Saved from the Jaws of Death

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by: Timothy Vazquez

10/22/2020

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Jonah 2:5-6 (NLT) “I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head. I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever. But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death!”
I love the Word of God for so many reasons. First, because it is one of the primary ways that God communicates with us. Second, it is His loving commands (instructions) for us so that we can make it safely and powerfully through this brief journey on earth. But another thing that I love about God's Word is that it is expressed in a very beautifully and poetic way many times. There is a lot of beautiful imagery and expressive verbiage expressed to us to help us better grasp the message that is being put forth. The passage of scripture above would be a good example of that...except that it's not. Jonah, who in this passage of scripture is praying to the Lord inside the belly of a fish, was describing what actually happened to him. He was thrown into a raging sea as per his instruction to the crew of the ship that he was sailing on. He asked to be thrown in because he knew that he had sinned and run away from the Lord, and that was why the storm had come upon them. So when Jonah is talking about seaweed being wrapped around his head and sinking down to the roots of the mountains, that had actually happened as he descended to the depths of the sea. But the Lord saved him from the "jaws of death," as he described it.
It is interesting that Jonah chose those specific words (jaws of death) because it was the jaws of a huge fish that rescued him from the watery tomb that he found himself in. God saved Jonah from the jaws of death through the jaws of a fish. He snatched Jonah from certain death. That is our faithful and merciful God! Even though Jonah was running away from God and chose to have himself thrown into the sea (it was he who suggested it to the crewmen), God overruled Jonah’s own death sentence and saved him from death. The Lord also rescues us from certain death. There are many people that now serve the Lord that can testify that they don't know how they are even alive today given the way that they were living. They are alive because God snatched them from the jaws of death! Then there are those times when God saved you from death that you don't even know about. Perhaps you were delayed once from your scheduled trip somewhere without knowing that the Lord caused the delay because there was danger ahead. Perhaps there was a time that you changed your mind about going somewhere without knowing that it was the Holy Spirit that prompted you to change your mind because there was danger waiting at the place you were headed to. The bottom line is that we have a loving, caring and merciful God that saves our lives from the jaws of death in many instances. He has saved our lives by giving us eternal life through the forgiveness of our sins by the sacrificial death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. God values our lives and saves us in this life over and over again and has saved our lives for eternity once and for all. What a God we serve!
Pastor Joey Vazquez
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Jonah 2:5-6 (NLT) “I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head. I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever. But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death!”
I love the Word of God for so many reasons. First, because it is one of the primary ways that God communicates with us. Second, it is His loving commands (instructions) for us so that we can make it safely and powerfully through this brief journey on earth. But another thing that I love about God's Word is that it is expressed in a very beautifully and poetic way many times. There is a lot of beautiful imagery and expressive verbiage expressed to us to help us better grasp the message that is being put forth. The passage of scripture above would be a good example of that...except that it's not. Jonah, who in this passage of scripture is praying to the Lord inside the belly of a fish, was describing what actually happened to him. He was thrown into a raging sea as per his instruction to the crew of the ship that he was sailing on. He asked to be thrown in because he knew that he had sinned and run away from the Lord, and that was why the storm had come upon them. So when Jonah is talking about seaweed being wrapped around his head and sinking down to the roots of the mountains, that had actually happened as he descended to the depths of the sea. But the Lord saved him from the "jaws of death," as he described it.
It is interesting that Jonah chose those specific words (jaws of death) because it was the jaws of a huge fish that rescued him from the watery tomb that he found himself in. God saved Jonah from the jaws of death through the jaws of a fish. He snatched Jonah from certain death. That is our faithful and merciful God! Even though Jonah was running away from God and chose to have himself thrown into the sea (it was he who suggested it to the crewmen), God overruled Jonah’s own death sentence and saved him from death. The Lord also rescues us from certain death. There are many people that now serve the Lord that can testify that they don't know how they are even alive today given the way that they were living. They are alive because God snatched them from the jaws of death! Then there are those times when God saved you from death that you don't even know about. Perhaps you were delayed once from your scheduled trip somewhere without knowing that the Lord caused the delay because there was danger ahead. Perhaps there was a time that you changed your mind about going somewhere without knowing that it was the Holy Spirit that prompted you to change your mind because there was danger waiting at the place you were headed to. The bottom line is that we have a loving, caring and merciful God that saves our lives from the jaws of death in many instances. He has saved our lives by giving us eternal life through the forgiveness of our sins by the sacrificial death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. God values our lives and saves us in this life over and over again and has saved our lives for eternity once and for all. What a God we serve!
Pastor Joey Vazquez
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