Robots will not be taxable and hence keep their costs down. The massive repercussions and influences of another tax rise will be widespread. So this will impact the household income. This will impact the ability to spend in our shops. This will impact how much can be spent on our children and on other pleasures and interests and necessities that people will have. The impact of this single decision by our Chancellor will have many levels. and widespread repercussions. Far beyond any action of a powerful Chancellor is the actions of God. And every action of His is multifaceted and multilayered. And as we come to think of our key verse in the book of Jonah 117, we realize how its importance is indicated to us. In the English Standard Version, it comes in its own paragraph at the end of chapter one. It comes at the end of chapter one to indicate its significance and importance. In the Hebrew Bible, as the footnote in the ESV Bible indicates, it actually starts chapter 2, indicating a prominent place that this verse should be given. This verse is prominent because of a key word used in it throughout the book of Jonah, this word appointed, used multiple times in the story of Jonah. Here then is a significant verse, a verse that the structure of the chapter draws our attention to, and a verse which commentaries pour over. Probably no other verse in the book of Jonah is written about more than this verse. And sadly, the commentators have focused in on the great fish turning this great fish, Sinclair Ferguson says, into a red herring. And this week I've listened to numerous sermons on this verse and the preachers have spent most of the time trying to defend the fact that a human being could survive inside a great fish. Campbell Morgan preaching 100 years ago faced the same problem, and he said, people have been looking so hard at the great fish, they have failed to see the great God. And we want to avoid that error of commentaries and of preachers, and we want to focus today on the great God. We want to see five aspects of his self-revelation emerging from this single action of God. And carry this with us. and to our life that in everything he's doing in our church and everything he's doing in our world and everything he's doing in our life is multifaceted, it's multilayered. He is so great, so mysterious, so much higher than we are at what he's doing. Has many purposes, many reasons, many intentions. Our saving God firstly concentrates on his creatures. One of the important and striking aspects of the rescue of Jonah from the sea was that this action of God and of deliverance was an answer to prayer. It seems it wasn't so much the prayer of Jonah, and we'll come to that in chapter two, But it was the prayer of the sailors. In 114, they prayed, O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life. And lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it has pleased you. Those men were terrified of this God whom they were beginning to learn about. They were stult, unbelievers. At this point, it's verse 16 of chapter 1, that they come to faith, then they feared the Lord. But when they prayed in verse 14, they were unbelievers. But they wanted God to look down into their life, into their trepidation, into their fear that they would be guilty of innocent blood by throwing Jonah over the side of the boat. They hadn't tried him. They hadn't pooled the evidence together. They believed they were throwing over a man who had not been examined for his guilt. And in this rescue of Jonah, God hears their prayer. and preserves the life of his prophet. It is a subject that's debated within Reformed theology. Does God hear the prayer of unbelievers? And the issue is, he can't hear them because they're not praying in the name of Christ. But I've always been uncomfortable with that argument because there are many biblical examples of unbelievers' prayers being answered by God. And here is one of them. The unbelieving sailors in their desperation pray to God, oh Lord, do not charge us with innocent blood. And when the Lord, verse 17, appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, it was coming in answer to the prayer of unbelievers. In chapter three, we have another example of the Ninevites praying to God in an unconverted state, that God would have mercy on them. In 1 Kings 21, if you want more examples, King Ahab An unbeliever prays to God for help and deliverance and mercy and God grants it. Cornelius in Acts chapter 10 had been praying for years as an unbeliever to God and the text says that God was hearing his prayers. The logic of the elderly widow. In that church gathering in Spurgeon's metropolitan tabernacle, it's hard to speak against, isn't it? When she stood up to what Spurgeon calls the hardliners on this point, claiming that God only hears the prayers of believers, she cited Job 38, verse 41. God speaking about himself says he provides for the raven its prey. when its young ones cry to God for help. And her logic was if the young ravens are heard by God, then a non-believer will be heard by God. What did I mention? To Jonah's rescue, our saving God concentrates. on his creatures, and when they pray, he listens. And so let us be encouraged today to pray to God, because God graciously answers prayer. And like the sailors here who had many defects in their prayers, we have many defects in our prayers. But he hears. He answers. In a recent survey of 2,000 people in the UK, seven famous quotations were cited to them. And it was asked, did they know the source of those quotations? In seventh place was Charles Dickens. