As we face death, the ultimate enemy, we can have hope. We can have light pierce the darkness because Jesus conquered death for us. Jesus himself descended into the heart of the earth for three days and nights. He conquered sin as the firstborn from the dead. Jesus declared, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” (John 11:25) Even in the darkest hour, you can have hope. 

As a child, I spent countless hours at the pool. One sunny afternoon, I impulsively dove through a friend’s inflatable tube, getting trapped underwater. Panic surged as I struggled to breathe. Fear gripped my soul. Darkness seemed to encroach upon me. In that moment of sheer terror, I was saved by my step-dad. In a more palpable way Jonah knew the fear of death. Jonah was helpless and must have felt similarly as he was drowning in the sea.

The Fear of Death

Jonah was drowning. Darkness surrounded him. Seaweed clung to him. Would death enclose him forever? Was he locked in the place of the dead? There seemed no escape as he sank deeper. Fear, a primal instinct, gripped his heart. Jonah’s experience is universal. Most of us fear the unknown abyss that seems to wait after death’s veil.

Yet – Hope

Yet, there are glimmerings of hope in Jonah’s despair. As darkness consumed him, a ray of hope somehow pierced through. Not a physical light, but a flicker of faith in the midst of despair. In both verses 4 and 6 of Jonah 2, the lament pauses abruptly with the word “Yet.”

4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.

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