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Only 39% knew the source of that citation. But in first place, with 80%, was a phrase from the Lord's Prayer. People in our nation know how to pray. And we know how to pray. So let's pray. Let's pray as a church. Let's pray as families. Let's pray more as individuals. And those of you who've been praying for those announcements I'm sending out periodically during the week, I thank you because God in heaven hears our prayer. A second facet of this deliverance of Jonah is that our saving God controls his creation. The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. This is a technical term, a theological term. Appointed, it means destined. It includes the idea that God selects out of all the species of fish in the ocean, and there's thousands of them, millions of them, probably, he chooses the right one for the right time, for the right purpose. appoint it. He selects it. It demonstrates his sovereign rule over all his creation to make it fulfill his purpose. John Mackay defines it as the determination and particular control that the Lord has over every aspect of his created realm. It doesn't mean that God made a new fish for this role, but rather he chose a species of fish that was already there, but he directed it to the right place and the right time to fulfill this purpose in the life of Jonah and in historical redemption. Our God controls his creation. This emphasis on God being over all his creation is found throughout the book of Jonah. This word, as I've indicated, occurs in other places. We've already seen in verse 4 how God hurled a great wind on the sea. He rules the storms and the sea. Chapter 4 verse 6, God controls the plant world when it says the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah. There's his control in vegetation. Chapter 4 verse 7, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant. There's his control over the insects. And then in verse 8 of chapter 4, God appointed a scorching east wind. His control. over creation, over the sea, over the fish, over worms, insects, over wind, over plants. He is absolutely in control of every detail of his world. The measles outbreak in Morocco, the yellow fever in the Americas, the anthrax in Thailand, He's in control of every dimension of his creation. The European first rover that was intended to land on the moon recently crash landed because the Japanese firm who was managing this whole process that the rover would go for two weeks and collect moon dust and then return with its findings, they couldn't control so far away at a laser sensor failed to work and it crash landed on the moon. Such is the limitations of humankind. And here is God, from his high heavens, appointing a great fish to swallow Jonah. And every event of our life, and these, Experiences of control were affecting Jonah. The plant that got appointed, the fish got appointed, the wind that got appointed, the worm that got appointed, they all affected Jonah and every circumstance of our life too. It's managed by God, brought into our life for a purpose. into our experience for a reason. Here is God, yes, He's listening to the unbelieving sailors and bringing this fish, but He's also showing that He's in charge of every dimension of our world. What a challenge this is for us, isn't it? That everything in the created order is obedient to God. The wind obeys Him. The sea obeys Him. The worm obeys him. The plant obeys him. But what about you? Are we standing out from this obedient created order? Are husbands loving their wives? Are elders shepherding the flock, not domineering it, but being examples to the flock? Are children honoring their parents? Are we joining in with the rest of creation by fulfilling the will of our God? Our saving God controls His creation. Thirdly, our saving God chooses His compassions or saving God chooses his compassions. Jonah didn't deserve to be delivered, did he? Jonah didn't even desire to be delivered initially, did he? Jonah's deliverance was solely and completely sourced in the compassion and grace and mercy of God. In chapter two, verse nine, we read salvation belongs to the Lord. Jonah's condition was dire. Chapter 2 describes him as sinking away down into the seabed. It wasn't that the fish came immediately and quickly and swallowed up Jonah. He had a near-death experience. Verse 5, the wheats were wrapped about my head. Verse 6, I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me. But from there, a place of hopelessness and darkness, he was rescued. Some commentators call the big fish his lifeboat or his submarine. Alan writes, the fish picked up Jonah from the murky seabed at the bottom of the ocean. The fish stood for the grace of God, which came down to where he was and lifted him to new life. Here is God evidencing his heart, his grace to his disobedient prophet who doesn't want to be delivered, who's resigned himself to entering the sphere of death. God comes to him with unmerited grace and love and compassion. The sailors had pitied Jonah, but God pitied him more. He was out of the sight of the sailors, but not out of the sight of God. Death was justice for him, but grace gives him life. Gore Vidal, a U.S. writer, died in 2012. He wrote, whenever a friend of mine succeeds, a little something in me dies. And the opposite for him was probably true. Whenever a friend fails, a little something in him lived. But here God is different. His servant is failing. God comes with grace and compassion and mercy. So let us trust in God's grace today. Let us rely on his abounding compassion. We don't deserve his forgiveness or his mercy or his rescue or our answers to our prayers, but God is rich in grace. Whatever we've done, however long we've sinned, however long we've resisted his invitation to Christ, let us trust on the grace of God. Again and again, the Bible emphasizes that we are saved, that we live the life of the Christian, not by our works, but by the grace of God. Ephesians 2.8, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not your own doing, it is the gift of God. John 1.12, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Romans 9, 16, not him who wills or runs, but God who shows mercy. What an example here for unbelievers, for believers that we come to this God against whom we sinned and we throw ourselves upon his grace that comes to Jonah, that comes to us. Fourthly, our saving God chastens his children. The term belly in verse number 17 literally is entrails. It is the very inside of the fish. Some conservative scholars have cited instances of men who have survived inside the belly of a whale. There's one famous case of a man in the 1900s swallowed by a whale and his colleagues kill the whale and extract him from the fish. Others cite the case of a large fish swallowing a horse to argue that this is physiologically possible. But in all of these instances, we are forgetting that this is a miracle. And every miracle cannot be naturally explained. The dividing of the waters at the Red Sea is not easily or naturally explained. The sun standing still in the battle with Joysha is not naturally or easily explained. So we bow before our miraculous God and whether we can cite historical instances that are parallel to this or not doesn't matter because we recognize his supernatural power and his great might. But it was a place of chastening for Jonah. He didn't get to land by the submarine or this lifeboat of a fish in an hour or in a day. But for three days and three nights, he was in this fish. God was chastening him. Humbling him. He could have got to shore by another boat picking him up. He could have got to shore by leaning on a broken piece of ship as Paul did in Acts 27. But no, this was God's way. And it was a humbling way. All of his senses would have been offended. His sight, it was dark in there. His smell, can you imagine the smell? His touch, anything that he touched in the belly of the fish, his taste of anything entered his mouth. The sound, a way down in the ocean. All of this was the chastening hand of God upon his servant. This is where our sin leads. Initially Jonah thought that God had condoned his wrong when he was in the heart of the boat sailing away to Spain. But God in his loving parental care comes to Jonah and chastens his disobedient servant to bring him back. Bjorn Borg, the five times Wimbledon tennis champion, was nicknamed Iceman. But interestingly, at the age of 12, he was suspended from playing tennis for six months because of his temper tantrums on court. But he learned from that discipline. Church discipline, and parental discipline, and divine discipline. is to be given with a view to education and restoration. And here is Jonah. being swallowed and this whole idea contains within it the aspect of hope. Here he is, swallowed just like he was at the very beginning of his life, totally encased in flesh as he was just before he was born and the whole idea here is that God is starting again with him. God is bringing him to a new birth. God is giving him a fresh opportunity. Here he's back where he was at the very beginning of his life and soon he will have this new birth into a new chapter and opportunity. Hugh Martin wonderfully describes the workings of God in the life of Jonah at this point. On the surface, we can only see the disobedience of the prophet and the chastening of God, but underneath the surface, grace is working. Restoration, repentance, faith. Hugh Martin talks about in his left hand, God is holding the wind and the storm, but in his right hand, he's holding his grace and his mercy and his love. Behind his frown, Hugh Martin says, there's a heart of compassion and forgiveness. Our saving God chastens his children. And lastly, our saving God champions his Christ. Three days. and three nights. It became quite a thing in the Old Testament prophets. Amos 6, verse 2, it cites this very detail. It talks about the nation of Israel who would be judged by God and taken into exile, but after three days, it says, he will revive us. Sorry, it's Hosea chapter 6, verse 2. So the prophets, they looked at this historical experience of Jonah and Hosea and other of the prophets. They had hope that yes, they would be chastened by God, but then they would be restored and brought back again and that they would be helped by his mercy. They saw what God did with Jonah and how after a time, He was restored and they trusted in the very language of chapter 1 verse 17 and Isaiah 6 verse 2 that after three days, after a time, they would be restored. And so this three days and three nights was embedded in the language of the Old Testament prophets as a symbol of hope and forgiveness and restoration. It happened to Jonah. It will happen to us. Yes, God chastens his children, as Hebrews 12 says, whom the Lord loves, he chastens. He chastened Moses, and there's many examples in the Bible of God chastening his disobedient children. Yes, there's forgiveness there, but there's consequences for their sins. But afterward, there's restoration. The Old Testament prophets acknowledge that there will be the exile, the going to Assyria and to Babylon, but they also prophesy that like Jonah, the nation will be restored. They'll be brought back. They will worship again in their land. But the supreme fulfillment of this, beyond Jonah, beyond the return from exile, is in a Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Mark, Matthew chapter 12, he's being approached by the scribes and by the Pharisees who have been describing in that chapter his miracles as being sourced from Beelzebul. He's done signs, he's done miracles, he's performed wonders, but they've attributed to the power of the devil. Now they want from Jesus a sign. They want an immediate sign or wonder, they want to specify what that wonder will be. If Jesus can do before their very eyes what they ask for, then they might accept that he is God's representative. Mark says, Jesus' reply was, I'm not doing a sign. A sign in the sense that they were defining it. But Matthew goes on and says, but there'll be a sign in a different sense. a sign that Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, someone who was away for three days, but brought back again as if from the dead to show that he was the authentic messenger from heaven, that his message was true. So Jesus will be authenticized. He will be shown to be the true prophet of God, the savior from heaven. He will be buried for three days and three nights. And then He will rise again. Here's the one we're to listen to. Romans 1 verse 4, declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. That sign will show Jesus as the prophet and Son of God. So beyond answering the prayers of the sailors, beyond revealing His grace and compassion, beyond chastening His wayward servant. The mind of God was on His Son. The three days and the three nights of Jonah just had a small element to play in its time and in its day, but it had a far greater reach to the burial of the Lord Jesus Christ. Three days and three nights. Documents from D-Day are being released and they're interesting to historians and perhaps to us all, and one aspect of those documents is Churchill's concern to build up the stores of penicillin. He saw this as an important remedy to the pain the soldiers will experience on the D-Day landings. He wanted factories to increase their production. He wanted imports from America to build up this remedy. His mind, his thoughts was on the remedy far in advance of D-Day. God's mind was always on the remedy in the Old Testament. And again and again he's writing about it, he's speaking about it, he's showing us the Savior who would come. And here in the case of Jonah, three days, three nights is pointing forward to the burial of the Lord Jesus. And the burial of Jesus, I think, is the poor brother of the redemptive acts of Christ around the atonement. We think of the death of Jesus, we think of the resurrection of Jesus, we think of the appearances of Jesus, but few of us ever think of the burial of Jesus. But the three days and the three nights are about the burial of Jesus, that he really truly died. And perhaps that the three days, that the length of time is connected to some of the beliefs that were around in the fourth century. The pagans believed that it took three days and nights of travel to get to the underworld. The Jews believed that the spirit of a man or woman at death hung around and left the body after three days. And perhaps this is significant, that God is reaching out to the pagans and to the Jews' beliefs and saying, my son really died. Three days, three nights. And for those of you who are older and starting to think of death every day that you live, what comfort's here for you? Christ has died, that you will never die, that you will never experience death in its horror, in its terror, in its full strength. He was buried three days, three nights. So today we've thought of our saving God, concentrating on his creatures, how amazing, controlling his creation, choosing his compassions, chastening his children, championing his Christ. What depths there is then to the actions of God, what mysteries, what connections, what levels, what angles are there in all the workings of God? In the US Stock Exchange, there is chatter about a beauty company being bought out for $1 billion. Another larger group are buying up its shares and options at this very moment. And this beauty group, Rhodes, if you're familiar with this, tells us that the art of the beautician is complex. There's layers and facets and dimensions to beauty. There are potions and lotions and makeup and creams and glaze. There's a whole range, multifaceted, multilevel dimension to the beauty that they're promoting. And to God's actions, every one of them, there's many layers, many reasons, many dimensions, many people who are connected and affected by the actions of God. So let us trust Him in our lives. Let us rely that He has purposes far beyond what we can see. Romans chapter 11, verse 33 says, Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways.